Zoom Meetings vs. Zoom Webinars

In the digital era, especially since 2020, virtual communication platforms have become essential tools for various sectors. Businesses rely on these platforms for demos, stand-ups, and brainstorming sessions, usually with limited participants, while educators use them for live educational broadcasts and global telecasts for larger audiences. Zoom, a tool we have used once in our lives, offers two main options for virtual communication: Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars. These cater to different communication needs and are broadly categorized as one-to-one and one-to-many interactions.

Zoom Meetings is meant for smaller meetings where all participants can interact and collaborate equally.. It is used for team discussions, small group classes, or any scenario requiring active participation from all attendees.

On the other hand, Zoom Webinars are to host large-scale events in a more controlled environment. Where information primarily flows from presenters to a larger audience, such as lectures, large-scale presentations, or marketing events.

Understanding these differences is crucial for selecting the most appropriate platform for your specific virtual communication needs. Each option offers distinct features and functionalities designed to enhance different types of virtual gatherings.

This comprehensive guide will explore the features, limitations, and pricing of both Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinar, helping you make an informed decision for your virtual event needs.

Zoom Meetings

Zoom Meetings are commonly seen as a way to connect virtually. This technology enables individuals from different locations to interact in face-to-face meetings, presentations, and social events.

Zoom Meetings has features like real-time collaboration, screen sharing, chat, virtual background, etc. Zoom Meetings works with some calendar apps to help schedule and send reminders. The platform allows recording meetings for future reference or sharing with those who couldn't attend live. 

Let’s deep dive into specifics of Zoom Meetings:

Features of Zoom Meetings:

• Video & Audio: Clear video and audio communication for a sense of presence in virtual meetings.
• Screen Sharing: Share presentations and demonstrations and collaborate in real-time.
• Virtual Backgrounds: Create a professional setting during meetings.
• Flexible Participant Numbers: Cater to small team huddles or office meetings where all have to interact.
• Breakout Rooms: Helps in discussions within a meeting for brainstorming or subgroup tasks.
• Chat Functionality: Communicate with participants through text chat.
• Calendar Integration: Scheduling and reminders with integration to some calendar applications.
• Recording Capabilities: Capture meetings for future reference or share with attendees who couldn't join live and it stays on cloud as long as you are a paid user.
• Polling & Q&A: Provides presentations or workshops with features like polling and Q&A sessions (available in some plans).

Limitations of Zoom Meetings:

• Technical Glitches: Users frequently encounter technical issues such as long idling times to open the app, difficulties in joining calls, and slow loading of background screens or videos.
• Security Concerns: Zoom has been plagued by historical issues like "Zoom bombing" and data routing through China over the years. In September 2023, Zoom faced a massive backlash after it changed its policies to use users’ calls to train its AI model, breaching privacy. Learn more about Zoom data privacy.
• Forceful Upgrades: Many users feel pressured by Zoom’s constant prompts to upgrade to more expensive plans. Zoom's unexpected addition of VAT after payment confirmation has frustrated many users.
• Issues with Mac: Mac users have experienced issues with Zoom, such as camera malfunctions and screen-sharing problems, which disrupt video conferences and collaborative sessions.
• Integration Challenges: While Zoom integrates with few popular calendar apps, complex workflows or integrations with specific enterprise software require additional effort, as users have reported.
• Resource Drain: Zoom is hard on system resources because it requires a high processing capacity. This means that it can quickly run down a battery if the computer or phone is not plugged in.
• Poor Customer Support: A significant disadvantage of Zoom Meetings is the reportedly poor customer service. Users often find themselves in a labyrinth of automated responses.
• Untimely Software Upgrades: One of the issues with which people have been most agitated was the untimely software updates which Zoom forces, giving people unnecessary delays to important meetings or calls.

Get to know in detail about Zoom features and Zoom limitations.

Zoom Meetings pricing:

Zoom offers several pricing tiers for its Meetings platform:

Zoom Webinar

Zoom Webinar is a platform that can be used to host online presentations and lectures for large audiences. It works as a one-way communication between hosts and attendees, usually used for educational sessions, corporate announcements, and virtual events. Features include Q&A, polling, and attendee chat to facilitate interaction. Recordings can be saved for later viewing, making it accessible for those who couldn't attend live.

To join the Zoom Webinar link, attendees can do so by clicking the meeting link. . Webinar attendees do not need their own Zoom account to join a Webinar.

Let’s evaluate features, limitations and pricing for Zoom Webinar.

Features of Zoom Webinar:

• Controlled Environment: Webinars offer a setting for presenting information to large audiences.
• Flexible Audience Size: There is no minimum size, and attendee limits depend on your license and maximum number of participants can go up to 10000+.
• Participant Types Designation: Hosts can assign specific participants roles like host, panelist and audience depending on their role in the webinar and permissions required. 
• Interactive Elements: Features like live polling and Q&A allow for audience participation.
• Session Recording: Allows for recording of the sessions for later review or distribution and meetings can be accessed as long as the host remains as paid user.
• Scalability: Can accommodate various audience sizes, from small groups to large-scale events.
• Webinar Branding: Offers options to incorporate company logos, colors, and custom backgrounds to align with brand identity.
• Reporting and Analytics: Reports on attendee engagement, registration, and post-webinar feedback.
• PayPal Integration: Supports paid webinars through PayPal integration

Limitations of Zoom Webinar:

• Limited Interaction: Unlike Zoom Meetings, webinars primarily focus on one-way communication from the presenter to the audience.
• Buggy Product: Users have reported the automated email sequences are full of bugs.
• Complexity: The download takes up a lot of space, and the program itself is jumbled and messy, making it hard for users to grasp.
• Technical Requirements: A very high bandwidth internet connection is needed for smooth video and audio streaming for both the presenter and attendees.
• Customization Constraints: While branding options are available, some users find the extent of customization limited compared to other webinar platforms.
• Poor Customer Support: Users stated that the customer support was very good until they signed the contract; after that, the customer support from the Zoom Webinar team became worse.

Zoom Webinar pricing:

Zoom Webinar is priced separately from Zoom Meetings and is based on the maximum number of attendees:

1. 500 Attendees: $79/month/license
2. 1,000 Attendees: $340/month/license
3. 3,000 Attendees: $990/month/license
4. 5,000 Attendees: $2,490/month/license
5. 10,000 Attendees: $6,490/month/license

All plans include the core Webinar features.

Learn more about pricing plans of Zoom in Zoom pricing.

Zoom Meetings vs. Zoom Webinar comparison

Host Better Meetings with Feta

Take a moment to reflect on your objectives for the upcoming event. Are you planning to educate a group of executives? Will you be hosting guest panelists to share their insights? Are you presenting your company's quarterly reports? Is this a routine team meeting?

Besides the obvious - boring UI/UX, untimely updates, a pain to integrate, and subpar AI-integrations, there’s another major problem - meeting tools work in silos! The entire experience is disconnected from the rest of our “work tools!”. And despite Zoom's popularity and scale, it’s still heavy and dated with subpar user experience

That’s why we are building Feta - it’s an AI-native video conferencing tool that automates the end-to-end meeting workflow and maintains relevant context. Also, it’s a modern UI/UX, the kind you’d expect in 2024! 

Here's an honest and truthful comparison of Zoom vs. Feta.

Migrating from Zoom to the Feta

Feta aims to simplify the process to switch to its platform. We offer a free 90-day trial equivalent to your current Zoom plan, so you do not have to struggle in switching. To claim this offer, simply fill out a short online form.

Wanna know how Feta stacks up against Zoom? Our thorough, unbiased analysis compares both services side-by-side. This detailed Zoom vs. Feta comparison evaluates essential features of each platform, helping you identify which solution best fits your needs.

We're currently granting early access to a limited number of users. Become part of our program and enjoy Feta at no cost for three months.