How to host a webinar: the method, the numbers and the best tools
Eleven steps from goal to follow-up, the show-up rates to plan for, and six webinar platforms priced on their official grids.
Short answer: pick one goal and one audience, schedule a 30-to-45-minute session on a weekday morning, open registration three weeks ahead, send reminders, rehearse on the real platform, and follow up within 24 hours with the replay. Expect about half your registrants to show up live.
For the tool: Zoom Webinars ($83.33 a month billed annually, 500 attendees) is the safe first choice; Demio (from $45 a month billed yearly) is built for marketing webinars; ClickMeeting starts at $39 a month billed annually for 50 attendees; and Zoho Webinar has a free plan for 20 attendees. For a wider choice, see our ranking of the best webinar software and the best webinar platforms.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored placement is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
6 platforms to host a webinar, side by side
A webinar is a live online presentation: one or a few speakers present, the audience watches and interacts through chat, questions and polls, and the session is recorded for a replay. A webinar platform handles the chain around it: the registration page, the confirmation and reminder emails, the room where you present, and the replay and attendance report afterwards. A video-meeting tool is built for everyone to talk; a webinar tool is built for a few to present and many to watch.
Before you choose, check five things: how many attendees the plan allows (most platforms sell tiers by the number of people who can join one session), how many hosts it includes (a host, or organizer, is a person who can create and run webinars; Zoom, Demio and Zoho price per host), whether attendees need a download, whether registration and reminder emails are built in, and whether the price is monthly, annual or per attendee (Livestorm counts one credit each time someone attends).
Three names from other guides are left out: GoTo Webinar keeps cloud recordings for its Elevate plan ($103 a month billed annually), ON24 prices on request only, BigMarker sells on quote too (its Basic plan covers up to 1,000 live attendees and one host license), and eWebinar runs automated, pre-recorded webinars rather than live ones. For a free live stream without a webinar platform, YouTube Live works from any verified channel.
| Best for | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoom Webinars | Best for a first webinar your audience can join without friction | 4.2/5 | $83.33 per user per month billed annually (500 attendees); $66.67 for 300 | — | Any business, 300 to 5,000 attendees | Visit → |
| 2 | Demio | Best for marketing webinars that collect leads | 4.0/5 | Starter $45/month billed yearly ($63 month to month) | — | Marketing teams, 50 to 3,000 attendees | Visit → |
| 3 | ClickMeeting | Best for workshops and paid webinars on a small budget | 3.9/5 | $39/month billed annually ($49 month to month) for 50 attendees | — | Trainers, small businesses, up to 1,000 attendees | Visit → |
| 4 | Zoho Webinar | Best free plan to try your first session | 3.9/5 | Free; $8/organizer/mo billed annually (25 attendees) | ✓ | Freelancers, small teams, up to 5,000 attendees | Visit → |
| 5 | WebinarJam | Best for webinars that sell | 3.6/5 | Starter $49/month ($39 billed annually), 100 attendees, 1-hour sessions | — | Coaches, course creators, 100 to 5,000 attendees | Visit → |
| 6 | Livestorm | Best pay-per-attendee option for occasional webinars | 3.3/5 | Free: 30 attendee credits a year, 30-minute events; Pro: €2.50 ($3) per attendee credit | ✓ | B2B teams in Europe, up to 3,000 live attendees | Visit → |
Prices read on each vendor's official pricing page in 2026, in US dollars; Livestorm's grid also shows euros (€2.50 per credit).
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
Zoom Webinars
Most of your attendees have joined a Zoom call before, and that is the strongest argument for Zoom Webinars: nobody has to learn a new interface on the day. The Webinars plan costs $83.33 per user per month, billed annually, for webinars of up to 500 attendees, charged up front in one payment of about $1,000; the same plan costs $129 month to month, and a 300-attendee tier costs $66.67 a month billed annually. Every webinar plan also requires a paid Zoom Workplace Pro plan ($14.16 per user per month, billed annually). Webinars Plus ($290.83) adds pre-recorded sessions run as live, a private backstage and AI-designed event pages; Events ($415.83) adds multi-session events with networking, both priced here for 500 attendees and billed annually.
Webinar mode is a broadcast format: hosts and panelists present, and the audience listens and interacts through Q&A, chat and polls rather than open video. That suits a product demo or a training session; for a workshop where attendees talk to each other, a regular Zoom meeting with breakout rooms works better. On Webinars Plus and Events, an additional hub host or co-editor costs $65 a month. To send registrants to your CRM or email tool, use the Zoom Zapier integration or Zoom with n8n. If you already pay for Zoom and want to leave it, see our guide to switching from Zoom.
- 300-attendee tier from $66.67 a month billed annually
- An interface most attendees already know
- Q&A, chat and polls built in
- ✓Little friction for attendees
- ✓Monthly plan or one-month pass available
- ✓Attendee tiers from 300 to 5,000
- ✗Annual plan charged up front, about $1,000
- ✗Requires a paid Zoom Workplace Pro plan on top
- ✗AI-designed event pages only from Webinars Plus
The safe choice for a first webinar: your audience knows it, and the 500-attendee plan covers most small and mid-size events, once you add the Workplace Pro plan it requires.
Demio
Demio runs in the browser: attendees click a link and they are in, with no download. Its Starter plan costs $45 a month billed yearly, or $63 month to month, for a 50-attendee room and one host. Growth starts at $117 a month per host billed yearly, with rooms of 150, 500, 1,000 or 3,000 attendees, and Premium at $196 a month per host billed yearly. Starter sessions stop at 3 hours, against 8 on Growth. Running two events at the same time means buying two hosts.
The 14-day free trial includes Growth features but caps you at 20 attendees and 1-hour sessions: run your rehearsal on it, not your launch. From Growth up, Demio also runs automated webinars, which replay a recording at set times; Starter does not include them. A 2026 attendee review describes a session that looked live but was pre-recorded, with comments replayed on schedule. If you go that route, say so on the registration page. To push registrants into your CRM, Demio connects through Zapier or n8n.
- Runs in the browser, no download
- Starter from $45 a month billed yearly
- Rooms up to 3,000 attendees on Growth
- ✓Registration, reminders and replays included
- ✓Simple for attendees
- ✓Automated webinars from the Growth plan
- ✗Starter: one host, 50 attendees, 3-hour sessions
- ✗Monthly billing costs $216 more a year on Starter
- ✗Trial capped at 20 attendees and 1 hour
Our pick for marketing webinars: the registration-to-replay chain is built in, and Starter is enough to test the format.
ClickMeeting
ClickMeeting prices by plan and attendee count. Essential costs $49 a month for 50 attendees month to month, or $39 a month billed annually. Standard costs $99 a month for 100 attendees ($79 billed annually) and $189 for 300 ($155 billed annually), and adds automated and on-demand webinars; Pro costs $249 for 500 attendees ($199 billed annually) and $399 for 1,000 ($325 billed annually); Enterprise, up to 10,000 attendees, is a quote.
Essential includes 2 presenters, 5 breakout rooms, whiteboards, paid webinars with tickets and discount codes, and 2 hours of recording storage with 500 MB for files. Pro raises that to 4 presenters, 20 breakout rooms, unlimited whiteboards and 10 hours of recordings. AI summaries and transcriptions are an add-on on Essential, then 3 a month on Standard and 5 on Pro. An account runs one event at a time: a second simultaneous session needs the paid Parallel events add-on. The 14-day trial needs no card and covers a 25-attendee webinar with 30 minutes of recording. Registrations can flow to your other tools through ClickMeeting's Zapier integration.
- From $39 a month billed annually
- Breakout rooms and whiteboards from Essential
- Paid webinars with tickets and discount codes
- ✓Low entry price for 50 attendees
- ✓Breakout rooms for workshops
- ✓Monthly billing available
- ✗Price rises fast with attendees: $249 for 500, $399 for 1,000
- ✗2 hours of recording storage on Essential
- ✗One event at a time without a paid add-on
A low entry price for a small live audience, with whiteboards and breakout rooms for workshop-style sessions.
Zoho Webinar
Zoho Webinar has a free plan: 20 webinar attendees and up to 60 minutes per webinar, without recording, which starts on Standard. That is enough to run a rehearsal with colleagues, or a first session for a handful of customers. Paid plans start at $8 per organizer per month billed annually ($9 month to month) for Standard at 25 attendees, with tiers up to 1,000 attendees ($38 for 500, billed annually), webinars of up to 24 hours and 10 GB of recordings per organizer. Professional starts at $16 ($19 monthly) and goes up to 3,000 attendees; Enterprise starts at $66 ($79 monthly) for 500 attendees and goes up to 5,000.
Prices are per organizer, so a team where three people host pays three times. Toll-free dial-in numbers are an add-on ($20 a month), as is extra storage ($3 a month per 25 GB). There is a 14-day free trial, with no credit card required; when it ends without a purchase, the account moves to the free plan.
- Free plan: 20 attendees, 60 minutes
- Standard from $8 per organizer per month
- Webinars up to 24 hours on Standard
- ✓A real free plan to practice on
- ✓Low paid entry price
- ✓Fits Zoho CRM and Zoho apps
- ✗Priced per organizer
- ✗Free plan: 20 attendees and no recording
- ✗Toll-free numbers and storage cost extra
Start here if you have no budget: the free plan is enough to learn the mechanics before you pay for an audience.
WebinarJam
WebinarJam is built for selling: its plans are sized by attendees, from Starter at $49 a month for 100 attendees, or $39 a month billed annually, to Basic ($99, 500 attendees), Professional ($299, 2,000 attendees) and Enterprise ($499, 5,000 attendees); yearly billing saves up to 22%. Read the session cap before you pick: Starter includes one host and stops each webinar at 1 hour, Basic gives 2 hosts and 2 hours, Professional 4 hosts and 3 hours, Enterprise 6 hosts and 4 hours. EverWebinar, its sister product for automated webinars, is included from Basic. Purchases carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Use that window: attendee reviews describe a cancellation in 2025 that took effect at the end of the month with no refund, and in 2026 paid access that stopped working. For a one-off webinar, monthly billing limits the risk. Registrations can go to your email tool through WebinarJam's Make integration, and the room can broadcast to Facebook and YouTube at the same time; for streaming beyond that, see live streaming software.
- Starter from $39 a month billed annually
- Up to 5,000 attendees on Enterprise
- EverWebinar included from Basic
- ✓Clear tiers by attendee count
- ✓Built for selling during the webinar
- ✓Yearly billing saves up to 22%
- ✗Support complaints in attendee reviews
- ✗Starter webinars stop at 1 hour
- ✗Less suited to internal training
Worth it if the webinar exists to sell. For training or internal use, Zoom or ClickMeeting fit better.
Livestorm
Livestorm runs in the browser and prices by attendance: you buy a yearly pack of attendee credits on the Pro plan, at €2.50 ($3) per credit, and spend one credit each time a person actually attends a session, live, as a replay or on demand. The price per credit falls with volume: 400 credits cost $1,200 for the year ($3 each), 4,000 credits $9,600 (about $2.40 each). Sessions last up to 4 hours, with up to 3,000 live attendees per event. There is also a free plan: 30 attendee credits a year, events up to 30 minutes and 10 events, enough to try the room, not to run a real webinar.
The catch is the quota: when you use up your credits, new attendees cannot join sessions until you move to a higher yearly tier. Count your expected attendance before you buy, and keep a margin for the webinar that goes better than planned. Unused credits do not roll over to the next billing period, and the plan renews automatically every year on the same day and month, with no refund if you cancel after the renewal date. Attendee reviews from 2026 also report subscriptions renewed after a cancellation notice: put the renewal date in your calendar. Our full Livestorm review covers the rest, the Livestorm pricing guide details the credit packs, and our page on Livestorm alternatives compares the other options.
- Pay per attendee who shows up
- Runs in the browser
- Up to 3,000 live attendees
- ✓You pay for attendance, not registrations
- ✓Replays and on-demand count the same way
- ✓Strong integrations
- ✗Yearly pack, about $1,200 for 400 credits
- ✗New attendees blocked when credits run out
- ✗Renewal complaints in 2026 reviews
A fit for a few big webinars a year, if you size the pack well. For a monthly webinar, a flat plan costs less.
How to host a webinar in 11 steps
The order we follow, from the first idea to the follow-up email. Plan three to four weeks for a first webinar.
1. Set one goal and one audience
Decide what the webinar is for before anything else: leads for sales, training for customers, a product launch, a paid class. Write it in one sentence with the audience ("show HR managers at 50-person companies how to automate onboarding"). Every later choice, from the title to the call to action, follows from it.
2. Pick a topic people search for
A webinar title is a promise. Take the question your sales team or support hears every week and answer it: "5 ways to cut your onboarding time in half" fills a room; "Our Q3 product update" does not. Keep one topic per session.
3. Choose the format and the length
Solo presenter, interview, panel or live demo. Aim for 30 to 45 minutes of content plus 10 to 15 minutes of questions: the average webinar runs 68 minutes but the average viewer watches 26, about 38% of it. Do not pack an hour of material into 45 minutes.
4. Schedule it on a weekday morning
Benchmarks from 33,786 sessions put the best show-up rate on Tuesday (51.7%), and the usual advice is Monday to Wednesday at 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. Eastern for a US audience. Avoid August, the weakest month (42.9%). If your audience spans time zones, pick the slot that is daytime for most of them and promise the replay to the others.
5. Pick the platform and set up the room
Match the plan to your expected live attendance, not your registrations: about half of registrants attend. Set up the registration page, confirmation email, reminders, branding and the replay settings, and add your co-presenters as panelists. Connect registrations to your CRM before you promote, so leads arrive with their attendance data: ClickMeeting sends them to HubSpot, Pipedrive or Keap from its Essential plan, and Zoho Webinar adds a HubSpot integration on Professional. The six platforms above cover most needs.
6. Open registration three weeks ahead
Send a first invitation three weeks out, a second one week before, and post on LinkedIn and in your newsletter. Expect a late rush: 49.7% of webinar registrations come in the final 7 days. Pin the registration link everywhere your audience already is.
7. Send reminders and a calendar invite
Send a reminder the day before and one an hour before, each with a one-click join link, and attach a calendar file at registration. A calendar entry is what brings people back on the day.
8. Build slides and the interactions
One idea per slide, large text, and a plan for interaction every 8 to 10 minutes: a poll, a question in the chat, a short demo. Prepare three questions you can answer yourself if the audience is quiet at Q&A time.
9. Rehearse on the real platform
Do a full dry run on the platform you will use, with the same computer, microphone and connection. Assign roles: a host who opens and closes, a presenter, and a moderator who watches the chat and handles technical problems. Use a wired connection on the day.
10. Run the session
Have every speaker sign on about 10 minutes before the start to test audio, connection and screen sharing. Open on time, explain how to ask questions and use the chat, and let the moderator collect questions while the presenter talks. A 45-minute agenda: 0 to 3 minutes, welcome and housekeeping; 3 to 8, the problem you solve; 8 to 30, the main content in three parts, with a poll or chat question in each; 30 to 42, Q&A read out by the moderator; 42 to 45, a summary and one call to action, the next step you want attendees to take.
11. Follow up within 24 hours
Send the replay to everyone who registered, with a different message for those who attended and those who did not, plus one clear next step. Then read the report: show-up rate, average watch time, questions asked. Cut the recording into short clips for social media and your newsletter.
8 tips hosts learn the hard way
From the platforms' price lists and help pages, and from hosts' reviews.
Do not launch on a free trial
Demio's 14-day trial caps you at 20 attendees and 1-hour sessions, ClickMeeting's at a 25-attendee webinar and 30 minutes of recording, Zoho's free plan at 20 attendees and 60 minutes, and Livestorm's free plan at 30 attendee credits a year, events up to 30 minutes and 10 events. Use them to rehearse; buy the plan before the invitations go out.
Check the session length cap
A plan can cut your webinar before the Q&A ends. WebinarJam's Starter stops each webinar at 1 hour and Zoho's free plan at 60 minutes; Demio's Starter allows 3 hours and Livestorm's Pro 4 hours per session. If your format runs 50 minutes plus questions, a 1-hour cap leaves no margin.
Check what annual billing really means
Zoom's Webinars plan shows $83.33 a month but is charged as one upfront annual payment, about $1,000, and it requires a Zoom Workplace Pro plan on top ($14.16 a month billed annually): about $1,170 a year in total. Month to month, the same 500-attendee plan costs $129, or $1,548 over a year. Demio's Starter costs $45 a month on a yearly plan against $63 month to month: $216 a year saved if you commit.
Count your hosts, not only your attendees
Demio's and WebinarJam's Starter plans include one host, and Zoho prices per organizer: a team where three people host pays three times. Running two sessions at once costs extra too: Demio needs one host per simultaneous event (Growth, from $117 per host per month billed yearly), and ClickMeeting needs its paid Parallel events add-on.
Put the renewal date in your calendar
Reviews from 2025 and 2026 of two platforms on this page describe a subscription renewed after a cancellation notice and a cancellation that took effect at the end of the month with no refund. Cancel well before the date, keep the confirmation email, and on WebinarJam ask for a refund within its 30-day guarantee.
Say when a webinar is pre-recorded
Automated webinars replay a recording at set times. A 2026 attendee review describes a session the viewer believed was live, with comments replayed on schedule, and the disappointment that followed. Label it "on demand" or "replay" on the registration page: trust is worth more than the illusion.
Do not pay for a CRM integration you already have
Native CRM sync is often tied to a higher plan: Zoho Webinar's HubSpot integration starts on Professional ($16 per organizer per month billed annually, against $8 for Standard). If you already use Zapier, Make or n8n, check whether a connector does the job on the lower plan before you upgrade.
Have a plan B for the audio
Recurring complaints in 2025 and 2026 reviews of two platforms on this page: microphones not recognized and screen sharing that fails. Keep a second microphone plugged in, a phone ready to dial in, and a co-host who can take over the slides.
Hosting a webinar: your questions
Can I host a webinar on Microsoft Teams or Google Meet?
Yes, with limits. Teams has a webinar template in its Events app: with a Teams Enterprise license, organizers can host events of up to 1,000 attendees with polls and Q&A. Google Meet is free for up to 100 participants and 60 minutes per meeting, but recording is a paid feature, so plan another way to capture the replay. Leaving either tool? See our guides to switching from Microsoft Teams and from Google Meet.What does a webinar for 500 attendees cost?
Between about $38 and $199 a month on annual billing. At 500 attendees, Zoho Webinar Standard costs $38 per organizer, WebinarJam Basic $79 (2 hosts, 2-hour sessions), Zoom Webinars $83.33 per user plus the $14.16 Workplace Pro plan it requires, and ClickMeeting Pro $199. Livestorm charges per attendance instead, at $3 a credit.How do I charge for a webinar?
Sell tickets from the webinar platform or put the replay behind a paywall. ClickMeeting sells tickets with discount codes from its Essential plan, through Stripe, PayU or PayPal, which take their commission; its Standard plan adds a recording paywall with a free preview clip. WebinarJam shows live offers in the room on every plan.What equipment do I need to host a webinar?
A computer on a wired connection, a USB or XLR microphone, a webcam and soft light facing you. As a benchmark, WebinarJam recommends at least a quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM and 5 Mbps of upload and download speed. The microphone matters most: attendees forgive average video, not bad audio.Can I host a webinar for free?
Yes, for a small audience and a short session. Zoho Webinar's free plan takes 20 attendees for up to 60 minutes, Livestorm's gives 30 attendee credits a year with events up to 30 minutes, and Google Meet hosts 100 participants for 60 minutes at no cost, without recording, which is a paid feature.How do I host a webinar on Zoom?
You need a paid Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education account plus the Zoom Webinars add-on. Then sign in to the Zoom web portal, click Webinars in the navigation menu, select Schedule a Webinar, choose your settings, tick Required in the Registration section and click Schedule.What is the difference between a webinar and a virtual event?
A webinar is one session with a few presenters; a virtual event runs several sessions, tracks or stages, often with networking and sponsors. Zoom sells them as separate plans: Webinars at $83.33 a month and Events at $415.83 a month, both billed annually for 500 attendees. For multi-session events, see event management software.How do I get people to register for my webinar?
Email your list first, then keep going until the day itself: 15% of registrations come on the day of the event. Add a reminder on the morning of the session and promote it in your email marketing sequences and on LinkedIn.Should I record my webinar?
Yes: the replay reaches the half of registrants who did not attend. Check that your plan records at all and how much it stores: Zoho's free plan has no recording, ClickMeeting stores 2 hours on Essential and 10 on Pro, and Zoho Standard keeps 10 GB per organizer.