GotoMeeting vs. GotoWebinar: What Is Better in 2020?

Remote work and global partnerships are drastically on the rise lately. In a bid to explore potentials around the world and reduce operational cost, many organizations are hiring workers from all parts of the world for remote jobs. Lots of organizations and individuals are also going into partnership with entities in various geographical locations. Due to the need for effective communication, the online webinar and meeting tools have become essential and indispensable solutions.

GotoMeeting and GotoWebinar are a vast platform and an excellent option for organizations, professionals, training institutes, and lots more for online meetings. They enable corporate bodies to reach out to their audience without been in the same physical room together. These tools can be used for online meetings, training, webinars, conferencing, and so much more.

There are lots of online applications that can be used for collaboration. However, two products stand out among them, GotoMeeting and GotoWebinar. Both products are market leaders, and they are efficient but and serve similar functions but different in some ways. These tools have made attending meetings, webinars, and seminars very easy, and depends on your needs; you can choose any one of the products to host your activity.

GotoMeeting

GotoMeeting is an online tool that can let people join meetings, webinars, training just with a click of the mouse. It has chat features that can let people participate in meetings and, at the same time, have an open or private chat among participants.

It also has recording and video features that can allow you to see the participants in the meeting. However, you can choose to turn off the video or audio when you are not the presenter, and you don’t want to be heard or seen. Meeting owners and participants would have to download the application on their local systems before setting it up or joining a meeting.

GotoMeeting has different products that serve various purposes, and you can choose any depending on your needs.

Here are some of the features of Gotomeeting

• Online Meeting Room
• Online Meeting Recording
• Call Me from your meeting
• Built-In Meeting Audio
• Meeting Drawing Tools
• Instant Meetings and Scheduled Meetings
• Quick One-Click Meetings
• Mobile Conferencing
• Windows, Linux, and GoToMeeting for Mac
• International Conferencing
• Online Meeting Presenter Control
• Dynamic Video Conferencing
• Conference Calling for Everyone
• Screen Sharing Without the Hiccups 

Gotowebinar 

GotoWebinar is a sophisticated and comprehensive online tool that provides speakers, audio, and video functionalities to create online video conferences, webinars, and other types of activities. It shares lots of features with Gotomeeting but can accommodate more participants. While Gotomeeting accommodates just 26 participants, Gotowebinar accommodates up to 1000 participants. 

Just like it Gotomeeting, you would also have to download the app on your local system before setting up a meeting or participating. Here are some of the highlights of Gotowebinar

• Online Meeting Room
• Online Meeting Recording
• Conference Calling for Everyone
• Pre-webinar practice sessions
• Customized branding
• Automated email templates
• Self-service attendees registration
• Automated reminder emails
• Outlook® calendar integration
• Full desktop sharing
• Q & A
• Polls

Branding

GotoMeeting and GotoWebinar offer branding options for meetings. In physical meetings, you can do a few things to create a better impression of yourself. You can dress right, smile, give a handshake, and lot more. In online meetings, you should keep in mind that branding your meeting can also create a lasting impression on your participants, just the way you create an impression in physical meetings. GotoMeeting can let you personalize your invite URL to accommodate your name, brand, or organizational name. You can also add your company logo to the meeting room.

You can also brand your meeting invite link while scheduling a meeting in GotoWebinar to create a better experience. You can also create personalized registration questions, personalize invitation link, and also personalize the waiting room before the meeting would commence.

Number of participants

There is a great disparity between GotoMeeting and GotoWebinar when it comes to the number of meeting participants. GotoWebinar can support as much as 1000 participants, while Gotomeeting accommodates a maximum of 26 people, including the owner of the meeting. For large meetings, conferences, and webinars, Gotowebinar should be the preferred choice.

Meeting scheduling

GotoMeeting offers the easiest option to schedule a meeting. With GoToMeeting, you can start an instant meeting or meet now in a matter of 1 to 2 minutes. If you want to schedule a meeting for later, you can still do that very rapidly, and you need to download the app and enter the date and time of the meeting. 

In GotoWebinar, you would need about 4 minutes or more to set up a meeting. Before a participant would join the meeting, they would also have to complete some fields such as email address and name field. But this is not the case with Gotomeeting. You do not have to complete any field as participants. Instead, you simply click on the invite link to download the app as a first time user and join the meeting.

Language

Gotomeeting and Gotowebinar both have unique interfaces and solid features. They also require the meeting owner and participants to download the app as a first time user. They have multiple language options, and you can choose the language of your choice during the application installation. However, what makes Gotowebinar unique is because it can allow your preferred language during a meeting and not just during installation.

Surveys and reports

Gotowebinar offers a more robust and advanced survey and reporting tools than Gotomeeting. Reporting and survey functionality exist in Gotomeeting but limited when compared to Gotowebinar. Gotowebinar offers you the best option if your target is to take polls, surveys, and extensive reporting of your meeting or webinar.

Interactivity

Gotomeeting is designed to be more interactive where every participant can share their screen, video,s, audios, and also see the people in attendance. Gotowebinar isn’t designed that way. In Gotowebinar, only the host and whoever he designates can share screen, video, and audio. The participants can only interact during the Q&A session. Participants cannot see the people in attendance, unlike in GoToMeeting. Therefore if you want to host an online event where you want participants to interact with each other freely, share screen and video, GoToMeeting should be your choice. 

When to use which

Gotomeeting should be your choice if you have a smaller meeting, and you are looking for the easiest application to use. However, you should opt for Gotowebinar if your meeting is large or more than 26 participants. Gotomeeting accommodates just 26 participants, including the owner of the meeting, while Gotowebinar accommodates as much as 1000 participants. 

Furthermore, Gotomeeting is very easy to use and also enables you to share your screen. Gotowebinar has extended reporting functionalities but does not offer instant webinar or meeting setup like in Gotomeeting. And lastly, Gotomeeting participants can chat with one another, which is not possible with Gotowebinar.

Conclusion

The rising cost of international calls and the need for remote collaboration through meetings and webinars have giving rise to the use of online meeting tools. Telecommunication has made it very easy for people from different geographical locations to meet without being in the same physical location. Gotomeeting and Gotowebinar allow organizations to carry out effective meetings simultaneously with people from various countries and geographical locations. 

Both systems offer various advantages, and you can decide to use any depending on your needs. However, Gotomeeting is mostly suited for internal meetings because of the number of allowed participants and its extensive sharing capabilities. Gotowebinar is better suited for meeting with external clients because it offers no chat ability between participants, which means lesser distraction. It also can host a larger audience. Both solutions have recording/playback features, which you can help participants make reference to during and after the meeting.