Livestorm and Zoom both are video conferencing, webinar and event platform. The modern business world has proved beyond reasonable doubt that webinar platforms and video conferencing are now great and invaluable tools for the growth of any business.
From reducing the need for business travel, easy communication, increased company professionalism, and cutting costs for such major physical meetings, webinar tools have been of significance.
As such, among the many webinar solutions that are available in the market, the two amazing platforms stand out; Livestorm and Zoom. The two software are essential in growing businesses to top levels in the competitive environment.
So which platform should you choose between? Which alternative tools to compare? When to select which tool? All those doubts are covered.
In this Livestorm vs Zoom Comparison, I will take you through the key features of each platform, similarities, differences, pros & cons as well as the pricing plans of both the tools to help you in making the right decision on which platform best suits your business needs.
Let’s get started!
Livestorm vs Zoom Table Comparison
Livestorm | Zoom | |
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Rating | 4.8/5 | 4.6/5 |
Entry-Level Price | Free | $79/month |
Best For | Marketing, Sales, promote, and manage online events | Best for hosting virtual meetings and online conferences |
Attendee Limit Max | 3000 | 10,000 |
App Download | Not required | Not require but they prefer to use App for all features |
Mobile support | Yes | Yes |
Hosts | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Key Features |
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Money-Back Guarantee | No | Yes |
Sign Up |
Livestorm vs Zoom In-Depth Features Review
Both Zoom & Livestorm come up with good features but what powerful features do these two platforms have that help you? How best can you rely on them and be satisfied with your business needs?
Let’s now look at these features and the similarities the two platforms share and choose the right platform..
Livestorm Overview & Features
Livestorm is a browser-based video engagement solution that focuses on marketing and online product promotion through live and automated webinars, virtual meetings, and events.
The product has great features that include:
Zoom Overview & Features
This is a cloud-based video conferencing platform that offers HD online video conferencing and meetings. It also offers webinars and chat functions, screen sharing, and virtual backgrounds that are essential for business growth.
The platform has powerful features that ensure a seamless experience. These features are:
Livestorm vs Zoom Key Features Comparison
Webinar Types & Ease of Setup
Livestorm is built mainly for Live, Hybrid, Series, and Automated webinars. The platform also allows you to schedule multiple events to make them recurring.
Livestorm is also very intuitive and easy to use, you only need to add a description and starting time of the webinar and you will be done with the setup.
Zoom, on the other hand, supports live and recurring webinars (not automated webinars). It has a very flexible recurring schedule, the webinars can be recurring any number of days per week.
Just like Livestorm, Zoom’s webinar setup is simple and straightforward with few options to configure.
Winner: Livestorm because that allows any type of events to run
Webinar Reliability
A reliable webinar is essential for you to achieve your targets and goals in marketing.
Zoom offers connection quality that is very reliable and has an option for HD video settings that boosts video quality.
Similarly, Livestorm offers a significantly high video quality that can serve you well. It enables your attendees to run a connectivity troubleshooter in case they experience bad video quality.
Both platforms have their support team on standby and ready to assist you in case you have any challenges.
Winner: Both Zoom and Livestorm tie
Webinar Funnel Pages
Livestorm offers you attractive landing pages and registration pages that can be customized to your taste. You can customize the background, the text and the button color, add your logo and a cover image.
Once the attendees fill in their emails and click the call to action, the registration page will appear for them to fill in the required information.
Furthermore, you can set up custom registration fields which are helpful in getting specific questions from your registrants for your webinar preparations.
Unlike Livestorm, Zoom doesn’t allow you to add a product image/video or even embed the registration form to your own landing page and track the registration conversions.
However, the platform allows you to create registration links for different sources hence being able to track the channels that brought more registrants.
Winner: Livestorm
Webinar Email Reminders and Email Editors
Livestorm is built in a way that the design you set up on the registration page automatically reflects the webinar reminder emails. This email reminder has powerful features like your webinar confirmation message, your logo and design, webinar link and optional links to add the webinar to the calendar.
The platform also allows you to set up the reminders to be sent out to your registrants at least 1 hour and 5 minutes before the webinar starts. You can segment registrants who attended your webinar and the ones who didn’t attend and create separate email follow-ups for them.
You can also preview and edit email content by changing certain information such as the email texts, editing the button texts and colors as well as adding shortcodes.
On the other hand, Zoom sends a registration confirmation email once your registrants are done with the registration. The email reminder has instructions on how the registrants can join the webinar.
These email reminders can be sent to attendees on different timelines that include either, an hour, a day or a week before the webinar. Zoom also allows adding a text snippet below the email body.
You can also separately craft follow-up emails after the webinar and send both to the attendees and absentees. Unfortunately, the webinar replay recording link is not included in the email but you can insert it manually into the follow-up email.
Winner: Livestorm
Webinar Audience Interaction Tools
With Livestorm you are allowed to launch the chat as public or private. It’s private when the chat is only between you and the user or public when it is shared with all room users.
The platform also has polls and calls to action which however can’t be pre-configured in the webcam setup.
The platform’s call-to-action feature has important sections that include a description, button link, and button text but you can’t add an image or a countdown timer.
Additionally, the Q&A feature on Livestorm allows attendees to ask questions and also upvote each other's questions.
With Zoom live webinars, attendees can send chats to all hosts and attendees, not to the host privately but to all panelists.
You can also launch polls during live webinars on Zoom which immediately appear to the attendees. Once you close the polling, you can share the results with your attendees.
Lastly, Zoom has an amazing Q&A feature that is enabled in the webinar setup and can be anonymous. This Q&A feature can be upvoted by the attendees thereby making your work easier to prioritize the questions.
Winner: Both Livestorm and Zoom tie
Webinar Presentation Tools
Livestorm allows you only to share your screen and show your slides that way, which may slightly compromise the quality of the slideshow.
If you want to show the video during the presentation, Livestorm allows you to add a video clip from YouTube or upload a video from your computer.
Zoom on the other hand doesn't offer much when it comes to presentation.
For instance, it lacks pre-uploaded slides, video injection, and file handouts. So for you to show your video and slideshow you have to share the screen.
However, Zoom has an annotation feature that is useful for illustrating and emphasizing something on your slides.
For instance, you can use the pencil tool, write text, draw arrows, circles, and rectangles, use different colors and click to insert stamps.
Winner: Zoom wins here because of the annotated feature.
Webinar Recording Video & Replay
Livestorm has the download recording button feature that you can press immediately once you finish your live webinar. The recording begins to play automatically for you and all the attendees.
An upside for Livestorm replays is that they include the necessary interactive tools. This feature allows those who did not attend the live webinar to also ask questions and feel the ‘live’ environment that the live attendees had.
Livestorm’s webinar replay’s downside is that it misses a call to action However, you can launch it manually and send the link to the attendees via chat.
Zoom automatically records live webinars' videos and stores them as mp4 files. The webinar replay recordings for Zoom is just a video that lacks interaction tools.
With zoom, you can also use the Zoom cloud to store your recordings.
The Zoom cloud is password-protected by default but you can turn it off and configure other replay settings before sharing the replay recording you may need.
Winner: Livestorm
Video Engine & Tech Support
Livestorm offers high video quality for your webinar. It allows attendees to run a connectivity troubleshooter in case they experience bad video quality.
To add on, Livestorm has a documentation page that can give you any needed support. You can also email their support team if you have questions to ask.
However, the chats support is reserved for enterprise customers only.
With Zoom, you can run a practice session to get familiar with all the controls and tools before starting the webinar. It also allows you to stream the webinar live on YouTube or Facebook.
Furthermore, Zoom gives an option to enable the HD video in the video settings which is essential in boosting video quality without causing any lag for the attendees.
For the tech support, Zoom provides video tutorials and helpful interactive records.
Winner: Livestorm
Webinar Analytics & Data Exports
Webinar analytics gives you great statistics of how your webinar performed and gives you room to adjust in areas you may need in the next webinar you host.
Livestorm webinar analytics dashboard is located under the people tab, where you can get insight into the continuous attendance tracking of your past webinars, webinar registration conversion rates, and sources. The dashboard gives information like;
The platform also allows users to download the Excel reports that include the number of registrants, live attendees, chat messages, replay views, questions, poll answers, webinar duration, and start & end time.
On the other hand, Zoom provides 5 analytic reports that you can download as CSV at the end of the webinar. These reports include; the Q&A Report, Performance Report, Registration Report, Poll Report, and the Attendee Report.
Winner: Both platforms tie
Mobile Devices & Browsers
Livestorm is mobile responsive, and joining the webinar is seamless. The webcam and slideshow presentation is visible. The engagement tools are located below the webinar video.
However, the downside for Livestorm is that, once the attendees dismiss the call to action, they can't bring it up again.
Zoom also offers mobile-responsive experiences though you have to download the Zoom App on your device (whether using Android or iOS) to use all the features and recently they updated to use browser base access for users but the host has to download the apps to manage more features.
The quality of the Android App runs smoothly. Once you launch the polls, they pop right up for the attendee to see them. This ultimately increases the poll participation rate.
Winner: Tie
Zoom vs Livestorm Similarities To Look Out For
Zoom vs Livestorm Differences You Need to Know
Livestorm vs Zoom Pricing Comparison
Livestorm pricing plan
Livestorm has 3 packages that include;
Zoom pricing plan
Zoom webinar pricing plans are as follows;
Zoom Pricing Add-on Plans (Optional)
The first Zoom Add-on package is the Audio Conferencing that starts from $100/m. The package is based on the calling rates per country.
You can also choose Cloud Storage starting at $40/m. The package offers you storage of your recordings on the Zoom Cloud where you can stream and download them anytime.
Alternatively, you can work with the experts in Zoom events to maximize your events on Zoom Event Services that start from $600/event.
The last add-on package is the Premier Developer Support which is provided to help minimize risk and reduce downtime of your event.
Zoom and Livestorm Pricing Summary
Zoom Pricing is cheaper when you have a single host and fewer attendees but it is costly when you go for multiple hosts with many attendees.
The Pricing increases with an increase in the number of hosts you invite to the event and the higher number of attendees you host.
However, Zoom allows you to invite up to 100 panelists in your event which makes it needless to add more hosts that may cost you extra charges for no reason.
Similarly, Livestorm’s Premium Plan charges depending on the number of hosts and attendees you accommodate on your webinar. The more hosts and attendees you have, the costlier it becomes.
Livestorm also allows you to have up to 16 simultaneous live speakers and unlimited moderators which therefore minimizes the need to have extra hosts on your webinar.
These speakers and moderators can help you manage the webinar apart from starting and ending it.
Zoom increase the price double for each host for the plan you selected while Livestorm has fix $109/host price So, e.g. if you have need 1000 attendees plan then Livestorm cost $338/month/host and Zoom cost $340/month per host (it is only for the webinar and not event plan) but now if you add 2nd host then Livestorm cost you $338 + $109 = $447 while Zoom cost you $340 + $340 = $680 so it's really whopping costly when you add multiple hosts with Zoom.
An upside of Zoom and Livestorm pricing packages is that you can decide to subscribe to yearly offers and make huge savings.
Above all, If you are looking for more number of host and large audience plan then WebinarJam (read my WebinarJam Review here) is really the #1 best tool you should check out.
Livestorm or Zoom Pros & Cons
Livestorm Pros & Cons
Pros:
Cons:
Zoom Pros & Cons
Pros:
Cons:
Livestorm or Zoom: Which Tool Is Right for Your Business?
Choosing between Zoom and Livestorm may not be as hard as choosing between any other webinar tools. Their services and roles are distinct and therefore it all depends on your business goal.
Having that in mind, therefore;
Choose Livestorm if
Choose Zoom if
What is My Recommendation?
Both platforms are popular and top at their feature-rich. They will definitely serve you better for the achievement of your business goals.
Livestorm is a browser-based tool that is excellent for marketing and video conferencing too. Zoom, on the other hand, is an app that works well on video conferencing and virtual meetings.
As such, I would recommend Livestorm in this Livestorm vs Zoom comparison guide.
The platform is highly built with a complete video conferencing solution that includes webinars and virtual meetings when compared to Zoom.
Even though Zoom is excellent at video conferencing, it is not designed for webinars and lead generation.
So, choose Livestorm if your main aim is to market products through a webinar solution and Zoom if you want to host meetings and training sessions.
Livestorm vs Zoom FAQs
Q. Which is better in between Livestorm and Zoom?
Both platforms serve better in their own unique ways. Livestorm has greater marketing capabilities whereas Zoom has an intuitive screen-sharing feature on all devices.
Q. Does Livestorm allow you to host over 1000 attendees?
Yes, you can host up to 3000 live attendees in their enterprise plan. Get in touch with the sales team to enjoy this package.
Q. Is the free trial available for Zoom or Livestorm?
No, Zoom & Livestorm both offer a free basic plan with powerful features that can serve you well.
Livestorm vs Zoom Conclusion
Zoom is exclusively built for meetings and video conferences. Its unique features will serve you well if you are hosting online meetings.
So, if you want a platform that will serve you on both video conferences and webinars, then Zoom is the best choice for you.
Livestorm is one of the top webinar solutions (you must read this guide to understand the best tool) that every marketer whose aim is to promote their products should think of.
The platform has quality features that allow you to reach a wider targeted audience through YouTube and Facebook live streams. This increases your webinar conversions as well.
If you want to increase your lead generation, then go for Livestorm. Its integration feature allows you to join other marketing apps such as Zappier and Google Analytics to increase its services and its complete solution at affordable pricing than Zoom.
But if you are looking for webinar solutions then you should go with Demio for a small audience size and if you have a large audience then go with WebinarJam is your best bet.
As you can get very in-depth ideas in this Zoom vs Livestorm comparison guide to understand features, offerings, usage, and when to choose which platform as per your business needs so choose the tool that suits your need and grow your business.