Comments on: Webinar Services: Comparing ReadyTalk and GotoWebinar

By: Dawn

Dawn — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:50:54 +0000

We are a nonprofit wanting to do a monthly webinar for a small fee. We don’t anticipate more than about 15 -20 participants. we need the ability to register participants from our website. We are trying very very hard to keep our monthly fixed cost down so even a $50 per month charge for a service we use just once a month is too steep. Does anyone have any suggestions. We have tried Dim Dim free and it works fine for us, but I don’t think they have the ability to do a registration form. Any suggestions are most welcome.

By: Ryan Brown

Ryan Brown — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:01:38 +0000

Susan, you could try out paypal for your payments. It is pretty easy to setup and allows you to create a ‘Buy Now’ button for a specific webinar (and its free). Once someone completes a payment you can automatically redirect them to the webinar registration page.

It depends on how many webinars you’re selling for your non members whether it would be easier to do a shopping cart or a simple buy now button. The Buy Now option through paypal only allows the user to buy one item per transaction.

Hope this helps!

By: Kivi Leroux Miller

Kivi Leroux Miller — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:00:03 +0000

Susan – As far as I know, you have to put your own shopping cart either in front or behind the webinar registration form. It’s definitely an inconvenience, but a slight one, if you keep the webinar provider form to the bare minimum.

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:31:59 +0000

Does anybody know of a service that integrates payment for registrations, and all the services GotoWebinar has. We currently use GTW for webinars since we do them for our members free but want to start charging for non-members. IT appears to me that GTW doesn’t have a secure payment option provided. We use Cvent for our conferences because it has the secure payment option and could use it for our webinars for the payment option but then people have to go to GTW to register yet again to get the information to get into the webinar. Is this making sense? I want ONE service that does both. Hope you can help.

By: Kivi Leroux Miller

Kivi Leroux Miller — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:46:25 +0000

UPDATE: I am now using GoToWebinar for the Nonprofit Marketing Guide series because so many people asked for a VOIP option, which GoTo offers now, among other reasons.

Still have some problems with GoTo, e.g. their email contact system for getting in touch with registrants is a total pain — should be able to email people on the fly.

By: Ryan Brown

Ryan Brown — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:17:08 +0000

We’ve used several different services helping our customers deliver webinars, however when I have the choice I recommend GoToWebinar. There are some features we’d like to see added, but their latest addition of VOIP audio and integrated recording is an excellent bonus. Great comparison of the 2 services though!

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:00:47 +0000

Very good comparison. I have also used free trials for several webinar services providers but I decided to use InstantPresenter that has a lot of features and options.

By: Kivi Leroux Miller

Kivi Leroux Miller — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:51:21 +0000

When I asked for the registration support, they referred me to a third party website. Since I already have a shopping cart, I decided to use that instead of their third party. My understanding is that the new event module with be fully integrated at ReadyTalk.

By: Joe Micheel

Joe Micheel — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:47:09 +0000

Great blog, but way off one one area. ReadyTalk offers more support than any other leading provider of web conferencing. If you try and get support from a sales rep they will set up a fully functioning event registration page that is user friendly and appealing to the eye. Great comparisons however!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:35:39 +0000

Sorry I meant to say “that I did manage to see their event product”