Though Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars provide comparable features, there are some differences to be aware of when deciding which tool best suits your need. Below you will find a key feature comparison and a use case comparison chart.
| Zoom Meetings | Zoom Webinars |
|---|---|
| Participant limit: 300 | Participant limit: 500 or 1000 (10,000 with a special U-M Webinar license) |
| Content Sharing: All Participants | Content Sharing: Host, Co-host, and Panelists Only |
| Audio & Video: All Participants | Audio & Video: Host, Co-host, and Panelist Only |
| Chat: Host to All Participants and Participant to Participant Privately and Publicly. (Hosts have the ability to disable Public and Private Chat.) | Chat: Hosts, Co-hosts, Panelists, and Participants can publicly. (Hosts have the ability to disable chat completely for participants.) |
| Polling: Available | Polling: Available |
| Breakout Rooms: Available | Breakout Rooms: Not available |
| Waiting Rooms: Available | Waiting Rooms: Not available |
| Q&A: Available | Q&A: Available |
| Livestream: Not available | Livestream: Available with some restrictions. Refer to Live Stream a Zoom Webinar. |
Use of Zoom meetings or webinars should also be considered based on the experience you want to provide for your participants. Meetings are more interactive and provide different ways for participants to engage. Webinars provide the host the opportunity to have full control over presenting to a very large group with full permissions to manage the webinar, panelists, and attendees.
| Use Case | Considerations | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Staff meeting | Less than 300 participants, video and audio of all participants, and ability to content share. More participant engagement. | Meeting |
| Training session | With less than 300 participants, breakout rooms are an option as well as polling. Includes a Raise Hand feature that is ideal for training sessions. The host can mute all participants and toggle on when appropriate to allow for interaction. | Meeting |
| Professional conference |
More than 300 participants, more control for the host, co-host, and panelist. Audio, video, and content are shared by the host, co-host, and panelist only. Includes polling feature, which is often utilized for professional conferences. |
Webinar |
| Class under 300 | Ideal for interactive sessions where you’ll want to have lots of audience participation or utilize breakout sessions for small group discussions. | Meeting |
| Class over 300 | A virtual lecture hall or auditorium with a very large audience. Ability to use Q&A feature for attendees to ask questions during class. | Webinar |
| Patient visit | May be used with some types of sensitive data, including Protected Health Information (PHI), and provides end-to-end encryption. Ability to lock meetings. | Meeting |
| Daily stand-up | Ability to see all participants. Everyone has audio and video and can chat publicly or privately. | Meeting |
| Town Hall | Large audience/event that is open to the public and needs little audience engagement. | Webinar |
Also, consider accessibility for Zoom meetings and webinars. Refer to Videoconferencing Captioning Tools for Zoom and Videoconferencing and Digital Accessibility at the University of Michigan for detailed information.