Though Zoom meetings and webinars offer comparable features, there are differences to consider when deciding which tool best suits your needs. Below, you will find key features and use-case comparison charts.
| Zoom Meetings | Zoom Webinars |
|---|---|
| Participant limit: 300 | Attendee limit: 1,000 or 10,000 with an add-on U-M webinar license |
Audio sharing:
| Audio sharing:
|
| Video sharing: All participants can share their video | Video sharing: Only hosts, co-hosts, and panelists can share their video |
| Screen sharing: All participants can share their screens | Screen sharing: Only hosts, co-hosts, and panelists can share their screen |
Chat:
| Chat:
|
| 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 Zoom: Livestream a Webinar. |
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 allow the host 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 the ability to share content. More participant engagement. | Meeting |
| Training session | With fewer than 300 participants, breakout rooms and polling are an option. Includes a Raise Hand feature that is ideal for training sessions. The host can mute all participants and toggle when appropriate to allow interaction. | Meeting |
| Professional conference | More than 300 participants, more control for the host, co-hosts, and panelists. Audio, video, and content are shared only by the host, co-hosts, and panelists. It includes a polling feature, which is often utilized for professional conferences. | Webinar |
| Class under 300 | Ideal for interactive sessions where you’ll want to encourage lots of audience participation or use breakout sessions for small-group discussions. | Meeting |
| Class over 300 | A virtual lecture hall or auditorium with a very large audience. The Q&A feature allows attendees to ask questions during class. | Webinar |
| Patient visit | It may be used with some types of sensitive data, including Protected Health Information (PHI), and provides end-to-end encryption. Ability to lock the session. | Meeting |
| Daily stand-up | Ability to view all participants. Everyone has audio and video and can chat publicly or privately. | Meeting |
| Town Hall | Large audience/event open to the public, requiring little audience engagement. | Webinar |
Accessibility for Zoom meetings and webinars should always be considered. Refer to Videoconferencing Captioning Tools for Zoom and Videoconferencing Accessibility at U-M for more information.