Zoom Meetings vs. Zoom Webinars

Zoom Meeting and Zoom Webinar platforms offer similar features and functionality but have some key differences. 

Zoom meetings are ideal for hosting interactive sessions where you’ll want to have audience participation or break your session into smaller groups. If given permission, participants can share their screens, turn on their video and audio, and see who else is in attendance. Meeting attendees can chat, answer polling questions, and offer non-verbal feedback, like raising their hands. You can put your attendees into smaller groups in breakout rooms. 

Zoom Webinars are used for things like large events or talks. Typically, webinar attendees do not interact with one another. An average webinar has one or a few people speaking to an audience. Webinars are ideal for large audiences or events that are open to the public. 

Webinars are designed so that the host can share their video, audio and screen, but attendees cannot. Attendees in webinars cannot turn on video and audio. Webinars allow view-only attendees. They have the ability to interact via Q&A, Chat, and answering polling questions. The host can also unmute the attendees. 

This chart compares the features of Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinar: Meeting and webinar comparison – Zoom Help Center

Brown has a limited number of licenses for Webinars. Brown’s Media Services group can work with you to determine your needs and give you advice. Contact media_services@brown.edu to learn more. 

After speaking with Media Services, if you decide that your department needs a permanent webinar license, you may purchase one through OIT. Price varies depending on the type of license.