ON24 vs Webex Suite: Which is a better fit?

Lauren N.: My name is Lauren. I'm an events marketing manager. I would rate ON24 as a four, and for more reviews, click below. Previously, we had used GoTo Webinar in Zoom, and they just did not have enough features for us to really get the full customization out of our webinars and get our full stretch of engagement. We chose ON24 because of how much you could customize the platform, customize the emails that go out to our registrants and attendees, and really give a full scope of the action items that they can do while they're in the webinar, how much they can talk with our speakers, and how much that we feel like we can really share with our customer base. I will say getting started was slightly tricky learning everything on the platform, because it was not as user-friendly as it is now. The actual presenter side of the platform has changed a huge amount just in the last couple years with the release of their new elite studio. But once now you get going with all of that, it is all pretty straightforward and they have a great support chat system and support email system as well. I recommend, and I think they'll actually probably make you do this, set up with ON24 representative to walk you through the platform, give you a full demo, full scope, let them ask you what your initiatives are and what you're looking for in this platform so that way they can make sure they can fulfill that for you. But with all their new features and technology coming out, I have a feeling that it could work for nearly everybody, and then just make sure that it looks and feels how you want it to. But otherwise, I think that it's a good move.

Diane: Hi, I'm Diane. I'm the founder of PreQualified Mates, and I give Webex a four out of five. I have used virtually every application that preceded Webex, including GoTo Meeting. I was an early adopter of Webex, I've used them all. I have hosted thousands of web-based meetings, so name it, I have used it. We used Webex for PreQualified Mates because of my experience with everything that preceded it, and the state of Webex at that time. I'd only used Webex for B2B, and we were using it in a B2C application. The other reason that I chose Webex at that time was that Zoom was really immature, and the real business model at that time was actually storage, which might be a surprise to most people, but what really appealed to me with Webex is that you had the ability to locally store and control your data. You didn't have to store your data on a data farm and pay for storage offsite unless you chose to do so. As I said, when we launched PreQualified Mates, we were using Webex for internal use, interviewing our clients and prospective clients. And it was actually really challenging, not because of Webex per se, but we were using it in a B2C environment. Hence, when we would prep our prospective clients in advance to confirm that they had a platform hardware to launch a Webex session, it was so challenging because it turned out that a lot of people's own personal computers are really old and obsolete. So it was a real struggle, really painful, and we spent an inordinate amount of time doing the troubleshooting, which really was not at all the fault of Webex. It was that the clients were using really old equipment, and it was really important to us to record the data. So at the time, it was using FaceTime or something, or Skype was an inadequate alternative, and Zoom was too immature at that time to be considered as an alternative. So, it was very challenging, and I've used Webex for so many years. I have tons of war wounds from what it was like in the early versions, which is nothing like it is today, which is easy-peasy. But going back, there were some challenges, but the challenges we had with my company per se, were really the challenges of a B2C environment, which was not my prior experience, which was all B2B and more on an enterprise level. I'd suggest that you review the licensing and forecast your requirements pretty clearly. Make sure you understand what it's like to add additional users and so forth. I'd also suggest you do research on backgrounds and environments. I've written a great blog on it, for example, but there's all sorts of really good material to that end, and I personally like real environments versus the faux screens, but other than that, just do your due diligence on the front end.