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What's the best web-based conferencing system?

Dave, I need to run a monthly online conference with some of my investors, something where I can talk them through some PowerPoint slides and show off a Web-based demo or two, all computer-based. The options I've seen are pretty darn expensive, however: what's your recommendation?

Dave's Answer:

I've actually been looking quite closely at this category too, as it happens, and so far I agree with you: the choices I've seen are either incredibly expensive or just don't work that well for the type of situations I need (and, it sounds, you need too).

Recently I ran a teleseminar using the Hotconference system, and to be fair, it's darn attractive for a lot of situations and at less than $30/mo for a basic room that lets you present to an unlimited number of attendees, it's certainly priced well.

Here's the skeleton of how it appears on your Windows-only (alas, no Mac support) system:

The greatest problem I found was that it can't track past web site logins: once I logged in to a service during my teleseminar last week, all the attendees were left sitting at the login screen on their computers, even while I cluelessly continued to talk about what I was seeing. The Hotconference engineers report that they're working on a "desktop mirroring" version, but with no announced release date.

Nonetheless, the idea of using voice over IP (VOIP) as the cornerstone of online conferencing is terrific, and by being able to sidestep any need for telephone lines or classic teleconferencing, it really becomes commoditized.

Systems that allow complete tracking move us into more expensive territory with products like Macromedia Breeze, Microsoft Live Meeting and Instant Presenter. But take a deep breath, the price of those systems will probably surprise you. It surprised me. Live Meeting and Breeze price out at $375/mo for up to five simultaneous attendees, $750 for up to ten attendees, or $0.35/minute per attendee for Live Meting and $0.32/minute per attendee for Breeze's on-demand solution.

Instant Presenter is harder to figure out, because of its many add-ons. The basic per-event charge is $0.06/minute per attendee, but if you want to add its "screen sharing" capability, that's an additional $0.12/minute per attendee. Five user license, per month, is $164.98, and ten users costs $234.98. Still better than $0.32/minute per attendee, but still expensive.

The dilemma that I face is that I never know how many people will attend my teleseminars, but it's frequently in the 15-25 range, which means a one hour event, plus 15 minutes of chat and users connecting early, would cost me over $500 with Live Meeting, $480.00 with Breeze and $270.00 with Instant Presenter, for 20 attendees. I'm planning on offering a teleseminar every single week to this group, which would be a quite significant expenditure on a quarterly basis.

You're lucky. Your pool of investors is probably a fairly stable number, but even then, if you have a dozen investors who want to join your presentation every month for an hour, you'd be ringing up an annual investor teleconference fee of just under $3000 with Breeze and over $1600 with Instant Presenter.

Sorry this doesn't answer your question very well, but I too am busy trying to figure out the different products and applications available in this area. If any readers would like to recommend other solutions, either programs to download or services to join, I think we'd both appreciate hearing about it!

Addendum: after realizing that I haven't actually used Hotconference for quite a while, I canceled my subscription so I don't know how they are extending and expanding their service. If you sign up, do pop back here and let us know how it works for you. Thanks!

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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics (Article 4247)
Tagged: free conferencing, hotconference, teleseminars, web conferencing, webinars
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Comments

He could just use free teleconferencing (www.freeconferencecall.com - not affiliated, but have used it with success) and online powerpoint presentations. He wouldn't have the 'application' sharing, but he could do screen shots, or flash and achieve a lot of the same things without the hassle. The attendees just call into the teleconference line, then go to a web page while on the phone and watch the powerpoint presentation. I've done that several times and it's been successful. Very low tech.

Best of luck and great site!

Posted by: ck at October 28, 2005 7:58 AM

You may already know of this service. It's pretty good and used by many of my marketing and brand clients. Webex. It's Powerpoint service where you upload your file and a list of participants, webex books the session and you talk through the presention advancing the slides when you want, with basically full control, forward backward, etc. It works very seamlessly. There are ways to customize pages, etc.

I have only used it once, but it was very effective. Good luck with it.

Posted by: Art Katz at October 28, 2005 2:50 PM

I like HotConference a lot - maybe too much. The pricing is unbeatable and the audio quality is good and the ability to have as many people in as I can possibly pack into one session is nice. Teleconferencing is ok but when you're talking to a global audience, people outside North America likely won't bother to call in because of the expense. Even within North America I've been in (web) conferences where there's both telephone and web options. There's usually more people attending via the web than calling in on the bridge line. I guess people don't like using their cell phone minutes or paying for long distance - even when it's only 2cents/minute or less.

Posted by: Lynette at October 30, 2005 10:16 AM

We use Interwise http://www.interwise.com at work and I've been very happy with the product. You can upload any office,pdf, or image file to share or you can share your desktop. Their audio conf supports both telephone and VOIP at the same time!

Posted by: Jason Benway at October 30, 2005 1:50 PM

I've used this service a lot from the receiving end .. listening to/participating in sales presentations. Later this year I'll be cranking up some seminars present from my end and it will be my first choice to try:
https://www.gotomeeting.com/en_US/pre/pricing.tmpl
It's a flat rate for all the conferencing you can eat at $39 a month (annual rate) and the audio is included with the participants paying at that rate. If you want to pay for attendee's call-ins, that feature is available for 6 cents a minute per attendee. It works seamlessly.

Best regards
Dave

Posted by: Dave Starr at October 31, 2005 9:54 PM

i checked out Gotomeeting and I recall that their max attendees was 10 per conference? Then you moved up to the corporate package and it was quite a bit more expensive...

Posted by: Dave Taylor at November 1, 2005 5:01 AM

Oh, if you're just looking for audio conferencing, I was referred to a very interesting option: http://www.greatteleseminars.com/ What's particularly interesting is that it's FREE... Anyone have any experiences with it?

Posted by: Dave Taylor at November 1, 2005 5:28 AM

Hi Dave,

I saw your post about Great Teleseminars. To set the record straight, we offer the first 100 lines for free when someone orders a recording package from us. We also refer them to

http://www.myfreeteleconference.com/promo/

if they want 100 lines for their own purposes.

Our recording service is NOT free. We offer superior service and we charge for it.

Please let me know if I can help in any way.

Dan Janal
Founder, Great Teleseminar, www.greatteleseminars.com

Posted by: Dan Janal at November 9, 2005 5:50 PM

I've just tried a cross platform open source web conferencing system where you can talk, share a whiteboard, upload and present powerpoints and share applications.
It's still in a beta at the moment but looks very promising. You can try it online at www.webhuddle.com or download and deploy it on a J2EE server from www.sourceforge.net/projects/webhuddle.

Posted by: Hugo Pendlebury at November 14, 2005 4:38 PM

You might want to visit my site at www.E-Classsolutions.com We offer the Megameeting system as independant agents, which not only would be cost effective, but is the best system out there. We also offer a complete line of support peripherals such as inexpensive document cameras and recording hardware. You can also see your investors 11 at a time, which is selectable by you. The system is entirely web based and is 24/7. There are several options available, including owning it on your server (50 seats) which is financable.

Posted by: Barry Perlman at April 11, 2006 1:06 PM

If you are looking for complete event management try Speakersmic.com. They provide a true end to end solution for speakers or sponsors of webinars. Powered by WebEx, the cost is only $35 per attendee for a 2 hour conference, or $45 per attendee if you want them to process registrations. They will also build you a custom branded registration system of your own!

Posted by: Mike White at January 4, 2007 12:34 PM

try www.yugma.com. It's free web conferencing for up to 10 users and works well.

Posted by: paul at March 2, 2007 11:44 AM

You guys may try PictureTalk. www.pixion.com. There is a 14days free trial. The strength is the cross-platform capability. Most of the web conferencing software client plug-in would support the window platform but hardly can we find one who support Mac natively. And most of the conferencing server could only install on windows platform. However, this conferencing server can install on windows, mac and solaris.

Posted by: venant at April 5, 2007 2:48 AM

I see someone already mentioned Yugma, but one thing not mentioned is that it supports Mac and Linux users.

Posted by: Rich Brooks at January 28, 2008 8:16 AM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!