Best-in-class live webinar software

Open Calendar in your control panel and press Schedule webinar. Give the event a title, a date and a time, and it exists. Everything after that is optional on a first run, because a scheduled webinar carries ten settings tabs and only four of them matter at the start, meaning General for the mode and the branding, Entry for how people get in, Record for what the recording captures and Emails for the reminder chain that then runs on its own. Press Done and the webinar is scheduled.

Nothing gets installed at any point, since the room runs in the browser, and a free Starter account can build and hold a real event before you pay anything. Our step-by-step guide to setting up a webinar from scratch walks the whole route, from the account and the time zone through to going on air and the recording.

Most of what goes wrong on a first webinar is settings rather than content. Set the time zone in your profile before anything else, because your start times and every reminder we send are calculated from it and nothing later warns you that it is wrong. Decide how early the doors open with Allow entry before, which stands at 30 minutes until you change it. Prepare your materials in advance on the Files, Polls, CTA and Tests tabs, because all four launch by hand during the session and hunting for them live costs you the room.

Leave the eight automatic emails switched on, since they carry the confirmation, the countdown at 3 days, 1 day and 1 hour, the nudge for latecomers and the follow-up with the recording link. Then rehearse, because hosts are not held to the schedule and you can sign into the room days ahead to check your camera. Webinar planning goes through every tab in order.

Scheduling is Schedule webinar in Calendar. If the event repeats, turn on Multiple dates, which switches on Webinar series alongside it and ties the chosen days together as one series instead of a pile of unrelated events.

Promotion runs off the registration page the platform builds for you. The Entry tab shapes the sign-up form, previews it live while you edit, and lets you embed that same form on your own site. Everyone who registers then enters an eight-message email chain that runs without you, meaning the confirmation, reminders at 3 days, 1 day and 1 hour, a nudge for anyone still missing once you begin, and a follow-up carrying the recording link. Tag the addresses behind the buttons in those emails and the statistics afterwards tell you which channel actually brought the audience. Landing page mode covers turning that registration page into a standalone landing, and when webinar email notifications are sent covers the timing.

Charging for a seat is built in and runs through PayPal. Link your PayPal account once with Link account, then set the Price and the Currency for the event, with USD, EUR, PLN and UAH among the options. After that the room stays shut to an attendee until their payment clears, and the attendee list tracks the outcome for you, marking each person Paid, Not paid or Activated manually and totalling what has come in.

Two things to know before you price an event. Deleting a paid webinar obliges you to refund everyone who has already bought a ticket, and a one-day plan does not allow paid webinars at all, so read how to choose and pay for a plan first. If you sell through Stripe, Paysera or your own checkout instead, our public API can create the event and release the join link once your own gateway confirms the payment.