Meetings are designed to foster collaboration, granting all participants the ability to screen share, activate their video and audio feeds, and view the list of attendees.
On the other hand, webinars are structured to enable the host and designated panelists to share their video, audio, and screens, while attendees typically have view-only access. However, webinars facilitate interaction through features such as Q&A, chat, and polling. Hosts can also unmute attendees, though attendees cannot rename themselves.
| Meeting | Webinar | ||
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| Description | Zoom meetings are ideal for hosting more interactive sessions where you’ll want to have lots of audience participation or break your session into smaller groups. | Think of webinars like a virtual lecture hall or auditorium. Webinars are ideal for large audiences or events that are open to the public. Typically, webinar attendees do not interact with one another. Though Zoom provides options for you to get more social with your attendees, your average webinar has one or a few people speaking to an audience. | |
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| Participant Roles |
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| Sharing Options |
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| Chat | Chat can be made public, restricted to chat with hosts only, or turned off | Attendees can only chat with panelists by default. Chats can be separated into a Q&A queue | |
| Breakout Rooms | ✓ | X | |
| Meeting reactions and feedback | ✓ | X | |
| Meeting Security |
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Meeting security is implemented by separating attendees from panelists. Registration can also be required to attend a webinar. |
For more information on features and differences between Zoom Meeting and Webinar accounts click here.