Crowdcast Reviews

Ever been disappointed by a webinar? Well, look no further because Crowdcast claims its browser-based software produces “webinars that don’t suck”. Although that claim is modest and very tongue-in-cheek, the California-based Crowdcast certainly produces high-quality webinars. Since 2015, Crowdcast has aimed to make webinars more social and accessible for thousands of attendees through its website. Even small moments of a webinar can be shared through social media instantly. Live webinars are interactive and encourage engagement, and hosts can even access live analytics to help make their webinar better. Prices for Crowdcast start low at just $20 a month for a starter package but users can test out the service thoroughly first by taking advantage of Crowdcast’s 14-day free trial.

Features

With Crowdcast you can broadcast live webinars any time you like. Unfortunately, there’s no way of doing a recurring webinar to be run at the same time interval, but you can create multiple sessions of the same webinar for a similar experience. We do like that you can host multiple webinars simultaneously, which is ideal for large sales teams. Any public webinars are easily found through Crowdcast’s ‘Discover’ page, alongside thousands of other presentations, making its website a sort of YouTube for webinars. Advanced users can take advantage of Crowdcast’s RTMP Studio (allowing for full high-definition streaming) compatible with Ecamm, OBS, and Wirecast.

Crowdcast prides itself on interactive webinars meant for maximum engagement. Even simple features like Q&As are done better than you may find elsewhere. Individual questions are either answered through the text function or if you respond to them live during the webinar you can have Crowdcast record your answer so users can easily find it when they watch the recording later. We also like that you can download completed live poll results in a CSV file to examine, and since you can see each attendee’s answers it’s ideal for generating leads.

Although it’s possible to share your screen, Crowdcast does lack a direct method of file sharing or whiteboarding — something that is commonly found in its rivals. However, through using one of many integrations and a little bit of lateral thinking you can replicate the same results.

One of the strongest elements of Crowdcast is its in-depth reporting. The platform will show you conversation rates, engagements, websites visited from, and even a neat world map showing where all your attendees are from. What we really like is these analytics update live so you can tailor your live webinar according to your viewers.

Setup

New Crowdcast users will be welcomed with a video tutorial on how to set up a webinar. However, the process itself is so simple you’ll have no problem getting started. We particularly like that registration is customizable so you can ask for any information you want from your attendees.

As you set up your webinar, you’re able to set up what Crowdcast calls ‘multistreams’. Multistreams are simply other locations (besides the Crowdcast website) where your stream will be broadcast and these can include Facebook, YouTube, and Patreon. If you’ve set up your RTMP then you’ll also be able to include other platforms like Twitch. There are plenty of other small things to tweak about your webinar, so you can truly set it up as you please.

Some setup requires the use of integrations and Crowdcast offers just a few initially, including Patreon, Stripe, Drip, and ConvertKit. However, it’s possible to access over a thousand other integrations via Zapier like PayPal, Mailchimp, and Slack just to name a few.

Security

Above all, Crowdcast is an open and public platform meaning webinars are meant to be shared with everyone. This means you won’t find the kind of end-to-end encryption you may see with other webinar services. In fact, listed webinars are easily found through the Crowdcast website or a search engine, which is potentially great publicity. Of course, not everyone wants their webinar out in the world, so there are few ways to keep things quiet. You have the option to make your webinar unlisted, meaning they won’t appear on the Crowdcast website — but that doesn’t make them private. To add further protection, webinars can be password protected or reserved only for Patreon subscribers.

Device Support

As a browser-based webinar platform, you can use Crowdcast on just about any device provided you have a compatible browser. Crowdcast recommends its users to use the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Edge to get the optimum experience. Of all those browsers, Chrome tends to behave the best, so if it isn’t your browser of choice ordinarily it’s well worth using just for Crowdcast. When it comes to mobile devices, Chrome and Firefox are the best options for Android users. Since iOS browsers do have some potential limitations, Crowdcast has a dedicated iOS app for better performance.

Pricing

There are four different pricing tiers for Crowdcast: Starter, Lite, Pro, and Business. Each depends on how often you want to run webinars, your maximum session length, and the number of attendees you expect. Naturally, the Starter plan is the cheaper one as it’s aimed at beginner webinar users just looking to get started. The plan gives you a maximum of just 50 attendees (you can go over this for an extra fee), webinar sessions of up to two hours, and a total of five hours of broadcasting every month – unfortunately, any unused hours don’t carry over to the next month. Although all that may seem restrictive, it comes at a great price with the Starter tier costing just $20 a month billed annually.

Of course, if you need something more powerful then you’ll have to upgrade. The Lite option not only offers you more attendees but also access to event analytics. To get up six screens presenting simultaneously you’ll need the Pro package. Finally, the Business package combines all of the above with the option of hosting up to 1,000 attendees. Although each pricing tier has a set pricing limit, Crowdcast actually offers unlimited attendees, but there’s a catch. If you go over your set number of attendees, you’ll be charged 15¢ per extra attendee. That might not sound like much initially, but it soon adds up. Fortunately, Crowdcast gives you the ability to stop this from happening and instead stick to a strict attendee limit.

All payments to Crowdcast can be made through any of the major credit cards. To take advantage of its free 14-day trial you’ll also need to input your credit card information but you won’t be charged. Finally, if you’re not completely satisfied with Crowdcast you can get a full refund by taking advantage of its 14-day money-back guarantee.

Customer Support

Crowdcast users can get support through the website’s live chat feature, but it isn’t available 24/7. Your other option is getting in touch via social media or through the Crowdcast Facebook community, where you can interact with other users. When it comes to documentation, Crowdcast isn’t the best. The FAQ section is fairly small, especially in the absence of thorough guides. However, there is one helpful way to get an answer to your question: Crowdcast regularly hosts its own Q&A webcasts, in which you can ask a question and get a direct answer right from the source.

Bottom Line

Crowdcast is a really interesting addition to the webinar market. While many services try to be insular – connecting you with your attendees only – Crowdcast wants to connect you with the world. This is ideal for anyone wanting to reach the largest audience possible. We particularly like that Crowdcast easily enables you to broadcast your webinar through Facebook and YouTube. For many, the seamless Patreon integration will be a huge benefit. There are some key features that are missing though and the lack of file sharing and whiteboarding in particular is a big omission, especially as this is often found in other browser-based services. Although these functions can be replicated with the clever use of integrations, it is far more awkward. Importantly, Crowdcast’s prices are very reasonable, especially for anyone wanting to host smaller webinars as the service offers a far lower introductory price than its rivals. On top of that, users can take advantage of the 14-day trial before making a purchasing decision. Overall, Crowdcast isn’t the right solution for everyone, but it’s perfect for anyone wanting to share their webinar with as many people as possible.

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