Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most U.S. teams, a cloud-based webinar platform like StreamYard On‑Air—browser-based, easy to join, and embeddable on your site—is the simplest way to run reliable, on-brand webinars. If you need heavy marketing automation, built‑in ticketing, or ultra‑large events, options like Demio, Crowdcast, or Zoom can make sense for those specific edge cases.

Summary

• Cloud-based webinar platforms run in the browser, so hosts and attendees avoid installs and can join from almost anywhere.
• StreamYard On‑Air combines a production studio, registration, automatic recording, and an embeddable watch page into one workflow. (StreamYard)
• Demio concentrates on marketing funnels and automated webinars, Crowdcast on multi‑session events and ticketing, and Zoom on very high attendee capacity. (Demio) (Crowdcast) (Zoom)
• For typical marketing, customer, and community webinars under ~10,000 viewers, StreamYard provides an easier, lower‑friction setup than more complex event stacks. (SoftwareAdvice)

What is a cloud-based webinar platform, really?

A cloud-based webinar platform delivers everything—video, registration, interaction, and recording—through the browser. You don’t install heavy desktop software; you open a link.

From a practical standpoint, the core pieces are:

• Live video and audio in the browser for both hosts and attendees.
• Automatic recording, so you can reuse the content afterward.
• Registration and email to capture leads and send reminders.
• Branding controls to make the experience feel like your brand, not the tool.
• Interactive tools such as chat, reactions, and often polls or Q&A.

At StreamYard, On‑Air is our dedicated webinar mode that layers registration, a hosted watch page, and email reminders on top of our browser-based studio. (StreamYard)

If you’ve ever run a webinar from your laptop, hoped your slides shared correctly, and crossed your fingers that attendees could find the right link, the purpose of these platforms is simple: remove friction so you can focus on the content, not the plumbing.

What should you look for in a cloud webinar tool in 2026?

Most teams in the U.S. who search for "cloud-based webinar platform" are looking for the same five things:

1. High-quality, reliable audio/video
   You want your message to be clear and stable, even for less technical attendees.

2. Ease of use for hosts and attendees
   If your VP of Sales can’t join without calling IT, the tool is failing you.

3. Automatic recording and replays
   Every webinar should become on‑demand content with almost no extra work.

4. Custom branding
   Logos, brand colors, and the ability to host or embed the webinar where your audience already recognizes you.

5. Robust interaction
   Live chat at a minimum; polls and Q&A are highly desirable. For deeper interaction, pairing with a dedicated engagement tool can be more effective than relying only on built‑ins.

Let’s map these to concrete capabilities.

How StreamYard On‑Air meets these needs

On‑Air focuses on a simple, browser-based flow:

• Browser-based experience: No installs or accounts are required for hosts or attendees on supported browsers, which reduces drop‑off and support tickets. (StreamYard)
• Registration and lead capture: You can enable registration, collect names and emails with customizable fields, and export registrants as CSV for your CRM. (StreamYard)
• Automated emails: Confirmation, reminder emails (e.g., 24 hours and 1 hour before), and a post‑event recording email when on‑demand is turned on are built in. (StreamYard)
• Embeddable player plus chat: You can embed the webinar and its live chat directly on your own site for a fully branded experience. (StreamYard)
• Live chat and on‑screen comments: Chat opens before the event and can remain after, and you can selectively show audience comments on screen.
• On‑demand replay and private recording: You can leave the webinar on‑demand or turn off access later, while still keeping your recording inside StreamYard.
• Full production studio: Layouts, branding overlays, screen share, and creator‑style features like multi‑track and local recording live in the same studio workflow.

The result: you’re not connecting three different tools to get a basic webinar off the ground. You go live from the same studio you might already use for your live show, but with registration and an attendee‑friendly watch page layered on top.

How do modern cloud webinar platforms compare in 2026?

When people say “cloud-based webinar platform,” they usually mean one of four categories:

• Production-first webinar studios – StreamYard On‑Air
• Marketing-focused webinar systems – Demio
• Community and event-focused tools – Crowdcast
• Enterprise-scale webinar infrastructure – Zoom Webinars

Here’s how they differ at a high level.

StreamYard On‑Air as the production-first baseline

For most U.S. marketers, creators, and customer teams, a browser-based studio with built‑in webinars is the most practical starting point.

On‑Air is included on StreamYard’s higher‑tier plans and adds registration, emails, and replay controls to the same studio many teams already use for live streaming. (StreamYard) You can also multistream to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitch, X, and custom RTMP at the same time as running a gated webinar, which is uncommon among many purely “webinar” products. (StreamYard)

Where this matters:

• You want one tool to handle your regular live show and your quarterly webinar.
• You care about broadcast-quality layouts and on‑screen branding more than ultra‑granular marketing automation.
• You want the option to simulcast to social while also collecting registrations for a private experience.

Demio when deep marketing automation is the priority

Demio is also browser-based and focuses heavily on marketing workflows. On its pricing page, you’ll see features like live and event series on all plans, with pre‑recorded on‑demand and automated webinars on higher tiers. (Demio) It also emphasizes engagement tools like polls, featured actions (CTAs), handouts, and engagement analytics.

Demio is a good fit if:

• Your webinars are tightly woven into marketing funnels
• You want built‑in funnels and analytics more than social multistreaming
• You prefer to stay inside one tool for registration pages, automations, and reporting

In practice, many teams who care about production flexibility still pair Demio or similar tools with an external studio; with StreamYard, production and delivery live under the same roof.

Crowdcast when you need multi-session events and built‑in ticketing

Crowdcast is another browser-based platform oriented around webinars, workshops, and online conferences. Its pricing shows Lite, Pro, and Business tiers with live attendee caps, monthly hour quotas, and host limits. (Crowdcast)

Crowdcast’s distinctives include:

• Multi-session events at one URL, so attendees register once and navigate between sessions under a single page. (Crowdcast Docs)
• Built‑in ticketing via Stripe, with per‑transaction platform fees that vary by plan. (Crowdcast)
• Hour and attendee quotas, which require monitoring if you run webinars frequently or at larger scale.

StreamYard can absolutely power conference‑style events—especially when you embed multiple On‑Air webinars into a site or event hub—but Crowdcast’s single‑URL multi‑session model is more opinionated. The trade‑off is extra complexity and the need to watch quotas.

Zoom for very large and highly formal events

Zoom positions its webinar product for small businesses and enterprises that already use Zoom, with plans “starting at $79/month” and attendee capacities that can scale up dramatically. (Zoom) Some licenses and single‑use options can reach up to 1 million attendees with up to 1,000 panelists for very large events. (Zoom)

Zoom can make sense when:

• You are hosting internal town halls or investor days and your organization standardizes on Zoom.
• You truly need tens of thousands of attendees or more.
• You have budget and staff to coordinate higher‑end licenses and Event Services.

For typical marketing webinars under ~10,000 attendees, tools like StreamYard will often reach the same business outcome with less upfront configuration and a more approachable studio.

How does StreamYard On‑Air compare to Demio specifically?

This is a common question: both are browser-based, both support registration, and both can run recurring webinars.

Where StreamYard is the easier default

1. Unified production and delivery
With StreamYard, you produce and deliver inside the same studio—no extra encoder or integration needed. On‑Air layers registration, email, on‑demand, and embedding on top of the same workflow. (StreamYard)

2. Multistreaming as a first-class capability
On‑Air allows you to broadcast the same webinar to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, X, and RTMP, at the same time as you serve a gated browser audience. (StreamYard) Demio focuses more on the contained webinar experience; if social reach is part of your strategy, StreamYard keeps it simple.

3. Flexible pricing expectations
Demio’s Starter plan begins at a price point above many entry‑level streaming tools, with attendee room sizes that scale cost as you grow. (Demio) StreamYard offers a free plan where you can run a professional‑looking webinar via YouTube (without email registration) and discounted pricing on its first year of paid tiers, which can be appealing for newer teams.

Where Demio may be the better fit

Demio can be compelling if:

• Your primary need is automated webinars that keep running as evergreen funnel assets.
• You rely on built‑in analytics and marketing reports rather than exporting data to another system.

In that case, it can act as a more all‑in‑one marketing hub, while StreamYard will expect you to plug registration and attendance data into your existing CRM or automation platform.

How do Crowdcast and Zoom fit into the picture?

Think of Crowdcast and Zoom as more specialized options around the edges of most webinar needs.

Crowdcast for ticketed communities and conferences

Crowdcast offers Stripe-powered ticketing and transaction fees (e.g., 5% on Lite tier, 2% on Business), plus multi‑session events under one URL. (Crowdcast) If your priority is selling access to workshops or running multi‑track summits with a strong community feel, this structure can be attractive.

However, hour quotas and live attendee caps mean you’ll need to track usage closely. In contrast, StreamYard On‑Air centers on production quality and registration, and for paid webinars we recommend pairing it with external ticketing tools (like Eventbrite) instead of paying per‑ticket platform fees.

Zoom for extreme scale and internal alignment

Zoom Webinars is tailored to organizations already invested in Zoom meetings. On its small business webinar page, Zoom notes that plans start at $79/month and can “scale to up to 1 million attendees” with advanced licensing. (Zoom)

If your C‑suite already lives in Zoom, it may be the path of least resistance for very formal town halls. But the additional licensing and configuration can be overkill for a monthly lead‑gen webinar where a browser link and clean overlays are all you need.

A practical pattern we see is: Zoom for internal all‑hands, StreamYard for public-facing webinars and shows.

How do pricing and plans compare in practice?

While pricing changes over time, there are some stable patterns that matter when you’re choosing a tool.

StreamYard

From the reader’s perspective, the key ideas are:

• Free plan: You can run a professional webinar via YouTube using unlisted privacy settings. There’s no built‑in email registration, but it’s fully usable for many early-stage use cases.
• Discounted first-year plans: Core and Advanced tiers are discounted in the first year for new users, and On‑Air is included on higher tiers. (StreamYard)
• 7‑day free trial: You can test the paid experience and On‑Air workflow before committing.

Combined with viewer caps up to and beyond 10,000 on higher tiers, this structure is designed to cover everything from small launches to sizeable virtual events. (SoftwareAdvice)

Demio

Demio publishes U.S. pricing with Starter, Growth, and Premium tiers. Starter includes 50 attendees and one host, with higher tiers offering attendee rooms up to 3,000 and features like automated webinars. (Demio) A 14‑day trial gives you Growth features but limits you to 20 attendees and 1‑hour sessions. (Demio)

This model is attractive if you want to pay primarily based on host seats and room size, and you’re comfortable fitting within session limits.

Crowdcast

Crowdcast’s Lite, Pro, and Business tiers include different live attendee caps (100–1000+), hour quotas (10–40 per month), and transaction fees for paid events. (Crowdcast) If you go over included attendees, you pay per‑attendee overages up to around 3,000 concurrent viewers. (Crowdcast Docs)

The advantage is predictable base pricing with flexible overages; the downside is you need to watch your attendee counts and event lengths more carefully than with many streaming‑first tools.

Zoom

Zoom’s webinar pricing is more complex, and not all tiers are listed publicly in one place. Its small-business webinar page mentions plans starting at $79/month, with capacities that scale based on license size and, for some configurations, single‑use tiers up to 1 million attendees. (Zoom)

For routine marketing webinars, this level of complexity usually isn’t necessary; where Zoom stands out is in very large, formal events or regulated environments where Zoom is already the required platform.

How should you think about engagement: built-in vs. dedicated tools?

Most webinar platforms offer some mix of chat, polls, Q&A, and reactions. But if deep interaction is central to your strategy—live voting, quizzes, sentiment tracking—dedicated tools can be more effective.

With StreamYard, the pattern we recommend is:

• Use built‑in live chat (and on‑screen comments) for lightweight interaction.
• Pair your webinar with external engagement tools like Slido or Mentimeter when you want richer polls, Q&A queues, or interactive exercises.

This keeps the webinar production simple while giving you more powerful interaction where it matters, without locking you into a specific webinar platform’s engagement roadmap.

A quick scenario

Imagine you’re a SaaS company running a monthly product webinar:

• You schedule an On‑Air event, enable registration, and embed it on your product marketing page.
• StreamYard automatically sends confirmation, reminder emails, and a replay email afterward.
• During the session, you use chat and on‑screen comments for quick questions, and you drop a Slido link for a richer Q&A and poll section.
• After the webinar, you export registrants as CSV and import them into your CRM, tagging them with the webinar campaign.

You’ve hit all the core requirements—reliable video, branding, recording, interaction, and lead capture—without building a complex event stack.

What we recommend

• Start with StreamYard On‑Air if you want a browser-based, low‑friction way to run branded webinars, with registration, email reminders, and on‑demand replays built into the same studio you use for live streaming.
• Layer in dedicated engagement tools like Slido or Mentimeter when you need deeper polls, Q&A, or interactive exercises, instead of over‑optimizing for built‑in webinar widgets.
• Consider Demio if automated webinars and marketing analytics inside one tool are your top priority and you are comfortable paying primarily by room size.
• Consider Crowdcast or Zoom when you have specific needs such as ticketed multi‑session events (Crowdcast) or extremely large, highly formal webinars (Zoom) that go beyond the scale and simplicity most teams need.