Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most U.S. teams, a cross-platform webinar setup should start with StreamYard On‑Air, which combines a browser-based studio, registration, and social multistreaming in one place. If you need extreme attendee scale, deep simulive automation, or built-in ticketing, alternatives like Zoom, Demio, or Crowdcast can fill those specific gaps.

Summary

• StreamYard On‑Air offers browser-based webinars with registration, automatic recording, on‑demand replays, and multistreaming to major social platforms.[^1]
• Zoom, Demio, and Crowdcast are useful when you need very large events, heavy automation, or built-in monetization, but they add cost and complexity.[^2]
• For most marketing, customer, and community webinars under ~10,000 viewers, StreamYard balances quality, reach, and simplicity.[^3]
• Audience engagement often works best by pairing your webinar platform with dedicated tools like Slido or Mentimeter for polls and Q&A.

What does “cross-platform webinar platform” really mean today?

When people in the U.S. search for a cross‑platform webinar platform, they’re usually after two things:

1. Reach – the ability to go live on multiple platforms at once (YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, X/Twitter, maybe a custom RTMP destination) and still have a traditional webinar experience.
2. Flexibility – a webinar that works in any modern browser, on any device, without downloads or complicated logins.

StreamYard was built around that definition. On paid plans, you can multistream from a single studio to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitch, X/Twitter, plus custom RTMP, while also running a classic browser‑based webinar via On‑Air.[^1] Attendees join from a link in their browser—no installs, no accounts—so it fits cross‑platform in the technical sense as well.[^4]

Alternatives like Zoom, Demio, and Crowdcast all check some of these boxes, but they tend to lean either toward heavy marketing automation, event‑style setups, or enterprise IT workflows.

How does StreamYard On‑Air handle core webinar needs?

When you strip away vendor language, most webinar buyers are looking for the same basics: high‑quality AV, easy access, registration, automatic recording, and a bit of branding and interaction.

Here is how we approach those needs at StreamYard:

• Browser-based attendee experience. Attendees click a link and watch in their browser—no apps to install, and no account required on supported browsers.[^4]
• Registration and lead capture. On‑Air can require registration with customizable fields (name, email, and more), and you can export registrants as CSV to bring into your CRM.[^1]
• Automated emails. The system sends confirmation and reminder emails (including 24‑hour and 1‑hour reminders), plus a post‑event recording email when you enable on‑demand.[^5]
• Embeddable webinar + chat. You can host the webinar on a StreamYard watch page or embed it (with chat) on your own website for a fully branded experience.[^5]
• Audience interaction. There’s live chat around the event window, which you can also pull on‑screen during the show, and a native polling feature is planned. For deep interaction (complex Q&A, word clouds, quizzes), many teams layer tools like Slido or Mentimeter alongside the webinar.
• On‑demand replay and library recording. You can toggle on‑demand replays for attendees while still keeping a private recording in your StreamYard library.[^5]
• Production quality. Behind the scenes, you’re using the same production studio that creators use for professional live shows—layouts, overlays, video clips, screen share, and options like multi‑track/local recording and teleprompter‑style notes.

For teams coming from traditional “slide-and-audio” webinar tools, the main difference is how quickly you can go from idea to polished event without wrestling software installs or local encoding setups.

StreamYard vs Zoom: cross-platform webinar feature comparison

Zoom is the name many leaders know, especially for meetings. But when you compare webinar workflows, the trade‑offs get clearer.

Where Zoom is strong

• Zoom Webinars can scale to very large audiences, with standard capacities up to 100,000 attendees and single‑use U.S. licenses that go as high as 1,000,000.[^6]
• It supports Simulive, so you can run pre‑recorded content “as live” while interacting in chat and Q&A.[^6]
• Engagement tools include Q&A, polls, chat, reactions, and branded registration pages.[^7]

For most marketing and customer webinars under ~10,000 people, though, that scale is more than you need. You’re usually optimizing for reach across channels, speed of setup, and ease of joining—not six‑figure, one‑time event licenses.

Where StreamYard is usually the simpler choice

• Cross‑platform reach by design. You can multistream your webinar to major social channels and custom RTMP destinations directly from the browser studio, while still running a registration‑based On‑Air event.[^1]
• No install attendee experience. Guests and viewers join from a browser, so you avoid the “which app do I need?” friction that sometimes appears with desktop-centric tools.[^4]
• Production-first workflow. At StreamYard, the live show experience—layouts, media, branding—comes first, with webinar features layered on top. That’s helpful if you’re turning a recurring show into a lead-generating webinar series.

If you truly need tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of attendees, Zoom is a practical option. If you just need reliable, branded webinars that can also be live shows on YouTube and LinkedIn, StreamYard is usually easier to live with day to day.

Plan and session-limit comparison: Demio vs Crowdcast vs StreamYard

Demio and Crowdcast are popular browser-based alternatives that lean into classic marketing and event workflows.

Demio

• A Starter plan begins around 50 attendees with pricing in the mid‑two‑figure monthly range, and higher tiers go up to about 3,000 attendees.[^8]
• Growth and Premium tiers add pre‑recorded on‑demand and automated webinars, plus analytics and engagement features like polls, featured actions, and handouts.[^9]
• Official materials highlight a 3‑hour session limit on some lower tiers.[^10]

Crowdcast

• A Lite plan lists pricing around $49/month with 100+ live attendees and 10 hours of events per month, with higher tiers increasing both attendee caps and included hours.[^11]
• There is a free trial with up to 10 registrants per event and 60‑minute sessions.[^11]
• Crowdcast emphasizes multi‑session events under one URL and includes multistreaming limits by plan.[^12]

How StreamYard compares

Instead of metering hours or charging per live attendee overage, StreamYard’s paid plans focus on straightforward viewer caps for On‑Air webinars and generous recording limits.[^3] On paid plans you get unlimited streaming hours and multistreaming, plus On‑Air registration starting from a mid‑tier subscription.[^3] That makes budgeting simpler than juggling per‑attendee overages or having to upgrade just to get enough hours for a launch.

For many small and mid‑sized teams, the choice comes down to priorities:

• If you care most about evergreen, automated webinars with built‑in funnel analytics, Demio’s automation tooling can be appealing.
• If you’re running multi‑session summits with built‑in ticketing and per‑attendee overages, Crowdcast offers a focused tool.
• If you want flexible, live-first webinars that double as cross‑platform shows, StreamYard usually hits the sweet spot on simplicity, price, and reach.

Webinar platforms that embed on your site and handle registration

A big chunk of cross‑platform demand is “We want a webinar that lives on our site, not a generic landing page.” Several tools support that pattern.

• StreamYard On‑Air lets you host on a StreamYard watch page or embed the player and chat on your own site. You can require registration with custom fields, and then export that list into your CRM or email platform.[^1]
• Crowdcast builds a registration/watch page for every event, and you can embed events as well, though the experience is tightly coupled to its own event URL.[^12]
• Demio provides branded registration pages and embedded forms, with analytics tied to those registration flows.[^9]

The difference with StreamYard is that you can treat your own website as the primary venue while still multistreaming out to YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook for extra reach—without setting up a separate RTMP chain.[^1]

How to multistream a webinar to multiple platforms

Multistreaming is where “cross‑platform” becomes very literal: you’re sending the same live webinar to several destinations at once.

With StreamYard, the workflow is straightforward:

1. Create a broadcast in the studio and connect your social destinations (YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitch, X/Twitter, and custom RTMP).[^ 1]
2. Create an On‑Air webinar tied to that broadcast so you have registration, email reminders, and a hosted or embedded watch page.
3. Go live from the studio; your webinar feeds both the On‑Air experience and the connected social platforms simultaneously.[^1]

Alternatives approach this differently:

• Crowdcast lets you multistream to external destinations on higher tiers, but limits the number of external outputs you can send simultaneously.[^12]
• Zoom can stream a webinar to one external RTMP or select platforms at a time, which is useful but not the same as a full social multistream hub.[^7]

For most teams, the StreamYard approach—using one browser studio as the “source of truth” for both webinar attendees and social viewers—is easier to manage than cobbling together multiple encoders or custom RTMP routings.

What we recommend

• Default choice: Use StreamYard On‑Air as your primary cross‑platform webinar platform if you run marketing, customer, or community webinars under ~10,000 viewers.
• When to look elsewhere: Consider Zoom when you truly need tens of thousands of attendees in a single, high‑stakes event, or Demio/Crowdcast if your top priority is automated funnels or built‑in ticketing.
• Engagement stack: Pair your webinar platform with specialized interaction tools (Slido, Mentimeter) when you need advanced polling, Q&A, or quizzes.
• Next step: Start with a StreamYard free plan or trial, run a small internal webinar, and then layer on On‑Air and multistreaming once the workflow feels natural.