Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most U.S. government agencies running public briefings, town halls, and community meetings, StreamYard’s browser-based webinars are a practical default: simple for residents to join, strong on production quality, and easy to embed on .gov sites. When your requirements center on FedRAMP/JAB authorization and U.S.-only GovCloud hosting, Zoom for Government becomes the specialized option to evaluate alongside your internal IT and security teams. (Zoom for Government)

Summary

• StreamYard offers browser-based webinars with registration, automatic recording, and embeddable players that work well for public engagement and outreach.
• We use cloud hosting and encrypted media transport, while keeping the attendee experience “no downloads, no account” on supported browsers. (StreamYard Security Overview)
• Zoom for Government is designed around FedRAMP and DoD authorizations and runs in U.S.-based GovCloud infrastructure; it is better suited when compliance frameworks mandate those controls. (Zoom for Government)
• Demio and Crowdcast are commercial alternatives mostly optimized for marketing webinars and ticketed events rather than government-specific compliance.

What do government agencies actually need from a webinar platform?

When agencies say “webinar platform,” they are usually aiming for five practical outcomes:

1. Reliable audio and video so staff briefings, council meetings, and public hearings aren’t derailed by tech.
2. Low-friction access for residents and stakeholders—ideally no software installs or account creation.
3. Automatic recording for records retention, transparency, and post-event publishing.
4. Custom branding that aligns with your agency or program identity.
5. Interactive tools (chat, basic Q&A, polls) to gather feedback and questions.

At StreamYard, those are the defaults. Our On‑Air webinars run entirely in the browser for hosts and attendees, with a hosted watch page, automatic recording, and a production studio that lets you control layouts, overlays, and screen shares without specialized hardware. (StreamYard On-Air)

For deeper interaction—like structured Q&A queues, multiple concurrent polls, or complex voting—many agencies layer in tools such as Slido or Mentimeter alongside any webinar platform. Those tools can run in a separate browser tab or embedded on a site and often have free tiers, which keeps your main concern focused on stable video and easy access.

How does StreamYard fit typical U.S. government use cases?

Most government webinar scenarios fall into a few patterns:

• Public briefings and town halls (mayors’ updates, emergency communications)
• Community information sessions (zoning changes, school boundary proposals)
• Public hearings and listening sessions
• Training and stakeholder webinars (vendors, nonprofits, inter-agency partners)

For these, the friction isn’t compliance paperwork—it’s attendance. Residents are more likely to join when they can click a link and watch in their browser, or on familiar platforms like YouTube and Facebook.

On‑Air gives you:

• A browser-based attendee experience with no installs and no account creation, plus a hosted watch page you can link from your .gov website or emails. (StreamYard On-Air)
• Registration and lead capture with customizable fields, so you can collect names, emails, or agency-specific questions and export them as CSV for your own systems.
• Automated confirmation and reminder emails (including a post‑event recording link when on‑demand is enabled), which reduces manual follow-up.
• Embeddable video and chat so you can host the entire experience under your own branding on your public site.
• Live chat around the event window, with the option to feature comments on screen during the broadcast.

Because StreamYard is also a full production studio, the same workflow covers:

• Presenter prep in the studio before going live.
• Branded layouts with agency logos and lower thirds.
• Screen shares of slides, maps, and documents.
• Automatic recording saved to your library for records and later editing.

For many agencies, that combination of reliability, ease, and branding is what actually moves the needle on public engagement.

Does StreamYard offer FedRAMP or U.S.-only GovCloud hosting?

Today, we do not publish any FedRAMP or DoD Impact Level authorization for StreamYard, and we do not market a dedicated U.S.-only GovCloud deployment.

What we do provide:

• Cloud-hosted infrastructure on Google Cloud, a major hyperscale provider, for our data center hosting. (StreamYard Security Overview)
• Encrypted media transport, where incoming and outgoing audio/video streams use DTLS v1.2 during live sessions.
• On StreamYard Business, an enterprise‑focused offering with a 99.9% uptime SLA and features like a Greenroom where up to 25 guests can prepare with hosts before going live. (StreamYard Business)

That security posture works well for many public‑facing government events, especially when they are essentially open broadcasts (town halls, briefings, public information sessions) rather than confidential meetings.

If your agency requires FedRAMP, DoD IL, StateRAMP, or U.S.-only data residency documented in an ATO package, you’ll need to treat StreamYard as a commercial SaaS and validate it through your internal risk and security review.

A common pattern is:

• Use StreamYard for public broadcast and production, especially when you want to simulcast to platforms like YouTube or Facebook.
• Use a FedRAMP‑authorized tool (such as Zoom for Government) for sensitive, non‑public meetings, or where your ATO requires a GovCloud deployment.

When is Zoom for Government the right choice instead?

Zoom maintains a separate Zoom for Government platform, designed specifically for U.S. public sector needs. It operates in AWS GovCloud and states that customer content is stored and encrypted within the continental United States. (Zoom for Government)

From a compliance perspective, two details matter:

• Zoom for Government has been FedRAMP authorized since March 2019, and has continued to expand its authorizations, including Joint Authorization Board (JAB) status. (Zoom for Government JAB Authorization)
• Zoom’s government and public-sector marketing notes that its webinar products can scale up to tens of thousands of attendees, with pages for government stating that agencies can "scale to 50,000 attendees" in some configurations. (Zoom Government Industry Page)

Zoom for Government often makes sense when:

• Your security office mandates a FedRAMP/JAB‑authorized communications product.
• You need U.S.-only data residency as part of your ATO.
• You are running very large, high‑stakes internal or external events where Zoom’s existing foothold in your organization simplifies adoption.

The trade‑off is complexity. Zoom for Government sits within a broader Zoom stack, with additional licensing and configuration, while StreamYard keeps the production and attendee experience in a simpler, browser-first workflow that many communications and engagement teams can run with minimal IT support.

How do Demio and Crowdcast compare for agencies?

Demio and Crowdcast are commercial webinar and event platforms. They can work for some government outreach, but they are primarily tuned for marketing and creator scenarios.

• Demio offers browser-based webinars with tiered plans, where attendee room sizes range from 50 to 3,000 depending on plan and configuration. (Demio Pricing)
• Crowdcast lists Lite/Pro/Business plans starting with 100+ live attendees on the Lite plan, with hour and attendee quotas and optional overage fees for additional live attendees. (Crowdcast Pricing)

Both tools emphasize built-in engagement and monetization, and Crowdcast documents nonprofit/educator discounts with percentage reductions for qualifying organizations. (Crowdcast Subscription Plans)

Compared to those options, StreamYard typically makes more sense for agencies when:

• You want to blend webinar-style registration with simultaneous streaming to social channels.
• Your focus is public information and transparency, not ticketed events.
• You prefer to manage payments or registrations (when needed) via existing government-approved tools like Eventbrite or your own CRM, then import attendees into On‑Air.

What about cost and licensing for typical agency usage?

Budget constraints are real in government, and licensing models can get complicated.

On the commercial side:

• Demio’s Starter tier begins around $63/month for a 50‑attendee room and a single host, with higher tiers increasing attendee limits and host counts. (Demio Pricing)
• Crowdcast’s Lite plan lists $49/month with 100+ live attendees included before overages, along with monthly hour limits. (Crowdcast Pricing)

At StreamYard, there are three practical levers for agencies:

• A free option using our studio to stream to platforms like YouTube with unlisted privacy, which can already look professional for public briefings.
• Paid plans that unlock On‑Air webinars with registration, embeddable players, and higher viewer caps, while keeping the overall cost structure simple.
• A Business offering with an uptime SLA and collaboration features for larger teams that want predictable capacity.

For many agencies, the key savings come not from a marginally lower monthly fee, but from reducing staff time spent troubleshooting software installs, managing complex event configurations, or wrestling with tools that were built first for marketing rather than public service.

How should a U.S. agency decide its webinar stack?

A practical way to decide is to separate compliance drivers from engagement goals.

1. Start with your compliance baseline. If your CIO or CISO requires FedRAMP/JAB‑authorized tools and U.S.-only GovCloud hosting for any video, you should include Zoom for Government in your stack and run it through procurement. (Zoom for Government JAB Authorization)
2. Define what is actually confidential. Public briefings, press conferences, and open town halls are typically not sensitive from a data residency standpoint, even though operational security still matters.
3. Pick the simplest production tool for public-facing work. For many agencies, this is StreamYard: browser-based webinars, strong production tools, automatic recordings, and embeddable players that sit neatly inside your existing .gov site or intranet.
4. Augment interaction where needed. When you need advanced polling or Q&A workflows, pair your webinar platform with a specialized interaction tool rather than overcomplicating the core video stack.

What we recommend

• Use StreamYard as your primary platform for public-facing webinars, town halls, and stakeholder briefings where ease of access, branding, and recording matter most.
• When your agency has formal FedRAMP/JAB or GovCloud requirements, layer in Zoom for Government for sensitive or internal events while keeping StreamYard as your public broadcast studio.
• Consider Demio or Crowdcast only when you have very specific marketing-style needs (ticketed events, community-building formats) that align with their plans and quotas.
• Keep your stack simple: prioritize reliability, browser-based access, and staff time saved over chasing every possible feature across multiple platforms.