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How a webinar differs from a meeting, which licence you need, four ways to register, roles, practice, streaming, recording and reports.
A webinar in Zoom is a meeting where a few people speak and many watch. Panelists are seen and heard; attendees write in the chat and ask questions, but their cameras and microphones are off. A webinar needs a separate Zoom Webinars licence on top of Workplace Pro: from 500 attendees to 100,000, up to 1,000 panelists, up to 30 hours.
The order of work is the same for any size: licence, registration setup, assignment of roles, practice session, the webinar itself with a moderator, recording and reports. Below, each step in order.
| Zoom Meetings | Zoom Webinars | |
|---|---|---|
| Who speaks | all participants are equal | panelists; attendees only watch |
| Attendees' cameras and microphones | they switch them on themselves | off; only the host can switch them on |
| Capacity | up to 100 on Pro, up to 300 on Business, up to 1,000 with an add-on | from 500 to 100,000 attendees, up to 1,000 panelists |
| Registration | optional | optional, with fields, questions and approval |
| Questions | chat, raised hand | a separate Q&A section, anonymous, with upvoting |
| Polls and quizzes | yes | yes, plus a report on each |
| External streaming | yes | yes |
| Reports | attendance | registrations, attendance, questions, polls, sources |
| What for | a meeting, a lesson, an interview | a lecture, a product presentation, a conference |
A simple rule. If the audience has to speak and share screens, it is a meeting. If the audience is unfamiliar, large or paying, it is a webinar: there the host controls who is seen and heard, and an attendee cannot switch a microphone on by accident. How else the formats differ is on the Zoom Webinars page.
Webinars are not part of Workplace, except on the Enterprise plan. The licence is bought separately, per host, for a year, and requires at least one Workplace Pro licence in the account. Attendees are not counted: their number sets the size of the licence, from 500 to 100,000.
| Licence for 500 attendees, per host per year | Excluding VAT | VAT 22 % | Total with VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom Webinars | 109,960 ₽ | 24,192 ₽ | 134,152 ₽ |
| Zoom Webinars Plus | 383,770 ₽ | 84,430 ₽ | 468,200 ₽ |
| Zoom Events | 548,716 ₽ | 120,718 ₽ | 669,434 ₽ |
Prices at the Central Bank rate on 6 September 2026, recalculated on the payment date.
Webinars is the standard platform: registration, chat, Q&A, polls, branded backgrounds, reports. For most companies it is enough. Webinars Plus adds a "live" style recording, a backstage for speakers, stages and an event page. Events is for conferences with several halls, tickets and an expo; how Events differs from Webinars is covered separately.
A webinar for a thousand attendees once a quarter does not need a yearly licence for every speaker: there is one licence, for the host, and speakers join as panelists. How a purchase works and which documents you receive is on the buying page.
| Role | What they can do | How many |
|---|---|---|
| Host | everything: start, roles, recording, streaming, reports | 1, the licence owner |
| Alternative host | start the webinar instead of the host | assigned in advance |
| Co-host | the same as the host except starting and reports; moderates chat and Q&A | assigned during the webinar |
| Panelist | video, audio, screen sharing, whiteboard, answering questions | up to 1,000 |
| Attendee | watches, writes in chat, asks questions, takes part in polls, raises a hand | per licence |
A co-host is insurance: if the host loses the internet, the webinar continues. At a large webinar the co-host is also the moderator: they read the chat, pick questions and pass them to the panelist. The panelist deals only with the content. An attendee can be promoted to panelist and back at any moment, for example to ask a question by voice.
One link is sent to everyone. Fast, but you do not know who came, and anyone can pass the link on.
The attendee fills in a form; you choose the fields: name, company, position, city, your own questions. Approval can be automatic or manual, after reviewing the application. Suitable for free webinars.
The form is yours, and the link to the webinar goes out after your check or payment. Zoom receives the list through an integration or manually.
Only people with an account on your single sign-on server are admitted. One invitation admits one person. The only reliable way for paid webinars: how it works and why ordinary registration is not enough is covered in the article on controlling attendees.
How to set up registration step by step is in a separate guide.
Every invitation channel can have its own link. In the webinar settings, section "Invitations", add sources: site, mailing, partner, social network. After the webinar the report will show how many registrations each channel brought. That is how you learn which invitations work and which do not, without third-party analytics.
for the host and panelists. A wireless network is the first cause of "freezing" at webinars.
how to sign in, how to start screen sharing, how to answer questions, whom to write to if something goes wrong.
who speaks, when, how long the breaks are. This is a plan for the co-host, not for attendees.
Every webinar has a practice mode: the host and panelists join, check cameras, microphones and slides, rehearse the order of actions. Attendees cannot get into the practice session. It can be held several days in advance and ended; it does not affect the real start. More in the article on the practice session.
The same people, the same devices, from the place they will speak from.
While the audience gathers, switch on music or a holding slide so the first attendees do not land on a black screen.
Good sound matters more than a good picture: an attendee will forgive a weak camera but will not forgive noise. What to check in the sound is in five tips on audio.
The host decides whom attendees can write to: everyone, panelists only, or no one. At a large webinar the chat between attendees is usually closed so it does not turn into a forum.
A separate section where an attendee asks a question, including anonymously, and others vote for it. The panelist answers by voice or in text; the moderator dismisses what is irrelevant. This is the main tool of a webinar; the chat does not replace it.
Prepared in advance, launched at any moment, the result shown to attendees at once. A poll at the start gathers the audience; a poll at the end replaces a survey. How to create a poll is in the polls guide.
An attendee raises a hand, and the host gives them the floor: switches on their microphone or promotes them to panelist for the duration of the question.
A panelist shows slides, a window or a video file with sound. How to start sharing is in the screen sharing guide.
For an international audience there are simultaneous interpretation channels: the interpreter speaks into their channel, and the attendee chooses the language. How to set it up is in the article on simultaneous interpretation. Automatic translated captions are bought separately.
A webinar can be streamed outward at the same time: to YouTube, VK Video or any service that accepts an RTMP stream. Why this is useful:
It is switched on in two settings: allow streaming in your account, and during the webinar choose the platform in the "More" menu. Only the host starts the stream. The delay between the webinar and the broadcast is about 30 seconds; that is normal. Viewers of the stream cannot ask questions in Zoom; for them you need the platform's chat.
A webinar is recorded in the same way as a meeting, locally or to the cloud. Only the panelists and co-hosts are in the recording; attendees are not in the frame. Questions, chat and poll results are saved as separate files. A cloud recording makes a transcript by itself, and a link to it can be shared with a password and an expiry. How recording works, where to find it and how much storage the plan gives is in the article Recording in Zoom.
Send the recording to everyone who registered, not only to those who came. Usually half of those who registered do not turn up, and the recording is a second chance to reach them.
After the webinar five reports are available in your account:
Who registered, when, from which source, what they answered in the form.
Who came, when they joined, when they left, how many minutes they watched.
All questions, who asked, what was answered.
Each attendee's answers to each poll.
Who kept the webinar window active and who minimised it.
Reports are exported to a spreadsheet and passed to a CRM. For a sales team it is a list of warm contacts with answers to the form's questions; for training, a list of those who watched to the end.
We have run hundreds of large webinars and know where they break. If the webinar is important and there is no team that knows how to run one, we do it for you:
We sell webinar licences under contract, in roubles, with closing documents; more on the Zoom Webinars page.
In a meeting all participants are equal. In a webinar panelists speak while attendees watch and write; their cameras and microphones are off.
From 500 to 100,000 attendees depending on the licence, plus no limit on an external stream. Up to 1,000 panelists.
Yes, Zoom Webinars is bought separately, per host, on top of Workplace Pro. On the Enterprise plan webinars for 500 attendees are included.
A licence for 500 attendees is 109,960 ₽ a year excluding VAT at the rate on 6 September 2026. Attendees are free.
Up to 30 hours.
No. An attendee joins by link or after registration; no account is needed.
Admit only authenticated users through a single sign-on server: one invitation, one sign-in. Ordinary registration does not protect against passing the link on.
Yes, the host switches on streaming during the webinar. The delay is about 30 seconds.
We'll give you a remote demo Monday to Friday, 10:00–16:00 Moscow time, answer all your questions and provide trial access so you can explore the system yourself.
Please note: we work with legal entities only.