If you’re considering ON24 for your next virtual event, keep reading.
In this ON24 review, we’ll look at key features, such as the ON24 app and polling, what users like about the platform, and what they don’t.
We want to help make your decision process more manageable.
What is ON24?
ON24 is a cloud-based webinar and virtual event platform aimed at helping organizations engage audiences with data-rich digital experiences.
Event organizers benefit from ON24’s real-time audience engagement analytics, lead scoring, and ability to create playlists from recorded videos.
Managing communication, training, and marketing functionalities while adhering to a people-first mindset is easier with ON24.
The Verdict of our ON24 Review
ON24 is an excellent choice for webinars.
Event organizers can quickly turn live content into on-demand videos. Users can take advantage of ON24’s deep audience analytics and insights through a real-time dashboard.
Add automated closed captioning into the mix, and ON24 is a no-brainer, top-pick webinar solution.
What types of events is On24 for?
ON24 grew up as a webinar solution—and this is how ON24 delivers the biggest punch. It excels in providing both live, interactive webinars and on-demand content hosting.
Businesses looking to track, measure, and understand engagement analytics, including real-time audience behavior insights, align with ON24’s strengths.
If your virtual event needs to extend beyond webinars, look elsewhere.
ON24’s lack of agenda and session support, limited networking, community building, interaction tools, and absence of app or branded app offerings make the platform an unsuitable choice for events other than webinars.
On24 Features Review
ON24 excels at video and video-centric content. They offer live and on-demand videos, the ability to build playlists, engagement tools, analytics, and more.
Analytics tools include an “Engagement Score” that provides event organizers with detailed audience activity information in relation to their video interest. ON24’s configurable page builder has video editing tools and customizable CTAs.
It offers effective lead generation, analytics and reporting, and customizable viewing options for maximum impact.
Key ON24 features include the following:
- Event registration
- Audience engagement tools
- Live content tools
- Webinar and audience analytics
We’ll look into several key ON24 features below in more detail.
Event Registration
ON24 has basic event registration and emailing feature boxes, but does not have agenda or session management features typically found in full-blown virtual event platforms.
Audience Engagement Tools
For webinars, ON24 actually has a nice set of tools to boost audience engagement and get people interacting with your content.
With a variety of engagement tools ranging from live ON24 polls, to moderated Q&As and gamification, ON24 offers engagement tools better than most webinar solutions.
However, like other webinar solutions, ON24 also lacks a place where your audience can post videos and text, like, and comment.
This significantly restricts networking and community building.
Live Content
ON24 has standard live content features that allow you to do the following:
- Broadcast live to your audience
- Share presentations
- Host breakout groups
- Use third party video players
- Have group chats during a webinar
But, ON24 lacks features like whiteboarding, 2-way group discussion, and the ability for your audience to see other attendees profiles — something that can effortlessly take your webinar to the next level.
On-Demand Content
ON24 excels at on-demand content for event organizers.
They make the process of turning live recordings into on-demand content easy and effective. This feature not only makes on-demand more accessible, but it also helps you generate additional content views quicker.
The other great thing with ON24 on-demand is that you can use all of the interactive tools, like ON24 polling and gamification, for enhanced engagement.
The on-demand audience experience, however, is limited. If you want agenda features, places to host sponsor content or virtual concierges, you will need a comprehensive virtual event platform.
Webinar and Audience Analytics
This is one area where ON24 really performs well.
Webinar and audience analytics cover everything from audience behavior to engagement scores for each person in attendance.
ON24 lets event organizers get to know their audience and offer data beyond a quantifiable click. They allow users to dig into the audience mindset and understand the “why” that motivates audience action at both an individual and account level.
ON24’s Engagement Score feature gathers and analyzes deep activity across live, on-demand, and personalized content experiences.
It interprets participation and attentiveness and displays an individual’s engagement, conveying their interest level: the higher the engagement score, the greater engagement from your audience.
Environment
ON24 is primarily a web-based experience, with branding options for both live and on-demand. They support a broad range of languages and automated delivery of closed captioning for live events.
ON24s missing piece is a branded container app option. Without it, your audience is restricted to viewing your content via a web browser.
Integrations
ON24 offers a broad range of integration capabilities with CRM and marketing automation systems. If your chosen software tool isn’t available as one of ON24’s preset integrations, event organizers can use Zapier to connect with reliable results.
Support
ON24 offers excellent global user support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in 34 different languages.
They offer technical support during live events. They have customer success managers in every region of the world, meaning you get local support when you need it regardless of the hour.
Overall Platform Experience
While it does have significant drawbacks, including lack of agenda, limited networking and community building features, and no ON24 app, ON24 is a really solid webinar tool.
Overall, ON24 is an excellent choice if you need a webinar solution with the following:
- Deep audience activity analytics
- A blend of live and on-demand content
- Ease-of-use to convert live recording into on-demand content
- Interactivity tools including polling and gamification
What Other Online Reviews Are Saying About On24
Most users seem to respond favorably to ON24, though many note areas where the webinar provider could improve.
- G2 gives ON24 4.3 out of 5 stars and boasts 741 reviews
- Capterra gives ON24 4.3 out of 5 stars with 209 reviews
- GetApp gives ON24 4.4 out of 5 stars with 208 reviews
What People Like About On24
Nick, a Senior Designer who works in Marketing, had praise for ON24 in his Capterra ON24 review. He said it was the “best and only way to do webinars,” which is high praise from the marketing executive. He went on to point out that he’s been an ON24 customer for more than three years and that he finds the “software intuitive” and easy to use “after a bit of training.”
Vanessa B, a Marketing Communications Manager, took to G2 to post her ON24 review, hailing them as an “excellent platform to connect marketing with sales.” She added that she found the SFDC integration “very useful.”
And Julie B, who works in a small business environment, said ON24 is, “Great for online webinars!” in her ON24 review. And we tend to agree.
What People Dislike About On24
Senior Designer Nick also shared a few ON24 criticisms, stating he’d “like to see more console customization” in the area of menu format and colors. And he touched on ON24’s branding limitations too, adding “being able to upload your branded font would be great too.”
Another small business professional shared our thoughts on ON24 in their G2 ON24 review. While they found that ON24 was “Great for Webinars,” they said it’s “Not Ideal for Virtual Conferences.
On24 Competitors and Alternatives
The ON24 platform has great features for webinars. If you’re organizing a virtual event — and not a webinar — you’ll be better equipped with one of these five ON24 alternatives:
#1 Zoho Meeting (4.5 out of 5)
#2 Adobe Connect (4.1 out of 5)
#3 SpotMe (4.6 out of 5)
#4 GoToWebinar (4.2 out of 5)
#5 Zoom Webinar (4.5 out of 5)
Disclaimer: This review is provided by SpotMe. While we are a marketing event management software vendor, our reviews aim to help buyers make better informed decisions by providing honest feedback about the product being reviewed. SpotMe’s reviews are not used to deliberately promote or disparage any software vendor’ products and to the best of our knowledge the information contained herein is recent, relevant and objective.
