Video-conferencing and webinars are quickly becoming a crowded marketplace, with tons of services offering to make the digital life easier for users. Our Livestorm review takes a look at what might set this service apart from the many others.  

Livestorm specializes in giving moderators the tools to create engaging video-conferencing. This is a fantastic solution for companies who need webinars to conduct live training sessions, host a product demo, or onboard new clients. But it’s also a great solution for those of you who manage online courses. 

We’ve all heard the expression “Go big or go home” — Livestorm definitely lets you go big so you keep your participants engaged and part of the action. 

Livestorm is packed full of features and is intended for a variety of different applications. One glance at the website, and you’ll notice some pretty big names of companies who are using this video-conferencing option. 

But Livestorm may be a smart option for smaller businesses and online entrepreneurs too.  Let’s take a closer look to find out how.  

How Does Livestorm Work?

Livestorm is a browser-based platform for video-conferencing. What does this mean for us regular folks? It means anyone who is attending or presenting a webinar only needs a browser to access Livestorm. No one is forced to download anything, not the participant or the moderator.

If you’ve ever been late for an online meeting because you’re waiting for the latest version to download and update, then you know how frustrating this can be.

Livestorm works in several different aspects. You can run a live webinar, on-demand meeting, or pre-recorded session. You can use these for online meetings, virtual events, customer training sessions— even podcast interviews.  It also dubs itself as an end-to-end platform, meaning, everything you need from registration to the event to the post-event analytics is all in one place. 

Features of Livestorm

The number and depth of features offered by Livestorm is what sets it apart from others in the industry. Whether you’re a business owner, online course creator, or podcaster, here are some of the features that stand out the most. 

Multiple use cases: If you need to host a live meeting, a virtual meet-up, host an on-demand option, or if you have pre-recorded or evergreen content, then Livestorm has you covered. You can also create recurring sessions for more scheduling flexibility. 

Paid webinar option: If you decide to charge for someone to attend an event, you have the paid webinar option with Livestorm. You would integrate with Zapier to take the payments so you could easily offer the payment option to participants. 

Interactive meetings: If you choose, you can add questionnaires, surveys, polls, chat with your audience and answer questions in real-time. All of these techniques provide a more engaging experience for your audience members. 

Upgraded user experience: The meetings are hosted in HD for the best viewing experience, assuming your participants have the internet to support it. 

Integrations: Livestorm integrates with over 1,000 other applications. Some of the apps you might recognize and use are Facebook ads, Google Ads, Zapier, Instapage, and YouTube Live. The ability to integrate with so many applications allows you to streamline your workflow. 

Email: In addition to integrating with several email applications, such as Mailchimp, Drip, and ActiveCampaign, Livestorm provides other email tools. You can set email reminders before a meeting or webinar, and send a thank you email as a follow up. There are real-time email analytics too, telling you who has opened and reacted to your emails. 

Marketing: Livestorm lets you add your branding and logo to any of the forms, such as with the registration pages. You can also access a library of images to further promote your brand during a session. 

Shared screens: If you are presenting a PowerPoint or using a YouTube video, you can share your screen and your presentations to make it easier for attendees to follow along. 

Incorporate call to actions (CTA): You can customize CTAs during your meeting or webinar. If you want someone to book an appointment on your calendar, make a purchase, register for another meeting, or whatever your goal is, you can easily direct the attendees towards the CTA. 

Access to a full range of analytics: Whether you want to see the answers to poll questions in real-time or know more about the number of participants, Livestorm gives you detailed analytics. You can see the main source of where your registrants are coming from and how many have watched your replays, to name a few. 

Resource library: If you need a little extra help with tasks like improving your marketing efforts, sales funnels, or designing a more engaging webinar, you have access to the Livestorm library full of information. There are also plenty of help docs in case you need to troubleshoot and don’t want to contact customer support.

Customer service: Speaking of support, live humans are used to answer questions throughout the week, Monday through Friday, during business hours. Plus there’s a live chat option. 

Available in multiple languages: The service is available in English, German, French, Spanish and 19 other languages. If you are interested in a bi-lingual option for your forms, Livestorm can translate the information into French. 

Related: 5 Best Webinar Platforms 

Livestorm Pricing

Livestorm has two main plans with their standard features and access. 

Starter

The starter plan is free and it’s surprisingly packed with a ton of features even though it doesn’t cost anything. 

You have access to all of the features including unlimited events, and unlimited moderators. You can also host up to four live meetings (presumably per month). However, you are limited to only 20 minutes for each webinar and only up to 10 registrants. 

The free plan may be ideal for someone who is only beginning to build their business or use webinars for a small group, such as a business owner who just holds meetings with their employees.  

Premium

The next plan is $99 per month and includes the same features, but you can have up to 12 live meetings per month and webinars can go up to four hours with an unlimited number of registrants. 

You also have the option to purchase an Enterprise plan, which is highly customizable and tailored to businesses who have massive numbers in attendance at webinars.

Pros and Cons

There are quite a few positives to using Livestorm. But there are a few things to consider before signing up too. 

Pros

• Easy to use
• Quick to start
• Browser-based, so no downloading
• Everything you need for a webinar or online meeting, including before and after a presentation
• All features available on the free plan
• Customer support receives positive feedback

Cons

• Reports of system crashing, although this appears to be infrequent
• Complaints about quality of landing pages and other marketing materials
• Some issues noted with using PowerPoint during the presentations

One point to keep in mind if you are deciding if you’re going to use Livestorm is you have the ability to sign up for a free trial — without inputting a credit card. This way you can try the service firsthand and see if you have the experience you are hoping for. 

Who Should Use Livestorm?

If you’re a business owner with more than one employee then Livestorm could be a convenient, easy option to use to communicate with employees. If your business happens to sell a product, you could use this service to create product demonstrations and really show off the nuts and bolts of the item or items. 

If you are an online course creator, then Livestorm could be a great resource for you to conduct on-demand or live meetings with your students. It would be a simple-to-use solution for Q&A periods or further explanations.

If you conduct a ton of interviews, such as for your podcast or blogs, then Livestorm is one solution to make it as easy as possible for you and your guests or interviewees. 

If you’ve been looking for a “one stop shop” to conduct live or pre-recorded meetings, plus keep your analytics and marketing materials in one place, then Livestorm may be the technical answer. 

Now that video-conferencing has become a normal part of life, both for work and outside activities, it makes sense to use a browser-based system. And since Livestorm is packed full of features, it might make your online life a little easier in the process.