When deciding between a Zoom Meeting and a Zoom Webinar, it's often best to stick with a Zoom Meeting. Auburn University encourages this for several reasons:

Limited Capacity: 

• Zoom Meetings: Default capacity of 300 participants, with an option to increase to 500.
• Zoom Webinars: Limited to 100 participants by default.

Limited Licensing: 

• Auburn University has limited number of Zoom Webinar licenses:
  • 500-capacity licenses: Approximately fifteen available
  • 3,000-capacity license: Only one available.

Feature Comparison:

• Both Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars offer similar features such as registration, branding, polling, and live streaming.
• The main difference lies in attendee participation:
  • Zoom Meetings: Participants can join with audio and video by default.
  • Zoom Webinars: Participants can join with chat by default.
• Note: : Zoom Meetings can be set to allow participation via chat only, similar to Zoom Webinars 

 

Side-by-Side Feature Comparison

Feature	Meeting	Webinar
Participant Roles	Host and Co-host	Panelist, Attendee
Learn more about Roles	Host and Co-host	Webinar Roles
Audio Sharing	All participants can mute/unmute their audio Host can mute/request to unmute participants Host can set all participants to mute upon entry Only Host and panelists can mute/unmute their audio Attendees join in listen-only mode The Host can unmute one or more attendees	Only raise hand
Video Sharing	All Participants	Hosts and Panelists
Screen Sharing	✔	✔
Capacity	300. Up to 500 participants with a large meeting add-on. 1,000 available for individual/departmental purchase.	100 possibly available. 100-10,000 participants available for individual/departmental purchase
Participants List	Visible to all participants	Visible to Host and Panelist
Email Reminders	N/A	If registration is enabled
Chat	In-Meeting Chat	Webinar Chat
Meeting Reactions	✔	N/A
Nonverbal Feedback	Only raise hand	✔
Q&A	N/A	✔
File Transfer	✔	N/A
Whiteboard	✔	✔
Annotation	✔	✔
Polling	Polling for Meetings	Polling for Webinars
Livestream	Facebook, YouTube, Workplace by Facebook, Custom Streaming Service	Facebook, YouTube, Workplace by Facebook, Custom Streaming Service
Registration	Registration for Meetings	Registration for Webinars
Closed Captioning	✔	✔
Recording	✔	✔
Breakout Rooms	✔	N/A
Practice Session	N/A	✔
Waiting Room	✔	N/A
Paypal Integration	N/A	✔
Require Password to Join	✔	✔
International Dial-in Numbers	✔	✔
Closed Captioning	✔	✔

*Note: In a Zoom Webinar, if the host or co-host enables “Allow to talk” for an attendee, the attendee will then be able to enable their microphone and mute and unmute themselves.

 

For Very Large Audiences(VLA):

• Events can be live-streamed to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or a custom service. 

Archiving Zoom Events:

• Recommendation: Record to the cloud for archiving. You will receive a link to the .MP4 file upon completion.
• Move files to another platform within 180 days to avoid deletion from Zoom’s cloud storage.

Be advised that any public-facing/accessible events and archives should have Closed Captioning done to meet accessibility requirements.

Accessibility:

• Public-facing or accessible events must have closed captioning.
• Archived events: $1.25 per minute ($75.00 per hour) through REV, coordinated by the Auburn Office of Accessibility.
• Live events: $85.00 per hour, with a one-hour minimum, through 2020Captioning.

Contact Information for Captioning:

• 2020Captioning
  • General Contact: 2020office@2020captioning.com
  • Chris Hopkins: chris@archivecaptioning.com
  • Anne Hopkins: anne@2020captioning.com 

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Purchasing a Dedicated Zoom License:

• For dedicated Zoom Webinar licenses or increased Zoom Meeting capacity:
  
  • Zoom Meeting Prices:
    • Meeting 500: $600/year
    • Meeting 1,000: $900/year
  • Zoom Webinar Prices:
    • Webinar 100: $400/year
    • Webinar 500: $1,400/year
    • Webinar 1,000: $3,400/year
    • Webinar 3,000: $4,950/year
    • Webinar 5,000: $12,450/year
    • Webinar 10,000: $19,470/year
• Contact AU Software at ausoftware@auburn.edu with an account number for purchases