Cvent versus Zoom:
Which Is Best for B2B Marketers?
Choosing the Right Digital Event Platform
If you're planning on hosting digital events, choosing the right platform is key to ensuring their success. However, with hundreds of options available, it can be tough to decide which one is right for you. We feel your pain!
If you’ve narrowed it down to Cvent and Zoom, we’ve broken them down to help you choose the right one for your business. Whether you’re shopping for a simple webinar platform for small events or a robust solution for large enterprises, here’s how both platforms compare.
Cvent versus Zoom
Here’s a quick breakdown of the features and functionality offered by each platform and how they compare.
Cvent
Cvent is a leading meeting and event management platform. Cvent’s key strength is in-person events, and they have a comprehensive list of features to support these, including online event registration, venue selection, supplier procurement, badging, event marketing and management, and attendee engagement.
Their solution for in-person is best-in-class. But for B2B marketers with a digital-first approach, Cvent falls short. Simple things like scaling webinars, building beautiful and intuitive online events, and even onboarding speakers are overly complex.
In-person check-in and badging solution
As an in-person-first platform, Cvent offers state-of-the-art check-in and on-demand printing capabilities. This ensures your attendees get into your event quickly and easily.
Advanced ticketing options for in-person events
Hosting a complex event? No problem. Cvent supports express ticketing and add-on pricing for additional registration items. It also supports secure payment processing and walk-in registrations.
Sleek mobile app with agenda builder
The Cvent Attendee Hub mobile app is powerful for engaging and networking with other attendees, particularly for in-person and hybrid event experiences. The app works seamlessly across iPhone and Android devices.
In-person event analytics
Cvent rounds out its in-person capabilities with analytics. The platform allows you to track session attendance, manage session check-in and capacity, manage continuing education credits, and sync this data to your CRM or MAP.
Event planning support
Outside of just event management software, Cvent offers a complete supplier networking for sourcing event vendors. With customizable RFPs, event planners can search and filter through thousands of venues across the globe to find an event venue that checks all the boxes.
Not built for digital events
While Cvent is ideal for almost any in-person experience, they fall short when it comes to building beautiful online events. They do offer support for virtual, but customers find it clunky and complicated, especially for simple events like webinars.
Steep learning curve
Cvent has a lot of bells and whistles, and it can take a lot of training to really learn the platform. This makes it difficult for new event organizers or speakers to get up to speed quickly
Lack of high-end video production tools
Many users note that Cvent has very limited video production capabilities, like chat publishing, overlays, or tickers. This can lead to an experience that falls flat and feels more like a Zoom call than an event
Issues with event surveys
Post-event surveys are essential for collecting real-time attendee feedback. Many people mentioned the Cvent survey feature is not flexible or easy to use.
The Details: Cvent Pros & Cons
To summarize, here’s a simplified chart that outlines the top pros and cons of Cvent.
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Zoom
Zoom is widely used for internal meetings across the globe and is a popular and reliable video conferencing tool. Zoom also offers a webinar product that can be used for marketing, training, and enablement events. The product is great for meetings, but its functionality and engagement are very limited for pipeline-generating live events.
Widely popular across the globe
Zoom is a platform that a lot of people are already familiar with, so investment in training is minimal. And attendees generally know what to expect from a Zoom session, so they’re already familiar with the experience.
Live streaming to social platforms
Zoom supports live streaming to social media, which can help companies reach a larger, more diverse audience. This is ideal for “broadcast” style events where you want to reach a large audience.
Built-in studio effects and filters
Zoom has recently invested more in its video production tools. They now offer video filters and other studio effects that help at-home speakers elevate their backgrounds and appearance.
Easy survey process
Zoom has also optimized the survey experience, making it hassle-free for organizers to collect real-time event feedback.
Chat, reactions, and polling options for engagement
Zoom offers table stakes engagement features, like live chat, reactions, screen sharing, and polls for organizers and moderators to engage their attendees.
Limited in customization and branding
If you’re looking to host beautifully branded events, Zoom is probably not your best bet. The platform doesn’t offer any way to customize the look and feel of the experience, including all of the registration and reminder emails. Zoom events look and feel like Zoom.
Mandatory app download
In order to participate in events on their mobile device or desktop, attendees need to download the Zoom app. This may be a concern for event accessibility.
Not built for demand generation
Teams that use webinars and events for demand generation encounter a lot of manual work. Zoom lacks deep integrations with popular MarTech tools, so there’s a lot of downloading and formatting spreadsheets to connect the data dots.
No way to embed CTAs
You can’t add CTA buttons on Zoom, which is a huge drawback if lead generation is one of your webinar goals.
Webinars don’t support breakout rooms
Zoom webinar packages do not offer breakout rooms as a feature, which is limiting if you’re hosting an event designed for networking.
The Details: Zoom Pros & Cons
To summarize, here’s a simplified chart outlining Zoom's top pros and cons.
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Goldcast: The Revenue-Driven Event Marketing Platform
The Goldcast platform is built for B2B marketers to run engaging digital events. Many leading B2B brands like 1Password, Mailchimp, Lattice, Drift, Salesloft, and others have chosen Goldcast as a key component of their MarTech stack.
At Goldcast, we aim to make it easy to set up and run high-quality digital events while providing a seamless experience for attendees and enabling organizers to prove event ROI.
Goldcast provides your sales team with robust analytics and real-time insights through a host of native CRM integrations. You’ll have everything you need to run pipeline-driving events that don’t reek of Zoom fatigue.
They use Goldcast to provide a streamlined experience for attendees, drive better engagement, and capture unique post-event insights integrated with CRM and marketing automation tools.
Proven results
Rate
every month
"We moved to Goldcast in 25 days thanks to flexibility and guidance from the Goldcast team. They acted like an extended team till our first event”
Goldcast was super easy to use compared to other platforms for both our employees as well as our guest speakers
Our MQL goals saw an increase of 20% through Goldcast’s video production capabilities. The experience was super engaging and very modern!
Goldcast is built for B2B marketers who want to create Netflix-like events and drive engagement with their prospects and customers
Versatile Flexible for a plethora of B2B use cases, which include community events, webinars, product launches, demos, field events, hybrid events, user conferences, and more
Ability to embed CTAs and resources in an event
Plethora of engagement features like chat, polls, and Q&A in a completely customizable interface
Sophisticated video production tools that include overlays, speaker layouts, lower thirds, and tickers for an enhanced attendee experience
Duplicable Templates to scale your webinars and virtual events across time zones
Accessible to an international audience — captioning, subtitles, and translation in 14+ languages
Actionable insights in the form of post-event analytics. Organizers have access to 16+ engagement points that are synced into CRMs and MAPs.
Deep, native integrations with popular MarTech tools like HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, and more
Accurate follow-ups Slack + Salesforce integration sends notifications to sales teams when prospects engage in the event, which ensures accurate follow-ups
On-demand access to all recordings within 24 hours
Dedicated customer success team with live customer support for ALL your events
Generous pricing model that allows multiple teams to scale digital events
Frequently Asked Questions
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