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Ask HN: WebEx alternatives?

21 points by jsdalton ↗ HN
The company I work for (B2B publisher) currently publishes sponsored webinars using WebEx.

I'm sitting down today to rework some related code -- and it occurs to me that it is 2010, and I can't believe there are no viable competitors to WebEx (at least for larger presentations, e.g. over 100 people).

WebEx continues to be the same bloated, clunky, overpriced, enterprise-y service from 2003. How has no one yet found a way to compete?

If anyone has had positive success with another service for large scale events, I'd be so happy if you could share that here.

If not, hopefully one of you guys will get inspired to take on a dinosaur that, as far as I know, is continuing to rake in the cash.

EDIT: To be clear, I'm specifically curious about webinars as opposed to smaller meetings or presentations. The publisher I work for has produced webinars with over 1,000 participants so the need to scale is paramount. (That said, the need for every participant to be able to participate as in a traditional webinar is actually a bit unnecessary.)

35 comments

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noodle
http://gotomeeting.com
huhtenberg
Does it really scale to 100 participants?
plugplug
Gotomeeting is for smaller, interactive meetings; Gotowebinar claims it handles up to 1000 participants.
jsdalton
We had an extremely poor experience with goto webinar (I wasn't directly involved, I just heard about it second hand). Apparently the presentation was seriously disrupted by technical issues.
brk
Yes, and beyond.

I just did a joint webinar with 100 attendees over my Verizon USB dongle on GTM. Worked great.

akshat
I work for Citrix (the company behind GTM) though in another team, and we use it internally and it works beautifully for very large All Hands Meetings too.

Not shilling my company, but I really like GTM.

ibejoeb
Can't say enough good about it. So much time, energy, and money saved. I would occasionally do a full day's work over GoToMeeting, or, rather, a full night's work when crisis time inevitably hit. Beats hauling ass to the client's office at 2 AM. WebEx consistently let me down.
izak30
I haven't had an event that size, but DimDim seems to be fairly strong, and a 'free' service in most respects.
jason_slack
Check out vsee.com

They are pretty awesome and in my experience better than WebEx and GotoMeeting.

fjabre
I had the same problem when searching for a WebEx alternative a little while back. Didn't really find anything viable.

They all seem kind of Fortune 500ish with complicated pricing matrices and awful looking websites plastered with stock photos of people in suits.

Definitely seems like there's plenty of room for a new entrant to come in and eat their lunch.

jeffepp
http://dimdim.com
forcer
its a bit complicated but it seems it could work well
thorax
Quite clunky, but I've used it a lot-- hard to beat "free".

For pay versions, I have to second GoToMeeting-- it's pretty solid.

cpr
Doesn't Acrobat Connect scale that far? I don't know off-hand.
MichaelGG
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/webconferenc...

According to this, it supports up to 80,000 participants.

Having looked around for a similar product, Adobe Connect Pro seems the smoothest so far. The Flash/Air install is fast and easy. I'm not completely in love with how the window ("pod") management works, but it's not the horrible suck that is WebEx.

Microsoft LiveMeeting is so so (better than WebEx IMO), supports hundreds of users, and is very cheap. But, it requires a big Windows client. Their Java client is lacking basic features, like VoIP.

jaxn
I have had great experience with Acrobat Connect. I have mostly used it for small presentations and even some one on one.

At the time it was free for the level I was using it.

dunhamda
We also have had good luck using Acrobat Connect for screen sharing between 3-8 parties. It was a unstable on Mac a couple years ago, but they seem to have ironed those problems out.
mscantland
We have used Connect Pro with more than 100 attendees.
eli
GotoMeeting is better than WebEx.

Microsoft SharedView isn't terrible for free: http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=94

jbail
I've never used WebEx, but GoToMeeting is horrible. Their app/plugin re-downloads EVERY meeting, certain clients of mine behind firewalls can't use it, etc. They are the perfect example of dinosaur screenshare technology.
biznickman
Check out https://www.readytalk.com/ ... I used it this morning and it was great.
sanderjd
I was hoping someone would mention ReadyTalk - I worked there a few years ago and can attest that they are very focused on user experience and personalized support and training, and have been building a really strong webinar offering. Give them a shot!
mscantland
This is a market that is ripe for innovation. The large incumbents are very expensive and offer an experience that borders on abuse.

My company has about a half-dozen heavy users and we spend more than $300 per month on this junk. A lighter-weight $20/month solution could do very well I think. Here would be my feature list:

* Cross-platform HTML5, not a java plugin or Flash

* Cope with multiple screens and very high screen resolutions for presenters (so viewers on crappy hardware don't suffer)

* Simple interface. Nothing but "share screen" and "invite participant." No chat, surveys, hand raising or other cruft.

You would also want to support corporate pricing as a lot of users are at big cos.

NEPatriot
I agree with you here. But the only problem is... you need the stomach for the enterprise sales cycle. Meaning 6-12 months. Anybody looking to jump in should do lots of homework here and if a willing corporate pre-buyer is there, line them up and let them pay to build the product. Leveraging their connections could also be a benefit. What company feels the most pain from this/would pay for it?
mscantland
I think the very biggest companies (with hundreds/thousands of users) would require a long sales cycle, but I would start by ignoring that market since those companies aren't going to move to this new upstart until it has some history.

So the bulk of this business probably starts with individual accounts and small departments/companies (<50 users). This group is making purchase decisions much like consumers. That group can be sold on the web, and just needs bulk pricing options to feel good about their purchase decision.

fjabre
I work with a small company with 5 employees. We wanted to go with some of the established players like webex or gotomeeting but found the pricing to be prohibitive and overly complex.

I have not done the research but I can say that if we had found a lower priced and simpler alternative then we definitely would have bought into it.

nreece
I don't think HTML5 has direct screen sharing capability yet.
rgrieselhuber
It does far less but for simple screen sharing and confereces, Skype's free service has worked beautifully for small meetings, though I know you're looking for something that supports bigger audiences.
adamilardi
Webex works fine behind firewalls and not. It also lets you use your computer as a MIC and speaker instead of dialing in. It can also handle large volumes of people.I've been in some large meetings myself and haven't seen terrible slowdown. For personal stuff you can use the adobe connect now(http://www.adobe.com/acom/connectnow/). It's free for 3 people and pretty darn good. It's got 3 way webcam. That way you can see when someone is sleeping. Skype will let you screen share with one person.
jenn5500
If you don't need video and is looking for a similar hosted solution like WebEx, I say go with GoToWebinar. They can support larger groups, even up to 1,000.

If performance has been an issue in the past, maybe you should consider self-hosted products. Since its on-premise, you'll have more control over it. A good one is RHUB (http://www.rhubcom.com).