How do you choose between two reputable brands like Goldcast and Bizzabo for your next digital event? What is the best platform for scaling event programs? How do you know which tool will meet your unique needs?
If you're looking for clarity on these questions, never fear! We're here to help event marketers like you navigate these two digital giants.
Finding the best digital event platform for your company is a big deal. There's a lot to consider, especially if you run B2B events and own pipeline and revenue goals. You want a company you can rely on right now that will also grow with you over time.
With that in mind, we've broken down Goldcast and Bizzabo to help you find a perfect fit between the two. Let's go!
Here's a quick breakdown of the features and functionality offered by each platform and how they compare.
Bizzabo | Goldcast | |
Custom registration builder | ||
Auto calendar holds | ||
Chat, Q&A, and polls | ||
Badging | ||
Backstage | ||
Email builder and analytics | ||
Video Q&A | ||
Built-in overlays, lower thirds and tickers | ||
Captioning, subtitles, & translation | ||
1:1 Networking | ||
Publish chat and questions to stage | ||
Slack + Salesforce integration for sales team alerts | ||
On-demand recording access | ||
Advanced CRM and marketing automation integrations |
Bizzabo began in 2011 with an in-person focus. During the pandemic, the company switched to focus on leveling up virtual events and now supports virtual, in-person, and hybrid events.
Bizzabo prides itself on getting people together for meaningful events. They do this through their "Event Experience OS," which allows event organizers to coordinate company-wide events and beyond.
Here are some of the most-loved features of Bizzabo, according to past and current customers.
Robust engagement functionality
Bizzabo wants to make it easy to get people together in meaningful ways, and engagement is part of that. The tool gives you live chat, polls, a dedicated Q&A tab, and live reactions to keep everyone paying attention.
Secure and compliant
If security is a concern for your company, Bizzabo's software may appeal to you. The company states they meet the strictest worldwide compliance requirements.
Flexibility to host pre-recorded or live webinars
Live? Pre-recorded? A mix of both? Bizzabo supports all of the above and gives you the ability to live stream your webinars to other platforms.
Optimized for networking
Bizzabo provides a unique matchmaking engine to help attendees connect in multiple ways. This is perfect for networking events and making 1:1 introductions.
Multiple engagement options (chat, reactions, and polling)
While they’re not industry-leading, Bizzabo does offer table-stakes audience engagement options like live chat, Q&A, and the ability to launch polls.
To identify the most common challenges people have with Bizzabo, we scoured popular review sites like G2, Capterra, and Trustradius.
Hard to manage
The last thing you want when you're starting out is a platform that's hard to learn. Many people felt that Bizzabo was hard to set up—even just for simple events like webinars.
Limited customization
Another common gripe? Bizzabo is fairly limited in terms of customization. Modern brands are looking to give a more consistent brand experience, and Bizzabo falls short here everywhere, from event registration pages to event emails.
Rigid agenda pages
Speaking of limited customization, Bizzabo agenda pages were another common pain point, with marketers wanting to have the option to tweak the look and feel of their agendas to match their own branding.
Hard-to-predict pricing
Bizzabo’s biggest downfall is its pricing model. They currently offer registration-based pricing, which means you might be paying for people who don't even show up for your event. This can also get pretty pricey as you scale events.
To summarize, here's a simplified chart that outlines the top pros and cons of Bizzabo.
A great alternative to Bizzabo is Goldcast, a B2B-marketer-centric platform built to run and scale engaging digital events. To date, leading names like 1Password, Mailchimp, Lattice, Drift, and Salesloft have all chosen Goldcast as a key component of their marketing tech stack.
At Goldcast, our goal is to make it a cinch to set up and run high-quality digital events while providing a seamless experience for attendees and enabling organizers to easily prove event ROI.
The Revenue Driving Event Formula
With Goldcast, your sales team can access actionable analytics and real-time insights through native CRM integrations. We make it easy for you to run pipeline-driving events.
“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”
Jess Bahr
Previously at Movable Ink
“Goldcast was super easy to use compared to other platforms for both our employees as well as our guest speakers”
Davi Schmidt
Demand Generation Director at snaplogic
“Our customers were amazed by our thought leadership series, thanks to Goldcast!”
Amanda Elam
bloomreach
Goldcast is built for B2B marketers who want to create Netflix-like events and drive engagement with their prospects and customers. We take the guesswork out of events so you can focus on what matters most.
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.
Plenty of engagement features like chat, polls, and Q&A in a completely customizable interface—that means you can provide that consistent brand experience we talked about earlier!
Sophisticated video production tools that include overlays, speaker layouts, lower thirds, and tickers for an enhanced attendee experience.
Duplicable templates that can be used to scale events—after all, there's no need to reinvent the wheel.
Accessible to a wide range of audiences — captioning, subtitles, and translation in 14+ languages allows you to grow your audience across the globe.
Actionable insights in the form of post-event analytics seamlessly sync 16+ engagement points into CRMs and MAPs.
Deep, native integrations with popular MarTech tools like HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, and more make it easy to move between platforms.
Accurate follow-ups with Slack + Salesforce integration help you give your sales team valuable info on prospects.
On-demand access to all recordings within 24 hours.
Dedicated customer success team with live customer support for ALL your events—because there's nothing worse than needing help during an event and not being able to get it.
Generous pricing model that allows multiple teams to scale digital events.
Last Updated February 2, 2023
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