Zoom Webinar, Teams Webinar, and Teams Live Event Comparison

 

Platform: 

 

Zoom Webinar 

 

Teams Webinars 

 

Teams Town Halls 

(Formerly Live Events) 

Capacity and Price (‘23-’24) 

  • 500 Participant - $690 per year 

  • 1000 Participant - $3400 per year 

  • 1000 participants – Free, included with your Microsoft 365 license 

 
  • 10,000 participants – Free, included with your Microsoft 365 license 

 

Use Case A single presenter or a panel presenting to a large audience of attendees. Attendees can interact via chat, Q&A, and reactions without camera or microphone.

A single presenter or a panel presenting to an interactive audience of attendees. Attendees can interact via chat, Q&A, and reactions without camera or microphone.

Attendees are visible to all users in the meeting.

Example: Staff Council meetings where attendees will still communicate to all participants in the chat.

A single presenter or a panel presenting to an interactive audience of attendees. Attendees participation is limited to asking questions via Q&A.

Attendee names are not viewable during the town hall, but will be available in reports and Q&A if enabled

Example: Guest lectures where the audience may want to submit questions.

Roles 

  • Host – Schedules, customizes, and starts the webinar, starts/stops recordings, launches polls, moderates users, and ends the webinar 

  • Co-Host – All host abilities except for starting/stopping webinars. 

  • Panelists – The presenters for the webinar who can share video, audio, and content, can view and moderate Q&A 

  • Attendees – Viewers of the webinar who can only interact via chat, answering polls, and submitting questions in Q&A. 

 

  • Organizer – the person who creates the Webinar in Teams, can start recordings 

  • Co-Organizer – Can be assigned to assist in webinar moderation and participant controls, such as unmuting Attendees

  • Presenters - The presenters for the webinar who can share video, audio, and content 

  • AttendeesRegistered* viewers of the webinar who can only interact via chat, answering polls, and submitting questions in Q&A. 

 

*A customizable registration form is required for attendees to complete in order to join Teams Webinars 

  • Organizer – the person who creates the Live Event 

  • Co-Organizer – Can be assigned to assist in Town Hall Q&A moderation 

  • Presenters - The presenters for the webinar who can share video, audio, and content. Presenters can also moderate Q&A. 

  • Attendees – Viewers of the Town Hall who may only interact by submitting questions in Q&A 

*Registration is not required, and cannot be enabled. If your event needs registration, you may opt for a Teams Webinar. 

Who can be a presenter 

  • UT Zoom Users 

  • External presenters 

  • UT M365 Users  

  • External presenters 

  • UT M365 Users

  • External presenters

 

Who can attend 

 

Can be limited to: 

  • UT Zoom users only 

  • Any Zoom accounts 

  • Public guests 

Can be limited to: 

  • Specific UT M365 People and Groups 

  • All UT M365 users - Organization Only

  • Public guests

Can be limited to: 

  • Specific UT M365 People and Groups 

  • All UT M365 users - Organization Only

  • Public guests 

 

Practice Sessions/Pre-live setup 

 

 

Yes, you can open the webinar for presenters (Panelists) prior to the webinar being live for attendees until the Host confirms “Start Webinar” 

 

Yes, Teams Webinars run as Pre-Show for Organizers and Presenters to set up and practice until the Producer confirms “Start Meeting” 

Yes, the Town Hall runs as Pre-Show for Organizers and Presenters to set up and practice until the Producer confirms “Start Meeting” 

Chat 

 

Can be limited to: 

  • Hosts and Panelists Only  

  • Hosts and Panelists including unidirectional chat to attendees 

  • Open chat for all participants 

Open to all participants, but can be disabled or customized to allow chat to continue after the Webinar ends 

Chat is exclusive and Presenters. Text to the attendees can sent using Announcements in Q&A 

Q&A  

Published questions allow for optional upvoting or optional comments to create a response thread. Hosts can also enable anonymous questions.

Q&A can be enabled/disabled. Questions can be made openly viewable to attendees or moderated.

Attendees are always able to emoji react to viewable questions. Comments can be enabled or disabled for attendees to create response threads. Organizers can also enable anonymous questions.

Q&A can be enabled/disabled. Questions can be made openly viewable to attendees or moderated.

Attendees are always able to emoji react to viewable questions. Comments can be enabled or disabled for attendees to create response threads.Organizers can also enable anonymous questions.

 

Recordings 

Recordings may be recorded locally (if allowed by host) or to Cloud Recordings. Cloud recordings will always go to the original Host’s Zoom Cloud Recordings 

 The Zoom Panopto integration can automatically transfer these to the appropriate course folder or the host’s personal Panopto folder.  

Recording is enabled by default but can be disabled.  

Once recorded, the video file will be sent to the Organizer’s personal OneDrive. The video will be available to all participants with a 60-day retention period by default, but these settings can be changed by the organizer in OneDrive. 

The Teams Panopto integration can automatically transfer these to the organizer’s personal Panopto folder. 

Same as Teams Webinar

Teams Town Halls now have improved resolution and quality from Live Events.

 

 

Accessibility  

Options include: 

  • Automated transcription and captions 

  • Assigning users to provide human generated captions 

  • Dedicated sign language interpretation video feeds 

  • Separate audio channels for multi-language interpreters  

 

NOTE: Automated language translation is not available by default for UT Zoom users  

Options include: 

 

 

Options include: 

  • Automated transcription and captions 

  • Assigning users to provide human generated captions (CART) 

 

 

Camera Views

Presenters can now Manage what users see and gallery view + shared screen content is fully customizable by all presenters.

 

Contact ITS Service Desk for Zoom Support