ON24 Reviews: 4.3/5 — Solid Choice

Professional looking console, quick response to tech support tickets

No local number for Middle East countries, inability to sort live question list, slow to resolve reported glitches

Use On24 to produce digital events that have replaced in-person events due to Covid

The features of ON24 were very customizable.

It seems like we were sold on something that did not deliver. Feedback from the events team is that the webinar connection is unstable and would be constantly interrupted. The Pardot integration was more trouble than a benefit. Reporting did not show all the data, custom fields are not carried over, and campaigns cannot be attached. I had to do a lot of data cleanup work and, in the end, decided to turn off the integration. Support was good, but our customer success team was not attentive at all.

Lots more problems vs. benefits

The customizations around the registration page, email notifications and the actual webinar page look. The ability to export the data to both PDFs and Excel is huge and extremely helpful when measuring value.

Always run into audio issues when computer audio is selected rather than dialing in, which can be really frustrating for those in attendance.

Helping to drive the value of Workfront with hundreds in attendance. ON24 has proven there is a need for additional training resources around reporting, adoption and integrations along with having a LIVE resource available to answer questions.

It has a lot of features which is the only good part about it

I don't normally write reviews but the displeasure of using this software has pushed me over the edge to want to write a review. As mentioned, the best thing about this tool is the amount of features it has and it stops there. The problem is, all these features are not developed well which results in a subpar performance. To give an example, their share screen feature is ONLY available in Live and not simu-lived webinars. Additionally it outputs it into a 360p mess which means audiences can't see much. So yes it is a feature but a mess of a feature. There are also just small annoying UI UX things about the experience of using the tool that just puts me off the platform. If you're considering buying this - DON'T. So many better options in markets. Yes it's the encubment and most likely has the best 'features' (but it's a lie) + has a ton of support but there are plenty of other options out there. Heck even Zoom webinars does a better job in my opinion.

webinars are important in any marketing / sales strategy so yes - on24 'helps' with that

The idea of On24 is great, but we aren't using the live webinar features any longer due to so many technical issues and performance related issues. We had to move to recorded webinars that are emailed out to our customers. So they didn't experience the technical issues live.

On24 has been a terrible experience for myself and my marketing team. We continually have performance issues, screensharing issues, and lately we can't get into the audio portion of the On24 live webcast. The phone numbers continually hang up on you. We have 4 attempts today at recording a live webinar. Issues with each and every one of them.

Customer Release webinars for product releases.

The attendees seem to have a positive experience when viewing webcasts.

Zero customer support and a plethora of issues.

I previously used Big Marker for webinars, but needed a solution that would allow me to organize multiple webcasts over a span of 3 days for my virtual user conference. On24 solved for that, but not without many, many, many speed bumps and issues.

The ability customize the view of your individual webcasts or webinars / event sessions was great.

We used on24 webcast elite for our first ever virtual conference in Sept 2020. At the time of signing our agreement, I was sold on access to a dedicated client success rep and the ability to purchase dedicated support for a nominal fee the day of our event. At the start of our agreement I was introduced to our success rep and met with her one time. We discussed how our event would be hosted and the requirements for tech integrations in order for the data to pull into our Marketing Automation tool. After our initial call, I never heard back from our account rep. This should have been my first red flag. My very hands on team went through reviewing all the online training for building and launching a live webcast. The widget to build your webcast is not intuitive at all, you will be pushed to watch training videos in order to figure out even minor setup questions. The UX is outdated and clunky and there are a ton of weird limitations. For example, you must duplicate your slide at the start of your session and click through them both in order for the recording to start (even though you pushed the start live button already). For our event we were running each session as its own webcast in order to customize what was on the screen. If you have an all day event and need to run multiple sessions throughout the day, this is the only way to ensure you can customize what the viewer sees matches up properly to your speaker and records all registrants and viewers specific for that presentation. This however also requires that people registered for your broader event have to also individually register for each webcast on its own as well. We had so many issues with people registering using their company emails as well, and the only response was to have them sign up with a personal email (makes no sense). A few weeks prior to our event, I reached out to our account rep to try and schedule a call to discuss the support I would like to have for our event. I went through a number of hoops and finally got ahold of our sales person only to find out we no longer had an account manager, they had dropped the ball and the person had been let go and no one had been reassigned to us. Then I was introduced to another sales manager who essentially came in and told me that because we had our sessions setup across two days as individual webcasts (30 min each x 15 webcasts). I would have to pay for buckets of 2-4 hours of support time for each webcast min (even though they were only 30 min) and that the time could not be used between webcasts. So 2-4 hours x 15 webcasts.... It was going to cost me thousands and thousands of dollars to have the support available that was originally discussed at the sign of my contract. To satisfy my frustration the only message conveyed to me was that "companies like IBM use them everyday with no problem and we don't need to worry about support, if they can trust them so should we." The first day of my event rolled around, and the night before I put a contingency in place that in the event we had a webcast error would push everyone over to Zoom. Well thankfully. Half way through the day the entire ON24 platform went completely down. The only response I could get from their team was that they were working on it and they sent me a link to follow to see when it went back up (hopefully that was just as good for IBM). Our entire experience with this company from support to technology was awful. It seems they are starting to adjust and build their support team differently, but too late for us unfortunately. There are a number of other really amazing platforms out there, that are more user friendly and have a team and support cycle in place for their customers. I suggest you look elsewhere when considering a tool.

We were running our first event virtual conference.

The strong branding options, like the background and logo during the event itself.

Very overpriced platform, plus the whole pricing policy is unfair, the client has to pay for the number of viewers not for the capacity, so if the total views is more than my subscription even if they enter the event for seconds I has to pay for these extra. In general it is not a user friendly platform especially when it comes to setting up the event. And it needs high internet speed most of my viewers were complaining about the frequent disconnecting during the event.

I used it in New launches the branding options help me in that Aside from the problems it is good for having a branded event

Really the only two things I like about ON24 is that attendees don't have to install anything on their computer to attend a webinar and that it integrates with Marketo.

IT USES FLASH. IN 2020. That should be enough to steer clear from this before you even start. The interface is a nightmare. - It's highly confusing where to find specific information or features without reading the documentation or taking a training. And let's be honest, if you need to do a training to use a webinar tool... there's something wrong with the tool. - Things in the interface are labeled inconsistently - The default webinar overview doesn't make a clear separation between previous and upcoming webinars - The first thing you want to know when logging in is how many registration you have. This information is hidden behind so many clicks it's ridiculous - Managing the registrants is a completely different section of this tool, baffling - It's slow - Confusing on a lot of levels Audio and video quality is terrible, both streaming pre-recorded videos as well as recorded webinar sessions. Absolutely garbage. FPS and resolution are super low and the recordings contain artefacts and all kinds of other faults. Their encoding algorithm is terrible. The audio codecs are so bad, it's like you're listening to a call from the 1960's. Doesn't matter how expensive your mics are if the tool shreds it to pulp. Documentation is difficult to find and doesn't offer a solution most of the time. No option to store a webinar recording locally. You have to wait hours and hours for the "archvive" (who calls a recording an archive, wtf?) to be available. You can't stream picture in picture, for example to show a webcam while sharing your screen. For some reason there are different windows in the tool for presentations The presenter management tools are confusing and insufficient. The tool to set up the webinar experience for attendees (called Presentation Manager XD for some reason) lacks options and the options there are are terrible to use. There are many more issues, but this should provide a pretty clear picture. To sum it up: this software gives me more headaches than a 2-year old with an attitude.

Engaging a large group of users and customers through live webinars.

You can easily record each slide individually. So if you make a mistake you can just re-record one slide rather than having to start over.

The screen share capability does not work and it is difficult to install. If you pay for a product you should not have to jump through hoops to use its capabilities. Also, you have to dial in to a separate bridge in order to record, you can't just simply use computer audio. On24 is just overall difficult to use and no matter how many times you check the recording, the live presentation always seems to have audio issues. Specifically if you do a screen share, the platform automatically mutes the sound for listeners when it switches from one screen to another creating a lot of confusion and a terrible experience for customers.

None, all it does is botch webinars and waste our time.

Nothing, dont like using at all. Outdated experience.

Everything - outdated software, poor UX and UI, hard to use, poor quality, average service.

Webcasts, live webinars, on demand webinars.

The ability to pre-record the webinars in advance

The price, we ended up moving to another solution for virtually 1/3 the price. Also at the end of the contract, there is an auto renew, with no phone call. We had wanted to increase the numbers (you get a break) and called 10 days after the auto renew and their attorney called our operations manager and threatened legal action. After 4 years and $100k in spend. I tried to reach out to the CEO but the attorney emailed me back... This is usually a sign of a mass exodus, and based on their prices and lack of customer service I can see why. I would avoid using them, or amend the contract, or save your money.

None Anymore

The technology/platform is the same as most other webinar services out there, unfortunately, the webinars are not producing results and the high cost of On24 has been deemed not a good return on our investment. We have also had a headache with dealing with them as a business and organization.

Business model and leadership are TERRIBLE! Major misalignment and communication internally with sales reps, customer success and higher up decision makers. Do not treat you like valued customers but as an account number within the company. On24 has a lack of integrity and business ethics especially around their evergreen auto-renewal terms, which are buried in their language in their contracts. Decided to move on from On24 in August but continued to pay despite not using the platform to finish out the contract. They sneakily auto renewed us and now have some lawyer chasing us around for this next year despite not using the product for over a year now. Never seen a vendor so aggressive with a good paying customer. I would never do business like this and would never want to do business like this with a vendor again.

Webinars have their benefits. Building up contacts, showcasing a product and capturing sales leads. But On24 has really turned our organization off the webinar method for the time being with how negative our experience has been with them. There are many competitors out there and look forward to finding a new organization that treats their customers with respect and uses business integrity.

On-Demand replay of previously recorded webinars

After months of chronic reliability issues with On24's webinar platform, and months of them attempting to fix it, we're left with no option but to switch platforms. The support or service of the company was utterly ineffective and despite repeated system failure, that were extremely costly to use, they not once offered any sort of refund or gesture of goodwill and when asked hid behind the legal fine print of the contract to avoid any thing to make it right. I was stunned.

Lead generating webinars at high frequency.

The technology/platform is great, unfortunately the process to onboard and get a contract signed is not worth the trouble.

Business model and leadership is APPALLING! Major misalignment internally with sales reps and higher up decision makers. I received a written proposal from my rep at ON24 and it was later taken off the table and never honored because an executive decided it wasn't beneficial enough to the company. MIND YOU, I had used ON24 at my previous company, I was coming in as a referral, and the company I was trying to bring ON24 into had a HORRIBLE experience with them previously, but was willing to give it another try with my word and reputation on the line. Now that will never happen. The most disappointing unprofessional experience I've had with a vendor.

The benefit I realized is, because of ON24's success, all the other competitors popping up, ready and willing to poach any ON24 customers/prospects.