ON24 is still a serious webinar platform, especially for enterprise teams that run complex digital engagement programs. But it is not the only way to run a B2B webinar program, and it is not always the simplest fit for a marketing team that mainly needs repeatable live webinars, audience signals, CTAs, replay, and follow-up.
The best ON24 alternative depends on what your team is actually trying to operate. Some teams need a broad event suite. Some need a familiar webinar tool. Some need a focused B2B webinar platform that helps them turn live sessions into a repeatable growth workflow.
This guide compares ON24 alternatives through that lens: what each type of platform is best for, where ON24 still makes sense, and when a leaner webinar workflow may be the better choice.
Quick answer: choose by webinar program type
If you are comparing ON24 alternatives, start with the operating model rather than the longest feature checklist.
| Team need | Best-fit direction | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise event-led growth across webinars, virtual events, and large event portfolios | ON24/Cvent or another enterprise event platform | Stronger fit when webinars sit inside a broader event-management motion |
| Recurring B2B webinars with branded watch pages, audience data, CTAs, replay, and follow-up | HeyStream | Stronger fit when the team wants a focused webinar growth workflow without buying a broad event suite |
| Familiar internal and external webinars with low training overhead | Zoom Events/Webinars or GoTo Webinar | Stronger fit when adoption and familiarity matter more than a specialized marketing workflow |
| Broad virtual events, summits, and field-marketing programs | BigMarker, Bizzabo, Webex Events, Cvent | Stronger fit when the program includes larger event formats beyond recurring webinars |
| Review-driven shortlisting | G2 and category review sites | Useful for discovering common competitors, but not a substitute for workflow evaluation |
For most B2B marketing teams, the key question is not "Which tool has the most features?" It is "Which tool fits the way we plan, run, measure, replay, and follow up from webinars every month?"
When ON24 is still the right fit
ON24 is a strong fit when your webinar program is part of a larger enterprise event strategy. That may include global digital experiences, advanced audience engagement, multiple event formats, complex marketing operations, integrations, and the need for enterprise reliability and support.
That positioning became even clearer after Cvent completed its acquisition of ON24 on April 1, 2026. In the Cvent acquisition announcement, Cvent framed ON24 as enterprise-grade webinar and digital engagement capability inside a broader event-management platform.
That matters for buyers. ON24 is not just a simple webinar room. Its own webinar platform page describes live, simulive, and on-demand webinars, engagement tools, analytics, audience reports, integrations, and enterprise support. If your team needs that kind of event-led-growth infrastructure, the ON24 webinar platform may still be a good match.
ON24 is especially worth considering when:
- Webinars sit inside a mature event portfolio with in-person, hybrid, virtual, and digital engagement programs.
- Marketing operations needs detailed audience and campaign-level reporting.
- Your team has implementation resources for a larger platform.
- Procurement expects an enterprise sales process.
- You need services, support, compliance, and event infrastructure around the webinar program.
The point is not that ON24 is wrong. The point is that ON24 is built for a particular kind of buyer. If that buyer is not you, alternatives may fit better.
Why teams look for ON24 alternatives
Teams usually start searching for ON24 alternatives when the platform feels bigger than the job they need done.
For a lean B2B marketing team, a webinar program often has a narrower operating loop:
- Create a branded registration and watch experience.
- Run a live webinar without heavy production overhead.
- Add useful CTAs during the live session and replay.
- Capture audience behavior and engagement context.
- Publish the replay.
- Follow up based on what each person did.
- Use the learning to improve the next webinar.
That workflow does not always require a broad enterprise event suite. It requires a platform that makes the loop easier to run.
Pricing can also be part of the evaluation. ON24's public pricing page uses a request-pricing flow rather than listing self-serve plan prices. If your team needs a clear budget path before a sales conversation, the ON24 pricing page is a useful signal to compare against alternatives with more transparent commercial packaging.
None of this means ON24 is too expensive or too complex for every team. It means buyers should compare the total workflow cost: setup time, team training, production effort, reporting needs, integrations, and the cost of getting useful follow-up into motion.
How to evaluate ON24 alternatives
Use a simple decision checklist before you shortlist tools.
| Criterion | What to ask |
|---|---|
| Webinar experience | Can the team run a polished live session without a heavy production workflow? |
| Brand control | Can registration, reminders, watch pages, replay, and follow-up feel like part of your brand? |
| Audience data | Can you see who registered, attended, watched replay, clicked a CTA, asked a question, or engaged? |
| Conversion moments | Can you add relevant next steps during the live session and replay? |
| Replay workflow | Does the platform make on-demand viewing useful after the live session? |
| Follow-up | Can marketing and sales act on the audience context quickly? |
| Analytics | Can the team learn what worked and improve the next webinar? |
| Buying model | Is pricing, onboarding, and support matched to your team's size and operating rhythm? |
| Event-suite depth | Do you need broad virtual event infrastructure, or mainly recurring webinar execution? |
This checklist keeps the comparison honest. It also prevents a common mistake: choosing a platform because it can do more, even when your team needs a platform that makes the repeatable work easier.
ON24 alternatives shortlist by fit
The right shortlist depends on the kind of webinar program you run. Here is a practical way to think about the market.
| Alternative | Best fit | Strengths | Tradeoffs |
|---|---|---|---|
| HeyStream | B2B teams building recurring webinar growth workflows | Branded live webinars, registration/watch pages, audience records, CTAs, replay, analytics, and follow-up context | Not positioned as a broad enterprise virtual-event suite or ON24 feature-for-feature replacement |
| Livestorm | Teams that want a polished webinar and events workflow | Modern webinar/events experience, strong fit for marketing and customer-facing sessions | May still be broader than a team needs if the main job is focused B2B webinar follow-up |
| Zoom Events/Webinars | Teams prioritizing familiarity and adoption | Widely known, easy for many teams and guests to understand | Can require extra tools or process to build a full marketing growth workflow |
| BigMarker | Teams running webinar and virtual-event marketing programs | Broad event marketing feature set and format flexibility | May be more platform than needed for simple recurring webinars |
| Bizzabo, Cvent, Webex Events | Enterprise event teams | Stronger fit for larger event portfolios, conferences, and complex event operations | Heavier buying and implementation motion for lean webinar teams |
| GoTo Webinar | Established webinar operations | Familiar, proven webinar tooling | May feel less tailored to modern audience-signal and follow-up workflows |
Review sites can help you discover names to evaluate. For example, G2's ON24 alternatives page lists common competitors such as Livestorm, BigMarker, Zoom Events and Webinars, Bizzabo, RingCentral Events, Webex Events and Webinars, and others. Treat that as a starting point, then evaluate the workflow yourself.
Where HeyStream fits
HeyStream is a better ON24 alternative for teams that want the webinar program to be easier to run repeatedly.
That usually means a marketing team cares about the whole live-to-follow-up loop:
- a branded registration and watch experience
- a live broadcast that feels polished without needing a full video-production team
- viewer-level audience intelligence
- live and replay webinar CTAs
- replay and audience activity after the live session
- analytics that help the team learn
- follow-up context that can shape the next message
HeyStream is not trying to be a Cvent-scale event-management suite. That is a feature, not a flaw, when your team is focused on repeatable webinars rather than managing every event format in one enterprise platform.
For teams building the B2B webinar growth engine, the difference is practical. A webinar is not finished when the live session ends. The replay, CTA clicks, questions, attendance, no-shows, and audience records all shape what happens next.
ON24 vs HeyStream: who should choose each?
Choose ON24 or Cvent when your organization needs enterprise event infrastructure and webinar capabilities are part of a larger event-led-growth strategy.
That usually means:
- multiple event formats beyond webinars
- larger event operations or field-marketing programs
- enterprise services, support, and procurement requirements
- complex integration and reporting needs
- internal resources to manage a broader platform
Choose HeyStream when your team wants a focused webinar workflow for B2B growth.
That usually means:
- recurring live webinars or product sessions
- branded watch pages without heavy setup
- useful audience records and engagement context
- CTAs that work during live sessions and replays
- replay follow-up that does not become an afterthought
- a clearer path from webinar activity to marketing and sales action
The fairest comparison is not "Can HeyStream replace every ON24 feature?" It is "Which platform fits the way our webinar team actually works?"
Pricing and buying-model considerations
When comparing webinar platforms, do not look only at subscription price. Look at the full cost of operating the program.
That includes:
- implementation and onboarding time
- how many people need to learn the tool
- how much production support each webinar needs
- whether CTAs, replay, analytics, and follow-up require extra tools
- how quickly the team can launch the next webinar
- whether the platform's buying model fits your budget process
For ON24, pricing is sales-led through a request-pricing flow. For HeyStream, HeyStream pricing is visible by plan, with Launch, Growth, Scale, and Enterprise options.
Transparent pricing does not automatically make one platform better. But it does help smaller or faster-moving teams decide whether a tool belongs on the shortlist before a long sales process.
Decision checklist
Use this checklist before you commit to an ON24 alternative.
| Question | If yes, lean toward |
|---|---|
| Do you need webinars as part of a broad enterprise event platform? | ON24/Cvent, Bizzabo, Webex Events, or another event-suite option |
| Do you mainly run recurring B2B webinars that need CTAs, replay, audience data, and follow-up? | HeyStream |
| Is ease of adoption more important than a specialized marketing workflow? | Zoom Events/Webinars or GoTo Webinar |
| Do you need virtual-event depth beyond webinars? | BigMarker, Bizzabo, Cvent, or Webex Events |
| Is transparent self-serve pricing important before sales evaluation? | HeyStream or another vendor with public plan pricing |
| Are you comparing several webinar tools and need a decision-stage hub? | Compare webinar platforms |
If your team is still early in the evaluation, keep the shortlist small. Compare ON24, one familiar webinar tool, one enterprise event platform, and one focused B2B webinar workflow. That gives you enough contrast without turning the buying process into a research project.
The practical takeaway
ON24 is a strong platform for the right buyer. If your organization needs enterprise-grade webinar and event-led-growth infrastructure, it belongs on the shortlist.
But many B2B webinar teams are not trying to buy a broad event suite. They are trying to run better recurring webinars, understand the audience, create useful next steps, publish replays, and follow up with context.
For those teams, the best ON24 alternative is the one that makes the webinar growth workflow easier to run every month.
