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GoToWebinar vs HCL Sametime comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

GoToWebinar
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
24th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HCL Sametime
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of GoToWebinar is 2.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HCL Sametime is 0.3%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

RITA Conroy-Martin - PeerSpot reviewer
Video library is a great tool and it enables good customization; feels a little antiquated and rusty
I like that recordings are available immediately, it's a great feature. I also appreciate being able to use the video library as a tool, and the integration of an API with other systems we have. We were able to build our own customer portal and then integrate into GoToWebinar with a seamless interface. People thought they were on our platform, but they were using GoToWebinar. Those are unique features that seemed to be very easy for our development team to integrate. I like that aspect of it. It also provides good visibility if somebody had seen a webinar that was useful. It's very easy to push them out. Registration is an easy process as is customization on the back end. We very rarely had technical issues running the webinars so it's a pretty robust platform overall.
Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Stable product, communicate very fast and allows to see who's online in the office or work environment
It was used for communication through text messages, primarily Being able to see who was online and communicate very fast was a good feature.  The security was quite good. However, when we tried to implement it for email at a high level, we had to use another solution, FortiMail Gateway. I view…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"This solution is very reliable. It is easy to switch between audio and microphone when using headphones."
"I can extract the activity and the attendance reports, along with every single question that was asked during the webinar, which is a feature that we highly value."
"The interface is browser-based and simple, which is an advantage over other solutions."
"All of their features are good. They are more or less equivalent to the competition. There's less disturbance, less jitter, the voice is always good even at a low bandwidth."
"We were able to build our own customer portal and integrate into GoToWebinar with a seamless interface."
"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."
"The security was quite good."
 

Cons

"The chat window and using polls is easier in Zoom than compared to GoToWebinar. Make it simpler and easier to publish polls on the fly would improve the solution."
"GoToWebinar would be improved with the inclusion of support for video endpoints."
"The platform feels old and a little rusty, more could be invested into the look and feel of it."
"The sharing of cameras is limited to meeting organizers."
"Some of my friends also use GoToWebinar to collect clients for affiliate marketing. In those cases, they found some features were missing with respect to some of the competition. And the worst part is the price."
"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."
"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a monthly subscription and the price is quite expensive if you're not paying annually."
"This is a free solution."
Information not available
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Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with HCL Sametime?
I view it as part of HCL Notes and Domino, and my opinion is similar to those products. It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or oth...
What is your primary use case for HCL Sametime?
It was used for communication through text messages, primarily.
What advice do you have for others considering HCL Sametime?
Overall, it was quite good. I would rate it an eight out of ten. It's a better product than some others from HCL, but overall, I wouldn't recommend it, given the availability of superior alternatives.
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

No data available
Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Avigilon Corporation, Bitdefender, British Library's Business & IP Centre, Business Wire, Clarity, Colt, Conversion Rate Experts, Cornerstone Home Lending Inc., DemandGen, DPR Construction
Connect2Cloud, Superior Group, Daifuku Co. Ltd., Seaward, The City of Fort Worth, Christian Brothers Services, Berlitz, Deutsche Notes User Group, Danske Fysioterapeuter, Slumberland, La Vacanza, Rheinmetall AG
Find out what your peers are saying about GoToWebinar vs. HCL Sametime and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
846,617 professionals have used our research since 2012.