8 Best Webinar Breakout Rooms For Dynamic Sessions in 2023

You’ve spent hours preparing the perfect presentation, inviting the right people, and promoting your event. But as the webinar begins, you see attendees fidgeting, checking their phones or zoning out. What’s the missing element?

The answer is an opportunity for attendees to interact and engage with each other. With breakout rooms, you can create interactive sessions that foster collaboration, discussion, and learning. But how do you choose the right webinar platform with the best breakout rooms?

In this article, we'll recommend the best webinar platforms with breakout rooms hand-picked by our team based on features like number of breakout room sessions supported, customization, and reliability.

What to look for in webinar breakout rooms

Before we take a look at the key considerations, let's take a quick look at what is a webinar and how it relates to breakout rooms. A webinar is a live, web-based event hosted through video conferencing tools.

And breakout rooms are a feature of webinar platforms that give you space for spontaneous brainstorming, networking, and collaboration within a webinar. But not all webinar platforms offer the same features. In our experience, the best webinar platforms have these breakout room features:

1. Multiple assigning methods
2. Unlimited breakout sessions
3. Ability to create rooms before the event
4. Full engagement and feature functionality
5. Freedom for attendees to switch rooms

1. Multiple assigning methods

You’re in the midst of your presentation and it’s time for a group activity like networking, brainstorming, or idea generation. This means dividing everyone into smaller breakout rooms. But as you’re manually assigning each person to a group, the silence grows awkward and your attendees are staring at each other. Platforms like Livestorm and LiveWebinars give you the ability to automatically assign participants, or even let them choose their own groups. This way, you make the whole process more efficient, interactive, and enjoyable for everyone involved.

2. Unlimited breakout sessions

Let's say you expected only 100 people to attend your webinar, but instead, 2000 people show up. You wouldn't want to refuse them entry, nor would you want everyone to be cramped up in one group. Webinar platforms like Webex limit you to only 100 breakout sessions, while Zoom limits you to only 50. But with a platform like Livestorm, you can create as many breakout rooms as you want and accommodate attendees without worrying about excluding people from your webinar.

3. Ability to create rooms before the event

Technical glitches, lag, and delays are a risk during webinars. Instead of losing precious minutes trying to create breakout rooms on the go, look for a platform that lets you set up rooms before the event. That way, you can focus on delivering your content without worrying about creating breakout rooms in the middle of your presentation.

4. Full engagement feature functionality

Just because participants are in breakout rooms, it doesn’t mean they should be left to their own devices. Look for a platform that gives your attendees an interactive experience even while in breakout rooms. For example, Livestorm's built-in engagement tools, like live polls, chats, emoji reactions, and screen sharing give participants structure and interactivity even when they leave the main webinar room.

5. Freedom for attendees to switch rooms

Let’s say you’re running a speed networking event where each breakout room has a different conversation prompt. The freedom to switch rooms means your attendees can meet new people, participate in brainstorming sessions, share ideas, and gain new perspectives. While Livestorm is the only platform that gives you this flexibility you can also set timers for each room with platforms like Zoom and Google Meet.

8 Best platforms for webinar breakout rooms

Not all breakout rooms have the same level of customization. But once you've identified what kind of features you need, you can find the best platform from our list below:

1. Livestorm: Best all-in-one video conferencing platform
2. Zoom: Best enterprise solution
3. Webex: Best for hybrid and remote teams
4. LiveWebinars: Best for customized branding
5. Google Meet: Best for Google Workspace users
6. Microsoft Team: Best for Microsoft 365 users
7. GoTo Webinar: Best for presentation-driven webinars
8. Adobe Connect: Best for custom layout

1. Livestorm: Best all-in-one video conferencing platform

Livestorm is an all-in-one video engagement platform for all your online events — from webinars to town halls. Livestorm can support you through every stage of the process, including promoting a webinar, capturing lead data, nurturing your leads through the funnel, creating on-demand content, or sending follow-up emails. Plus, it supports up to 3000 attendees, so you can host large meetings without worrying about them crashing.

It's webinar best practice to make it easy for participants to join even if they're not tech-savvy. Since Livestorm is browser-based, your attendees can jump into your webinar without any downloads. Plus, it integrates with 1000+ apps that fit into your existing workflow.

Key features

• Unlimited breakout rooms. When hosting a large event, you can create as many breakout rooms as you want on the go depending on the audience size that shows up. You can also create rooms in advance based on the structure of your event.
• Flexibility to assign participants. You can assign participants to breakout rooms manually, automatically, or let them self-select. They can also switch between rooms. This way you can adjust and modify your breakout rooms setup on the fly, address unexpected changes in the agenda, or accommodate participants' preferences.
• Built-in engagement features. Your team can use tools like emoji reactions, screen sharing, live polls, and question upvoting. This way, you gain insights about what your attendees want and can tailor the content and structure of the event to meet their needs.
• Customized breakout room. Name and rename your breakout rooms during the webinar or create rooms before the session. You can also change your virtual background using one of Livestorm’s templates.
• Timer app. When you’re hosting a webinar, you need to stick to the agenda and time allocated. You can use the built-in timer app within the breakout room, so you don’t lose track of time and bring everyone back to the main room.

Any limitations?

Breakout room sessions hosted with Livestorm are not recorded. So it's not possible to revisit the discussions or activities that happened across breakout rooms.

Pricing

Livestorm’s free webinar software hosts up to 30 attendees, so it’s perfect for when you’re just getting started. You can upgrade for up to 500 attendees at $88 or request a custom quote to host up to 3,000 attendees, VIP support, and a dedicated CSM.

2. Zoom: Best enterprise solution

Zoom is a popular video conferencing platform. While there is a browser-based version, the Zoom app is comparatively feature-rich and stable. Like Livestorm, Zoom integrates with 1000+ business tools, so you can view customer data and run analytics while hosting your webinars.

Key features

• Flexibility to assign participants. You and your co-hosts can assign participants to breakout rooms manually or automatically or allow participants to choose their own.
• Customizable settings. You can disable participant video and audio to minimize distractions, set timers so you can stick to the agenda, and enable room notifications so your attendees don’t miss important prompts.
• Collaboration tools. Your participants can interact with Zoom's collaboration tools like screen sharing, whiteboards, and file sharing.
• Host control. You can have control over breakout rooms with the ability to join and leave rooms, broadcast messages to all rooms, and close breakout rooms at any time.

Any limitations?

You can only split your Zoom meeting into up to 50 sessions for up to 200 participants. If you want up to 100 breakout rooms for 1000 participants, you'll have to opt for their add-on feature. Another limitation is that breakout room sessions are recorded locally. So you'll need to give permission to your participants to record their sessions.

Pricing

The free plan gives you all the basic features to host up to 100 attendees. But if you want to host up to 100 attendees with 5GB of cloud storage, you can opt for the Pro plan at $149 per year per user or the Business plan at $199 per user per year to host up to 300 attendees.

3. Webex: Best for hybrid and remote teams

Webex by Cisco is known for its scalability and robust features. It's compatible with all Cisco products, so you can connect with people in physical conference rooms over Voice over IP (VOIP) phones. Webex supports 100 breakout room sessions for 1,000 participants, with 10 people in each room.

Key features

• Pre-assign participants. You can pre-assign participants to specific breakout rooms before the webinar begins, ensuring a more organized and efficient experience.
• Automatic or manual assignment. You can assign participants to rooms manually or automatically, depending on the size and preferences of your group.
• Customizable settings. You can set a time limit, enable video or audio, or allow participants to share their screens in breakout rooms.
• Broadcast messages. If you want to send a message to your co-hosts or presenters, you can broadcast it to all breakout rooms. This facilitates efficient communication and coordination among hosts and presenters.

Any limitations?

Webex doesn't have the ability to record breakout room sessions, closed captioning, multi-media sharing, live streaming, polling, and saving chat.

Pricing

The free plan lets you host meetings of up to 40 minutes and 100 attendees. Opt for the Meet plan if you want to host up to 200 attendees at $14.50 per license per month or request a custom quote for up to 1000 attendees.

4. LiveWebinars: Best for customized branding

Like Livestorm, LiveWebinars is also browser-based and enables customizable branding and advanced analytics, and integrates with 1000+ popular marketing and CRM tools like Zapier and MailChimp. It supports a maximum of 1000 participants with active voice and video.

Key features

• Ask the presenter for the help option. If you or your presenters are not in a breakout room session, your attendees can use this button to notify the presenters and get help.
• Recording and sharing. The recording is saved in your local storage, so you can easily access it after the webinar and share it with participants.
• Flexible Assignments. You can manually assign participants to breakout rooms or do it automatically with the 'Randomize' button.

Any limitations?

Breakout rooms are available as part of LiveWebinar's custom package. So you need to select breakout rooms as an add-on feature as a part of your package.

Pricing

The free plan lets you host meetings for up to 45 minutes with 5 attendees. But you can opt for the Pro plan at $17.99 per month for up to 100 attendees or the Business plan at $143 per month for up to 500 attendees.

But if you want more features like language interpretation, participant tracking, ads banner, and up to 1000 attendees, opt for the Business Plus plan at $275 per month or request a custom quote for additional add-ons.

5. Google Meet: Best for Google workspace users

While Google Meet may not offer as many advanced features as other webinar platforms in this list, it provides a reliable and easy-to-use option. It integrates with all the tools like Google Calendar, Slides, Sheets, and Google Docs, which can help streamline the planning and collaboration process.

Key features

• Multiple co-hosts. By default, each meeting room has only one host. But you can assign up to 25 co-hosts to manage the breakout rooms.
• Breakout room timer. When you set a timer, participants get notified 30 seconds before their assigned room is about to close.
• Customizable rooms. You can rename rooms as per your preference and move participants between rooms as needed.

Any limitations?

Google Meet doesn't offer the same reporting and analytics features as other webinar platforms like Livestorm. It also doesn't support breakout room recording, live streaming, or polling features. Plus, you can create only 100 breakout rooms in one session.

Pricing

Google Meet is free for up to 100 invitations and 60 minutes of meetings. But if you want to upgrade your Google Meet plan, you need to purchase the entire Google Workspace solution that starts at $6 per month per user. Plus, all the plans are available for a 14-day trial, so you can test before committing.

6. Microsoft Teams: Best for Microsoft 365 users

Microsoft Teams is a great webinar platform for organizations that use Microsoft 365 and its suite of products. It integrates with all the other Microsoft tools like Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint, so you can easily collaborate with remote teams.

Key features

• Appoint breakout room managers. You can manually assign one presenter to each breakout room. They can delete rooms, set time limits, and send announcements.
• Download attendance reports. You can get insights into which participant entered a particular room and when they left.
• Send messages. You can send announcements to all breakout rooms and also participate in any room chat.

Any limitations?

You can only manage and control a breakout room on the desktop version. Plus, you can't create breakout rooms if there are more than 300 people in a meeting.

Pricing

To upgrade your Microsoft Teams solution, you need to purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription starting at $4 per user per month based on the number of participants you want to host.

7. GoTo Webinar: Best for presentation-driven webinars

GoTo Webinar is a product from the GoTo group with a focus on webinars. It has an easy-to-use interface and features like custom registration pages, email reminders, screen sharing, and chat functionality.

Key features

• Assistance option. If your attendees need help in breakout rooms, they can click on the assistance icon and select an option to get help.
• Broadcast messages. You can drop messages to all breakout rooms, but attendees can't chat back with you.
• Preview rooms. You can preview how your attendees will split among rooms before confirming and assigning them.

Any limitations?

While the default number of breakout rooms is two, you can only create up to 50. The platform's breakout rooms also don't support live chat, attendee reports, recording, and password protection.

Pricing

Breakout rooms aren't available in GoTo Webinar's package, so you need to purchase a package for GoToMeeting or GoToTraining. GoTo Meeting pricing ranges between $12 to $16 per organizer per month for 100 to 250 attendees. And GoTo Training pricing ranges between $109 to $314 per organizer per month for 25 to 200 attendees.

8. Adobe Connect: Best for custom room layouts

Adobe Connect is a powerful webinar platform with all the features you need to host, train, and engage your audience. You can customize the layouts of your rooms and also engage your audience with polls, quizzes, and surveys.

Key features

• Create multiple rooms. You can create up to 20 breakout rooms with 200 participants in each.
• Preparing mode. You can create custom room layouts during a webinar in the Preparing mode, so your attendees are not distracted by any changes.
• Manage permissions. You can permit participants to use pods like a whiteboard, file sharing, and audio and video sharing when the breakout room session starts.
• Engagement tools. Run live polls and use chat pods so your audience can leave questions, comments, or feedback.

Any limitations?

The only limitation is that breakout room sessions aren't recorded. So you only see the main room session in the recording.

Pricing

The free plan lets you host up to only 3 participants, but you can opt for the Webinar & Learnings plan dedicated to hosting webinars starting at $130 per month for up to 1000-1500 participants.

Choose the webinar platform for your next breakout session

With breakout rooms, you can create a more interactive and engaging virtual event that encourages collaboration, networking, and idea-sharing among participants. But choosing the right platform can be tricky. Here's what we recommend:

• If you want an all-in-one platform that can support your entire webinar lifecycle, then Livestorm is the best solution.
• If you prefer a platform that fits into your existing suite of tools, then Microsoft Teams and Google Meet are perfect for you.

With Livestorm, you get access to 1000+ widely used business tools, unlimited breakout rooms, and detailed analytics to measure the success of your webinar. So you can optimize your webinar performance without worrying about extra costs, and your attendees leave with valuable insights and connections.

Frequently asked questions about the best webinar breakout rooms

What is a breakout room?

A breakout room is a virtual space within your webinar platform where you can split up large audiences into smaller and more manageable groups for focused conversations, activities, networking, or brainstorming.

What are the benefits of breakout rooms?

The benefits of breakout rooms include:

• Collaboration and interaction between participants
• Personalized learning or discussion environment
• More in-depth exploration of topics
• Opportunities for participants to share ideas, perspectives, and experiences
• Group activities and problem-solving exercises

Can you have breakout rooms in a webinar?

You can have breakout rooms in a webinar with platforms like Livestorm, Zoom, Webex, LiveWebinars, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, GoTo Webinar, and Adobe Connect.

Do you need to host a webinar to set up breakout rooms?

You need to host a webinar in order to use breakout rooms because, typically, breakout rooms are a feature within webinar platforms.

What’s the difference between regular webinars and ones with breakout rooms?

The difference between regular webinars and ones with breakout rooms is that regular webinars are a one-way flow of information from the host to the attendees. Whereas a webinar with breakout rooms provides an interactive experience that allows attendees to split into smaller groups, engage in focused conversations, and have more personal connections.

What software do you need for a webinar breakout room?

The software you need for a webinar breakout room depends on the platform you are using. Most webinar platforms like Livestorm, Zoom, Webex, and Adobe Connect offer breakout rooms as part of their features, so you don’t have to download or install any extra software. But LiveWebinar offers breakout rooms as an add-on, so you may need to purchase them separately.