AnyMeeting started out with the philosophy of offering their webinar platform for free. It was supported by advertising that ran inside the viewing console.
When they added the ability to collect payments for fee-based webinars, their customers demanded the ability to eliminate the display of ads. Somebody paying to attend a webinar doesn’t also want to see advertising the entire time. So AnyMeeting made that change.
I occasionally check in on AnyMeeting related Twitter messages and I noticed a lot of people asking the company for the option to pay a licensing fee and remove the ads. Although that wasn’t the original business model, AnyMeeting has modified their licensing and introduced ad-free options. Room capacity for 25 people is about $18/month and 200 people is about $70/month. (In a brief aside to the company, can we drop the silly $17.99 and $69.99 pricing? You aren’t a gas station and if I’m willing to pay $17 I am just as willing to pay $18. Stop complicating my accounting.)
The original free version is still available, making this a great way for people to try out the technology without financial risk and then upgrade to a paid license if the advertising annoys them.
The email that announced the new options also said that anybody buying an ad-free monthly plan before the end of the year will be entered into a drawing for an Amazon Kindle Fire, so there’s that too.
