Panopto vs Zoom Features Comparison

Panopto and Zoom allow you to record videos and online meetings, but they each have different strengths. This article includes some points of comparison to help you determine the best tool for your task.

Panopto and Zoom allow you to record videos and online meetings, but they each have different strengths.

Panopto was designed mainly for lecture capture, so it works best for creating videos that easily integrate with an online course.

Zoom was designed for online meetings, so its features emphasize interactivity and engagement during the meeting session itself. Zoom is able to record meetings to the Zoom cloud or to your local computer.

Review the features below to determine which one is best for you.

Feature / Tool

Panopto

Zoom

Join by phone

No

Yes

Interactive discussions

Yes

  • Unlimited participants

  • Viewers can type questions in the Discussion section

  • Webcasting has a slight time delay

  • Does not include the same interactive features as Zoom

Yes

  • Up to 300 participants

  • Unlimited meeting duration

  • Additional interactive features not available in Panopto such as breakout rooms and visual queues

Easy sharing of recordings

Yes

  • Integration allows enrolled students access

  • Email sent after recordings

  • Share video via link

  • Set permissions for access

Yes

  • Email sent after recordings

  • Zoom recordings are automatically stored in Panopto (if you have logged into Panopto)

Playback features

  • Variable speed playback

  • Search within recordings

  • Review previous 10 seconds

  • Add notes

  • Bookmark a place in the recording

  • Automated captioning

  • Variable speed playback

  • Search within recordings

  • Automated captioning

Display control

  • Presenter’s computer screen

  • Presenter’s talking head

  • View both talking head and computer screen simultaneously

  • Presenter’s computer screen

  • Presenter’s talking head

  • View both talking head and computer screen simultaneously

User view

  • Users can view two screens. By default, the main screen (PC) / secondary source (Mac) is larger, but users can choose which source is larger, or display a full screen of one source.

  • Active speaker view (default)

  • Gallery view: all meeting participants visible simultaneously

Chat

Yes

  • Users can post questions and make comments via the viewer window during a LIVE broadcast

  • Viewers can also take public and private notes during the broadcast

  • Questions, comments and notes are stored after the broadcast

Yes

  • Each user can post a question or comment during the meeting to everyone in the meeting or to an individual participant. This chat conversation can be saved to the local computer when the meeting ends.

Breakout rooms

No

Yes

Mobile friendly

Yes
Mobile-Ready Video Platform

Yes
Download the Zoom mobile app

Recording lifespan

  • Panopto videos are kept indefinitely

  • Recordings can be downloaded from the cloud or kept on a local computer

  • Videos are automatically stored in your Panopto account (if you have logged into Panopto)

  • The meeting host can also record to a local computer

  • Recordings can be downloaded from the cloud or kept on a local computer

Students can schedule and start study sessions

No

Yes

 


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