BigMarker vs Zoom: Hybrid Events at a Quote or a List Price

The short answer: if your company already runs on Zoom Workplace and needs one hybrid customer event a year, Zoom Events gives you a price without a sales call: a pay-per-attendee pack of 600 slots costs $1,200 to use across 12 months, the annual plan for 500 attendees shows $415.83 a month billed annually, and both come with e-badges, QR check-in and lead scanning (Zoom events pricing). Every Zoom card adds that a Zoom Workplace Pro licence is required, $14.16 a user a month billed annually (Zoom Workplace pricing). BigMarker fits when the programme is wider than the event, with branded registration sites, an on-demand hub and certification courses alongside webinars and venue check-in, and it quotes every one of those on request (BigMarker pricing). Checked on 26 October 2026.

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What decides it, in order:

1. One event, or a year of them. For example, a single hybrid conference for 600 people on Zoom: the pay-per-attendee pack is $1,200, while the annual Events plan at 500 is $415.83 x 12 = $4,989.96, paid up front (Zoom events pricing). Add the host's Workplace Pro seat, $14.16 x 12 = $169.92, unless the host already has one (Zoom Workplace pricing).
2. The webinars you already run. Zoom's FAQ says annual Webinars Plus and Events subscriptions come with a Zoom Webinars licence at the same capacity, and pay-per-attendee packs do not (Zoom events pricing). If monthly webinars sit on the same calendar, the annual plan may replace a licence you pay for today; the pack will not.
3. The number that proves the day worked. Pick it before the venue is booked: sessions attended per registrant, or leads scanned at sponsor tables. Both vendors scan badges into data (Zoom events pricing, BigMarker pricing); only the one you configure for that number will report it cleanly.

Event needs, side by side

Where they part ways

A printed price, or a price after the call

Zoom prints its event prices by size and term on one page (Zoom events pricing). BigMarker prints none: Webcast Basic, Professional and Enterprise, the registration licence, event licences and media hubs all read "Request pricing" (BigMarker pricing). For a team that needs a budget line by Friday, that alone can decide it. For a team building a three-year programme, a negotiated price is not a drawback.

The venue: native app or partner kit

BigMarker runs the floor with its own tools: check-in kiosks, badge printers added to its platform, a scanner app for exhibitors and a companion app with networking (adding a badge printer, exhibitor scanning). Zoom covers the same ground with its Companion app for e-badges, check-in and lead scanning, and hands physical badge printing to Xtag (Zoom events pricing). Ask each who answers the phone when the badge printer jams at 08:30.

Breadth after the event

BigMarker's packages go past the event into video hubs, learning portals with assessments and certificates, and eLearning platforms priced per year (BigMarker pricing). Zoom Events adds up to 15 simultaneous tracks, a virtual expo hall for sponsors and attendee networking, inside the same 30-hour session limit as its webinars (Zoom events pricing).

Prices on 26 October 2026

Zoom, in US dollars, from its events pricing page: Events on annual billing at $124.17 a month for 100 attendees, $415.83 for 500, $790.83 for 1,000 and $2,207.50 for 3,000, each charged as one upfront payment; $149 a month on a monthly subscription for 100; pay-per-attendee packs at $1,200 for 600 slots, $1,850 for 1,000 and $5,250 for 3,000. Each needs Zoom Workplace Pro, $14.16 a user a month billed annually or $16.99 monthly. BigMarker sells event, badging and mobile app licences per event with volume pricing, all on request (BigMarker pricing).

The pack has a catch on its far side. Zoom's FAQ says an extra charge applies per additional attendee once a pack runs out, and the page prints no rate for it (Zoom events pricing). Size the pack on last year's turnout and Zoom prices the overflow after the event; ask for the per-attendee rate in writing before you buy.

One AI step: a session heard in the attendee's language

BigMarker's AI Translation lets presenters speak their own language while each attendee picks another. In the session admin, go to Production, then Languages & Captions, open the Live Closed Captioning tab, switch on captions and AI audio translation, and set the Original Language and the Display Languages on offer; attendees then choose from a Languages button in the room (AI translation guide). The guide adds that it works on webcast webinars only, adds a little to the stream delay, and is a paid add-on. The human check: in the dry run, seat one native speaker per display language on the translated channel for ten minutes, have them list the product names and figures it gets wrong, and put those on the slides as text.

Zoom's answer is people rather than a model: hosts assign panelists as interpreters in 35+ languages, and the FAQ notes that cloud recordings keep only the original audio (Zoom events pricing). If the replay must be multilingual too, record locally or plan captions separately.

Which job each one wins

Choose Zoom if your job is a hybrid conference and a run of webinars inside a company that already standardised on Zoom Workplace, and the budget needs a printed figure before anyone talks to sales.

Choose BigMarker if your job is a programme that runs from the registration site to the badge printer to a certification course, with registrants in several languages, and you are ready to negotiate one contract for all of it.

More on BigMarker in its glossary entry. Zoom against a sales-first webinar tool is in WebinarJam vs Zoom.

FAQ

Does Zoom Events work without a Zoom Workplace licence?

No. Each webinar and event card on the Zoom events pricing page states that Zoom Workplace Pro is required.

Can Zoom print name badges at the venue?

Through a partner. Zoom lists e-badges in its Mobile Companion app and physical badge printing through its Xtag integration (Zoom events pricing).

Does a Zoom pay-per-attendee pack include a webinar licence?

No. The FAQ says pay-per-attendee plans do not come with a standalone Zoom Webinars licence, while annual Webinars Plus and Events subscriptions include one at the same capacity (Zoom events pricing).