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