I had the same experience as Fini going into the face to face meetings. More anxiety than online because it's "real" and you are looking people in the eyes. The payoff is so worth it, though.
SMART online meetings were all I had available that were non-12 step back in 2003 and they helped. It was heavily tool-based and some of the worksheets have stuck with me, in my mind. I can still write ABC's and CBA's without actually writing them down or typing them.
Women For Sobriety is the only non-12 Step meeting I've ever attended face to face. Mixed feelings about it. It was good early on, but I found after a while, I didn't get much from it anymore. It seemed to be geared toward newcomers and surface talk. I missed the depth of real group therapy.
AA meetings were good for me in the sense that I got to hear some oldtimer stories. But I had to put up with a lot of nonsense for that. And I had to deal with some PTSD as well, directly related to having gone to AA meetings with my mom as a child.
SR is great but the face to face support I got at IOP and Continuing Care was the best support as far as real interactions with people. I feel that SR is my "maintenance" support.