In recent years, increasing demand for actionable insights from event data is driving planners to adopt event planning apps and software at a faster and faster rate.
Hopin is one of the tools that rose to the top of the list, but it is far from the only solution available. In fact, Hopin was recently acquired by RingCentral in an acquisition that has been described as not-so-successful. This news might be important for businesses considering using Hopin and looking for alternatives.
In this article, we’ll look into a range of amazing Hopin alternatives (including Superevent, of course) that could be the perfect fit for your event in 2023.
Let’s dive in!
What is Hopin?
Hopin is a SaaS company whose platform consists of a suite of five different audience engagement tools which form a total event planning and management solution.
They experienced extraordinary growth in their early days, becoming the fastest SaaS company to hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). However, this extraordinary growth appears to be a lot to handle, forcing them to be bought out by RingCentral.
Hopin (now RingCentral) continues to provide its event platform. They heavily focus on virtual events including live-streaming, webinars, video sharing, and other online community building. But they also cater to more traditional hybrid and in-person events planning and management.
Why Event Management Apps Are Popular Today?
As we touched upon in the introduction, the market for event management apps is growing—fast.
There are a number of reasons for this:
Events Are Becoming More Digital
Events are becoming more digital, as more companies embrace software tools to facilitate events management. The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the adoption rate.
Today, more companies are hosting webinars and other forms of virtual and hybrid events. Many on-site events and conferences have adopted live-streaming and recording. Great Hopin alternatives allow event organizers to effectively manage their hybrid events.
Easier Event Management
The latest event management apps significantly reduce the time and workload throughout the entire event management process. You can manage every aspect of your planning from scheduling to communications, and all from your mobile device.
The whole event management team has access to everything they need in one place, which improves collaboration and speeds up the entire process by having all changes executable and visible in real time.
Increased Engagement
We cited earlier the fact that the increased adoption of event management apps is being driven by event planners requiring greater insights into their user base.
This is primarily so they can achieve higher levels of audience engagement, which is a key driver for increasing revenues and profits.
Event planning software enhances the attendee experience at in-person events by making registration and admittance easier, and through interactive tools such as voting, polls, social tools, and gamification.
Combining these apps and platforms with big data solutions allows teams to use location data and other user behaviour data to drive their marketing and event strategies.
Highly Targeted Marketing
The insights gained from these solutions are also highly applicable to improving targeted marketing capabilities.
You can create more bespoke messaging campaigns for individuals, companies, and specific events much more easily than with traditional methods.
Users of event planning solutions can create custom invitations, design their event pages with their own branding, and set up custom registration forms designed specifically to meet the unique buying signals of each recipient.
Criteria to Consider When Choosing Hopin Alternatives
Mobility
Every event planner knows that being tied to your desk is not an option if you want to deliver a seamless event experience. Circumstances change in the blink of an eye, and they often require immediate resolution.
Having a solution that gives you everything you need on your mobile device should be considered a prerequisite for any event planning solution you are considering.
Real-Time Analytics
Adapting and responding to real-time situations enables event managers to resolve any unforeseen problems or issues quickly and seize opportunities that arise unexpectedly, which might present a limited window of opportunity.
You want a tool that gives you real-time insight into every aspect of your event or conference. This includes the live synching of attendee, speaker, and exhibitor data and all on-site and off-venue services you are providing at the event.
Security
Any tool you use must meet certain security standards, particularly at events such as pharma conferences that are subject to strict regulations and compliance standards around data security and physical access controls.
Your event planning tool must be capable of preventing access to events by unregistered third parties and ensure that data is protected to meet GDPR regulations.
Top 6 Alternatives to Hopin
In case you’re in a rush, here’s a quick overview of the tools we’ll be covering:
- Superevent: The best in-person, virtual, and hybrid event planning app for scientific companies and associations.
- Hubilo: The most recognized, and award-winning event management solution.
- PheedLoop: The best solution for automating audience engagement.
- BigMarker: The cheapest all-in-one event solution.
- Accelevents: The best event solution for integrating with existing CMS and major platforms.
Curious about what makes these tools so great? Read on for the details!
1. Superevent
Superevent is an all-in-one event platform to power in-person, virtual, and hybrid events with a particular focus on the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.
It’s incredibly intuitive requiring no technical prowess to realize its full range of benefits, making it perfect for event managers and corporate planning professionals.
Key Features
- Branded Mobile App: have your own, branded app on all the app stores, with fully customized icons and splash screens with the Superevent Mobile Event App.
- Livestreaming: Superevent gives you a robust and reliable live-streaming platform, delivering unmatched quality for your live online events.
- Incredible Versatility: Superevent makes it easy to run any event you want, whether you're planning a trade show, meeting, or global conference. You can select the relevant features for your event, and show or hide them for different (groups of) attendees.
Pricing
Superevent is free to use for up to 50 guests, with prices after that depending on the number of guests in attendance. So, 60 – 100 guests will cost $499, while 1,010 – 1,250+ guests costs $3,999.
Superevent also offers optional add-ons like a multi-event app and data entry, so you can fully customize your plan.
2. Hubilo
Hubilo is recognized as one of the biggest all-in-one event planning and management tools.
It’s won numerous G2 awards in the last couple of years and has recently won a slew of other awards including a Webby, a Timmy, and last year's BizBash Experience award for Best Virtual Event/Meeting platform.
Key Features
Broadcasting Studio: Grants event planners advanced, branded broadcasting capabilities with customized sessions all through one simple, initiative interface.
Advanced Analytics: Monitors attendee behavior and provides valuable insights with customized dashboards to demonstrate true value to your sponsors and key stakeholders.
- Webinar+: Comes with its own landing page builder, email marketing engine, and the ability to embed third-party apps to propel your lead generation activities.
Pricing
Hubilo starts at $650 per month for their Advanced Plan and $1,300 per month for their Pro Plan. Enterprise-level plans are available on request.
3. PheedLoop
PheedLoop is an event management solution that saves time and effort through intelligent automation. They put a lot of emphasis on their support services to ensure your speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors enjoy a value-driven experience.
Key Features
- SalesBoost: Streamline and optimize your registration process.
- Time-Saving Automation: Automatically prompt user registration, track exhibitors' documents for completion, and handle other aspects of communications.
- Gamification: Drive engagement and attendee interactions with 20+ gamified features
Pricing
PheedLoop pricing is offered on a pay-as-you-go model, starting at $1 per module per month.
4. BigMarker
BigMarker is another all-in-one event management solution for virtual, hybrid, and in-person events. They have an impressive list of customers including CNBC, Dell, Motorola, and TED to name just a few.
And if there is one company that knows about hosting in-person and online events, it’s TED—so there’s a ringing endorsement if ever you needed one.
Key Features
- Media Hubs: Get more out of your content by creating powerful video experiences that your users and attendees can use over and over again. Then capture the user data to drive your lead and demand generation.
- Mobile Event Apps: Create a custom-branded event app that guides on-site attendees, empowers at-home attendees to meaningfully participate, and gives you access to actionable analytics.
- Event Badging & Scanning: Benefit from a unified on-site check-in, badge printing, scanning & lead retrieval solution enabling self-service check-in for attendees and additional lead-generation opportunities for exhibitors.
Pricing
Pricing for BigMarker is only available on request.
5. Accelevents
Accelevents provides end-to-end virtual event technology for small groups to large enterprises. Their solutions for online or in-person events are available out of the box or customizable to meet your requirements.
Key Features
- Integrated Live Streaming: Enjoy full control and a wide range of features using the Accelevents Studio or continue to use your preferred streaming tool including RTMP, Zoom, Facebook Live, YouTube, Wistia, and Vimeo.
- Mainstage & Breakouts: Drive unlimited attendees to your tentpole speakers on the main stage, or guide them to the newest “wonderkids” on the breakout stage.
Take Networking to the Next Level: AI-Driven Matchmaking enhances and accelerates in-event networking, ensuring that attendees and exhibitors alike never miss out on potential opportunities.
Pricing
Accelevents offers two types of pricing models.
Pay per event starts at $1,000 per event for the Starter Plan (with limited features) and $5,000 per event on the Professional Plan.
For unlimited events, the two models are the Business Plan at $12,000 per year and the Professional Plan (Enterprise plan) with prices available on request.
Conclusion
If you are looking for the best Hopin alternative, we are confident that at least one of the tools in this article will be more than capable of meeting your needs.
The parameters for identifying the right tool for you will depend on your budget, the type, and size of events you run, and myriad other factors. Overall, though, Superevent comes top of the list due to its broad range of features and ease of use at an attractive price point.
Try Superevent yourself for free today and get to grips with how much easier your event planning could become.
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