If you’re looking for the best virtual conference platforms to help you create a smoother registration experience and more engaging events for your participants, this article has everything you want to know. To help you decide, here’s a quick look at some of our top picks:
Best Overall
Eventzilla
Best Value
HeySummit
Most User-Friendly
Bizzabo
Best for 3D
vFairs
Best For Virtual Summits/Video
Hopin
These are just some of our recommendations but there are lots of great options below to explore. Read on and see which virtual conference platforms have the most attractive features to meet your needs.
How We Evaluate and Test Online Course Platforms & Related Software
Reviews of platforms and software on the Learning Revolution site are overseen by the site’s founder, Jeff Cobb, an e-learning industry expert with more than 20 years of experience working with online course platforms. All evaluations are conducted by a team of analysts who have extensive experience using, testing, and writing about these types of platforms. We dedicate numerous hours to researching each platform, ensuring each aligns with the needs of online course sellers, and vetting specific areas like core features, usability, pricing, and customer satisfaction. Our reviews are unbiased, and while we will participate in affiliate programs, if available, we do not accept payment for placement in our articles or links to external websites.
Virtual conferences have been around for several years. But they became more mainstream since COVID-19 changed how we worked.
Since March 2020, the number of virtual conference software on the leading review site G2 has increased from 15 to 120+. The user reviews for this product category have grown by 2777%. And Tagoras research indicates that the vast majority of organizations that host place-based events are now offering virtual conferences.
In short, things are happening quickly, and choosing the right solution is becoming harder – but also much more critical for eduprenuers, creators, and other expertise-based businesses that leverage events as part of their business model. In this article, we’ll share our list of the best virtual conference platforms and help you make the right choice.
What Are the Best Virtual Conference Platforms?
Let’s dive straight into our list of the best virtual conference platforms. We’ll evaluate their features, pricing, and pros & cons to see which ones are suitable for your business.
1. Eventzilla
Eventzilla is among the best virtual conference platforms for simplifying the registration and management of your event participants.
It offers a complete participant management system for webinars, virtual conferences, online seminars, online courses, and other large-scale virtual events.
Using Eventzilla, you can create stunning event registration pages without any coding or designing skills. Its drag & drop page builder has enough customization options to help you create tailored event registration pages.
Moreover, you can create multiple ticket types for different kinds of participants. For example, you could offer free passes for guests, paid tickets for regular participants, and for anyone who wants to contribute.
Plus, you can offer various pricing options as well. For instance, you could offer a regular ticket price for a single ticket purchase but provide discounts for group purchases.
To enhance your participant experience, Eventzilla allows you to create customized participant badges for various participant types. Similarly, you can tailor your ticket’s appearance to match your brand.
Eventzilla gives you a platform for managing regular and multi-session events. You could also use it for promoting your online courses, holding live classes, or a promotional event for your digital products by integrating it with your existing video platform like Zoom, GoToWebinar, or Vimeo.
When it comes to payments, Eventzilla supports PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several other globally accepted payment options.
Other notable features include email integration, SEO, speaker profiles, landing pages, coupons, embeddable events, and a lot more.
Overall, Eventzilla helps you deliver a memorable virtual conference registration and onboarding experience and allows you to successfully manage your online events.
EventZilla Pricing and Free Plan
Eventzilla offers a free plan with limited features for free events like small meetups, virtual events, webinars, etc.
For paid events, it offers three different pricing plans.
Basic – $1.50 per registration
Pro – 1.9% + $1.50 per registration
Plus – 2.9% + $1.50 per registration
The Basic plan is ideal for managing small events with limited customizations needs. However, consider the Pro or Plus plans if you have a growing audience and want advanced customization and participant experience features.
This pricing doesn’t include Eventzilla’s service fee and transaction processing fee. But you have the option to pass it on to your participants.
For example, if your ticket price is $55, your participant pays $57.54 if you pass on the processing fees. Alternately, you can absorb the costs as well.
2. vFairs
vFairs is among the most popular virtual conference platforms with advanced virtual and hybrid event hosting features using stunning 3D designs and a highly engaging user interface.
It is designed to host large virtual events while maintaining the engagement of in-person events. It is ideal for hosting tradeshows, expos, conferences, and online learning events.
vFairs provides an advanced 3D environment to your participants that makes them feel they’re in the middle of an actual physical event. It comes with different chat rooms, exhibition halls, and auditoriums.
You can also use it for multiple concurrent events that your audience can join or leave when they want. The participants can also engage with each other through live chat and exchange notes.
For online course sellers and eLearning professionals, vFairs is ideal for holding large virtual summits that establish them as a niche authority.
You could run live or recorded sessions on different topics, invite participants by creating customized landing pages, and grow your audience by integrating vFairs with your email service.
You can also use polls, quizzes, and other gamification features in vFairs to keep your audience engaged with your event all the time.
For collecting payments, vFairs integrates with PayPal and Stripe, using which you can enable full payments or installments via credit cards.
Overall, vFairs is a world-class virtual events solution for large organizations and eLearning professionals looking to hold high-ticket events in their niches.
vFairs Pricing and Free Plan
vFairs doesn’t reveal its pricing on its website. Plus, it doesn’t offer any standards subscription plans. Instead, it provides an all-in-one solution that you can customize according to your business needs by contacting their sales team.
You could also arrange a free product demo by contacting their support email.
3. HeySummit
HeySummit is another modern virtual events platform designed to help you host and manage webinars, online conferences, and large-scale virtual events.
It takes the heavy lifting out of online event management by providing you robust tools for landing pages, registration & ticketing, content management, and tons of other features.
Its landing page builder comes with drag & drop blocks to help you structure precisely the type of landing page you want for your event.
HeySummit allows you to host recorded and live events by integrating with your existing video streaming solution. If your event has multiple speakers and presenters, you can incorporate a different tool for each presenter’s talk. For example, you could use Zoom for one talk and Remo or Vimeo Live for others.
Additionally, you can offer event recordings once your event is complete and make more money from your content.
HeySummit also provides you a powerful speaker management system. You can register your event speakers and give them access to the dedicated speaker section where they can add their detailed intro and details on their talk.
Plus, you get access to its private community of speakers and event organizers, where you can grow your network and build profitable connections.
Other notable features include in-depth analytics, affiliate management, coupons, multiple pricing tiers, email templates for event invites and reminders.
Overall, HeySummit covers all the bases in virtual event management is definitely among the best platforms for virtual conferences.
Pricing And Free Plan
HeySummit comes with a 14-day free trial during which you can take its features for a drive and see if it’s the right for your business.
Here are its three premium plans.
Starter – $41.65/month
Growth – $84.15/month
Success – $296.65/month
All premium plans offer unlimited events. If you’re just starting with a small audience, the Starter plan covers most of your needs. However, the Growth and Success plans are worth exploring for advanced users with bigger audiences and more customizable needs.
Read a detailed review of HeySummit here.
4. Hopin
Hopin is an all-in-one event management solution that allows you to host virtual and hybrid events for up to 100,000 participants.
It allows you to create immersive virtual venue experiences where your event participants can consume your live/recorded video content, communicate via messaging, and network with each other.
Hopin comes with native StreamYard integration that allows you to produce high-quality live streams for your audience. (StreamYard is owned by Hopin.) You can use features such virtual green screen, up to 10 on-screen participants, video layouts, and various branding features.
Hopin also offers next-level event management capabilities. For example, you can create a dedicated reception page to welcome the participants and provide them all the necessary information about your event and speakers.
You can also hold an unlimited number of concurrent sessions with full moderation and multiple speakers. In addition, you can share your videos and presentations with up to 100,000 viewers at any given time.
Hopin also gives you sufficient event promotion features. For example, it comes with a modern and sleek landing page builder with drag & drop blocks for creating customized landing pages.
Similarly, you can fully customize your registration forms, create registration flows, assign special discounts and coupons, and create embedded forms for your website.
Overall, Hopin is a pretty impressive virtual event management solution for hosting any kind of online event.
Hopin Pricing And Free Trial
Hopin offers two standard plans and one custom.
Free – 1 admin, unlimited events, 100 participants, up to 2 hours long events.
Starter $99/host/month – 1 admin, 1200 participants per year, up to 72 hours long events
You can sign up for Hopin’s free plan to test its features and then upgrade to any of its premium plans, depending on your business needs.
5. Pheedloop
Pheedloop is a robust virtual event management platform that allows you to host and manage online events of all sizes.
Whether you’re hosting a webinar, a virtual summit, or a live coaching session for a mass audience, Pheedloop offers you the necessary features to make it happen without any technical skills.
It comes with native support for video streaming and concurrent speaker session in your event. It also provides our event participants advanced networking features that indicate who’s around them in an event and is available for a chat. Its private messaging and group chat features allow the participants to communicate via secure video calls and initiate group discussions in dedicated spaces.
PheedLoop puts the ability to manage event registrations at your fingertips. Some of its salient features are issuing refunds, adding purchases, editing profiles, re-sending confirmations, adding notes, exporting data, and updating charges.
It also offers a robust speaker management system that allows you to create a centralized resource center for all your speakers. The speakers can join by submitting proposals or through invite links. Once inside, they can complete their profiles and share everything they want about their session.
PheedLoop Pricing and Free Trial
PheedLoop follows a Pay-As-You-Go pricing model, which means you’re only charged for the features you choose.
You won’t find its pricing plans on its website and need to contact sales for the exact quote. But it can be as low as $1/module/user.
6. Whova
If you’re looking for a simple platform to handle all your virtual conference planning, management, and execution, Whova is an excellent option.
It’s an event management suite with various advanced features for hosting and managing online conferences, webinars, and live events.
You can use Whova to create stunning event registration pages, customized forms, and email invites. It also has a speaker management system that maintains all the speaker information in a central location from where you can coordinate easily. To make things even better, all of your event assets are synced between your website and the Whova mobile app that your participants and speakers can access anywhere.
Whova supports live and recorded video sessions for registered participants. In addition, your speakers can run polls and quizzes during sessions to make their content more engaging.
Other than regular networking features such as one-on-one live chat, Whova offers several other innovative options to help your participants connect with each other.
For example, you can use icebreakers (funny quizzes and games) to encourage participation, use attendee matchmaking to connect with like-minded participants, or find new connections through networking tables (fast-changing video calls.)
Whova Pricing and Free Trial
Whova shares custom quotes only, so you’ll need to approach their sales team for the exact pricing.
7. Viewstub
Viewstub is a popular virtual conference and live streaming platform trusted by brands such as Coca-Cola, The Home Depot, and American Red Cross.
It allows you to host live video streaming and on-demand video events right from your website. You can use it to host concurrent live sessions and jump between presentations and speakers as you want.
Viewstub comes with a complete registration management system using which you can create registration pages, custom tickets, affiliate links, promo codes, and manage payments from a single dashboard.
Plus, you get various monetization options for your event, such as in-person tickets, donations, choose-your-price ticketing, and merchandise and sponsorships.
It also integrates with other applications such as video streaming services and email marketing tools to help you build your audience and follow up with them before and during the event.
However, Viewstub doesn’t have specific features for online course creators and digital product sellers and is more suited to virtual corporate events and general event streaming.
Viewstub Pricing and Free Trial
Viewstub requires you to book an event set up call to learn more about their pricing.
8. Bizzabo
If you want to take your virtual conferences and events to the next level, Bizzabo is an excellent tool to help you.
It’s an advanced virtual and hybrid event management platform with an intuitive user interface and robust video streaming, participant management & registration, and speaker management features.
Bizzabo describes itself as an event success platform and it’s hard to argue with their description. Using Bizzabo, you can easily host any kind of virtual or hybrid event with small, medium, or large audiences. It provides a modern end-to-end virtual event management solution that covers all the bases.
For example, it comes with a feature-rich event website and landing page builder, using which you can create customized and fully branded landing pages for your event.
Similarly, it allows you to create a modern registration experience for your event participants while allowing full customization.
It also allows you to integrate with YouTube Live, Zoom, On24, and numerous other streaming solutions to deliver your live sessions.
Its speaker portal is among its most impressive features. It provides your speakers a modern interface to register for the event, share their profiles for the attendees, and add all the necessary information about their sessions.
Bizzabo offers several advanced marketing, conversion, and audience engagement features to help you attract and convert more attendees to your event.
For example, you can enable retargeting for any visitors who bounced off your event registration page. Similarly, you can integrate your email marketing service with Bizzabo and create stunning follow-up and invitation emails to keep your audience engaged.
Other notable features include event analytics, sponsor matchmaking, multiple payment gateways, one-to-one chat, and networking.
Bizzabo Pricing and Free Trial
Bizzabo has not shared its pricing details on its website, which means you’ll need to reach out for a customized quotation. However, you can request a free product demo from their homepage.
9. Aventri
Aventri is a high-quality virtual event and conference management platform which offers end-to-end solutions for all kinds of online and hybrid events.
When compared to other virtual conference platforms, Aventri offers a significantly wider range of features and tools. This is why it’s fair to call it a complete event management, marketing, conversion platform.
It is also among the most suitable virtual events platforms for online course creators and eLearning professionals because of its diverse features.
For example, it offers a complete video streaming solution to host live and recorded events with concurrent sessions and multiple speakers.
You can also offer session recordings after the event and turn them into a source of recurring passive income. This makes it ideal for hosting virtual summits, online training, and virtual classes.
You also get access to a world-class drag & drop website builder that allows you to create branded and fully customizable websites and landing pages.
You can use these pages to share your event agenda, speaker details, topics, special sessions, Q&A slots, and any other critical event information with your participants.
Plus, it provides you a complete email marketing suite to follow up with your participants, share updates, and keep in touch.
To make your sessions more engaging, you can use Aventri’s quizzes, surveys, and other gamification features. On top of all this, you get detailed insights via analytics to understand your audience behavior and how they’re engaging with your content.
Overall, Aventri is one of the most impressive virtual event management solutions on this list and would be an excellent choice if you go for it.
Aventri Pricing and Free Trial
Like several other platforms on this list, Aventri hasn’t provided any pricing details on its website. If you’re interested in using it, request a free demo on their website and get a custom quote from their sales team.
10. InEvent
InEvent is another excellent option if you’re looking for a complete virtual event management platform for your online course business.
It offers all the core virtual conference management features such as video streaming, recorded sessions, registration management, payment handling, and speaker management.
It also takes care of your email marketing and CRM needs, allowing you to qualify your leads and develop effective follow-up sequences for your audience.
However, it is probably the most expensive solution on this list which is why it’s more suited to established eLearning businesses and corporate training companies.
InEvent Pricing and Free Trial
InEvent offers a 14-day free trial on all four of its premium plans.
V&H Advanced – $11,990 per year
V&H Pro – $9,990 per year
Full – On request
Compared with other solutions on this list, InEvent is expensive because it charges top dollar for even its Basic plan but has limited most of its best features to its most top-tier programs.
11. Brella
Brella is another hugely popular virtual conference platform notable because of its networking and participant matchmaking features.
It allows you to host highly engaging virtual conferences and events irrespective of your audience size.
Brella offers various audience engagement and networking features like break-out rooms, live stream chats, and Q&As that allow your participants to connect with each other and build new connections.
It also comes with an advanced AI-powered matchmaking system that helps people with complementing interests connect through recommendations and invites.
Brella also supports multiple speakers and concurrent sessions where the participant can easily check in and check out.
Overall, it’s an impressive but expensive virtual conference platform that simplifies online event management for large eLearning companies and corporate training businesses.
Brella Pricing and Free Trial
Brella has a slightly different pricing model than the other platform in this article. It charges per event based on the number of participants.
It’s safe to say that Brella is not designed for individual course creators, beginner marketers, or small businesses. However, the companies that can afford it can certainly get a positive ROI using its robust online event management features.
Which Is the Best Virtual Conference Platform For Your Business?
We’ve shared some of the world’s best virtual conference platforms and online event management systems in this article. So, you can choose any of them, and it’ll be a great choice.
However, despite being excellent products, not all the platforms in this article are right for you. This is why we recommend that you closely review the platforms you found interesting in this article, sign up for their free demo, try their features, and see if they fit your business needs.
If you need any more guidance, just leave a comment under this post, and we’ll be happy to get back to you.
Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution
Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.
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