Hosting and organizing events can be one of the most daunting tasks for anyone. That is why an event management software, and the right one at that, can be most helpful. But with so many solutions on the market, the choice can be as hard as it sounds.
We have made sure that this list covers the best event management software that has all the necessary tools required to streamline the event planning process for you.
10 Best Event Management Platforms in 2023
1: vFairs: The Ultimate Event Management Platform
vFairs offers a range of solutions for any virtual event type that includes but is not limited to trade shows, conferences, job fairs, open days, benefits fairs, etc. The virtual event software offers a remarkably impressive range of third-party integrations and accessibility features as well. vFairs has also been consistently ranked among the top virtual event platforms by customer reviews on G2 and Capterra.
You can create, promote, manage, and execute an entire virtual event on this one platform. The platform has exceptional networking capabilities and also offers gamification tools that can make your event more fun. Moreover, the platform also offers effective email marketing tools, in-event and post-event reporting dashboards, and a stellar customer service experience.
Event Registration & Ticketing
vFairs offers easy-to-use event registration and ticketing solutions for all types of events through an event landing page. You can set up a completely customized event landing page with an online registration form, event agenda, and other details. Attendees can fill out the form and pay through payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, Fatora, etc. The online registration form makes it easier for event hosts to manage attendee data as well.
vFairs also offers ticketing solutions, especially designed for paid events. The online registration form can be set up into various tiers differentiated by add-ons, exclusive content accessibility, and ticket price. Some of its most recent platform updates also allow add-ons like exclusive webinars. Online tickets can be generated and sent through email and you don’t have to do anything manually.
Onsite Check-ins with VenueGear
One of the biggest challenges at any large scale event is handling the long queues of attendees at check-in time. Manually taking attendance or handing out entrance passes can be a cumbersome job and might require man-power as well. vFairs offers a seamless event tech stack that can help you manage onsite check-ins for your hybrid or in-person events.
The vFairs VenueGear offers remarkable feature additions like a custom registrations and ticketing landing page. You will also get access to a custom badge-printing app, badge covers, and lanyards with your event branding. VenueGear is an all-in-one event management offering that can take care of event ticketing, attendee check-in management, and also include a mobile app. You can also add on gamification features like a QR scavenger hunt for engagement management at in-person events.
vFairs Mobile App
The vFairs all-in-one mobile app can make event management and resource distribution among attendees and speakers seamless. If you are looking to attract more attendees you can set up your event on the mobile app as well. It can make the event a lot more accessible and easy to navigate for attendees as well.
Event attendees can build their own calendar and get access to all resources like brochures, videos, presentations, etc. on their phones. This will also help you reduce your carbon footprint and create a more sustainable and paperless event. The app is also great for including fun gamification features like the QR Scavenger Hunt and easily sharing contact information with others through QR codes.
vFairs Badge Printing Mobile App
vFairs offers an exclusive app for badge printing for in-person events. The app is free to download and can make check-ins completely contactless and easy to manage. You can design custom badges and lanyards ahead of time. Then at check-in all you need to do is enter the attendee or speaker’s credentials and print out the badge.
vFairs Discover – Event Marketplace
Event marketing and promotions can be easy with the vFairs event marketplace platform called vFairs Discover. You can list your event on the marketplace and promote it through the platform, gather registrations, and collect sponsorships and partners. The vFairs Discover platform can help you market your event to a much larger audience and grow your reach in a hassle-free way.
Listing your event at the marketplace can help you get the attention of event sponsors and exhibitors looking for an event to attend. Events are listed into various categories differentiated by event type, topic, etc. It can be your one go-to place where you and your potential attendees come to look for the events that interest them the most.
Attendee, Speaker & Exhibitor Management
The vFairs platform makes it easy to manage all of the content for your event through useful tools, detailed guides, and hands-on training sessions. The platform facilitates uploading documents directly to booths and event landing pages. You can also help out attendees by uploading all speaker information in the Speaker Hub. It can have attendee bios, their session details, and chat options.
Setting up attendees and exhibitors for the event is easy with training videos, demos, and dedicated support. Easy set-up for booths allows the exhibitors to choose a layout for their booths and upload unlimited downloadable resources. Attendees can log-in online smoothly with log-in support from the vFairs customer service team if any problem arises.
Easy & Customizable Booth Setup
The vFairs platform offers full control over how you want the exhibit hall to look like. You can choose from templates like scrolling and overhead hall view and add multiple halls based on your requirements. Exhibit halls can also have animated logos, graphics of your choice, custom booth designs, and sponsorship areas for generating revenue.
Inside the booths, the platform offers functionality like chat rooms, downloadable document hosting, outbound link tabs, chat queueing, and meeting scheduler. All these features can make managing a booth easy sailing for booth reps even if they have heavy traffic. The customizable booths allow sponsorship opportunities and exhibitors can set up their booths according to their brand image. The booth setup is fairly easy through the booth setup form that is self-explanatory and easy to fill out. Dedicated project managers can also help you run online booth setup training sessions with booth exhibitors.
Event Marketing
Email marketing can be one of the most effective ways to boost event registrations and get more attendees to log in. vFairs, being a complete event management solution, offers a remarkable email builder for running your event marketing campaigns. You can fully customize your emails, use dynamic elements, and grab attendee attention. The email builder is a simple drag and drop tool that is easy to set up.
You can also integrate the platform with CRM and marketing automation tools to help. Planning pre-event hype emails, registration reminders, and post-event check-ins is easy with the vFairs email marketing tool. You can segregate the email lists and only send a specific email to certain attendees e.g., the ones logged in right now. This is a powerful addition that can streamline event marketing and management for you within the same platform.
In-Depth Event Reports
One of the most crucial benefits of hosting any event is getting access to attendee data and behavior patterns. The vFairs platform takes event reports to a whole new level. The analytics dashboards are available for event organizers and exhibitors. These dashboards show real-time data that can be translated into actionable insights by exhibitors and hosts. Attendee information, number of booth visits, number of logged in attendees, number of webinar views, and number of clicks on an in-booth link are only some of the metrics that you can collect.
Post-event reports are also very easy to extract with the vFairs platform. You can download a consolidated PDF report for the entire event and all the metrics will be graphically displayed. Such numbers and tabulations are a great way to gauge the success of your event. You can easily pick out the star performers of your event and pay close attention to what didn’t work as much as you had hoped.
Webinar Content Management
Webinars are the highlights for many virtual events and the vFairs platform offers an immersive, interactive, and visually-appealing webinar experience. The platform supports live, semi-live, and recorded webinars that attendees can play back as many times as they want. The webinar also includes moderated live Q&A, polls, and quizzes through Slido and Kahoot.
The accessibility features like multilingual support, subtitles and closed captioning, transcription, and sign language support can help you make your webinars accessible for all attendees. Moreover, you can restream all webinars to social media channels simultaneously through the vFairs platform as well.
Customized Features for Each Solution
Not all events are the same and vFairs has customized features that fit the needs of yours. For instance, if you are hosting a job fair, you can set up attendee search, auto-match, and job board functionalities. These can help recruiters and prospective candidates attending the event make the best of the collaborative tools that are available. The attendee search can filter out candidates, the job board makes it easier to find suitable roles, and the auto-match filters out most suitable candidates for you.
The vFairs platform also offers a virtual shopping cart that is a great feature to have for virtual trade shows. Multiple exhibitors can set up a virtual shop within their booths, close deals, and process orders within the platform. Virtual conferences can set up a poster hall that is a dedicated space to showcase presentations and scientific research. Paid events can set up tiers within the platform that allow and restrict access for certain user profiles.
2: Hopin
Hopin promises events that enable real connections with humans through creative event spaces and networking tools. Hopin can help you create engaging virtual events with ease and simplicity whether they are small conferences or events with 10,000 attendees. If you want your event to be simple yet dynamic and powerful enough to engage all audiences at scale, then Hopin might be right for you.
Hopin: Key Features
Hopin has some features that can help you manage your event in a more organized way. Here are some of them.
Customized Event Landing Pages
While Hopin does not offer an immersive 3D virtual environment, it does offer a customized and easy to build landing page for your event. You can build and design the landing pages as you like, adding your organization’s branding or other dynamic elements.
The landing pages can be a great way to make a good first impression on your attendees and reflect your logo, background, and colors. You can use them to promote your event, talk about your event’s key highlights, and drive registrations. However, most other event management tools also offer the same and this isn’t a stand-out feature.
Live Streaming Management
Hopin allows you to live stream guest speaker sessions, panel discussions, or webinars to a greater audience without the need of any fancy equipment. This can be a great feature to have for hybrid events. The live streaming sessions through the platform can be executed professionally without any production experience. You can also use the same streams to broadcast pre-recorded videos over multiple channels.
There are tools available to edit the video as it plays. You can add logos, banners, overlays, and a lot more to make it look more professional. The platform also offers a virtual green room that can help you manage guest speakers. Streaming in-person events to various online channels simultaneously is a good feature to have but you might be able to do the same with other event management platforms as well.
Engagement Capabilities
Hopin claims to make your virtual events as engaging and immersive as possible. For that, they have a bunch of networking tools that can help take your event up a notch. Attendees can connect with each other directly through 1:1 meetings or talk to a bigger group through group chats and video calls. The engagement tools empower and enable attendees to personalize their communication channels and make the most of their connections.
However, Hopin lacks more novel engagement tools like matchmaking or spatial connect features that competitors like vFairs have. Moreover, you may be left wanting for more if you’re hosting an in-person event as Hopin doesn’t offer much support.
Fun Integrations
Hopin also allows attendees to connect in fun ways through third-party app integrations. The platform allows you to download well-known apps for photo booths, live quizzes, games, and Q&A sessions. These integrations are easy to incorporate into your virtual event and can level it up.
Pricing
Hopin offers a bunch of different pricing options that you can subscribe to on a monthly or an annual basis. Hopin offers a free plan that enables hosting up to 2 hours long events with up to 100 attendees. However, for longer, bigger, and more dynamic events, you will have to choose one of the paid plans.
The Starter package costs $99 per month while the Growth package is $799 per month. If you want a completely customized solution with in-person and hybrid event support as well, you can get in touch with their representatives for more information.
Pros & Cons
Here’s what users have to say about Hopin.
Pros
“The analytics feature is fantastic, allowing you to see in real-time what is going on at the event, as well as analysing data post-event.” – Ollie J., Festival Director
“The platform provides all the different options for different needs – a fully pre-recorded event, a mix of live and recorded videos, multiple live speakers, and so on. I loved how your could configure everything based on what you wanted to get out of it.” – Agnes G., Sr. Product Marketing Specialist
Cons
“The price, I see Hopin as a great solution and platform for higher budget, you pay on a monthly basis and get all the features, it’s well designed but a little expensive when you have many events and clients like us.” – Ouali B., CEO & Founder
“The whole registration and login process turned out to be a mess. Some registrants could not find their confirmation emails and the only way to resend them was to have support send them. A couple people ended up registering again and I had to refund their previous registration.” – Ed T., CEO
“There were several instances in which speakers couldn’t access the backstage of the event, causing stress in the minutes before a virtual event.” – Administrator in Wholesale
3: Cvent
Cvent claims to have got you covered whether you’re hosting a small event or a larger conference with attendees from around the world. It offers diverse and complete solutions for planning and building your event to connecting your audience and executing a dynamic virtual event. If you’re looking for a platform that offers a variety of seamless integrations that will add immense value for attendees and hosts, Cvent might be right for you. It offers great third-party integrations such as CRMs and event marketing tools.
Cvent: Key Features
Registration & Marketing Tools
The Cvent platform offers a single solution for all things related to your event management. There are effective ways that you can promote your event and attract more registrations through email marketing tools and customized website landing pages. You can design your event as you like and drive more traffic through the landing pages. However, you may have to do most of the marketing yourself as there is no event listing platform or added marketing services for most plans.
Moreover, once you have a fair share of leads, you can send payment reminders via email, collect more attendee information, and make sure you don’t lose touch with the attendees. Email marketing strategies like a drip campaign are easier to manage and execute with the Cvent platform. The platform doesn’t offer proprietary email marketing features and it is similar to most competitors who may offer less expensive plans.
Event Content Management
Content on your virtual event can include resources such as welcome videos, walkthrough videos, presentations, pre-recorded webinars, etc. Cvent can make it simpler to manage all the content that goes onto the platform. You won’t need to download additional supporting software to keep the content up-to-date. Uploading, distributing, and updating content can all be done through the Cvent platform.
You can also manage speakers through the Cvent platform and assign various tasks to them through it. This way, you don’t have to worry about collecting webinar or session content from them and uploading it before the event goes live. You can simply automate speaker task assignment and all speakers will receive a to-do list. But if the speakers somehow miss the list or aren’t tech-savvy enough, you may end up with an even bigger problem.
Exhibitor Management
Managing and checking in with all your exhibitors can be an important and daunting task, especially during live days. The exhibitor management capabilities of Cvent can be of great help as it includes a self-service exhibitor portal. Exhibitors can update and manage their profiles, set up booth tasks, manage booth staff, and get actionable insights through the portal.
It also makes it easier for booth staff to manage their appointments and calendar schedules throughout the day. Exhibitors can download and access leads, get information about licenses, and purchase sponsorships easily. However, you may need to offer extensive training to exhibitors for seamless execution before live days which demands more effort and time.
Pricing
Cvent offers customized plans based on your event’s scale and added features. However, if you want to learn more about how the product works and get details about their solutions, you can request a demo online. The website has a small online form that you can fill out and one of their team members will get in touch with you. There are no set plans or prices mentioned on their website, so this is the best way to extract more information.
Pros & Cons
Pros
“I love that all of our event registration information can be stored in one place that anyone in our team can access. This saves a lot of manpower hours in the pre-planning phase of events.“ – Justina H., Events Director
“I love that the event app offers Live Q&A during sessions instead of having to run around with a microphone not knowing what attendees will say.” – Laura A., Event Manager
Cons
“Some of the technology does not perform as intended. Support is available up to the event but on live days of support in the middle of an event it is hard to get problems solved in a timely fashion.” – User in Media Production
“The reporting for website performance as well as data collection is not intuitive and is very limited. They tried to build custom reports but we still couldn’t get the information we needed.” – Administrator in Marketing & Advertising
4: Eventbrite
Eventbrite is a popular event ticketing platform that offers payment management, tiered packages, complete platform customization and email confirmations and reminders. It can be a good fit for smaller events like a conference or a huge concert. If you are only looking for an exclusive ticketing platform then it doesn’t get better than Eventbrite but you can’t expect a complete event management solution.
Eventbrite: Key Features
Eventbrite Marketplace
It is easy to create a custom event page with Eventbrite Marketplace. You can design it according to your event and organization branding and the event type and then post it on the Marketplace. This is a great way to get the word out about your event and start selling tickets.
The Marketplace helps you create recurring events as well so you don’t have to repeat the process every time you’re hosting. Moreover, it is also easy to connect with ticket buyers through email blasts and reminders. However, you can do all of that with a simple built-in email builder and social media ad campaigns without having to list your event anywhere. Some other event marketplaces can also list your event free of charge and get you some more traffic.
Mobile Functionality
Eventbrite allows attendees to sign up through the web and mobile phone. When a prospective attendee comes across an ad or a promotion about your event on their phone, they should be able to register from the same device. This can somewhat increase ROI by reducing ad bounce rate and make your event more user friendly. Eventbrite also has a mobile app that users can browse through to find the events that interest them. However, according to some user reviews the app does not offer many customization options and may not meet the need for all users.
Pricing
Since Eventbrite isn’t a full-service event management platform, it can be a bit pricey considering you will need other platforms in association with it. However, if you are more concerned about streamlining ticketing for your event, then an exclusive platform can help.
The platform may charge you a certain fee per ticket and the ticket price on Eventbrite may be higher than the actual ticket price. Although there are no platform charges per ticket if your event is free. The platform offers three pricing editions: essentials, professional, and premium, along with a free trial. Essentials pricing is 2% + $0.79 per paid ticket and Professional pricing is 3.5% + $1.59 per paid ticket.
Pros & Cons
Pros
“You can create recurring events, which we’ve found particularly helpful as we don’t need to keep setting up monthly events.” – Administrator in Marketing & Advertising
“There are other ticket portals which we have used but they always seem to be more complicated; we’ve never had to contact Eventbrite support as it’s all self explanatory.” – Ally G., Administrator
Cons
“There is no means to customize the ticket page. The ticket-buying page is confusing for users that are not IT savvy. For example, there is no ‘BUY TICKET’ Button. The page is also littered with so much unnecessary stuff.” – User in Civic and Social Organization
“Please use other platforms that actually value their customers – Eventbrite is not part of that group.” – Agency in Media Production
5: Whova
Whova is one of the leading event management system providers that offers to save time and lets you stay in complete control of your event. The event management capabilities of Whova promise to make the job easy for you with speaker management, in-depth analytics, badges, attendance management, and more valuable features.
If you are looking for a full-circle event management feature set that is easy, fast, and innovative, then Whova can be a good choice. Unlike other event management solutions, you can design, implement, and promote an entire event with just one platform.
Whova: Key Features
Speaker & Content Management
The speaker center from Whova is similar to Cvent for its content management capabilities. You can completely avoid going back and forth with a number of guest speakers trying to set their session up for them. Instead, Whova enables them to directly upload their session details, speaker bios, headshots, and other resource material. This makes the content collection process as streamlined as possible. Although, you can expect to have to put some effort in platform training for speakers.
The Whova platform also offers over 16 ready-made templates for the speaker information page of your event website. You can choose one of these templates and avoid all the manual design implementation and its complications. It is as easy as a copy and paste. But this also means that you won’t have complete customization control.
Live Polls
Knowing how your event is doing in real-time can be a real challenge. With Whova, it isn’t that big of a deal because of live polls and surveys during the event. You can use the available questions and poll templates as a starting point to save even more time. Live polls can help you ask attendees in-session questions and get discussions going. Collection of votes and doing a headcount is also simple and accurate with Whova.
The live polls and surveys can be answered directly through the event app or even through email. This makes it easier for event attendees to share their thoughts with event management, session hosts, and other attendees.
In-Depth Analytics & Event Reports
The Whova dashboard is a great place to review and strategize your event management with real-time, pre and post event analytics. You can see who is visiting your event pages and interacting with your content before the event. This can point out potential loopholes in your event strategy and give you time to quickly realign your priorities and event promotion strategy. Post-event event reports can also point out what worked best for your event so you can focus on it for recurring events.
Real-time event data metrics include ticket sales, event attendee check-in status, gamification activities and their results, live polls and surveys, etc. The post event reports are also ready-made that you can download to analyze the success of your event and see how engaged your attendees were. These numbers can be great to have, but how you use them totally depends on you as a host.
Pros & Cons
Pros
“Whova has everything you need for a conference platform – but without the ridiculous price tag! For small organizations, it’s ideal!” – Lauren M., Senior Executive Director
“….their customer service is top-notch. They are extremely accessible, super knowledgeable, and very friendly. We always feel like we are in the best of hands.” – Michelle S., Executive Director
Cons
“A major lack of customization is prevalent throughout the system — this of course leads to its simplicity.” – MJ C., VP Operations
“The technical support is mediocre at best, it’s not the most user-friendly conference app, and they changed pricing after the contract was signed.” – Angela B., Customer Event Coordinator
“Whova’s customer service is lacking greatly. Their Customer Success team is very rigid and inflexible with their wishy-washy terms of service.” – Michael H., Program Manager
6: Zoom Events
Zoom Events can help you in hosting single and multiple day conferences. However, it lacks some of the more advanced features from competitors like vFairs like customizable exhibitor hall and booths, gamification, advanced networking features, etc. So, it can be great for small scale events if you’re not looking for an all-out virtual event platform.
Zoom Events allows up to 500 registrations on the platform for any virtual conference, which is a far smaller number compared to other competitors. However, if all you are interested in is hosting a small event with immersive webinars, then it is a good choice.
Zoom Events: Key Features
Conference Set Up & Management
Zoom Events can help you design multiple types of events whether they are aimed for a global audience or an internal team. You can use the platform to set up free or paid events with varying tiers.
The platform also facilitates single-day, multiple-days, and recorded event screenings. You can play one session, multiple sessions, and even concurrent sessions and record them for on-demand replays as well. However, as it lacks gamification and networking capabilities, your attendees may end up having webinar fatigue.
Event Builder
The platform offers a simple event builder tool that can help you customize the event’s feel and look. You can change the colors to reflect your company’s branding and set up your own speaker profiles and session information.
You can also use the event builder tool to create your own sessions and build them out as you want. Managing the content for speaker sessions is easier to upload and distinguish for each session as well. However, the customization options are far less than what you’d get with an all-in-one event management solution.
Event Analytics
The best feature for any event management platform is the analytics dashboard. Here you can use real-time data and actionable insights to figure out how successful your event is. Zoom Events analytics dashboard provides data for attendee engagement, ticket sales, revenue generation, event registrations, etc. It does not include separate dashboards for event admins, host, speakers or exhibitors.
Pricing
The Zoom Events platform is $890 per year for a single license. However, with a Zoom Events license you also get all the benefits and capabilities for a Zoom Webinar license. You will be able to schedule webinars in the Webinar portal of your event, add 1:1 chat option for attendees, and integrate with CRM and marketing automation tools.
Pros & Cons
Pros
“Zoom also allows for breakout room creation which allows different small groups to separately meet, make decisions then join in the main meeting.” – Lina M., Student
“I like the functionality of Zoom, especially the ability for organizers to make participants visible or not, muted or not, access chat features, and engage with the Q&A feature. As an attendee, I enjoy the ‘reactions’ option and breakout rooms.” – Kailey G., CEO
Cons
“There are much better and cheaper solutions, especially for the webinar.” – Hamit D., Digital Marketing Specialist
“I dislike that it consumes so much of my computer resources and freezes randomly.” – User in Higher Education
7: Hubilo
Hubilo is one of the top all-in-one event management and hosting software that can help you from creation to execution of your event. Apart from the event hosting functionality of the platform, it also offers basic networking features, marketing tools, custom landing page designs, ticketing management, and event analytics dashboards. Hubilo offers a robust email marketing engine and it can be a good choice if you’re looking for a platform that can help you market your event as well.
Hubilo: Key Features
Event Landing Page
When you start building your event, the first thing you need is to create a landing page. The Hubilo platform offers custom landing page designs that facilitate event ticketing and registrations. You can customize the page to reflect event branding, add event agenda, information about sessions and speakers, and advertise unique features of the event.
The process is simple and straightforward with the Hubilo Landing Page Builder. You can add custom elements, use forms and add widgets to wow first-time visitors. The Builder allows previews for your landing pages and it is compatible with phones and laptops. However, users have complained that customization options for certain page layouts are limited as compared to competitors.
Registrations & Payments
Hubilo platform facilitates adding on various payment gateways for online ticket sales through the event landing page. You can sell and manage all your ticket sales for paid events or registrations for free events through the same platform.
The platform offers support for ticket sales in different currencies and also facilitates refunds. You can add multiple tiers to your tickets for restricting and allowing access for webinars or exclusive content for user types and give out discount codes as well. However, users have faced complications while creating discount coupons as the process may not be as simple as it sounds.
Email Marketing Engine
Hubilo’s email marketing tools can help you manage entire event marketing campaigns through this one platform. You can make event attendee lists and send out event invitations or reminder blasts through the email builder. You can target specific attendee groups and send out email notifiers.
There are various email layouts that you can choose from and edit the content as you like. However, some users don’t like that the email builder does not allow you to completely customize the look of your email and has a restricted format.
Pricing
There are three different plans mentioned on the Hubilo website and what they include – Advanced, Pro, and Enterprise. However, there is no pricing mentioned and you will need to connect with their sales team to get more information. The website allows a side-by-side comparison for all three tiers to show what each of them can include. Here is what the table looks like:
Pros & Cons
Pros
“The platform is user-friendly, both backend and front end. On the organizer’s side, we could navigate the options quickly, and everything was straightforward.” – Bryan S., Marketing & Graphics
“The ticketing, the database, the Newsfeed, the agenda page, and especially the gamification features that our clients really appreciated to enhance the delegates engagement throughout their conference.” – Pauline L., Director of Operations
Cons
“Several break out rooms failed because the host could not connect the speaker and his/her slides and/or video.” – Rick V., Principal
“I have to toggle between dashboards to update details of an event. Please keep it all on ONE dashboard for convenience.” – Agency in Environmental Sciences
8: Timely Event Ticketing
Timely event management platform isn’t an all-in-one solution for setting up virtual events but it can help a great deal with managing ticketing and calendar. From creating your event and listing it on Timely to the actual execution, the platform facilitates you at all steps.
You can promote your event using the marketing solutions, organize everything with the calendar tool, and set up attendee registrations and check-ins. This can be a good alternative to solutions that offer ticketing and registrations only but a more holistic event management platform will have more functionality.
Timely Event Ticketing: Key Features
Event Calendar
Timely lets you create a custom event agenda for your attendees which can be accessed through mobile and web. You can also customize it according to your brand image and logo to attract your audience. The event calendar can have single-day, multiple-days, and recurring events and the set up only takes a few minutes.
The event calendar listing can help you manage, share, and monetize your event. The platform allows you to add images, tables, documents, videos, and meeting links to your calendar. You can make a white-label event listing for your website with striking visual design. All you have to do is embed the code in any webpage and the calendar can be a part of your own website as well.
Event Registration Tools
Timely event registration feature set can help you streamline the entire ticketing process for your attendees. You can add value to their experience by choosing the online RSVP feature. It is seamless and easy to manage and might increase your event attendance as well. You can also create custom online registration pages through Timely to match your organization’s branding. The registration page templates are already available and you don’t have a lot of room for customization.
The Timely Event Registration system can be integrated with your existing website and it will still look professional and native. However, all this will only work if you already have an event website which is an additional steep cost. Many other competitors, like vFairs, offer to create custom landing pages for your event that can have registration forms and agendas.
Event Ticketing Solution
Timely also offers a seamless event ticketing solution that is a self-service portal accessible through web and mobile. Attendees can buy tickets online and pay from them securely through the portal without any hassle. The ticketing solution can also include an online RSVP or check-in service to add more value to your attendees’ experience.
The ticketing solution can be incorporated with the event calendar so any and all leads can be converted to ticket sales. However, all this can get expensive if you’re hosting on another virtual event platform. A more holistic solution that offers a complete event management toolkit along with other hosting features might be a better choice.
Pricing
Timely event management platform claims to offer the lowest charge per ticket sale. They charge 2.5% + US$ 0.90 per ticket sold. They also offer a free event calendar software plan which can be suitable for individuals. However, if you are an SME with multiple events a year, you will need the Premium event management software plan. They offer a free 10-day trial for it but there is no pricing available. You can book a meeting with one of their sales reps to get a personalized plan for your event.
Pros & Cons
Pros
“I like how user friendly it is to add items to your calendar. The layout and look of calendar is great also.” Kat D.
“I love how flexible this software is! We have events that repeat throughout the year with random breaks and weeks/days off. This software makes event management a breeze.” – Stephen O.
Cons
“I think their biggest downfall is the lack of a knowledgebase on how use certain aspects of the software.” – Vicki L.
“Once we figured out that we ere using the online cloud version and changed our systems, was great but getting there was a hassle.” – Jean Y., Food & Beverages
9: Airmeet
Airmeet is a powerful event management platform offering a range of different solutions. The AirControl solution in particular can help take away all the stress from planning and managing your virtual event. AirControl gives you all the tools necessary to help make your event a great experience for event attendees.
No matter what the size or type of your event is, AirControl gives you the ability to manage all with a single dashboard. So, the solution is tailor-made for larger virtual events as well as small online conferences. The software can assist with everything from event entry to ticketing with immense customization options available every step of the way.
Airmeet: Key Features
Ticketing & Registration
Event registrations can be one of the most difficult things to manage and you may not be able to do it without a proper ticketing system. Airmeet can help set up event ticketing, online payments, and registration management through the platform. You can easily set up various tiers for paid events and restrict or provide more access to exclusive ticket holders.
Attendees can buy tickets online and pay through secure gateways without any hassle. You can get access to attendee information such as their names and contact details. This information can be used to send them automated emails and reminders.
CRM Integrations
CRM and email automation tools can be important tools for event management. Airmeet offers easy and quick third-party integrations with your already existing event management tools. You can set everything up within the same platform and avoid the hassle of shifting data from one place to another.
Airmeet makes the integration process easy and straightforward so your event organizers and managers can take the stress out of the way. Whether you are hosting a small event or a larger one, Airmeet can be a great choice.
Pricing
Airmeet has a bunch of different solutions and you can get your perfect plan by choosing what you need. There is a Pricing page on their official website that mentions a free and three other paid plans.
The Starter plan starts at $500 a month, Professional plan for $1500, and the Enterprise plan usually has a custom quote that you can ask their sales team for. The Airmeet Professional plan is for when you are only looking to host a one-time event and it starts at $5000 with 300 attendees. You can add tools like AirStudio+, AirStudio 3D, and AirControl Hybrid for additional costs depending on your event requirements.
Pros & Cons
Pros
“The platform itself is pretty user-friendly. Airmeet made it possible for our participants to connect in real-time, hopefully leading to new business partnerships and investments. Additionally, support staff was really easy to reach when we had issues.” – Emily C., Program Manager
“Airmeet allowed us a very visually appealing platform for our event and was easy enough to navigate through that it didn’t cause big problems. We were able to engage with attendees effectively in different ways.” – Jeremiah G., Head of Sales
Cons
“There is an unduly lengthy sign-in process for every log-in, which is a huge put-off.” – Abhijit P., Head of Student Affairs
“Airmeet’s conference management features and customer support were both quite bad. We had a number of issues setting up the event and full lack of features for managing tickets / attendees.” – Administrator in Event Services
10: GoTo Webinar
GoTo Webinar is one of the emerging favorites when it comes to event management software. It is an all in one webinar and conference platform with event management services as well. GoTo Webinar also offers an event producer for extensive white-glove and technical support throughout your event. They will handle all the behind-the-scenes technicalities while you focus on your attendees and give them good value for their time.
Whether you are hosting a small event or a big one, GoTo’s remote support, event analytics, and powerful integrations can upscale your event.
GoTo Webinar: Key Features
Email Marketing Automation
GoTo Webinar can also help market your event with its built-in email marketing features and contact list management. You can send out email blasts to all event registrations and manage the responses through the powerful CRM and email automation software integrations. However, users have had issues with the platform’s interface as it may look outdated as compared to other platforms.
Attendee Management
Handling attendees, managing their data, and making sure all of them get what they were promised sounds like too much work. GoTo Webinar can help you with attendee management features like contact card management, event registrations, ticketing support, etc. Tickets can also be purchased online through the event platform. However, GoTo Webinar only accepts payments through Stripe whereas other platforms can give you more options.
You can have full support in getting the attendees to the event and making sure there are no login issues. However, this is where the platform lags behind some of its competitors. There are minimal interactive and networking features available for attendees. There is no way that attendees can communicate with each other and that leaves a lot to wish for during a virtual event.
Engagement Dashboard
The platform also offers reliable event reports that you can download and view later as well. There is an engagement dashboard that can highlight key in-event analytics such as number of webinar views, etc. You can use these analytics to understand your attendees better and know which mediums are getting you most traffic.
Moreover, the attendee reports can be quite comprehensive so you can analyze behavior and keep them more interested in the event. The analytics facilitate tracking engagement, NPS, performance, and other important metrics.
Pricing
There is a pricing page on their website that offers detailed information about their plans and packages. There are four plans, Lite, Standard, Pro and Enterprise with some basic features and the ability to add-on more as you like. However, a free trial is only available for the Pro feature which makes it the most popular one as well. The pricing of the platform plans are $59 per month for Lite, $129 for Standard, $249 for Pro, and $499 for Enterprise. The prices can be toggled to other currencies like AUD, CAD, GBP, and EUR from the same page which is a convenient add-on.
Pros & Cons
Pros
“One great item that it seems no other platform offers is the ability to give more than one person (panelist or organizer) keyboard and mouse control so that the transition between speakers is nearly seamless.” – Lisa C., Education Manager
“Not only can I ask my registrants custom questions, but I can set up automated follow-up emails, edit my recordings before posting a link, track registrants based on a source code, download multiple types of reports, and I’ve never had a glitch during a live event.” – Christina B., Director Marketing Programs
Cons
“The interface is very challenging both for organizers/panelists and for participants. It is very clunky and not user-friendly.” – User in Hospital & Healthcare
“It takes forever to log on and launch the application, and it is prone to freezing mid-webinar.” – Tony V.
FAQs
How to choose the right event management software?
Choosing the right event management software can depend on what you are looking to achieve out of the event. So, the first thing that you need to do is figure out your own expectations and requirements. Do some research on the best platforms that offer the solutions that you’re looking for. Then, read up on each of them and weigh their pros and cons keeping your event budget and pricing in mind.
What are the factors to choose the right event management software?
Some must-haves for any event management software are:
- Ticketing solution
- Event landing page
- Email marketing automation tools
- Powerful integrations such as CRM software
- In-depth in-event and post-event reports
- An immersive virtual environment
- Dedicated customer service
How much does an event management software cost?
An event management software can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars monthly. Most event software solutions offer annual licenses.
