7 Best Virtual Conference Platform Options For Your Virtual Events!
Virtual event platforms are popular now, more than ever before, and with good reasons:
- They help improve productivity
- They are convenient since meeting participants can attend from wherever they are
- They help foster teamwork and accountability in remote teams
If you are looking for the best virtual conference platform for all your virtual events and business meetings, here are my recommendations: WebinarJam, Demio, and Zoom.
Read on to find out what other virtual event platforms are worth trying out, so you can choose the best virtual event platform for your business.
Disclaimer: If you buy something using the links in this article, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Know that I only promote stuff that I use and trust for the sake of my readers and the reputation of this site.
What Are the Best Virtual Conference Platforms?
1. Livestorm
Livestorm is an end-to-end browser-based virtual event platform that allows you to set up and scale your virtual events. With Livestorm, you can create on-demand, live, or pre-recorded virtual events for your business from your desktop or mobile.
This virtual event software helps you create successful virtual and hybrid events that captivate and engage your attendees from start to finish. You can create registration forms, send emails to your audience, host virtual events, chat, launch polls, and track attendee engagement all from within a single platform.
Key Features
- Livestorm’s engagement and data-capturing features allow you to embed your live stream on the platform
- Livestorm offers built-in customizable registration pages to help you save time
- Promote your virtual events by sending automatic emails and reminders
- Collaboration features allow you to invite team members and event organizers to facilitate presentations or moderate interactions
- Screen sharing features to help you share your screen, slides, or app with your attendees
- Engagement features like live chat and polls to boost attendee engagement
- Detailed analytics so that you can learn more about your live events
Cons
- Low participant limit of 1,000 attendees
- Customer service is not up to standards
Pricing
Livestorm offers three plans:
- Starter Plan (Free)
- Premium Plan ($109 per month, billed monthly)
- Enterprise Plan (Custom quote)
Note: You can save 10% on the Premium Plan if you choose to pay yearly.
2. WebinarJam
WebinarJam is another all-in-one virtual event platform that offers cloud-based broadcasting technology so that you can reach more customers around the world with your message. WebinarJam allows you to stream in high definition across all devices.
WebinarJam offers automated recordings so that you instantly have replays of your live events once they are over. You also have the flexibility to invite any of your attendees to join your presentation with Attendee Spotlight.
Key Features
- Cloud-based broadcasting technology lets you have up to 5,000 attendees and six presenters in a single presentation.
- WebinarJam offers high definition, 30 FPS (frames per sec) video and audio broadcasting.
- Live chat features let you chat with your attendees and run Q&As in real-time.
- The Replica Replay feature records your live broadcasts and saves them in video files. It also mimics all the events that took place in the live room.
- Flexible scheduling options allow you to run single or recurring live events whenever you want.
- Attendee Spotlights lets you bring in any event attendees to speak, screen share, or broadcast on your virtual event space.
- The mobile app helps you broadcast or attend live events on the go.
Cons
- Limited customization options.
- There are not many regular upgrades to the software or the user interface.
Pricing
WebinarJam offers the following pricing plans:
- Starter (100 attendees) at $39 per month, billed annually
- Basic (500 attendees) at $79 per month, billed annually
- Professional (2,000 attendees) at $229 per month, billed annually
- Enterprise (5,000 attendees) at $379 per month, billed annually
You can also get a WebinarJam trial at $1. Navigate to the pricing page and move your mouse to the exit button, and you will see a popup like this:
Click on “YES, Start My Trial” and you will get a limited trial of WebinarJam.
3. Zoom
Zoom is an all-in-one communications platform that helps you engage new audiences, improve customer experiences, and increase productivity. The virtual conference software helps you combine a virtual event and an in-person event in the form of a hybrid event.
Zoom Events helps you host, manage, and report on your virtual events to create experiences that your event attendees will enjoy. It is one of the most popular and best virtual event platforms on the market today.
Key Features
- The step-by-step editor lets you create your own branded event hubs so that you can easily manage your events and share your customized URLs.
- Built-in and customizable registration and ticketing features help you manage your tickets and the number of participants.
- You can host a variety of events such as free, paid, live, and on-demand events that can have single or multiple sessions.
- Record your live events and post them for your attendees to replay.
- Increase attendee networking by offering attendees the chance to exchange contact info, chat, or initiate meetings with fellow attendees or event organizers.
- Analytics help you track and analyze your event performance so that you can improve future events.
Cons
- Although basic Zoom features are free, the additional subscriptions and addons are quite expensive.
- Zoom is not browser-based, so you have to download the app even if you just attending the event.
Pricing
Zoom Events offers the following plans:
- Zoom Webinar at $79 per month per license
- Zoom Events at $99 per month per license
4. Hopin
Hopin is one of the best virtual conference software that helps you create and conduct a virtual, hybrid, or in-person event experience for your audience. With Hopin, you can host full-scale virtual events and get full analytics to help in event planning for future events.
Hopin also provides easy-to-use promotional tools to help in event marketing. You can build stunning and high-converting landing pages to drive registration or ticket sales to your event.
Key Features
- Create on-brand, highly-interactive virtual events that keep your attendees engaged.
- Increase attendee engagement and networking with chat rooms, live discussions, video calls, polls, quizzes, Q&As, and more.
- Hopin’s video storing and editing features help you repurpose your virtual event content for other purposes.
- You can promote your event with beautiful easy-to-build landing pages that are designed for high conversions.
- Hopin’s built-in ticketing system helps you increase ticket sales and create custom ticket types.
- Make more money from sponsorships by creating virtual booths and speaking sessions.
- Hopin integrates with email marketing tools like Marketo, Salesforce, and HubSpot so you can build personalized email campaigns for your audience from within the platform.
Cons
- Lack of live customer service while the virtual event is taking place.
- Could use more collaboration features.
Pricing
Hopin offers the following pricing plans:
- Free at $0 per month
- Starter at $99 per month
- Growth at $799 per month
- Business at custom pricing
- Enterprise at custom pricing
5. Eventzilla
Eventzilla is an all-in-one virtual event platform that helps you manage event registrations, tickets, attendees, check-ins, and marketing for your next virtual event.
Eventzilla allows you to build your event landing pages, manage invitations, registrations, and payments, and track attendees and check-ins. This is one of the best virtual conference platforms that offers reporting and analytics for all your small and large virtual events.
Key Features
- Eventzilla lets you create and publish a professional-looking registration page in minutes.
- A simple, seamless, and secure registration and checkout process ensures that your attendees can register hassle-free, without even signing up to Eventzilla.
- Multiple payment integrations ensure that you get paid quickly and securely.
- Eventzilla offers you a ton of powerful built-in marketing tools to promote your events and boost attendance.
- The multi-track event schedule builder allows you to publish rich speaker profiles and customize each session with advanced enrolment options.
- The intuitive and actionable dashboard lets you make better decisions for your virtual events.
- Analytics and reports features allow you to customize the data points for your reports and have them automatically emailed to you regularly.
Cons
- Eventzilla does not have a mobile app.
- The platform could use more customization options.
Pricing
Eventzilla offers the following pricing plans:
- Basic at $1.50 per registration
- Pro at 1.9% of registration fees plus $1.50 per registration (capped at $12.99)
- Plus at 2.9% of registration fees plus $1.50 per registration (capped at $19.99)
6. Demio
Demio is a great virtual event platform that offers more customization and branding options for your webinar than any other virtual event platform. Demio allows a simple, no-download webinar experience for your audience and gives you all the marketing tools you need to organize successful virtual events.
Demio offers you the option to go live or run a completely automated campaign. You can create and customize registration pages that are conversion-optimized. HD streaming allows you to share your webcam, screen, or even upload presentations or videos for your attendees.
Key Features
- Choose between different types of events such as live presentations, a group of live, scheduled sessions, or pre-recorded videos.
- Browser-based software allows your attendees to join directly through your link without the need for any bulky software downloads.
- The platform offers a beautiful and intuitive interface both for you and your attendees.
- Advanced customization options allow you to apply your branding and logo across all of your event materials.
- Create and customize a simple and beautiful registration process in a few minutes with the page templates.
- Use polls to ask your audience a question at any time during the event and choose to keep the results or share them with your audience.
- Real-time chat allows you to interact with your audience.
- The event analytics suite allows you to measure and improve your webinars.
Cons
- The platform could use more in-depth integrations.
- Email reminders lack customization options.
Pricing
Demio offers the following plans:
- Starter at $34 per month
- Growth at $69 per month
- Premium at custom pricing
7. Airmeet
Airmeet is a virtual event platform that offers your participants a virtual event venue that allows them to move freely between different sessions, a networking lounge or virtual lobby, and a virtual event booth to have meaningful interactions with each other.
Airmeet helps you host webinars, in-person events, and virtual interactive sessions at scale so that you can attract, connect with, and convert your audience.
Key Features
- Airmeet offers a virtual event venue that allows your attendees to move freely between sessions, virtual booths, and a networking lounge room.
- You can host up to 100K participants and live stream your event seamlessly on Facebook and YouTube.
- The native integrations and Zapier allow you to seamlessly exchange event data.
- Host hybrid sessions and stream in your sessions from Zoom, WebX, OBS, or any other live streaming studio.
- Customize different aspects of your virtual events with your branding, such as your registration pages and virtual networking area.
- The clutter-free and intuitive platform helps you set up, launch, and manage your entire event even if you do not have any prior experience.
- Real-time chat and polling help you keep your attendees engaged.
- Actionable analytics helps event planners improve future events.
Cons
- Lacks customization options for the reminders sent to attendees.
- The interface is not that intuitive and has a steep learning curve.
Pricing
Airmeet offers the following pricing plans:
- Starter at $99
- Premium at custom pricing
What Are Virtual Conference Platforms?
A virtual event platform helps businesses host virtual events like virtual trade shows, team-building events, and other interactive online events.
Virtual conference platforms offer many features such as breakout rooms, conference recording functions, screen sharing and file-sharing functions, and even the option to create virtual booths.
What Are The Different Types of Virtual Events?
Virtual events can be of the following types:
– Webinars
Webinars are live online presentations that allow participants to interact with the presenters through questions and comments. Webinars could be video presentations, events, seminars, workshops, training sessions, or even classroom lectures.
– Virtual conferences
A virtual conference, or a virtual meeting, is a meeting that takes place online instead of physically with all the participants in the same place.
– Hybrid events
A hybrid event is a combination of both physical and online elements to provide attendees with a tailored, optimized experience.
– Online Educational events
Online educational events are sessions of structured learning. These may include online classes, training sessions, online courses, and other programs.
What Features Do You Need in a Virtual Conference Platform?
Before you look at the different virtual event platform options in this post, let’s first see the different features that most of these platforms offer.
1. Breakout Sessions
When you host large-scale virtual events, you may sometimes come across the need for dividing your audience into smaller groups called ‘breakout sessions’.
Breakout rooms are sub-sessions that are split from the main virtual meeting from within the event management software. When a host wants to break the meeting into smaller groups that are separated from the video and audio of the main meeting, this function comes in handy.
2. On-Demand Tech Support
On-demand, real-time tech support empowers event organizers.
There are so many things that could go wrong during virtual events. Unlike pre-recorded online events or in-person events, a live broadcast or live streaming event can be nerve-wracking, especially if you are not good at handling technology under pressure (who is??!).
Make sure the virtual meeting platform that you choose offers on-demand tech support that helps you host virtual events in an organized way. With real-time tech support, you can have all the help you need while organizing and running your virtual events.
Also, if your attendees have access to tech support as well, it can help them navigate through the technology in case they get stuck. This helps you improve the experience for your attendees and create authentic human connections without any hiccups.
3. Third-Party Apps and Integrations
Third-party applications and integrations are sometimes essential for you to integrate other aspects of your business with your virtual events platform.
Most of the virtual event platforms allow you to integrate with applications from your event planning toolkit so that you can skip the hassle of handling multiple applications simultaneously.
4. Customization Capabilities
Having the option to customize images, branding, and font, etc. will help you connect more with your attendees and elevate your brand. Customization features help you integrate your brand messaging across multiple channels such as your webinar page, emails, registration forms, and more.
5. Insights and Analytics
After an online conference or virtual event, it is important for companies and organizations to gain insights into their performance. Learning about your attendees’ experiences and feedback will help you improve your future virtual events.
Most virtual event platforms provide meaningful data about the event such as number of registrations, polling, attendance, attendee activity, number of document downloads, time spent at each virtual booth, etc.
6. Polling
Polling features help you create multiple choice questions so that you can collect information about your attendees o ask them for their opinions on a certain topic. These polls will help you tailor your virtual events better as you gain a deeper understanding of who your attendees are and where they come from.
7. Recording Features
The best virtual event platforms offer conference recording features that help you record the sessions as they take place. Recording your virtual events give you the chance to embed your video recordings on your website or send them to the attendees who registered for the event but could not make it.
Storing recordings of your virtual events allows you and your attendees to have unlimited access to your virtual event long after the session.
8. Screen Sharing Features
Screen sharing is another important feature that lets you share your screen with your attendees. This way you can display your presentations, graphs, charts, text, or other images without having to send them to your attendees for them to download and view.
Screen sharing is one of the most essential features that you should look for in a virtual events platform.
9. Ticketing Features
End-to-end ticketing services help streamline your registration process and make hosting large-scale virtual events simpler. Ticketing features help your participants register for your event and buy online tickets through your website or mobile app, scan tickets, download tickets using a mobile event app.
Other Things To Look for in a Virtual Event Platform
Apart from the main features, there are other factors you need to consider before you choose a virtual conference platform for your business. Here are some of them:
– User Interface
The user interface is an important factor to consider when choosing between different virtual event platforms. The platform should be easy to set up and use, not just for the hosts, but also for the attendees on the other end.
The software should be easy to log in to, with an intuitive interface, work well across multiple devices, and maybe have a mobile app if you feel most of your attendees are on the go when they take part in your conference.
– Scalability
If you have a large business, it is important to check whether the virtual event platform is scalable to accommodate the size of your virtual events.
When the platform is designed for large virtual events, you will have access to all the necessary features needed to run a large-scale event. You will also be connected to an experienced customer service team that can help you in setting up, running, and scaling your events.
– Pricing
There are tons of virtual event platforms in the market today, each one built for different purposes. Before you go ahead and make your selection, fix your budget and see which of the platforms fall within that pricing range.
Most virtual event platforms offer monthly or annual pricing plans, so you will need to sit down and calculate your budget before you make a commitment.
– User Reviews
Most virtual meeting platforms have user reviews online, so take advantage of them. Search for online reviews from real users who have used the platform for a while and have no affiliation to the virtual event company.
Take time to go through multiple user reviews from sites like G2, Capterra, or TrustPilot, so you will have an overview of the pros and cons of the software.
Virtual Event FAQs
1. What is a virtual meeting platform?
Virtual meeting platforms are online applications or software that allow companies to host virtual events and meetings over the internet. Virtual event platforms generally have tools for chatting, screen sharing, file sharing, and reactions so that teams can get together and share information remotely.
2. What is the best platform to host a virtual conference?
WebinarJam is one of the best virtual event platforms. You can check it out by clicking here.
3. How much does a virtual conference platform cost?
A virtual conference platform can cost anywhere between $34 to a few thousand dollars per month, depending on the platform you choose and the features you would like to have for your virtual events/ meetings.
There are also free options like Livestorm and Hopin.
4. How do I host a virtual conference?
Here are the steps you can follow if you are looking to host a virtual event:
- Depending on the number of attendees you expect to have, decide on the features you will be needing in your virtual conference platform.
- Choose the best virtual conference platform that fulfills your needs and fits your budget.
- Choose the topics you want to cover and the guest speakers, if you will be inviting any.
- Create virtual conference registration forms for participants to fill out.
- Promote your virtual event on channels like your social media handles, email list, or public forums, targeting your niche audience.
5. When is the best time to host an online event?
Mondays and Fridays are usually the best days to host a virtual end. People are more willing to attend events either at the beginning or at the end of their workweek.
Regarding the time, 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM usually works well for more events as it increases audience engagement. Early mornings (before 9:30 AM) tend to work well too for shorter events.
Conclusion
There are many good virtual conference platforms available on the market today, but it all depends on your preferences, the type of event you are planning to host, and your budget.
I recommend WebinarJam, Livestorm, and Zoom as some of the best virtual event platforms. If you are on a tight budget, you could try out free options like Livestorm and Hopin.
Which virtual conference platform do you use for your business? Leave a comment and let me know! 🙂
