Hopin vs HeySummit: Which is Better for Hosting a Virtual Event?

In this article, we’ll be comparing Hopin and HeySummit in terms of the following:

• Platform summary

• An overview of the features

• Common use cases

• Pricing plans

• What makes them special

• Who it’s suitable for

• User reviews

We’ll also be briefly comparing both of these virtual event solutions to Zoom, which is another popular platform in the industry. 

Without further ado, let’s dive right in!

Hopin Summary

Hopin is an all-in-one virtual event platform with multiple interactive features. Their primary focus is to enable organizations to create events that feel personal as if you were at the event in real life. 

Gatherings can be created for those with smaller audiences and large conferences can be held for those with larger audiences.

An Overview of Hopin’s Features

• Virtual Venue: Welcome your attendees to a reception page where sponsors, event schedules, and expectations are made clear. Create breakout rooms or other live rooms for attendees to network. Have speakers take it away using online event stages.

• Livestream Studios: Both pre-recorded videos and live videos can be used for your event. The host can also screen share for event attendees who are present.

• Landing Pages: Create, design, and optimize the landing pages to promote your events. No coding skills are required as Hopin uses the drag-and-drop model so that it’s easy for everyone. 

• Marketing Tools: Users are given tools and a dashboard to help them keep track of ticket sales and attendee registrations or signups. 

• Integrations: Sync Hopin with the resources you’re already using to minimize the learning curve. ‍

• Customization: Embed your banners with your branding to make the event feel as if it were truly your own.

Examples of Ways to Use Hopin

Common Use Case 1

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic happened, hosting an event that feels personal has been challenging to do in a remote setting. 

Hopin makes this easier with interactive features such as:

• Virtual lunch tables

• 1:1 opportunities for attendees to connect

• Exhibition halls

Common Use Case 2

Updating your team on company goals and strategies is important, and so is building trust between each individual. 

With Hopin, you can create an online event where employees interact with each other in real time. Plus, the communication tools prior to the event help you make employees feel more comfortable operating in your virtual environment.

Hopin Pricing

In this Hopin support article, it reveals the following pricing:

• Starter plan: rates begin at $99/mo

• Growth plan: rates begin at $799/mo

• Advanced plan: custom quote and contract

But on the Hopin pricing page, it shows two plans: free and advanced.

So What Makes Hopin Special?

Event hosters can use Hopin to create virtual events that feel personal as if you were there in real life thanks to their interactive features. Your audience can connect with each other in a similar way as they would in a face-to-face setting.

Moreover, it’s an all-in-one platform that’s straightforward to use even if you have no coding skills.

Who is Hopin Suitable For?

Taking into account Hopin’s features and pricing plans, it’s suitable for companies and organizations of all sizes with an appropriate marketing budget to allocate. 

Although it can be costly for some solopreneurs and individual content creators, Hopin offers a free plan. However, users on the free Hopin plan will have a 2-hour limit to run their event.

Here’s What Hopin Users Have Said

Here’s a couple of Hopin’s customer reviews taken from G2 (a website that showcases user reviews). 

“Hopin is the closest thing you will find out there to an in person event (except better). Hopin is a platform that is so easy to navigate for the participant. There are only 5 buttons to pick from and they are always there on the left no matter where you are in the event. Hopin is always working to improve and has come a long way. They LISTEN to the feedback and implement the recommendations made by their users. Hopin was there for us when we needed to make a quick pivot with our twice yearly conference. We will continue to use it for hybrid events even as we move back to in person. It allows us to give members around the world access and connection.”

- Lorna W.

“Flexible & not-too-expensive platform. Liked the configurability of events: ability to brand, include different areas (Stage, Sessions, Booths), control the flow, create/sell ticket types, track statistics -- for all different types of events. Also like Hopin's Registration Page capability. With Hopin, we have a scalable, interactive, online events platform for generating leads, interacting with our customers and users, demonstrating our products, and answering applications questions. We hope to also use Hopin for paid online trainings."

- Karen R.

“"A bit clunky, but sufficient. The chat support when your event is live is fast and efficient. The support team was very responsive and helpful. The replay feature is pretty cool. We found polling to be intuitive. Breakout rooms have nice features such as setting the number of people in each room and the amount of time you want the breakout to last. It also provides a countdown and notifications to participants about the time left. But, there is no way to test the software without using your attendee quota. We had to figure out a lot of issues and features with our live audience tuned in.

‍- Deborah J.

“For most with some level of technology literacy it's very user friendly and uncluttered. It is more personal than a zoom meeting and seems more professional. It is nice that we can link to external pages and still have the presentation play in the background.”

‍- Anonymous User Review

HeySummit Summary 

HeySummit is an all-in-one virtual event platform that helps you grow your audience and business as well as monetize your passion. They make it easy to launch and host a range of online events in minutes from small talks to huge conferences without having any technical knowledge or design skills. 

You’re also equipped with marketing tools to promote and sell your online events. These tools are optimized to drive more traffic and boost ticket sales.

An Overview of HeySummit’s Features

• Attendee Registration Flow: Create a warm registration experience for attendees by customizing the event with tailored questions and/or fields before they get to the main stage. This also makes it easier to segment your audience and understand attendees better. 

• Talk Management: Include pre-recorded or live videos at your event with HeySummit whether you’re delivering 1 or 100 talks to your audience. 

• Speaker Dashboard: Speakers can update their bio and manage talk information for the event with an intuitive dashboard that helps you keep all details organized and up to date. 

• Speaker Directory: Get the right person to speak at your virtual event by getting access to over 1,000 passionate and experienced speakers. 

• Landing Page Builder: Create landing pages with a drag-and-drop model that requires no coding skills. Use pre-built themes along with dynamic components such as event countdowns to help you increase the number of event registrations. 

• Marketing & Viral Tools: Promote your virtual event to increase registrations, revenue, and audience engagement with marketing tools such as affiliate programs, custom email sequences, swipe copy, and sponsorship management. 

• Ticketing & Revenue: Adjust ticket prices, restrictions, availability, and choose your preferred payment provider. 

• Analytics & Reporting: Track audience engagement and live attendance metrics from your dashboard. All the KPIs such as signups, referrals, and webinar usage are stored in one place. 

• Tool Integrations: Combine HeySummit with the tools you’re already using like Zoom and Loom. 

Examples of Ways to Use HeySummit

Common Use Case 1

Small businesses and content creators may have built an audience from the ground up with their blog, YouTube channel, or social media platform like Instagram. But unfortunately, they’re struggling to make the hustle sustainable and they’ve yet to see any profit. 

Using events to promote a product or service has come to mind more than once but it’s always been just that – a lingering thought. 

Daniel was in a similar situation until he gave HeySummit a go. With the help of HeySummit’s marketing features and viral incentives, he created a virtual summit with the goal of helping writers improve their plot and storytelling skills. This event led to rapid growth as it brought in more than 3,000 attendees and generated $26,000 in revenue. 

If you’re a small business or solopreneur like Daniel, HeySummit can help by allowing you to create and promote your online event in just a few clicks. They also personalize the experience for both speakers and attendees with interactive features like the chat and attendance registration flow.

Feel free to read Daniel’s full story here. 

Common Use Case 2

Entrepreneurs can use HeySummit as part of their lead-gen strategy. For example, run a virtual summit to showcase your work to potential clients and grow your network or relationship with other professionals in your industry. 

With HeySummit, managing the technical factors like customizing your landing pages and sending email reminders is simple. Their layout helps you create online events that position you as an industry expert and passionate leader. 

Feel free to read the full story here.

HeySummit Pricing

HeySummit offers three pricing plans: 

• Starter plan: $33/mo

• Growth plan: $99/mo

• Success plan: $299/mo

They also offer a free 14-day trial.

So What Makes HeySummit Special?

HeySummit is the one-stop shop to host a range of online events. Whether you have limited or no coding skills and marketing experience, you’ll have all the tools you need to run and promote a virtual summit. 

Focus on what you do best while HeySummit simplifies the process of running an event so that you get more traffic, generate more leads, and increase sales revenue.

Additionally, HeySummit’s users can test any event before they’re launched to:

• See how everything works from an attendee's perspective.

• Practice setting up a virtual event before creating your actual event.

• Practice a run of talks with your speakers without making changes to your actual event.

• Preempt and troubleshoot any difficulties your attendees may have, and work out any kinks in your event setup.

Who is HeySummit Suitable For?

Thanks to the pricing plans, HeySummit is a versatile platform. It’s suitable for solopreneurs, industry leaders, and organizations of all sizes that want to build and foster an online community. 

If you’re looking to grow your audience and scale your business without breaking the bank, HeySummit is the place for you. 

Here’s What HeySummit Users Have Said

Here’s a couple of HeySummit’s customer reviews taken from G2 (a website that showcases user reviews). 

"The most powerful virtual summit platform for course creators! I wanted a platform that had great flexibility in how I could deliver the actual speaker sessions, (live, pre-recorded as live, etc) in email capabilities, in having sponsors and in the design of the Summit site. I also needed to know that the experience for the attendees would be seamless and that they would enjoy the speaker sessions when they attended. Also, I wanted a platform where I could sell different kinds of tickets for the events and connect the ticketing to my Stripe account and easily sell "total access" type tickets for the replays after the actual event has ended. In other words, have the event continue to live online as an "evergreen" event and gain ongoing promotion for my online courses, for the products of the other speakers and for the sponsors. 

And the support team! They are incredibly responsive and thoughtful and really care about my questions and technical needs! This is huge for me and it has been a great confirmation that I chose the best possible platform for my events. 

And the development team too! So responsive and excellent. Here is a simple but profoundly important example. I must be able to post links for my speakers so that attendees can find their products and services after the event, and HeySummit has many ways to do this. In almost every way to include links inside HeySummit, when the person clicks the link, a new browser window will open. But I discovered just one place, inside the "speaker bio" that gave me the ability to hyperlink some text, but when it gets clicked on, it takes the person out of the summit site. So I emailed the support team and asked if they could change this so that when the hyperlinked text was clicked on, it would open a new browser window and the person would still have the Summit site open. Very quickly, the support team replied and told me they would give my note to the development team and then, very quickly, the development team added this as a new feature. GREAT! And when I went back and checked my hyperlinks on the bios, they all worked and they opened a new browser window so that I never left the summit. WOW!

I can count on the team at HeySummit to be so responsive and to care so much for all of the small details that ultimately help me produce a successful virtual summit.”

- Larry S. 

“"A great solution for online events of any kind. The interface is pretty intuitive and the help section answered all my questions. I love the ease of setup and the ability to communicate with my speakers and participants directly through the platform. Online summits have a lot of moving parts, and manually keeping track of all the information and communication involved is a challenge. That's all handled right inside this platform and that's a game changer.”

- Julie.K

“"Decent platform for event management. HeySummit was nice to have everything needed for an event on one platform from speakers to attendees. Fairly easy to get set up once you figure it out. The learning curve was not terribly steep. We were able to use HeySummit in a very short turnaround with limited tech help. It is fairly intuitive but does take some time to get it all setup and figure what you are doing. It is great that everything is all on one platform and then the replay of live portions are there for people later. Easy to download CSV files to add attendees to your CRM.”

‍- Karrie B.

“Great team and product. Support is amazing and the product does what it's meant to do. A few features need improving but they are always working on these things. Conducting an online conference event is made easy."

- Anonymous User Review

Hopin vs Zoom vs HeySummit 

Zoom is mostly known for holding large conferences and webinars. But when you compare it to Hopin and HeySummit, there’s a couple of gaps. 

Here’s a general overview of the features Hopin puts more emphasis on compared to Zoom:

• Virtual venues

• Landing page builders 

• Marketing tools

And the main difference between HeySummit compared to Hopin and Zoom is that it’s optimized as a one-stop shop. Customers can start and finish their events all from within HeySummit without having to hire designers, developers, or consultants. 

Moreover, HeySummit assists customers with each step of the process such as managing speakers, sponsors, and generating revenue. 

Here’s a few more features that HeySummit puts more emphasis on compared to Hopin and Zoom:

• Speaker directory

• Viral tools and incentives

In a nutshell, Hopin and HeySummit offer more features than Zoom for customizing your event. 

Both Zoom and Hopin generally rely on attendees of events being comfortable with their platform and their participation, which might make it difficult to test run prior to your event going live. In contrast, HeySummit allows you to ​​experiment with different types of virtual events all from within one place.  

A Final Comparison: Hopin or HeySummit?

Hopin is great for smaller-scale events because of their focus to emulate the feel of an in-person experience. 

As a whole, Hopin relies on attendees to navigate the platform from choosing the talks and speakers they engage with to moving around the exhibition floor. This can get tricky when you have thousands of attendees looking for guidance to find their way around.

HeySummit, on the other hand, specializes in live streaming to larger audiences and making it easy to connect with attendees before and after your event. HeySummit also has lower pricing plans compared to Hopin, and you get to work with their team who are quick to respond to each of your needs. 

Though Hopin is effective for creating online experiences which replicate the feel of face-to-face events, HeySummit wins when it comes to running virtual events from start to finish all in one spot, as well as getting quick support to ensure you create a successful event.

Sign up here for a free 14-day trial.