RingCentral Events vs. Webex Events (formerly Socio)

Hopin is very suitable for large events involving 100+ people where there are only a couple of people speaking. You can have a bunch of features such as networking and all in all, is quite a professional experience to use. For smaller groups, It takes too much effort to set up and isn't worth using over Google Meet or Zoom.

Incentivized

I think it would work for:

• Workshops with many people.
• Quarterly's meetings with people all around the world.
• If you want to create a digital training with lots of participants...

I feel like it's not as needed in videocalls that can be fixed with webex teams because of the number of participants or at events that need a more personal approach where you need everyone constantly interacting.

Incentivized

• Hopin constantly is iterating to create a really user-friendly back-end system. As a company, it recognizes that event managers are being faced with the challenge of becoming virtual production technicians and mak[ing] that change easier to manage.
• Hopin's back-end studio broadcast system makes it easy to create a seamless stream between pre-recorded and live presentations, with additional branding assets to make the overall stream look more professional and put together.
• Hopin's networking and polling functionalities create great engagement within the platform that is measurable.
• Hopin's ability to integrate with Salesforce and Marketo makes the lead flow process automatic and saves Event Managers from having to transfer that data manually.

Incentivized

• It has quite a few optional and customizable features that can be utilized.
• It's easy to integrate your existing tools like Zoom, YouTube, Vimeo, and streaming services.
• It's flexible in the way that you upload content in that you can enter things one at a time on the website, or use a spreadsheet to upload a larger amount of content.

Incentivized

• The customizing capability of their landing pages and event is extensive but difficult to do without a background in design. Although designed to be user-friendly, it still takes a large investment of time and learning to do well.
• The registrant join flow for their embedded registration form is lengthy and clunky. Thankfully if you utilize one of their many automation integrations, this isn't a necessary function.

Incentivized

• The standard template to build out the community is pretty rigid. We had to adjust some of our styling and graphics to account for what Socio's template allowed.
• Inability for event admins to make account changes for users. Several times we had users change jobs, therefore, changing their emails. Each time, we had to go through Socio support to get them access to their account.
• Documentation and knowledgebase could be more substantive.

We most likely will, but with such a high annual renewal rate, we are forced to look at alternative solutions yearly when that license fee comes due

Incentivized

Of course something could happen to our orgs ability to put on a conference or Socio could fundamentally change their product or their customer service - but barring any magor shift there is nothing that is even close to competing for our attention here.

Incentivized

I'm a pretty tech-savvy person but I still feel that Hopin was pretty user-friendly even for those of you who are less tech-savvy. Great thing is, you can play around and test the platform with the free version which allows you to get familiar with it before committing to the paid. I learned most of it on the free version which then made me more confident when deciding to use the paid version. Not only did it help me on the setup side, but it also proved to me that this was what we needed to do what we needed to do.

Incentivized

Some Android users could not get the app to work, so they had to use the web-based version of our conference guide. Most functionality was still there, but they could not pull up the QR code, which impeded the registration process. The presence of the log in with Apple ID button caused issues because most work emails were not attached to Apple ID, which caused access issues.

Incentivized

For the most part you're able to get a response from a support person within a few minutes, but there was a stretch when Hopin was reshuffling its staff that it sometimes took 24-48 hours, which is too long. However, as long as the staff remains stable - which seems likely - then its Support team is usually quite responsive.

Incentivized

Socio (now WebexEvents) is one of two products I use that gets customer service right. Not only can you get an answer from an actual person quickly during business hours - but if you are asking after hours, you know the response will be waiting for you in the morning. Not only are they fast, but they are also smart about their products and customers. There is very little back and forth trying to explain the problem I am having, or the new way I am trying to use their product, that may even be novel for them.

Incentivized

Hopin has always topped our evaluations as the best platform providing the most complete range of desired features for the price they offer. For us, they lead the way in events platforms, and unless the group of people is small, we will use them as our first option for events at scale.

Incentivized

WebEx Events has the same functionality as many other platforms, but with a more affordable price tag. I have also found it to be more intuitive and easy to use on the user side. I don't have experience on the administrative side with other platforms but we have been very satisfied with our experience with WebEx Events.

Incentivized

• Hopin has allowed us to extend our reach and become a go-to option for event organizers in the genre fiction space.
• We are able to host multiple events per month, some of which would require a mix of paid staff and volunteers with 10 times (or more! I've been on those teams in the past!) the number of people we need using the tools and automation in Hopin.
• The immersive experience converts 87% of attendees--either future event registrations or other products and services from us/our event partners.

Incentivized

• We had more sponsorship applications than usual due to using Webex and the multiple sponsorship capabilities.
• We had more attendance than in previous years due to using Webex since it is so incredibly user-friendly.
• We increased ROI by using Webex over other platforms due to pricing and features.