The 6 Best Virtual Event Platforms for 2022

Your virtual event can be whatever you want it to be, from a small team meeting to a large-scale conference.

But, with so many kinds of online events, how do you know what’s the best virtual event platform to choose?

We talk about the features to look for and give you our list of the six best platforms – chosen for versatility, engagement, and ease of use. But first, our top pick.

Our top pick for the best virtual event platform

On the three key areas of versatility, engagement, and ease of use, it’s impossible to ignore our favorite video engagement platform, Livestorm.

Here’s why:

• Versatility – you can use Livestorm for any use case. Livestorm has integrations with over 1,000 apps. Also, it has fully customizable plugins. So, whatever event you can have in person, you can have it virtually with Livestorm.
• Engagement – Livestorm is built to engage and has fantastic in-room engagement features – crucial to creating memorable virtual events that get participants communicating and contributing.
• User-friendliness – events are intuitive to set up and, since Livestorm is a web-based platform, attendees can join with a link (so no need to download any apps). Also, it’s truly an all-in-one solution – all Livestorm’s features are fully integrated, so it’s simple to use for all your different event types, from work meetings to large-scale webinars.
• Free plan – you can enjoy all Livestorm’s features with the free plan, including unlimited event replays.

For more about virtual events, a closer look at our top pick, and to see our other favorite virtual event platforms, read on.

What are the different kinds of virtual event platforms?

Here are some examples of what virtual event platforms cater towards:

• Industry conferences and presentations
• Webinars
• Professional onboarding and training
• Customer training
• Recruitment fairs
• Product demos
• Workshops
• Online courses
• Hybrid learning
• Q&As
• Team meetings

Just as these event types vary in terms of size, engagement, and complexity – to better visualize how, take a look at the graph below:

If your organization only ever experienced one of these virtual event types, you could identify which one, and then select and use a virtual event platform specialized in that area. For example, Google Meet is a good choice for one-to-one meetings, and Hopin for large-scale events.

But if your organization is interested in a range of interactive virtual events for employees, partners, and customers, you need a versatile platform that can deliver it all, from small, spontaneous get-togethers to big, complex webinars and conferences.

6 best virtual event platforms

Livestorm: our top pick

Our top pick is a video engagement platform you can use for quick, spontaneous calls with your team to major, live streaming events, like webinars, product demos, and townhalls – and everything in between.

Here are just some of the use cases Livestorm specializes in:

• Product demos
• Customer training
• Online courses
• Podcast interviews
• Live events
• Live Q&As
• Employee onboarding
• Company communication
• Hiring sessions

As well as being a fully versatile platform for all kinds of virtual event, Livestorm has other fantastic features that its users can take advantage of:

User-friendliness

Livestorm is a browser-based platform, so attendees only need a link to join in a call, meeting, session, or online event. Also, Livestorm makes it quick and easy for hosts to set up new events, send out reminder emails, and create registration pages.

Engagement features

As a video engagement platform, Livestorm is brilliant for attendee participation, with multimedia sharing, reaction emojis, digital whiteboards, live polls, breakout rooms, video replays, engagement analytics, and more.

Integrations and plugins

Livestorm connects to an enormous number of apps – both natively in-built apps and any app within the Zapier directory. You can use these for anything from marketing and advertising to analytics and messaging.

Also, with Livestorm plugins, your developers can create additional features and functions, and so customize Livestorm to support all your fun virtual event ideas, including custom commands.

Zoom

Like Livestorm, Zoom makes creating a virtual event simple, with customization options, data analytics, and event landing pages. If you take a look around Zoom’s events, you’ll find categories ranging from health and fitness, to entertainment and visual arts, to community and spirituality.

Zoom offers a stable platform with engagement features for free, paid, live, and on-demand events.

Without doubt, Zoom is a great platform, but one drawback is that its browser-based version isn’t as complete as when it’s used in-app.

Also, while Zoom’s versatility is a big plus, its different products (for example, Zoom Meetings, Zoom Events & Webinar, and Zoom Rooms) aren’t fully integrated with each other, and you need to pay for each separate one. So it’s not a true all-in-one tool like Livestorm.

Hopin

Hopin specializes in large-scale virtual events, with the platform able to support days-long events with up to 100,000 attendees, such as big international conferences, leadership summits, expos, and fairs.

On the Hopin website, you can check out the Explore section, where you can see some of the public virtual events that are taking place. As with Livestorm, you can customize your event and landing pages with your own branding, and then post-event, review analytics data to glean information on participation and engagement.

Hoppier

Hoppier’s fun approach to virtual event engagement gives hosts the chance to create Hoppier virtual cards attendees can use to get delivered to their door meals, drinks, and gifts. A great choice for remote Friday lunches with your team and work celebrations, you can also take advantage of Hoppier for corporate gifting and guest catering.

Hoppier isn’t a versatile event platform like Livestorm, and can’t compete with Livestorm’s fantastic engagement features, but it’s a fun way to get your team together virtually for parties and other special occasions.

Gamerjibe

Gamerjibe is a virtual event platform that specializes in conferences and networking events within a 3D virtual space for hosts and guests. Once you join in an event, you can start exploring the virtual world to meet with other attendees, catch a presentation within a virtual theater, chat around a virtual campfire, or even sit down to enjoy some virtual fishing.

Hubilo

Hubilo is designed for large corporate events, like summits, trade fairs, award shows, and conferences. The platform has a user-friendly dashboard for organizers to create branded virtual events, which they can then follow up on with reports showing KPIs and ROI.

What can you do with a virtual event platform?

With the best virtual event platforms, you can create whatever kind of event you need or wish for.

Whether it’s an all-hands team meeting, a virtual hiring event, a webinar with business partners, or an industry conference with guest speakers – if you can do it in person, you can do it online.

With the ability to draw in partners, attendees, and guests from across multiple time zones, virtual events can be fantastic opportunities for learning, networking, and showing off your brand.

And as long as you’re using a versatile, intuitive, all-in-one solution like Livestorm that makes it as easy to create events as it is to join them, the possibilities for your virtual events are endless.

Frequently asked questions about virtual event platforms

What is a virtual event platform?

A virtual event platform allows you to create in-person events online. These events could be anything ranging from small team meetings to major conferences and expos with thousands of guests. The best virtual event platforms are safe, easy to use, and so versatile that they’re suitable for you, whatever your event.

What are the best free virtual event platforms?

The best virtual event platforms are first and foremost versatile, allowing you to create any kind of virtual event. Among the best examples are Livestorm and Zoom.

What is a virtual networking platform?

A virtual networking platform is a tool for networking events online. Typically, the best of these platforms can be also used as video conferencing tools for one-to-one meetings, webinars, and professional training. A virtual networking platform should also offer in-room engagement features, like live chat panels, multimedia sharing, and breakout rooms. For example, Livestorm offers all of these features in its user-friendly, browser-based platform.

Are virtual event platforms good for conferences?

Virtual event platforms are fantastic for virtual conferences, as long as you’re using a virtual tool that gives you the chance to easily create the event you want.

What’s the best virtual event platform for engagement?

The best virtual event platform for engagement is Livestorm, which is a highly versatile video engagement platform, used for a huge variety of use cases, such as webinars, conferences, professional training, hackathons, and more.