Best Virtual Summit Platforms

Hosting a virtual summit is not everyone’s cup of tea; it requires a lot of effort to plan, manage, and execute. That’s why picking the right tool to host your virtual summit is so important. By making the right selection, you can ensure that your hard work pays off with a successful event. A good virtual event platform will provide the necessary features to streamline your planning, engage your attendees, and deliver a seamless virtual experience.

But, what is the “right” platform? The right virtual summit platform should align with your goals, accommodate your event's scale and complexity, and offer a user-friendly interface for both organizers and participants. With the rapid growth of virtual events and the increasing number of virtual summit platforms available, choosing the best one for your specific needs can be an overwhelming task. That’s why we created this article, to help you choose the best virtual summit platform that will fit all your needs. 

Let’s dive into the top 10 virtual summit platforms of 2024.

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10 Best Virtual Summit Platforms & Softwares of 2024

1) Remo

To execute the perfect virtual summit, look no further than Remo. Remo is a virtual networking and webinar platform that drives real connections, deepens engagement, and delights attendees. Historically, people have viewed virtual events or summits as uninteresting or lack-luster, especially when compared to in-person summits. Remo takes that concept and turns it on its heel with its unique, immersive virtual interface. With Remo, you can finally create events that feel as real or engaging as face-to-face gatherings. No more boring conversations, only 100 percent active engagement. 

Remo is equipped with all the necessary tools that are required to host a virtual summit, and it offers the best overall user experience.

Key Benefits and Features of Remo:

• Unmatched Networking Experience

One of the most essential parts of summits, both in-person and virtually, is networking. Remo's virtual event platform has one of the best networking capabilities that enables uninterrupted and seamless networking between speakers, business leaders, and attendees. One of the biggest concerns attendees have with virtual summits is the lack of genuine conversations or networking possible. But, on Remo, it’s the complete opposite— with Remo, you’re getting as close to the in-person experience as you can while still getting all the benefits of going virtual (global audience, lower costs, e.t.c.). Remo helps to build a two-way professional relationship between all the attendees and experts. 

Each Remo event space is made up of multiple virtual tables that function as individual breakout rooms where attendees can engage in smaller group conversations. These can be set up as different topic-based discussions that attendees can join freely according to their interests. Moreover, just like at an in-person summit, attendees are able to walk in and out of these rooms as they wish. There are options for private rooms as well. All of which help to bring back the genuine element of networking, even in a digital space.

• Sponsorship 

Sponsors are a must when it comes to virtual summits. Sponsorship opportunities and other content partnerships can help boost your event revenue. In order to get sponsors though, you have to be able to deliver some value to them, and this is usually helped by your chosen virtual platform. Remo is no exception.

Remo is equipped with many tools that can mutually benefit both the sponsors and event organizers. With features like customizable table names, interactive banners (clickable displays), and in-app CTA’s, you have the ability to boost your sponsors’ visibility and drive tangible results for them. You can even create sponsorship tiers to boost your revenue and offer different benefits to each of your sponsors.

Interactive banners are also very useful to display all kinds of information – logos, videos, demos, even embedded product catalogs. Best of all, with these banners you can even add CTA’s to directly impact their lead generation and revenue. Remo can even provide you with a list of attendees that either opened a sponsor’s banner or clicked on their CTA, so you can share this with them for direct ROI.

• Full Customization

In order to create a virtual summit that follows your vision, Remo offers a large variety of customization capabilities. Beyond the basic customization options that most platforms offer, like custom colors or adding logos, Remo also offers advanced ones like custom floor plans and white labeling.Remo’s events use a unique concept of floor plans– these are like the virtual space or venue for your event. By default, there are about 80+ different floor plans you can choose from when creating your virtual summits, from poolside beach houses to conference rooms. But, if you’ve got a very specific vision, you can even create your own bespoke floor plans. For example, if you want to recreate a physical location familiar to your audience or you want to brand a space with your specific company colors, a custom floor plan lets you do all that and more.In addition to all that, Remo also offers a white label add-on which lets you rebrand the platform as your own. This involves removing Remo’s logo and replacing it with your own, hosting the events on your own subdomain, and even customizing the favicon used. This helps ensure your brand is the only one in the spotlight during your virtual summit while improving its visibility among attendees.

• Interactive Engagement Tools 

It is a must for virtual platforms to cultivate engaging, interactive, and immersive sessions and environments in order to keep an audiences’ attention. On Remo, this is done throughout the entire virtual summit with its immersive environment and engagement-specific tools.

Thanks to Remo’s unique floorplan concept, attendees are fully immersed into the event right from the minute they land in the event. Remo also comes with fun and interactive tools that can elevate engagement and interaction during presentations or keynotes. For example, with the help of features like polls, quizzes or live Q&A, Remo fosters active participation from attendees. Whereas, features like reactions, or live chat can give a speaker real-time feedback. Remo also goes beyond the traditional engagement features to also offer innovative tools like, physically bringing attendees onto the main stage, collaborative whiteboards, and immersive sound effects (laughter, applause, drumroll). 

• Analytics and Reporting Tools

Unlike in-person summits, where gathering data from attendees will take extra effort, Remo makes it possible to get analytics and report data on demand easily. 

A virtual summit usually has multiple speakers or sub-topics, and it can be useful to see how each of these performs in terms of capturing audience attention. To help with that, Remo provides real-time analytics, like a live counter and embeddable pop-ups you can use to measure attendee feedback and attention. Even post-summit, this feedback can be useful to inform the content strategy of your future summits. Moreover, post-summit, Remo also provides robust analytics covering session metrics, engagement data, and demographic data on your attendees. All of which can be helpful to prove event ROI to your stakeholders and inform future event planning. 

• Provides an Immersive and Easy-to-use Interface 

Remo is not your typical, boring, and traditional audio-video web conference; it is a human-first virtual event platform that facilitates an immersive environment online. Remo recognizes the environment you’re in and can set the tone for the type of conversations a user will have. The more comfortable and interactive the environment you’re in is, the more engaged you will be. 

In addition, Remo aims to replicate real human interactions in a digital environment. This makes it even easier for first-time attendees to learn how to use and navigate the platform. Without the worry of technical issues or where to click, attendees are able to focus on and enjoy the actual summit content. 

Beyond just attendees finding it simple, organizers too can enjoy the straight-forward interface that Remo presents. Despite offering a lot of advanced functionality too, Remo also gives organizers the ability to set up virtual events in minutes. With an easy-to-use platform, organizers can save countless hours figuring out the various settings and features, and use that time instead to better prepare for their upcoming virtual summit.

• Dedicated Customer Support and Comprehensive Self-help Guides

Remo has a skilled and professional customer support team that prioritizes customers' satisfaction. There are many virtual summit platforms that have weak customer support, which poses a huge risk to your event. Remo offers a plethora of channels and contact points, so you can be sure you’ll be able to reach someone when you need it. 

Unlike other virtual summit platforms, Remo also opts to use a real support team wherever it can, including its live chat. This way you can get the answers to your specific problems without being shown the same help article twenty times. Speaking of articles, Remo also comes with a comprehensive help center, packed with over 100 help articles that will have answers for just about anything you’re looking for. 

Most virtual summit platforms will offer different levels of customer support, depending on the plan you’re on. However, Remo believes customer support is as essential to your virtual experience as any other feature, so it offers the same high quality live support on most of its plans. It also offers an add-on for event support, which gives you access to a dedicated support rep that will physically attend your event and be there to help troubleshoot if anyone needs it.

Reviews:  Remo has a solid 4.4 out of 5 star rating on G2 from 232 reviews.

Pros

• Large groups of people are able to move freely between tables and rooms. They are able to share, connect, and collaborate with each other in a genuine way.
• Floor plans are fully customizable according to the organizer’s vision and virtual summit needs.
• Great customer support that is available to you at any given time of the day.
• Events on Remo are highly visual and immersive, with customers claiming it’s the closest experience to in-person events as you can get online.

Cons

• Remo doesn’t offer as many native integrations compared to other virtual summit platforms. Although it does still integrate with Zapier (which gives you access to other applications), and there is mention that an external API is currently in the works.

Remo’s Pricing

Remo offers three pricing plans that users can choose from depending on their requirements, namely frequency of events, expected attendance, and virtual summit duration:

• Starter: The starter plan starts at $299 per month for 200 attendees. It also gives you access to their range of 3D floor plans, engagement tools like polls, quizzes, and Q&A, and ticketing. This plan can be bought as a quarterly or annual subscription and is best suited for those looking to host multiple virtual summits, as it gives you unlimited events.
• One-Time Events: The one-time events plan starts at $699 per month. With this plan, you have more control over your plan limits, like how many content/sponsor displays or organizer licenses you need.  This plan is more suited for those looking to host a larger-scale one-off virtual summit.
• Enterprise: With this plan, customers get access to advanced customization and privacy features, like custom branding or SSO. If you are interested in the Enterprise plan, you will need to inquire and get a custom quote from Remo’s team.

Remo is one of the more cost-effective virtual summit platforms on this list, as it only charges for what you need. While it does note starting prices, you do need to contact their sales team for a custom quote based on your actual needs.

2) vFairs

vFairs is another top virtual summit platform that creates a great user experience with an immersive online environment. Speakers, delegates, and attendees are able to engage with each other flawlessly by interacting with networking rooms and exhibit halls. vFairs provides a realistic-looking 3D virtual venue and avatars that let guests physically walk around a space, much like an in-person summit. Although vFairs offers a great set of tools and features, the overall functionality of the virtual summit platform can be a bit complex and limited.  

Key Benefits and Features of vFairs

• Great Networking Capabilities

As mentioned earlier, summits are a great platform for networking. That’s why most virtual summit platforms focus on giving an exceptional networking experience for attendees and speakers. vFairs’ networking capabilities are considered quite advanced though with features like spatial connect for spontaneous and casual networking, smart matchmaking for recommended connections, and roundtables for more structured conversations. This variety gives you the most flexibility to offer networking in a way that fits your planned virtual summit. These features can help attendees interact and connect with others that share similar interests in a variety of ways.

• Virtual Environment

Like Remo, vFairs also offers a dynamic virtual environment that can be customized according to the vision of the event organizers. However, vFairs offers a more life-like 3D approach complete with actual human avatars, which differs from Remo's more functional yet realistic approach to venue. It is vital to give your users a real-life experience in the virtual world to elevate the vibe of the summit. On vFairs though, if you wish to customize the space to your exact tastes, you do need to get in contact with their team and request separately for this.

Pros

• vFairs provides an immersive and interesting user-interface that captivates users when they first join.
• vFairs supports in-person, hybrid and virtual events with tools to support each type.

Cons

• The set up process can get complicated for first-time hosts and in some cases require a high level of HTML knowledge. 
• Customer support can be a hit or miss at times, with some reviews claiming they are not helpful and take too long.
• The 3D virtual environment may be very immersive and visually appealing, however it is also difficult for some guests to navigate, especially those who are not tech savvy. 

Reviews: vFairs received a 4.7 out of 5 star rating on G2 from 1626 reviews.

vFairs Pricing

vFairs prices its platform using 2 different models (subscription and per-event), so you can choose which works best for you. For their subscription plans, these differ based on number of registrations, level of support, and features:

• Basic Annual License: 1000 registrations, Basic Support, and Unlimited Events
• Premium Annual License: 2000 registrations, Premium Support, and Unlimited Sponsor Booths
• Enterprise Annual License: 5000 registrations, Dedicated Project Manager, and Custom Integrations

Conversely, for their per event/product plan, vFairs only charges based on the specific modules you are interested in. For a virtual summit, you would most likely need to purchase the virtual event platform license and registration & ticketing package. Please note though, these come with only 500 registrations and 15 sponsor booths. 

vFair does not disclose their pricing for either model on its website. So, if you are interested you will have to contact their sales team for a custom quote. They also do not offer a free trial at the moment, to give you a chance to try out the experience and platform first before committing.

3) Livestorm

Livestorm is another virtual event platform that can help you host an engaging virtual summit. It is a virtual summit platform that helps you simplify access and manage your online event seamlessly. With Livestorm, you will no longer have to turn to ten different tools to plan and run your event. It prides itself on being an all-in-one solution that makes your planning process easier, more straight-forward and faster. However, it did introduce a relatively new pricing model that has brought out a lot of concerns from past and new customers alike as it’s quite an expensive model.

Key Benefits and Features of Livestorm

• No Accounts Required

Many virtual event or summit platforms require guests attending events to create accounts with the platform itself. However, Livestorm gives organizers the option to remove this authentication requirement, thereby simplifying and speeding up the process to join events for users. Not to mention, it works great for users that do not yet trust the platform enough to provide authentication details.

• Detailed Analytics

Livestorm provides detailed analytics to the event organizer. They are able to access online traffic data, replay views, monitor total attendees by session, and more. This analytical data is helpful when it comes to planning future summits, as you can learn what worked and what needs some improvement. However, it should be noted their analytics are very robust, they are only available post-event. Livestorm as of now does not have any way to measure attendee satisfaction midway through an event, like Remo does.

Pros

• Multi language support is appreciated by users. It has support in 24 languages. 
• The UI and UX are intuitive for both the hosts and audience. Easy to interact with and navigate. The features are also easy to access. 

Cons

• According to reviews, the quality of audio-video on Livestorm is quite poor, compared to other virtual summit platforms.
• A lot of technical issues have also been reported by past users, including frequent crashes and problems joining events).
• Livestorm charges per registration upfront, so you could easily spend thousands on empty seats if not everyone ends up attending, or worse you can block people from registering if you haven’t purchased enough spaces.

Reviews: Livestorm scored a 4.4 out of 5 rating on G2 from 1,482 reviews. 

Livestorm's Pricing

Livestorm offers 4 plans at different prices that come with different features.

• Free Plan: Free of charge, with up to 30 registrations and a duration of 20 minutes per session. 
• Pro Plan:  It costs $99 per month for 100 registrations, and has a duration of 4 hours per session. With this plan, you can scale up to 1000 registrations.
• Business Plan: Users will have to contact the support team to get a price quote. Starting at 500 registrations, it can scale up to 3000 registrations with a duration of 4 hours per session and VIP support.
• Enterprise Plan: Users will have to contact the support team to get a price quote. It also goes from 500 to 3000 registrations, however, it increases duration to 12 hours per session, gives you a dedicated CSM, and access to enterprise integrations. 

It’s important to note that Livestorm charges by “monthly active contacts,"  unlike other virtual summit platforms. This means any unique user that has registered for or joined an event (i.e., registrations, not attendees) will cost you. Charging by registrations in this way, mostly  means you will be overpaying– as with most virtual summits, not everyone that registers will end up attending. Not to mention, a few past reviews commented on how Livestorm did not provide any in-event notifications if there are more users trying to access your event but you have run out of monthly active contacts. This can leave a bad impression for those users unable to attend or register, even if you had the extra budget to purchase more contacts.

4) WebEx

Webex can become a go-to solution to elevate your virtual summit experience, as it provides various ways to make your virtual summit interactive, engaging, and productive. The virtual platform does this by enabling the audience to share their reactions with gesture recognition, animated emojis, dynamic polling, and more. It is a cloud-based platform that lets you host virtual summits and webinars with thousands of attendees. However, in terms of pricing, it can again be on the higher side as compared to other virtual summit platforms on this list.

Key Benefits and Features of WebEx

• Good Engagement Features

Cisco WebEx provides engaging features, such as break-out sessions, exhibition halls, animated virtual backgrounds, and much more. All of which can keep even virtual attendees engaged for a long duration. Attendees and speakers can use these features to interact in real-time with each other during a virtual summit session.

• Integrate Live Interpreters

Webex has integrated live interpreters, including sign language, into their virtual platform, keeping inclusivity and accessibility in mind, a big thing for virtual summits. This interpretation is also customizable by creating a view for deaf users to ensure that the interpreter video is always visible on their end.

Pros

• Users love the simplicity and integration of WebEx’s mobile and web versions. 
• Consistently high quality audio and video which promotes uninterrupted communication during presentations and conversations. 

Cons

• You are not able to chat and share files through WebEx; a completely separate app is required. 
• Some users feel that the customer support is not up to par and needs to be more responsive. 
• A few reviews noted the platform could be glitchy and unreliable at times.

Reviews: Webex received a 4.4 out of 5 rating on G2 from 475 reviews.

WebEx Pricing

WebEx by CISCO offers several packages and modules, depending on the type of event you are looking to host. Looking at their pricing, Webex is a platform mostly geared towards larger-scale summits and events. There are three modules; meetings, calling, and webinars & events; but for virtual summits, you’d most likely be looking at the webinar & events package. Within this package, they offer two plans: Webex webinars and events 

For Webex webinars, the price differs based on the attendee capacity. Prices start at $275/month for 1,000 attendees and unlimited webinars. It comes with practice sessions, breakout rooms, CRM integrations, and live on-demand streaming. 

For Webex events, you will be required to contact the sales team. The attendee capacity also ranges from 1,000 to 10,000+, according to your needs. It comes with ticketing and sponsorship capabilities, multiple streaming options, branded virtual event hub agendas, and much more that can help you elevate the overall experience of your virtual summit. 

The core difference between these two packages (besides the price) is the level of interaction that is possible. With Webex webinars, it’s more the traditional one-way presentation with breakout rooms for networking. Whereas, with Webex events, you get a more comprehensive event experience with monetization and networking options too.

5) Zuddl

Zuddl is a feature-rich events and webinar platform best suited for B2B marketers and summit-conference organizers to run and plan virtual summits for revenue. This events platform aims to accommodate a large audience with its embeddable widgets, virtual lobby, webcasting integrations, 1:1 networking, and much more. While Zuddl is equipped with many effective and responsive event management tools, it lacks customization in reporting features, which can be a great downside for organizers and summit delegates. 

Key Benefits and Features of Zuddl

• Embeddable Widgets

Embeddable widgets are a great component to add to your virtual summit landing page. They can be used to display speakers, schedules, images, stickers, and much more. It is fully customizable and responsive across various devices. You just have to create it once and it can be used everywhere. 

Widgets can help display the necessary information regarding your upcoming summit, like the speakers or the delegates that are attending. Attendees will be able to access this information on the landing page and booths as well. 

• Gamification

Gamification is a great engagement tool for attendees to interact with. Virtual summits can sometimes get boring, especially if they're just a series of one-way presentations with a speaker just spouting facts. However, gamification will help capture and maintain an audience’s attention by rewarding them for engaging. By distributing points or rewards, you’re further motivating your attendees to actually interact with the speaker or actively participate in the virtual summit.

Organizers can even adjust the gamification settings according to their summit agenda. For example, if Q&A is a large component of sessions, you could hand out points for asking a question. Zuddl even takes this concept further by introducing a leaderboard, where you and attendees can see who has earned the most points. This way, you can also instill a healthy sense of competition amongst attendees and further motivate them to interact more. 

Pros

• Zuddl has great, fast, and reliable customer service. Users appreciated how their team was able to assist them with technical scheduling and organization issues.
• The design customization that the platform offers is huge. From color themes to fonts to background images and even templates, Zuddl provides a full custom design experience. 

Cons

• Zuddl’s breakout rooms and private rooms do not really provide any sort of privacy that users may need. 
• The backend of the platform is limited; it does the job, but it lacks features, even for skilled technical experts. 
• The reporting feature is limited in terms of giving real time data and overall attendee information. 

Reviews: Zuddl received a solid 4.8 out of 5 rating on G2 from 173 reviews.

Zuddl Pricing

Zuddl offers 3 types of pricing modules based on the type of events you are looking to run:

• The Webinars plan starts at $10,000 annually. It is ideal for B2B marketers that are looking to gain revenue through hosting webinars. This gives you access to their basic webinar platform, complete with a registration solution and on-demand videos. 
• The Field Events plan starts at $10,000 annually but is more suited for onsite events
• The Conference plan starts at $12,000 annually. It is ideal for companies and organizations that are looking to host big events, such as virtual summits. It offers virtual, in-person and hybrid compatibility, complete with analytics and basic registration. It’s important to note, though, that the virtual platform and ticketing come at an additional cost.

For virtual summits, the Conference plan seems to be most suitable for these types of large-scale, multi-session events. It has all the necessary features and tools to host a summit (though access to the virtual platform is charged as an add-on to the plan).

To get an accurate quote based on your virtual summit needs and size, you will need to contact their team directly.

6) HeySummit

HeySummit is a dedicated virtual summit platform that is ideal for both big or small summits. This virtual summit platform’s main goal is to increase your audience reach and revenue. With its multi-session capability, streamlined integrations, and simplified experience, you are able to manage a fairly complex virtual summit. While HeySummit offers a robust solution for managing a virtual summit, it lacks when it comes to physically hosting the virtual summit. HeySummit still requires you to integrate with video streaming providers to actually stream summit sessions and it offers no face-to-face networking opportunities for attendees.

Key Benefits and Features of HeySummit

• Speaker Management and Dashboard

HeySummit offers streamlined speaker management for both you and your speakers. It provides an easily accessible dashboard directly to registered speakers, which they can use to access and manage their talk details, links, and bios. This helps to promote self-management and saves your effort & time. The speaker dashboard is powered with features like content control, live stats, easy invites, time slot choice, and more. 

• Video and Streaming Integrations

When setting up virtual summits on HeySummit, you can also choose the format of each session and its provider. So, for each speaker session you can uniquely decide whether that particular presentation/session will be presented live or pre-recorded, as well as which streaming provider will be used. HeySummit supports a variety of providers, like Streamyard, Restream, Youtube, and even Vimeo.

Pros

• Extremely versatile and easy to use for every user.
• Comprehensive dashboard for organizers and speakers to self-manage and save unnecessary back and forth

Cons

• There is no dedicated exhibit area on majority of plans, so there’s far less opportunities for sponsor visibility
• Relies on integrating with another video provider to actually host the presentation session or talk.
• No live networking opportunities for attendees via audio-video conversations

Reviews: HeySummit holds a 4.8 out 5 stars rating on G2 from 23 reviews.

HeySummit Pricing

HeySummit offers four pricing tiers, based on a combination of features:

• Starter: It starts at $49 per month and it features tools such as reporting, landing page builder, and the speaker dashboard.
• Growth: It starts at $99 per month, and offers everything on the starter plan and marketing integrations, as well as custom domains.
• Success: It starts at $349 per month, and it adds opportunities for ticketing, in-person/hybrid events, and removing HeySummit branding.
• Enterprise: This price quickly jumps up to $10,000 starting price, however, the only advised difference is SSO compatibility and priority support. Interested users will have to contact their sales team for an exact quote though.

For all non-Enterprise plans, you can request a free trial to first get a feel for how the platform can help your virtual summits. If you are interested in their Enterprise offering, you will need to talk to their sales team first.

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7) SpotMe

SpotMe is a virtual event platform that can help you create engaging virtual summits. As a bonus, it supports hybrid and in-person events as well. The platform’s priority is to create an engaging environment. With the help of networking and interactive activity feeds, you are able to connect with attendees and speakers at the summit with ease. Engagement features such as live applause, breakout rooms, and more help to capture the attention of the audience and increase the overall interaction of the summit. Overall, it is easy to navigate for the audience; however, when it comes to managing the backend, SpotMe is not the easiest platform to use. 

Key Features and Benefits of SpotMe

• Activity Feed

Spotme’s activity feed is a great tool to keep the audience engaged. More than just the traditional breakout rooms, it transforms your attendees into a digital community that encourages interaction with each other at all times. It can even act as a place where attendees are able to find the next speaker and interact with them. A lot of discussions can take place on the activity feed to further promote the learning and knowledge gained from the summit. It gives attendees a chance to connect with other individuals with similar interests. 

The activity feed also acts as a great notice board, where announcements or further discussions can take place. For example, speakers can share recorded videos, while organizers are able to display important updates and schedules on the activity feed.

• Live Captioning

Keeping accessibility and inclusivity in mind, SpotMe has gone beyond language barriers by integrating captioning, interpretation, and translation tools. These accessibility features are able to support 30 languages. Not to mention, the captioning tool is incredibly helpful in promoting inclusiveness for all attendees.

Pros

• Spotme allows a lot of customization, from design to the agenda. 
• Lots of engagement opportunities between speakers and attendees, such as surveys, activity challenges, Q&A, and live polling. 

Cons

• The pricing can be a bit too high for the service they provide. 
• Although the app is easy to navigate, when it comes to setting up the backend, it can get unnecessarily complex and difficult to use.
• A lot of reviews mentioned while SpotMe does provide the basic features to host a virtual summit, it does lack a lot of the advanced functionality other platforms have, like user analytics and calendar invitations.

Reviews: Spotme holds a 4.7 out of 5 star rating on G2 from 174 reviews.

SpotMe Pricing

‍SpotMe offers four pricing tiers, based on a combination of features and the number of events you can host: 

• Starter plan: You can host up to 2 virtual events, including all the basic features.
• Business plan: You can host up to 5 virtual events, including getting access to integrations.
• Advanced plan: You can host up to 25 virtual events and get SSO
• Enterprise plan: You can host a custom number of events and choose which features are available.

While SpotMe does not disclose the pricing of the plans it offers, past reviews have regarded the platform as expensive. If you are interested though, you will have to contact their sales team. The platform does offer a free trial though, so if you are interested in trying out their functionality first, you can ask their Sales team for free trial access.

8) BigMarker

BigMarker is a virtual summit platform that is best for hosting large-scale virtual summits with a worldwide audience. The platform enables orgnizers to bring attendees, delegates and speakers closer to each other in a virtual setting. It creates value by connecting attendees with each other who share common interests, this is extremely beneficial in summits where one of the main goals is to form business connections and relationships. Although the platform is packed with features, when it comes to its customer support, it is lagging behind. There are many times when customers are not able to reach them and get the support that they need, especially in the face of technical issues.

Key Benefits and Features of BigMarker

• Speed Networking

This feature brings a fun and interactive element that elevates the overall experience of attendees. It works by recommending individuals with similar interests to each other, based on collected data from a user’s profile. Then, attendees can decide whether they want to connect or not. It also has the ability to start 1-1 video chats directly with your recommended connections. Speed networking helps to quicken the process of networking and matching people with similar interests. Users will no longer have to spend their time on unnecessary 1-1 conversations that serve no purpose. 

• Customizable Virtual Lobby

Having an immersive virtual lobby is a nice touch for any large-scale virtual summit. The lobby plays an essential role in helping the attendees, speakers, and delegates navigate the virtual summit. Not to mention, it is also usually the first interaction a guest will have with your actual event, so it must be a good, on-brand experience. With BigMarker, organizers are able to fully personalize the vibe of the lobby with 2D and 3D customization tools such as templates, adding your logo, theme color, and more. This way, you can create a solid first impression on users that enhances your branding.

Pros

• Bigmarker enables you to design and build your virtual summit with the modules you want, as it provides full module customization. 
• The system is easy to use without the need for extensive training. 

Cons

• Compared to other online summit platforms, Bigmarker is less user-friendly for the attendees. 
• Users often complained about the platform being laggy and experiencing freezing issues during live sessions. 
• A lot of reviews mentioned the customer support was unreliable, stating they were not able to reach representatives when issues came up.

Reviews: BigMarker holds a 4.7 out of 5 star rating on G2 from 420 reviews.

Pricing:

‍BigMarker offers several packages, but for a virtual summit, you would most likely go for either their Webinar plan or Event package, depending on the scale of your summit.

• ‍For Webinar plans: These offer 3 different tiers: Basic, Enterprise, and Enterprise+. All 3 of these plans vary in features and the number of attendees you can host (1,000 to 500,000 attendees). ‍
• For Event packages: This package also comes with 3 tiers: Single Event, Multi-Event License, and Unlimited Event License. The good thing about all these 3 tiers is they all accommodate audiences of up to 500,000. The major differences between each is the number of events you can host, as you probably guessed from their plan names.

Whichever package you go for though, you do need to contact their sales team for exact quotes based on your virtual summit needs. BigMarker also does not offer any indication of starting prices, nor a free trial for you to use to test out first.

9) Goldcast

Goldcast is a virtual event platform best known for its visually appealing and professional-looking interface. The user interface is not only for visual appeal, though; it also contributes to creating a studio-level experience for guests when it comes to presentations. Furthermore, the platform is also equipped with exceptionally useful features like presentation screening for speakers to present their ideas, a virtual lobby for networking, event scheduling, and much more. In terms of post-analytics data, Goldcast falls behind its competitors though. The data that Goldcast provides does not cover all the necessary information to help improve future virtual summits.

Key Benefits and Features of Goldcast

• Next level engagement tools

With Goldcast, you will be able to go beyond the usual standard chat, with features like 1:1 networking, photo booths, and leaderboards. Another way to elevate engagement at summits is through breakout rooms and roundtables. These two features are great for small scale discussions within a large group. Attendees are also able to engage via polls and Q&A. 

• Powerful registration and branding capabilities

The registration process for any virtual event, especially a virtual summit, should be seamless and quick. Goldcast offers powerful registration and branding capabilities that help drive attendance. It provides market friendly registration pages and forms that are available on your domain, and pushes out branded emails to increase attendance.  

Pros

• The biggest pro of Goldcast is its good-looking user interface. It is very inviting in respect to its simplicity and navigation as well. 
• The backstage area provides an opportunity for organizers to communicate with speakers and conduct A/V tests before they go live. This ensures a seamless and professional presentation on the main summit stage. 

Cons

• Email functionality is limited, which creates problems when trying to send invitation emails to attendees
• The interface for event setup and management is quite complex, which can cause difficulties for organizers.
• Since there is no option to create a template of your choice, it will be time consuming to set up recurring virtual summits.

Reviews: Goldcast has a solid 4.8 out of 5 star rating on G2 from 158 reviews.

Goldcast Pricing

Goldcast offers 4 annual subscription plans, with each varying in terms of the features offered and number of events:

• Starter: Up to 12 events per year and a 90-minute max. duration per event. Since this plan does not allow for multi-sessions or tracks, it may not be suitable for most virtual summits
• Pro: Up to 25 events per year, still with a 90-minute duration per event. However, this plan does offer capabilities for multi-track/session events, but not virtual summits that last multiple days.
• Premium: Up to 35 events annually, each with unlimited duration. This is the plan Goldcast recommends for hosting effective virtual summits.
• Enterprise: With a custom number of events and unlimited event duration, this plan is suitable for larger-scale organizations with custom needs. It also offers their in-person event capabilities.

Goldcast, like other platforms, chooses not to share any information on starting prices or ranges. So, if you are interested in using Goldcast for your next virtual summit, you will need to contact their team for a quote. That being said, Goldcast does offer an unlimited number of attendees on each plan, which can be more cost effective and easier to plan for. They also only offer annual plans at this time, so there is a high level of commitment needed if you do choose to go with Goldcast.

10) EventMobi

EventMobi is a flexible event management platform that deals with virtual, in-person and hybrid events. It is also a great platform for virtual summits, as it offers live streaming capabilities, robust engagement tools, and analytics to track the summit’s performance. It also provides a user-friendly mobile experience, so even those joining the summit on a mobile device are able to enjoy the event without any hindrance. However, their customization capabilities still leave much to be desired. You can also check out our detailed EventMobi review here

Key Benefits and Features of EventMobi

• On-Demand Experience with Video Libraries

The video library on this platform offers a robust way to simplify video management and entertain your attendees throughout the event. Many pre-existing videos are already available in the video libraries that can be used; if these videos do not fit your summit’s theme, you have the option to add custom videos to the video libraries. You can add videos before the summit starts for efficient and smooth management. 

• Post-Event Analytics Dashboard

EventMobi’s analytics dashboard gives you easy access to your virtual summit’s analytics once it’s over. Using these metrics, you will be able to report on how well a particular session or speaker at your summit performed with respect to audience engagement. You can also track attendance and engagement, identify high performing sessions, understand attendee demographics, and so much more. Armed with these insights, you can then measure the success of your virtual summit and begin strategizing how to improve future ones.

Pros

• The customer service is exceptional; they have a reliable and skilled team that understands their customer’s concerns. 
• EventMobi has a fairly solid mobile solution with great compatibility to ease virtual summit access for guests.

Cons

• The gamification feature of the virtual platform lacks a bit in terms of variety and functionality. 
• Lacks the real-time analytics and data that Remo provides to help adjust and improve your virtual summit in real-time.
• A lot of past reviews cited EventMobi had limited customization and design abilities compared to other virtual summit platforms.

Reviews: EventMobi holds 4.6 out of 5 stars on G2, based on 208 reviews.

EventMobi Pricing

EventMobi, similar to vFairs, charges based on modules required. However, their pricing is comparatively simpler with only two modules on offer:

There are 2 modules mentioned on their website:

• Event App and Virtual & Hybrid Event Platform: This starts at $3,500 for a single event or $9000 per year for unlimited events.
• Registration, Website & Ticketing Platform: This starts at $2,500 for a single event or $7,500 per year for unlimited events.

Whichever module you opt for, EventMobi does ask you to fill in a form to get a proper price quote.

Things to Look For in the Best Virtual Summit Platforms

What is a Virtual Summit Platform?

A virtual summit platform is an online tool that helps host large-scale conferences that bring together speakers, industry experts, and interested attendees in a virtual setting. As such, a virtual summit platform must consist of features that will promote authentic networking, while also providing an interactive space for presentations. Often, virtual and in-person summits will include multiple sessions and speakers across simultaneous stages. So, a good virtual summit platform also has in-built features that accommodate this while simplifying the management of complex events like these for organizers.

When deciding which virtual summit platform is the best one for you, there are some factors you should keep in mind. From providing networking opportunities to great customer support, your chosen online summit platform should have the following key factors to guarantee event success:

1. The platform must be easy to use for guests

Not everyone has high technical skills, so choosing a platform that is hard to navigate will create confusion amongst the speakers, attendees, and sponsors. Audience engagement also tends to decrease when individuals do not know how to use the platform or its available tools. 

Comparing a virtual event to an in-person summit, an in-person summit would have posters and ushers directing people to their respective location. This same concept needs to be brought into the virtual summit as well, and the ease of your chosen platform contributes greatly to that. 

Having an easy to use platform with a clear cut user-interface is the first thing you must consider when looking for the best virtual summit platform. For example, Remo tries to use natural human behaviours/elements to aid guest navigation, like the visual tables to represent distinct conversations or clicking on a table to move there. This way, guests do not have to think as much about how to use the platform but can instead focus on enjoying their experience. 

Most virtual summit platforms will offer some form of a free trial, plan, or demo, so we recommend making full use of that to get a sense of how easy the interface is for guests.

2. Tools to keep the audience engaged

Often, virtual summits or events can seem boring because attendees get tired of listening to speakers or become easily distracted by interruptions around them. However, you can avoid this situation entirely by choosing a virtual summit platform that consists of a variety of interactive and engaging tools. As we all know, just listening to presentation after presentation can get boring, so it is your job as the summit organizer to keep the audience engaged. One way of doing that is by leveraging built-in engagement tools that your virtual platform should offer.

Engagement and interactive tools such as live chat, Q&As, live polling, quizzes, and surveys are a must when it comes to keeping the audience engaged. So, you must make sure that the virtual platform you’re choosing has all of these in-house. Some virtual platforms opt to provide these by integrating with other 3rd party platforms, but this ultimately can create more work for you as the organizer and can introduce technical issues during the virtual summit.

3. Limitless networking opportunities

Online summits are great opportunities for people from various backgrounds and niches to network with each other. In an in-person summit, individuals are able to approach various booths or just simply approach someone they want to network with. Similarly, a virtual summit platform must mimic the same capabilities and not limit the users’ ability to network with each other. 

Being able to chat with speakers and attendees is a great way to expand your network; however, the ability to start those chats spontaneously or choose who you chat with can help you network in a more authentic way. Networking features such as breakout rooms, virtual lounges, and video calls, are some features that you should look out for while choosing a virtual summit platform.

Be careful though, some virtual summit platforms will just offer breakout rooms or topic-based discussion rooms and call it “networking”. However, these alone can actually make networking online feel forced for attendees, which leads to low value and ingenuine conversations. It is vital that the virtual summit platform you go for has a comprehensive suite of networking features, designed to give attendees the freedom to network as they please, just like they would at an in-person summit. 

4. Analytical and reporting data

It is important to know what is working out for you and what is not, in respect to your virtual summit. You can put a hundred percent into planning the event, but if you’re unable to figure out if it is resonating with the audience or not, then it can be a waste of your time and effort. This data is also your way of measuring the success of your virtual summit and sharing this with stakeholders. Not to mention, with all the insights of how your virtual summit went, you can improve future ones and make them even better.

You should look out for the type of metrics a virtual summit platform offers as most do already offer the basics, like number of attendees or duration. But, the best virtual summit platforms will also report on advanced metrics, such as session attendance, feedback scores, and engagement tracking. If you have sponsors, also consider the sponsor-level metrics provided – for example, does the virtual summit platform track interest and engagement with individual sponsors. Bonus, if your chosen virtual summit platform also offers real-time analytics, like Remo does with its 5-star guest experience survey. 

As a host, there is so much more information that you can access when you take your event online. So, make the most of it by selecting a virtual summit platform that helps you get all of these valuable insights easily.  

5. Consider your budget

Price is another factor one must consider when choosing the right virtual summit platform. You must do your research on it properly, as it is an area that can catch people off guard most of the time. Either the platform price is way over budget for the plan they need, or essential features are not available on the lower tiers or are charged as an add-on. Whatever it is, it’s important to carefully review a platform’s pricing structure. 

All virtual platforms will structure their pricing plans differently; some do it based on core factors, like the number of attendees or event duration, while others do it on features offered, or even some combination of the two. It’s crucial you first identify the features or limits you need for your upcoming virtual summit. Then, you can pick a platform whose pricing structure is most cost effective given your needs. For example, if you know you require a lot of different features, opt for a platform that offers most of its features on all plans rather than just on the highest tier, like Remo. Alternatively, if you are unsure of expected attendance, go for a platform that offers unlimited attendees.

Whatever your event needs, we highly suggest carefully reviewing each of your shortlisted platforms’ pricing tables to ensure you’re getting what you need at a price that fits your budget. For the majority of virtual summit platforms, you will need to contact their sales team for a quote based on your expected usage, so make sure you factor in the time needed for that during your platform selection process.

6. Good customer support

A virtual summit platform's pros lie not only in its features but also in the support it provides. Having a team of experts that can help you at any given time throughout your virtual summit is a highly underestimated bonus. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you have the best content or the best speakers if you’re having technical difficulties with the audio and no one is able to help you resolve them. Having a reliable customer support team who can troubleshoot in real-time is a huge advantage. 

Of course, you should look for a virtual summit platform with minimal technical issues, but with all platforms you should expect and be prepared for them if they happen. That’s where the question of a platform’s customer support steps in – will they help you when you need them, or leave you to deal with issues on your own? Does it only offer email support, or does it also have a live chat option or a phone number? Is live chat with a real human or an AI bot? These are just a few questions you should consider when it comes to reviewing customer support. Moreover, support is not only essential when/if things go wrong, a great support team is one  that not only helps you with technical problems but also assists you with bringing ideas to the table. 

When evaluating customer support, a great place to do research on this is external review platforms, like G2 or Capterra. This way you can read honest reviews from past or present customers and get a real idea of how effective the platforms’ support channels are before you make the final decision.

Frequently Asked Questions about Best Virtual Summit Platforms

What are the most common features of virtual summit platforms?

The most common features of virtual summit platforms include virtual booths, breakout rooms, live chat, group video calls, polls, quizzes, and registration & ticketing.

How do you make virtual summits more engaging?

In order to make your virtual summit engaging, you must opt for a virtual summit software that features dedicated engagement and interactive tools. Some of these tools include virtual booths, polls, quizzes, and more.

What makes a virtual summit successful?

A virtual summit’s success can be measured by the level of overall engagement and networking opportunities. To achieve this, you must choose the best virtual summit platform that comes with the best networking features and engagement tools.

What is the difference between a virtual summit and a webinar?

A virtual summit consists of various networking lounges, breakout rooms, exhibit halls, polls, and more. It also often has multiple speakers and sessions going on at the same time. A webinar, on the other hand, is typically just one online presentation happening at a time, which is usually followed up by Q&A.

Why should I host a virtual summit?

Unlike in-person summits, virtual summits are not geographically restricted, which means that speakers and attendees from around the world can interact and network with each other. Virtual summits are also a great platform to talk about certain topics within an industry, and they can be used to bring individuals with similar interests together.