What Are The Best Swoogo Alternatives for Event Management?

Published
January 2, 2024
Last Updated
Category
Event Technology
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Written by
Amanda Johnson
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Event management software is imperative for event organizers of any kind. It can help you promote, create, and host events, all while helping you boost registration, attendance, engagement, and post-event feedback.

Choosing the right event management software, of course, is also essential. The right tool will offer all the needed features at a price that aligns with your budget.

Sometimes, businesses rely on the first tool they find due to name recognition; some may choose solutions like Swoogo. However, Swoogo isn’t right for all brands and event organizers, so let’s look at Swoogo alternatives for event management.

What Is Swoogo?

Swoogo is a popular event management solution for in-person, online, and hybrid events. Their potential clients include agencies, enterprise companies, tech brands, and media organizations.

Features of Swoogo

Swoogo offers many features standard for event management software, including the following:

  • Online registration
  • Payment processing
  • Ticketing
  • Hub for event management and tracking
  • Event marketing
  • Integrations with popular marketing or CRM tools

The biggest advantages of Swoogo include:

  • Overall flexibility thanks to extensive features and customization options, like customization of registration questions
  • Integrations with tools that can help with everything from running ad campaigns to establishing seating charts
  • Straightforward features that cover your event management needs

Pricing

Swoogo’s pricing may be a barrier for smaller or medium-sized businesses. They have a tiered pricing structure that increases the cost as the number of users grows but doesn't include additional features.

However, you can add "Premium Upgrades" to your annual plan to access additional features like mobile apps for attendees, single sign-on for admins, or dedicated server space.

User Experience

Overall, Swoogo has solid customer reviews on several software review platforms. Many find the features useful, and some note that customer support was helpful.

Some customer reviews, however, have reported that the interface wasn’t always intuitive and that they struggled to create virtual pages or use different event management features.

Others liked the app but disliked that certain features were only available for additional purchase. Many event software management solutions (like Splash!) include mobile app functionality within their standard paid plans instead of having it as a costly add-on.

And while Swoogo provides a positive user experience, many customers cannot afford the exorbitant cost. The cost alone drives many users to consider Swoogo alternatives, only to find that there are software solutions that live up to the same standard and offer the same (or better!) features and customer support but at a fraction of the cost.

Top 5 Swoogo Alternatives

Detail a selection of top-rated alternatives to Swoogo, providing a brief overview of each, their pricing, and what makes them a good alternative. Looking at the pros and cons of ratings and reviews can help here.

1. Splash

Splash is a widely respected event planning and management tool with big-name clients like Uber, Amazon, Zoom, Zendesk, and more. We’re an all-in-one tool that can help with everything from creating and hosting event landing pages, promoting your event through email marketing, and automating key aspects of event management.

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Splash offers everything that you need from start to finish, including:

  • Intuitive design tools for landing pages and email campaign creation
  • Secure transactions and payment processing with customized ticketing
  • On-site tools for in-person events like badges, check-in, and more
  • Team management features, including the ability to assign roles and maintain compliance
  • Virtual venues, including multiple sessions, engagement features, and live-streaming
  • Extensive integrations with a variety of tools, including popular CRMs
  • Live event and post-event engagement features like attendee polls and surveys
  • User-friendly, intuitive interface (plus an enthusiastic support team to help if needed!)
  • Customization and branding potential for every aspect of your event

Splash is an extraordinary Swoogo alternative, offering the same or similar features… but at a fraction of the cost. Get more information here.

2. Cvent

Cvent is a tenured event platform offering solid planning features, including locating venues and hotels. It does provide end-to-end event planning that's particularly valuable for large conferences.

It's a good solution for event organizers creating complex events or conferences, and it comes with plenty of solid event management features like detailed registration, exhibitor management, and an attendee hub.

The cons of Cvent, however, include the following:

  • Pricing- The pricing structure can be complicated. While the initial base price seems reasonable, you must pay per-event attendee registration fees and additional add-ons for features like integrations or advanced badge printing.
  • Functionality- While they support all event types, functionality is geared towards conferences, so their virtual event features are lacking compared to other solutions.
  • Ease of use- Many customer reviews complain that the platform is challenging to use and isn't as intuitive as other options on the market.
  • Lack of marketing features- Unlike other platforms, there's a distinct lack of event marketing features.

So, Cvent is a good Swoogo alternative if you only need to host in-person conferences and have a healthy budget.

3. Bizzabo

Bizzabo is a Cloud-based SaaS platform that helps organizers create, manage, and advertise professional events. Like many other tools on our list, it includes features like event registration, ticketing, CRM integrations, and promotional tools.

Bizzabo supports online, in-person, and hybrid events, and it does it well, creating an overall positive event experience for attendees. It also has advanced integrations that are easy to set up and valuable for event managers.

That said, it has some limitations. It only has five templates available to get you started, so Bizzabo may work best if their templates are exactly what you need or if you have access to resources with HTML and CSS experience. It also has limitations on event page editing, and there's a lack of email follow-up automation.

Bizzabo's pricing is also on the higher end, starting at around $15,000 a year. However, that price doesn’t include the cost of add-ons, access to integrations, registration credits, or virtual event features.  

4. Eventbrite

Eventbrite is a simple event management and publication platform with some helpful features.

Its customizable online event registration and ticketing solution is straightforward to use for both creators and users, and the visibility that comes with publishing your event through the platform is a nice perk. They also have robust CRM integrations and a user-friendly event app for on-site event management for iOS and Android users.

While it's a straightforward platform, it's best suited for small businesses or organizations that just need to sell event tickets but don't have the resources to execute a full-scale event program.

Some businesses don't want to create custom landing pages or utilize in-depth analytics and attendee engagement features— and if that's the case, Eventbrite can be a good solution.

It's also a good option if your tickets are free because Eventbrite charges service fees for all paid tickets and add-ons sold; if your tickets are free, you don't pay anything.

5. Hopin

Hopin Session is a comprehensive virtual event platform that focuses on live streaming and webinars, but it also offers functionality for in-person events.

It includes engagement tools and interactive functionality like attendee reaction buttons, Q&A features, co-hosting capabilities, and more. You can customize your virtual stage's layout and design to align with your branding.

Hopin includes a free plan option, which is great to test out.

However, there are a few significant drawbacks. Event organizers don't own guest contact info outright, which is significant. Hopin also assesses extra charges for large events. There are also limited options for templates for both emails and events.

Hopin can be a good Swoogo alternative if you aren't ever interested in in-person events, and teams can write their own custom CSS, HTML, or Java.

How Splash Suits Your Unique Event Needs

When considering a Swoogo alternative, you should consider Splash. Splash was designed for event organizers with specific requirements, including the following:

  • Non-profit event management, with fundraising features, customizable ticketing, and volunteer management functionality
  • Conference and trade show management, with solid exhibitor management features, diverse check-in capabilities, and robust on-site functionalities, including badge-printing and live engagement features
  • Small business event management provides cost-effective, scalable, and user-friendly alternatives to Swoogo with every feature you need for online, in-person, and hybrid events.

Choosing Your Next Event Management Solution

When choosing your next event management solution, you may be considering Swoogo… but it's a good idea to consider some of these Swoogo alternatives. Splash, in particular, offers extensive features with similar (or better!) capabilities for a fraction of the cost.

The right software empowers event professionals with dependable control and efficiency, allowing you to plan, promote, and host better events more efficiently.

Thanks to Splash’s robust customization, extensive functionality, diverse integrations, and competitive pricing, it’s the preferred solution for event organizers in many categories.

We’re ready to help you manage your next event. Are you ready to get started?

Get started with Splash today!

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Written by
Amanda Johnson
Amanda is the Head of Content at Splash, a next-generation event marketing platform designed to help teams build and host beautiful, branded virtual, in-person and hybrid events. She directs the strategy and execution of all marketing content, leads organic social media and PR, supports sales enablement, oversees Splash's voice and messaging, and is Editor-in-Chief of the marketing team.

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