Anyone searching for hopin alternatives in 2026 is really searching for two different things, because Hopin itself no longer exists as it did — the events product was sold and lives on as RingCentral Events. If you need the virtual stage — live streams, breakout sessions, expo booths — Airmeet, Zoom Events, and Livestorm are the strongest direct replacements. But if what you actually miss is the audience Hopin gathered and then let scatter, the more interesting move is BuddyNext with Eventonomy: a self-hosted community layer that keeps attendees connected long after the stream ends.

We’ve ranked eight platforms across both jobs, and we’re explicit below about which job each one does.

The 8 alternatives at a glance

Platform Core job Best for Pricing model
BuddyNext + Eventonomy Community layer around events Owning the audience between events Free core, flat hosting cost
Airmeet Virtual and hybrid conferences The closest full Hopin replacement Tiered plans by attendee volume
Zoom Events / Sessions Multi-session virtual events Audiences that already live in Zoom Licensed by capacity
Livestorm Browser-based webinars and events No-download attendee experience Tiered by active contacts
Goldcast B2B marketing events Pipeline-driven event programs Annual plans, sales-led
Demio Marketing webinars Simple, repeatable webinar funnels Monthly tiers by room size
vFairs Virtual fairs and expos Career fairs and trade shows Per-event and annual, sales-led
Remo Spatial networking Events where mingling is the point Monthly tiers

What happened to Hopin, briefly

Hopin was the pandemic’s defining event startup, and its all-in-one virtual venue — stage, sessions, expo, networking — set the template everyone else copied. In 2023 the core events business was acquired by RingCentral, and it now operates as RingCentral Events. The product survives, but the migration unsettled enough organizers that “hopin alternatives” remains a live question three years later. The lesson many teams took: the venue was rented, and so was the audience inside it. Both halves of that lesson shaped this list.

The alternatives, reviewed

1. BuddyNext (paired with Eventonomy)

First, the honest framing: BuddyNext is not a streaming stage, and it won’t host your keynote video. It ranks first anyway, because it solves the problem every virtual-event platform on this list shares — the moment the event ends, your attendees evaporate. BuddyNext is a free Community OS for WordPress (real-time feed, Spaces, profiles, messaging), and its Eventonomy app handles event pages, RSVPs, and ticketing with no per-ticket fees, all on a site you own.

The pattern that works: run registration, discussion, and the post-event community on your BuddyNext site, and plug in a streaming tool — Zoom, Livestorm, or a simple embed — for the live hour. Attendees arrive through your domain, meet each other in your Spaces, and are still there next quarter. For pure virtual-stage production needs, the Airmeet and Livestorm entries below are the direct answer; none of them, though, leaves you owning the room afterward.

  • Event pages, RSVPs, and fee-free ticketing on your own domain
  • Real-time feed, Spaces, and messaging keep attendees engaged year-round
  • Pairs with any streaming or webinar tool for the live session
  • Block-native WordPress editing, free core
  • Attendee data is yours — no platform between you and your audience

Best for: organizers who run events repeatedly and want each one to grow a community they keep.

The honest drawback: you host and maintain the WordPress site yourself, and you’ll still need a separate video tool for the live stage.

2. Airmeet

Airmeet is the closest thing to Hopin’s original shape: stages, parallel sessions, booths, and its signature social lounge of small networking tables. Hybrid support is genuine, not bolted on.

  • Stage, sessions, and expo booths in one venue
  • Speed networking and table-based lounges
  • Hybrid tooling for in-person plus virtual audiences
  • Sponsor visibility and lead capture

Best for: conferences and summits that want the full virtual-venue experience.

The honest drawback: pricing climbs quickly with attendee volume, and like Hopin before it, the attendee relationship lives inside the platform.

3. Zoom Events / Sessions

Zoom’s event products stack multi-session structure, ticketing, and lobbies on top of the meeting software your audience already trusts. The pragmatic choice: nobody needs onboarding, and the AV reliability is the best in the category.

  • Multi-track sessions, ticketing, and event lobby
  • Attendees already know the interface
  • Rock-solid streaming and recording pipeline
  • Bundles with existing Zoom licensing

Best for: organizations that want zero attendee friction and predictable AV.

The honest drawback: it still feels like meetings dressed up as an event — the expo and networking layers are thinner than Airmeet’s or Remo’s.

4. Livestorm

Livestorm runs entirely in the browser — no downloads for hosts or attendees — and treats every event as a marketing asset, with registration pages, email sequences, and analytics built in.

  • Fully browser-based; attendees click a link and they’re in
  • Registration pages, reminders, and follow-up emails included
  • Engagement tools: polls, questions, CTAs mid-stream
  • Clean integrations with CRMs

Best for: webinars and product events where attendance friction kills conversion.

The honest drawback: it’s a webinar platform at heart — large multi-track conferences outgrow its structure.

5. Goldcast

Goldcast is built for B2B marketing teams who justify events with pipeline numbers: branded virtual events wired straight into the CRM, with clips and repurposing tools to squeeze content from every session.

  • Event data flows to CRM and marketing automation
  • AI clipping turns sessions into campaign content
  • Branded, produced-feeling event experiences

Best for: B2B demand-gen teams running events as a revenue channel.

The honest drawback: sales-led annual pricing puts it out of casual reach, and it assumes a marketing ops team exists.

6. Demio

Demio does one thing with pleasing simplicity: marketing webinars that look good, start on time, and feed your funnel — live, automated, or on-demand replays.

  • Live, automated, and evergreen webinar formats
  • Built-in CTAs, handouts, and featured actions
  • Simple setup a one-person team can run

Best for: recurring product demos and lead-gen webinars.

The honest drawback: it’s not an events platform — no multi-track sessions, no expo, no networking.

7. vFairs

vFairs specializes in the formats others treat as an afterthought: virtual career fairs, trade shows, and expos, complete with booths, exhibitor tooling, and (yes) 3D lobbies.

  • Booth-centric design with exhibitor self-service
  • Resume drops and matchmaking for career fairs
  • Full-service production support if you want it

Best for: career fairs and exhibitions where booths are the main event.

The honest drawback: the immersive 3D styling reads as charming or dated depending on your audience, and pricing is quote-based.

8. Remo

Remo bets everything on mingling: attendees sit at virtual tables on a floor map, join conversations by walking over, and the stage is almost secondary. When networking is the product, it’s the best in class.

  • Spatial floor plan with table-based conversations
  • Attendees move themselves — no forced matchmaking
  • Presentation mode for the formal portion

Best for: networking events, mixers, and community socials held online.

The honest drawback: content-heavy conferences fit awkwardly, and the table metaphor confuses first-timers for the opening ten minutes.

The pairing most organizers actually need

The Hopin-era assumption was that one platform should host everything: registration, stage, hallway, follow-up. Post-Hopin, the sturdier architecture is two-part. Pick a stage for the live hours — Airmeet or Zoom Events for conferences, Livestorm or Demio for webinars, Remo when mingling matters most. Then give the community a permanent home you control, which is where BuddyNext earns its ranking: registration and discussion before the event, the stream embedded or linked on the day, and the conversation continuing on your site after the platform tab closes. Streaming venues are rentals by nature. The audience doesn’t have to be.

The cost dimensions organizers forget to price

Most Hopin refugees compare platforms on the sticker price per event or per registrant. Three quieter costs decide whether you’re happy a year later.

Attendee-cap cliffs. Virtual event platforms price by registration tiers, and the jump between tiers is rarely linear. An event that grows from a few hundred registrants to a couple thousand can multiply the platform line item. Before signing, price the event you hope to run in twelve months, not the one you’re running now.

Production labor. The more stage-like the platform, the more it assumes someone runs the show: rehearsals, speaker green rooms, scene switching, live moderation. That’s a real half-day of skilled time per event on the richer platforms. Simpler webinar-style tools cut that overhead along with the theater.

The audience you rent versus the audience you keep. This is the line item that sent many organizers toward the community-first option at the top of this list. If every event’s registrants evaporate afterward into a CSV export, you’re paying to rebuild your audience each quarter. A standing community with events attached — the BuddyNext and Eventonomy pattern — flips that math: each event deposits members into a space you own, and the next event starts warm.

Two sentences of honest arithmetic: a platform fee is visible and easy to budget. Audience churn is invisible and usually costs more.

FAQ

Is Hopin still available?

The product lives on as RingCentral Events, following the 2023 acquisition. Existing features largely carried over, but the brand, roadmap, and packaging changed hands — which is exactly why so many organizers took the moment to re-evaluate rather than migrate on autopilot.

Do attendees need to install anything for these platforms?

Livestorm, Airmeet, Remo, and vFairs run in the browser. Zoom Events works best with the client your audience almost certainly has installed already. As a rule, browser-based platforms cost you less support email; installed clients buy you more reliable audio and video. Decide based on which failure mode your audience forgives.

What does hybrid actually require beyond a virtual platform?

Three things people underestimate: a dedicated camera and audio feed from the physical room (a laptop webcam at the back does not count), a person whose only job is tending the online audience, and session timing that respects both time zones and lunch. Airmeet and Zoom Events handle the software half well; the hardware and staffing half is on you regardless of platform.

How do I keep attendees engaged after a virtual event ends?

The uncomfortable answer: on the streaming platform, you mostly can’t — the venue closes and the hallway conversations die with it. The organizers who’ve solved this run a persistent community alongside the events, whether that’s a self-hosted BuddyNext site, a Slack, or a forum. The event becomes a recurring spike in an ongoing relationship instead of a one-off broadcast to strangers who won’t return.

How is this category priced in 2026?

Almost universally by audience size: per-registrant, per-active-contact, or capacity tiers, usually on annual contracts at the conference end of the market. That’s why the two-part architecture is also a budget strategy — the expensive per-attendee venue gets rented only for live days, while the year-round community sits on flat-cost infrastructure you own.