Are you considering using Cvent to manage your virtual events? We want to help you decide if it’s right for you in this in-depth Cvent review, so we’ll explain the platform, give our verdict, and share what others are saying about how it works.
Cvent is an event management technology platform that allows event planners the opportunity to manage all aspects of an event from a single point of contact. Cvent is also one of the most successful–and one of the oldest– end-to-end event planning platforms. Its most popular features include venue selection, registration, marketing, a mobile app interface, event websites, gamification, surveys and feedback, social media promotion, volunteer and exhibit/ vendor management.
The Verdict of our Cvent Review
There’s a reason why Cvent is considered an industry-standard. They offer customers the opportunity to use Cvent for everything associated with an event, such as data collection, program management, marketing, accounting, registration, etc. They allow users to capture data to help with future program management. Cvent offers a single cohesive platform with a “one-stop-shop” approach, simplifying large or complex event management that makes it a leader among virtual technology platforms.
Recommended Reading: Cvent Virtual Attendee Hub Review
What types of events is Cvent for?
Cvent offers options for conferences, conventions, customer success groups, webinars, product seminars, weddings and parties, and easily handles in-person and hybrid events, in addition to virtual events.
Cvent offers three verticals:
- Event Marketing and Management: Focused on creating comprehensive solutions for successful events
- Exchange: Focused on connecting planners and venues
- Suppliers and Venues: Focused on providing solutions for larger travel groups
Cvent Features Review
There are countless ways to approach a virtual event, and Cvent wants to make sure you’re ready for any of them. With a focus on personalized marketing and communications, stellar event management, and a comprehensive platform that delivers Cvent strives to help you maximize every opportunity available.
Event registration system features include:
- Both branded and custom event websites
- Dynamic, multi-track, multi-session registration
- Modern registration page templates
- Configurable restrictions and permissions
- Simple event cloning
- Self-serve registration that allows attendees to modify, cancel, or get refunds
- A built-in content library containing policies, brochures, floor plans, maps and more
- Automated waitlists and capacity management
- Configurable event approval workflows
Let’s dig into reviewing a handful of the features below.
Reviewing Cvent’s Registration System
Cvent’s event registration system is designed to help event hosts increase response rates while eliminating the headaches associated with typical spreadsheet-based event management. Built around the understanding that no two events are exactly alike, Cvent is a reliable choice for invitee, registrant, and multiple event management.
Exploring Their Marketing and Communications Features
Cvent offers personalized event marketing with features that include customizable outreach and lead capture tools such as automated, targeted campaigns, on-brand event websites, and consistent tradeshow lead capture synced with your CRM.
They make delivering an excellent attendee experience a snap from first impressions through on-site experiences that both delight and inform event attendees. User experience features include mobile apps, attendance tracking options, and check-in and badging options.
Custom qualification templates, slick appointment setting tools, and CRM and marketing automation integrations make follow-up easy and straightforward.
Event Operations Management
Event professionals realize the value of event tech more than ever before, with 52% of event organizers reporting an increase in event technology use compared to last year.
Cvent’s all-in-one approach to event operations management means one desktop for all your event’s moving parts such as websites, registration, speaker and attendee management, contact lists, reporting, and analytics. From there, Cvent’s integration with most marketing systems automates the process even further. Good tech means ease of operation, and Cvent’s top of the line highly customizable apps help you get the precise result you want and in less time.
Data is only as strong as its authenticity and because Cvent allows you to build a comprehensive event ecosystem, you can streamline all data collected into a single source of truth. The result is reliable, verifiable analytics. Cvent’s spend and workflow automation rounds out an event operations management system that ensures nothing slips through the cracks or gets hung up on unexpected absences.
Attendee Engagement Is Limited
While virtual technology platforms offer countless opportunities for attendee engagement, even the best systems have limits. And Cvent is no different. Their live Q&A features, chat, and upvoting features work well but are limited by the absence of the networking feed on the homepage. While it is customizable, the fact that the feed is tucked away and not easily accessible from the attendee homepage has a hampering effect on attendee engagement.
Overall Platform Experience
Its end-to-end event management platform offers a set of crucial features that successfully manage even the most complicated registration setups. Templates and clones make event management almost effortless. Its widespread success has led to countless CRM integrations, like Salesforce, Marketo, and Hubspot. And they offer custom integration with virtually any available web-based CRM.
What other online reviews are saying about Cvent
- G2 gives Cvent 4 out of 5 stars and boasts 1,286 reviews
- Capterra gives Cvent 4.4 out of 5 stars and with 627 reviews
- Software Advice gives Cvent 4.43 out of 5 available stars and offers 627 reviews
- Finances Online gives Cvent 4.8 out of 5 available stars and 46 user reviews
What People Like About Cvent
Cvent company reviews are full of compliments about their top-notch customer service that makes learning their technology a breeze, giving you the support you need in addition to the tools to host a successful event. Cvent partners with your event, so you really have an extension of your team when you choose Cvent, compared to platforms that take a hands-off approach.
People love the smooth end-to-end operation, “It was a seamless process from registration, to check-in, to pre-order item claims,” says one reviewer on Capterra, adding the platform is a “great and solid piece of software.”
A Software Advice reviewer loved that they could customize their response “as much, or as little,” and that support was “very quick to answer all my leads in a timely manner.”
Finances Online reviewer, Mellie, commented on how she loved the ways Cvent “keeps evolving by adapting to user feedback “with useful updates,” adding that Cvent listens to their users.
What People Dislike About Cvent
On the other hand, while Cvent does offer customization, it tends to fall short of many user expectations, especially for event pages. The large number of features also becomes a negative here, considering the learning curve. Expect to spend some prep time getting familiar with the platform.
Multiple integration problems with Salesforce topped the list of complaints from reviewers on Capterra, adding the “first version was wrong,” and the second caused query overload.
A Software Advice reviewer noted their credit module could be “difficult to use” but added that Cvent was “constantly updating their system” in attempts to make it better.
One Finances Online reviewer, Mellie listed that her least favorable issue with Cvent revolved around too many changes too quickly, making it “hard to adapt,” but added that chatting with Cvent support team and “reading the help section helps.”
Cvent Top Competitors
The main Cvent competitors with G2 ratings are:
- Aventri (4.2 out of 5)
- SpotMe (4.6 out of 5)
- Bizzabo (4.7 out of 5)
- Splash (4.7 out of 5)
- Hopin (4.7 out of 5)
- Influitive (4.4 out of 5)
Wondering what other virtual event solutions might be like? Check out our 2020 comparison guide.
Disclaimer: This review is provided by SpotMe. While we are a marketing event management software vendor, our reviews aim to help buyers make better informed decisions by providing honest feedback about the product being reviewed. SpotMe’s reviews are not used to deliberately promote or disparage any software vendor’ products and to the best of our knowledge the information contained herein is recent, relevant and objective.
