Choosing between two event platforms often starts with understanding what each one is built to do. This comparison introduces core positioning, history, and where each platform focuses today.
The goal is to give clear context for an informed side by side review. Language is simple and factual for first time evaluators.
Overview Of Splash And SpotMe
Splash is an event marketing platform centered on branded experiences and field marketing execution. The platform focuses on templates, design control, and campaign level reporting to keep brand standards consistent across many small and mid sized events. Splash was later acquired by Cvent. Cvent has grown largely by acquisitions, and reviews suggest some acquired products are not fully integrated, which can require users to complete certification courses to become an expert.
SpotMe is an enterprise engagement platform with a focus on personalization and compliance. The platform often supports regulated industries with governance needs across in person, virtual, and hybrid events. SpotMe was founded in 2000 in Switzerland. Early products centered on interactive event devices, followed by a shift to mobile and web apps with enterprise compliance and personalization features.
Where Accelevents can benefit enterprises and associations
Accelevents was intentionally built with one consistent data model, creating a seamless experience across the platform for event organizers, attendees, exhibitors, and speakers. Teams often note ease of use and the platform’s highly customizable workflows. The company serves 1,847 customers and provides a support team that responds in less than 21 seconds, 24/7. For brand control, planners can use event customization options to align websites, mobile app elements, and on site assets without stitching together multiple tools.
Platform | Primary Focus | Best Known For | Founded | Key Markets |
---|---|---|---|---|
Splash | Event marketing for branded experiences and field marketing | Brand consistent templates, landing pages, event emails, field marketing workflows | 2012 | Corporate marketing teams, North America and Europe, mid market to enterprise |
SpotMe | Enterprise engagement with compliance and personalization | Personalized agendas, modular apps, governed workflows for regulated industries | 2000 | Global enterprises, life sciences, financial services, technology |
Accelevents | All in one event management built on a single data model | Fast setup, strong brand control, on site operations, integrated analytics, and modern APIs | 2015 | Enterprises, associations, agencies, nonprofits, and mid market organizations |
Feature Comparison
All three platforms cover core planning needs but prioritize different outcomes. Feature sets align to either brand led event marketing, enterprise engagement with governance, or a balanced all in one approach.
Event Marketing And Branding
Splash approach: Uses brand kits, locked themes, and reusable templates to keep layouts and styling consistent. Global components limit one off changes and speed up page creation.
SpotMe method: Supports brand guidelines across web and app containers, with role based controls to restrict who edits layouts and content.
Accelevents approach: Centralized styles and reusable assets across the event website builder, mobile app, and onsite screens, helping teams maintain consistency without heavy admin work.
Event website capabilities also vary:
Splash offers: A drag and drop page builder with custom domains, localization, and dynamic content blocks. Deeper layout changes rely on template configurations rather than full CMS level control.
SpotMe provides: Configurable event hubs and agenda pages with widget based sections. More complex web experiences often pair with app containers and may involve technical setup for custom modules.
Accelevents provides: Theme driven pages, reusable sections, and granular styling through event customization, which reduces reliance on separate design systems.
Email marketing workflows take different approaches. Splash includes list segmentation, automated reminders, RSVP confirmations, and post event follow ups. Journeys can branch based on registration status or attendee actions. SpotMe supports transactional emails, targeted campaigns, and in app notifications tied to roles, sessions, and compliance steps. Accelevents includes branded confirmations, reminders, conditional logic for segments, and post event follow ups tied to attendee behavior across the unified data model.
Registration And Ticket Tools
Based on user reviews, Splash’s template driven setup can feel constrained when teams need granular ticket rules, while SpotMe’s configuration options can feel complex for smaller programs. Accelevents offers a highly customizable ticketing and event registration platform with drag and drop customization for event pages, forms, and badges, unlimited ticket types, discount codes, and reusable templates. One click forms, seamless payment processing, and conversion tracking help boost completion rates. Group registration is simplified via ticket bundles, allowing multiple ticket purchases and flexible attendee info collection, and conditional logic supports tailored workflows for different attendee types.
Engagement And Interactive Tools
Mobile app capabilities represent a major difference. SpotMe offers a full featured mobile and web app with personalized agendas, offline access, activity feeds, and sponsor spaces. Splash centers on web based experiences with mobile responsive pages and essential attendee info. Accelevents focuses on onsite usability, including mobile app check in and badge printing, plus session engagement and surveys built for busy conference days.
Networking tools follow similar patterns:
SpotMe includes: Attendee directories, 1:1 messaging, meeting requests, and rules based matchmaking. Exhibitor meeting workflows are supported.
Splash supports: Basic attendee lists and calendar invites, with advanced networking typically handled via integrations or embeds.
Accelevents includes: Smart profiles, meeting scheduling, interest tags, and sponsor visibility through networking tools designed for in person programs.
Q&A, polling, and interactive features show clear distinctions. SpotMe provides native Q&A, live polls, surveys, word clouds, and feedback forms tied to sessions and roles. Moderation and approvals are included. Splash enables simple forms and embeds for interaction, with richer tools commonly delivered through third party widgets. Accelevents consolidates Q&A, polls, surveys, and live feedback in attendee engagement, with moderation controls that map to event roles.
Agenda, Speakers, And Call For Papers
Splash emphasizes marketing pages over deep agenda tooling, and some teams report using outside tools for speaker coordination. SpotMe provides granular session configuration, which can be powerful but complex for smaller teams. Accelevents streamlines planning with an agenda builder for tracks and session rules, native CFP workflows, auto reviewer assignment, and a speaker management portal with tasks and content approvals.
Exhibitor Management And Lead Capture
SpotMe supports sponsor spaces and meeting tools inside its app. Splash often relies on third party tools for lead capture. Accelevents provides an exhibitor portal to manage listings, assets, and team permissions, along with mobile lead capture using QR scanning, offline support, unlimited users, real time reports, lead scoring, note taking, and integrated meeting booking to prove ROI.
Continuing Education And Certificates
SpotMe can track attendance and feedback for session credits, often tailored for life sciences use cases. Splash is more marketing focused and may require add ons for credit workflows. Accelevents supports automated credit assignment, a flexible program builder, instant certificate generation, self service retrieval, audit trails, and LMS integration.
White Label Branding Options
Splash branding is generally minimal on public pages, though some elements may show in specific workflows. SpotMe can white label app containers under enterprise agreements. Accelevents enables full white-label branding across web, mobile, and virtual environments with customizable themes.
Role Based Access And Compliance
SpotMe offers rich permissioning models for regulated industries with role based access and audit trails. Splash provides marketer friendly controls but fewer governance layers out of the box. Accelevents supports custom roles, SSO, MFA, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance, and detailed security audit logging.
Integrations With CRM Or Marketing Automation
All three platforms connect to major CRM and marketing tools, though depth and governance differ. Native connectors typically include Salesforce and HubSpot, plus Marketo or Eloqua where applicable. Splash focuses on marketer friendly mapping, while SpotMe often adds enterprise identity integrations. Accelevents charges no fees for native integrations and provides deep connectors to Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and numerous association management systems. There are no fees for API access, and its REST APIs and webhooks are well documented.
Analytics And Reporting
Splash provides campaign reports, but some users cite gaps in real time granularity for onsite behavior. SpotMe offers session level analytics that can require careful configuration. Accelevents delivers real time dashboards and shareable reports across registration, onsite, mobile, and virtual components, all powered by a single integrated data model that makes cross event comparisons straightforward.
Uptime And Reliability
Public uptime claims vary by vendor and plan. Reviews for Accelevents frequently cite reliability, with no references to outages in reviews.
Use Cases And Target Audiences
Marketing focused teams with distributed event programs often align with Splash. Examples include field marketing groups running many regional meetups, store openings, or partner roadshows that require consistent branding and fast page creation.
Enterprises in regulated industries and teams with complex workflows often align with SpotMe. Examples include life sciences kickoffs, financial services meetings, or multi track conferences requiring consent capture, role based access, and governed content.
Organizations of all sizes, including large enterprises, mid market corporations, associations, agencies, and nonprofits, turn to Accelevents when they want an all in one, highly customizable solution with rapid onboarding and a team focused on long term outcomes. It is suitable for conferences, trade shows, fundraisers, internal meetings, and continuing education events, and many planners evaluate the conference solution to standardize their largest programs.
Pricing And Support Options
Pricing Tiers
Splash uses a quote based model with package tiers. Pricing often reflects the number of events, attendee volume, feature bundles, and service level. SpotMe is listed by several software directories at approximately 290 dollars per month for entry level packaging. Enterprise capabilities and compliance features are typically quoted.
Factors that affect pricing for both platforms include event volume, attendee caps, admin seats, feature bundles, integration scope, and contract length. Hidden costs to consider include overage fees for registrations, emails, or storage, add on fees for integrations or premium analytics, and professional services for setup or customization. Accelevents emphasizes transparent, scalable pricing, with pay only for what you need modules and no surprise add ons.
Support Channels And Response Times
Both platforms publish a help center and product documentation. Live support availability and Service Level Agreements vary by plan. Available channels commonly include email and live chat, with phone support typically tied to enterprise packages. Training and onboarding typically include a knowledge base, webinars, and guided kickoff sessions. Customer success resources at higher tiers often include a named Customer Success Manager, quarterly reviews, and best practice playbooks.
Key Differences Between Splash And SpotMe
Strengths And Weaknesses
Splash strengths include brand consistent event marketing at scale, strong field marketing capabilities, and email marketing automation. Splash limitations include fewer native engagement tools for large programs, limited support for multi step approvals and role based content, and lighter onsite operations compared to enterprise governance models.
SpotMe strengths include enterprise grade compliance and security, rich engagement via mobile and desktop apps, and deep CRM integrations. SpotMe limitations include longer setup times, steeper learning curves for teams without technical support, and heavier processes for managing many small, distributed events.
Accelevents bridges complex enterprise features and everyday usability. Planners combine branding, onsite operations, and engagement in one place, with extras like gamification that sponsors appreciate during expo hours.
Best Fit Scenarios
Splash: Small to medium business and mid market, distributed marketing teams creating many branded microsites.
SpotMe: Mid market and enterprise, programs with formal IT, security, and compliance stakeholders.
Accelevents: Teams standardizing multi event portfolios who want strong brand control, onsite capabilities, and modern integrations without heavy admin overhead. Agencies can also leverage solutions for agencies to scale repeatable programs.
Choosing The Right Platform For Your Events
This decision framework groups core questions into key areas. Answers help align platform choice with program scope, governance, and resourcing.
Event marketing goals to consider:
How many events run per quarter, and what is the mix of field events, webinars, and conferences?
What level of brand control is required across pages, emails, and assets?
Is a dedicated attendee app essential, or is a branded web experience sufficient?
Compliance requirements include:
Does the program involve regulated audiences or sensitive data?
What consent capture, disclaimer gating, or role based access is required?
Is Single Sign On mandatory, and are there device management needs?
Budget constraints cover target annual spend, admin seats, events in scope, add on costs, integration fees, and contract terms that fit procurement policy.
Some teams look for a single platform that balances brand control, engagement depth, governance, and speed. Accelevents offers a unified approach that combines strengths from both categories while addressing their common limitations. Evaluators who need turnkey websites and onsite tools often start with the event website builder, then add networking and agenda workflows as programs grow.
Request a demo to explore how Accelevents can simplify your event management process.
FAQs About Splash Vs SpotMe
How do Splash and SpotMe handle multi currency registration and international events?
Both platforms support multi currency pricing and international registration, but SpotMe provides more complete localization features including real time translation options for global enterprise events.
Which platform provides better onsite badge printing capabilities for large conferences?
SpotMe offers more feature rich check in and badging options with wider hardware compatibility, while Splash integrates with select printing hardware for basic badge printing needs. Accelevents supports onsite check in and badge printing designed for high throughput.
How do Splash and SpotMe compare for virtual and hybrid event management?
SpotMe provides strong virtual event features with native engagement tools like Q&A and polling, while Splash focuses on branded web experiences and relies on integrations for interactive virtual components. Accelevents, originally built for in person, now supports all event types with a dedicated Virtual Event Hub that can be added as needed.
What are the mobile app differences between Splash and SpotMe platforms?
SpotMe's mobile app includes a wide range of engagement features, personalized agendas, and offline functionality as a core platform component, while Splash provides mobile responsive web experiences focused on registration and basic event information. Accelevents emphasizes onsite speed with mobile check in, session interaction, and exhibitor tools.
How much technical expertise do teams need to implement Splash versus SpotMe?
Splash requires minimal technical setup and focuses on marketer friendly tools, while SpotMe typically involves more technical configuration for enterprise features, SSO integration, and compliance workflows. Accelevents aims to keep setup straightforward, with modern APIs and no separate fees for native integrations.
Conclusion
If your team needs design centric, field marketing execution at scale, Splash is a fit. If your program demands heavy governance and regulated workflows, SpotMe aligns well. If you want a single platform that balances speed, brand control, onsite operations, and data integrity, Accelevents brings those pieces together. Explore the networking tools and session workflows, then layer in branding and analytics as your program grows.