A successful online event requires not only well thought-out planning, but also an easy-to-use online networking tool that can be operated intuitively by everyone. In this article, we will show you, why Kumospace is not the best choice if you want to use another browser instead of Chrome and if GDPR compliance is mandatory for you. In this case, we have a wonderful alternative for Kumospace, which you can use to host an in-person like and dynamic event: HyHyve
HyHyve is the Kumospace alternative that supports almost any device and browser, that will wow even your skeptical attendees and that is based in the EU.
Kumospace offers a free package which is limited up to 30 participants. The Professional package starts at $150/month and the pricing of the Custom package is negotiable. In the Professional package you can add more participants for $5/person/month.
Kumospace supports desktops and laptops the best at the moment. Mobile devices aren’t fully supported yet but that can change any time. Recommended is the usage of Chrome. Other browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Brave, Edge or Safari aren’t officially supported and users have to expect performance-related issues but Kumospace is working on these problems.
In this showdown of online event and networking tools, we compare Hyhyve vs Kumospace to help you to join the right platform. While Kumospace and HyHyve may seem similar at first glance, the differences between them are actually quite significant, and you need to know them to make your online event exceptional.
| HyHyve | Kumospace | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Starts at 0,03€/minute. Per event/month/year pricing on request. | Free, Professional, Custom. Different price models, e.g. Professional starts from 150$/ month. [1] |
| Based in | Germany | The US |
| GDPR | ✅ German company. GDPR compliant. | ❌ Not GDPR compliant. |
| Most common browsers supported | ✅ Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge. | 🟡 Recommended is Chrome. Brave, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Safari aren't officially supported and might not perform well. [2] |
| Platforms supported | ✅ Desktops (Windows, macOS, Linux), tablets (iPad, Android-based devices), mobile devices (iOS, Android-based devices). | 🟡 Desktops (Windows, macOS, Linux) are recommended. Mobile devices, iPads and tablets are limited in their performance. [3] |
| Broadcast to your participants | ✅ Yes, speakers can be invited to the stage flexibly . | ✅ Yes, hosts and co-hosts can be speakers during the event. |
| Record Broadcast | ❌ No recording feature available. | ❌ No recording feature available. |
| Public access | ✅ Yes, via a public link. | ✅ Yes, via a public link. |
| Restricted access | ✅ Yes, email-based, email-domain-based or guest list. | ✅ Yes, via password, email-based, email-domain-based or guest list. |
| Custom background picture | 🟡 Yes, but not recommended. | ✅ Yes |
| Embedding links, images, signs, streams, whiteboards or browser window | ✅ Yes, everything is available, some of them on request. | 🟡 Yes, everything is available except for embedding a browser window in the room. |
| Custom maps | ✅ Yes, fully customizable, including walls and the option to create buildings/places familiar to participants. | ✅ Yes, fully customizable floor plans and individual arrangements of the features and furniture. |
| Maximum participants per "circle" (ad-hoc conversation) | ✅ Up to 50 people. | ✅ Up to all people in one room. [4] |
| Maximum participants per room | 🟡 HyHyve spaces/rooms have an organizational soft limit of 250 participants. Multiple Spaces can be linked and can provide space for up to 5000 participants. [5] | ✅ Depending on the price plan you can host up to 10000 attendees. |
| Supported languages | English and German. | English. |
[1] In this article you can find more information about the pricing models of Kumospace and see their benefits and differences.
[2] Here you can find a detailed list of supported browsers by Kumospace. You should always message your attendees in advance which browser they should use in order to guarantee the best user experience.
[3] Here is the list with all supported devices of Kumospace. You should always inform your guests in advance which device is the best choice for the platform.
[4] Kumospace doesn’t exactly say how many guests can join a circle. From our experience the number of attendees to join a circle doesn’t seem limited within a room. But attendees can only have spontaneous conversation within one room. If they want get in touch with other, they have to back to the lobby and attend another room.
[5] We recommend to divide rooms if more than 250 participants are expected. This ensures that the rooms do not become overly large and participants “get lost”. HyHyve can provide a high level of interactivity by switching off linked and unused rooms at off-peak times with fewer participants.
This comparison was updated on 15.03.2022.
Kumospace allows you and your guests to interact in a real life lookalike room and is a company based in the US. As a host you own a space and within this space you can create as many rooms as you like. There are map templates assigned to different event topics like pool parties or a congresses that you can choose from. You also have the possibility to create a virtual workspace for your colleagues or to set up a living room to meet family or friends. Besides the templates you can customize your own space by choosing furniture, decoration and flooring.
The guests can enter your lobby via a link. If you take advantage of the free plan, you guests have to register with an email address in order to join your event. If you have a subscription, it’s not mandatory for your guests to register with an email address. From the lobby your guests can choose a room they’d like to go into. To get in touch with others your guests can move around by clicking or using the arrow keys to move around. If they want to talk via video chat, they can simply walk towards each other. The more guests join a circle like this, the more will communication between the guests grow.
By promoting co-hosts and using engagement supporting features of Kumospace you can manage the entertainment and the satisfaction of guests more easily. Compared to other tools like Zoom, specialized online event tools like Kumospace or HyHyve are able to create a group dynamic between the participants that is otherwise only found in real life. Through the countless design possibilities of the spaces, you can turn any event into an unforgettable experience.
Technically, Kumospace works very well, but there are some areas you should consider when using Kumospace and organizing an event.
For example if you want to plan a event with more than 30 guests for just one day and you use Kumospace usually without any subscription, it is not possible to host this kind of event without a monthly subscription because Kumospace isn’t offering a custom plan in this case at the moment. [6] We recommend you in this case to cancel to purchase a month subscription and to cancel it afterwards. If this solution doesn’t suit you, you can look for other services like HyHyve for example. Another fact you should be aware of is the following. If your guests want to talk in private, they can leave a bigger circle and go to a corner in the room. But they can´t lock up their circle to keep the conversation private. This could prevent your guests from getting into more depth in their interaction during a breakout-session. [7]
Customizing the URL of your space is only one of the many features you can add to boost your guests event experience. Depending on the subscription you can hosts events for up to 10000 people. If you are planning a small gathering, a workspace, a breakout room or large congress, you can take advantage of Kumospaces features. By setting up a room with furniture, decoration and a picture of your or your sponsors logo, you can create an even more interactive room by adding features. Streaming Youtube videos or a playlist of Spotify will entertain your attendees. Whiteboards, games like “Guess the word” or chess, signs with messages or the All-you-can-drink bar can be used in different ways to let guests immersive their conversations. As a host you can seat your guests automatically to thrive up chats and the guests can move faster to different places in the room by using the small map on the side and clicking on a spot.
Screensharing, broadcasting in one or all rooms as well as sharing a presentation are possibilities to fire up a discussion, to broaden your attendees perspectives and more. Keep in mind that only the host and assigned co-hosts can use these features. As a host you should promote your co-hosts in advance to guarantee a seamless outcome of your event. If you expect a large number of attendees and you subscribed to one of the price packages, you can add up the number of attendees who are allowed in the room. Also you and your co-host can block or mute guests in order to keep the event peaceful. In addition to that you have the choice which guests can join the event, for example by an email-domain restricted access. After the event you can close the rooms and ask for an event analysis report from Kumospace.
The design and tools of Kumospace room are simple and realistic looking. By choosing one of the templates you can easily set up a room for an event. After doing so you can still customize everything within the room like changing the background, adding custom links, GIFs or images. On one hand the avatars of Kumospace are square shaped and quite large in our opinion. On the other hand a chosen drink or emoji wouldn’t be visible in the square if they would be smaller. Depending on your preferences you might like it or not.
The room of Kumospace has an onboarding pop-up message for new guests, so that they can easily understand the dynamics of Kumospace. Various customizing options can lead to the effect that you set up a room with too many features and furniture. Even though avatars can walk through everything, they might easily loss focus on what is the event for when you add a video stream next to piano which is playing music for example. Keep in mind to reduce it to the essentials because the less features a room has the more attendees will interact with them and others at the same time.
The mechanism of “moving closer to each other to start a video chat” is something you should practice with your participants in advance (e. g. online networking and after-work session a couple of days earlier). The other option is to send your participants an email with some instructions how to engage with the platform in advance.
For an optimal user experience of their service, Kumospace recommends the latest version of Chrome. The usage of Mozilla Firefox, Edge, Brave or Safari aren’t performing seamlessly at the moment. Kumospace supports computer and laptops the most. Mobile devices, tablets or iPads are just having a limited functionality on their platform.
It’s best to ask Kumospace before your event, which devices and browsers are suitable for your event. To be on the safe side, you can also test Kumospace yourself in advance :).
As “clicking on links” leads to a start of the user’s standard browser, you have to ensure that the browser recommendation is communicated often and clearly. As selecting the right browser and joining the Kumospace room can sometimes be tricky, you can implement a support hotline or a team during your event to guarantee a seamless experience.
To be on the safe side, you can ask Kumospace whether they are really GDPR compliant, and additionally discuss with your data protection officer whether you can use the service or not.
[6] Kumospaces discusses the limitation of attendees regarding the Free plan in detail here.
[7] On other platforms like HyHyve you can spontaneously start a Bubble conversation, name the Bubble for other interested attendees to lure them into the circle and even lock the Bubble to talk privately. This feature isn’t available on Kumospace currently, but that can change any time.
[8] You can find all the information of Kumospace´s data protection in the privacy policy. It is crucial to read it carefully before planning to use the platform within Europe as a company.
This section was updated on 15.03.2022.
