EventPilot Alternative for Complex Scientific & Technical Conferences
EventPilot is a mature app for scientific and medical meetings. HEPCon is built for programmes that live in Indico, EasyChair, ConfTool, or Confex. Both handle abstracts offline — here is where they differ, checked against ATIV Software's pages in September 2026.
Built for the Systems Research Conferences Actually Run On
HEPCon reads your programme where it already lives — Indico, EasyChair, ConfTool, or Confex — and keeps reading it as your committee edits. Physics, computer-science and engineering conferences run on those systems, and a preview of your real programme is about 30 seconds away, with no CSV to build and no call to book first.
The two questions worth settling before you choose any app for a research meeting: how does the programme get in and stay current, and what does it cost to carry a programme of your size?
What HEPCon Deliberately Leaves Alone
- Registration and ticketing stay in the system you already use.
- Abstract submission and peer review stay with your programme committee's platform; HEPCon reads the accepted, scheduled programme.
- Slide and handout distribution is not HEPCon's job. Materials attach to their talks — a paper PDF on the contribution it belongs to, readable offline — rather than a separate content library.
What HEPCon does carry for a research meeting: every session and contribution with its abstract, authors and affiliations, formulas rendered as mathematics, search across the abstracts offline, and posters listed with the programme.
Where HEPCon Is Stronger
1. Academic submission systems, read from a link
On EventPilot's do-it-yourself plans, data comes in by manual entry or CSV import; customised data integrations are a Pro enhancement. Its documented feeds are for ScholarOne and Confex. HEPCon reads Indico, EasyChair, and ConfTool programmes straight from their links — a private preview in about 30 seconds — and re-reads the same link when the programme changes. If your conference runs on one of these rather than ScholarOne, there is no CSV to build and re-upload.
2. The price of a mid-size programme
EventPilot publishes its do-it-yourself pricing as three-month subscriptions whose tiers are capped by records per table: 50 records for $999, 200 for $1,999, 750 for $4,999. A table of 300 abstracts is past the second tier. HEPCon quotes one fixed price for the event from its programme — €900–€2,500 for most conferences, €500–€900 for workshops — with no subscription term and no per-attendee fee, and programmes under 50 contributions are free. The quote page gives the band for your number of abstracts.
3. A trial on the whole programme
EventPilot's free trial lets you add up to three sessions, speakers, exhibitors and abstracts and publish them. HEPCon's instant preview builds your entire real programme — every session and abstract — for the committee to open on their phones.
HEPCon on Screen
Also in HEPCon
- Clash warnings. When two saved talks overlap, the attendee's schedule says so.
- AI Help Desk (add-on, from €500). Attendees ask in their own words, and every answer shows the passages it relied on.
- AI moderator (add-on, €300). Screens every Q&A question and discussion post as it arrives, and hides abuse and spam before attendees see it.
- Programme book (PDF) (add-on, from €250). A print-ready programme and book of abstracts from the synced programme.
- Reports for the committee. A post-event report with Pro and Enterprise, and a report for each sponsor with Enterprise.
Side by Side
| EventPilot | HEPCon | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting the programme in | Manual entry or CSV import on the self-serve plans; other integrations are custom project work | Link to Indico, EasyChair, ConfTool, or Confex, or an export |
| Pricing | $999 / $1,999 / $4,999 per three-month term, capped at 50 / 200 / 750 records per table; anything larger is quoted | One fixed price per event by programme complexity; free under 50 contributions |
| Free trial | Up to three sessions, speakers, exhibitors and abstracts | Your full programme, from its link, in about 30 seconds |
Questions Organizers Ask
Is HEPCon an EventPilot alternative?
For conferences whose programme lives in Indico, EasyChair, ConfTool, or Confex, yes. HEPCon reads that programme straight from its link, builds your whole conference as a private preview before you commit to anything, and quotes one fixed price from the programme itself — no subscription term, no per-attendee fee.
How much would a 300-abstract conference cost?
With HEPCon, typically within €900–€2,500, fixed before the event. On EventPilot's published do-it-yourself tiers, 300 records exceeds the 200-record plan, which puts it in the $4,999 three-month tier; Pro pricing is by quote.
Does HEPCon work offline like EventPilot?
Yes. Once opened, the full programme — sessions, contributions, abstracts and authors — is stored on the device and reads and searches without a connection.
Compare on Your Own Programme
Paste your programme link and open the complete preview with your committee, then weigh it against EventPilot's feature list with real data in hand.
Comparison based on each vendor's published documentation, September 2026. EventPilot's pricing page checked again in October 2026.
Comparing Other Platforms?
The same evaluation applies across the generic event-app market — see how HEPCon compares to each, or start from the vendor checklist: