Fourwaves
Fourwaves follows its participant inbox with a week of admin fixes and security hardening.
Comparison · Meetings
Element Call vs Hopin
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Element Call and Hopin — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Element Call vs Hopin: at a glance
What is Element Call?
Element Call starts moving to new LiveKit transports and falls back to remote SFUs when needed.
Element Call ships a release candidate roughly every two to three weeks. v0.28.1-rc.1 adds a breaking change that falls back to publishing media on a remote SFU when possible, supports migrating to new LiveKit transport types and endpoints, and fixes room v12 power-level compatibility. It also brings in a MatrixRTC SDK and patches several dependency security advisories. The previous rc added a quick audio menu and redacted analytics IDs from rageshakes.
What is Hopin?
Hopin's changelog feed shows no product signal — entries are SMS-support boilerplate, not release notes.
Hopin's recent feed contains no extractable product changes. Every entry in the visible window is identical boilerplate referring readers to an SMS registration support team, stamped with a different month. Without real release notes in the input, current product state cannot be inferred from the feed.
Element Call vs Hopin: editorial side-by-side
Element Call
5.0MEETINGS
Element Call starts moving to new LiveKit transports and falls back to remote SFUs when needed.
◆ Current state
Element Call ships a release candidate roughly every two to three weeks. v0.28.1-rc.1 adds a breaking change that falls back to publishing media on a remote SFU when possible, supports migrating to new LiveKit transport types and endpoints, and fixes room v12 power-level compatibility. It also brings in a MatrixRTC SDK and patches several dependency security advisories. The previous rc added a quick audio menu and redacted analytics IDs from rageshakes.
◆ Where it's heading
With the MatrixRTC protocol cutover finished in August, the team is now working on the media transport layer itself: how calls find and publish to SFUs and how LiveKit endpoints change underneath them. Packaging the RTC logic as an SDK suggests it is meant to be reused beyond the Element Call app.
◆ Prediction
Expect a 0.28.1 final and follow-ups to the LiveKit transport migration; whether the MatrixRTC SDK gets its own release isn't clear from the entries.
Hopin
1.3MEETINGS
Hopin's changelog feed shows no product signal — entries are SMS-support boilerplate, not release notes.
◆ Current state
Hopin's recent feed contains no extractable product changes. Every entry in the visible window is identical boilerplate referring readers to an SMS registration support team, stamped with a different month. Without real release notes in the input, current product state cannot be inferred from the feed.
◆ Where it's heading
No trajectory is observable from these entries. The pattern is consistent with a scraper grabbing the wrong page or with Hopin no longer publishing public release notes after its events business was reshuffled. Either way, the feed offers no evidence of feature direction.
◆ Prediction
Until the changelog source is fixed or replaced, no grounded prediction is possible from this feed alone.
Alternatives to Element Call and Hopin
Other Meetings products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Element Call or Hopin.
HOMER
HOMER 11.0.369 fixes S3 auth on Ceph-based storage and stops compaction memory growth.
JW Player
JW Player moves CMAF VOD into the dashboard, adds AV1, and opens Broadcast Live to audio-only feeds.
rtpengine
rtpengine opens the mr26.3 branch with a rollback message and leaner call state.
Nextcloud Talk Desktop
Nextcloud Talk Desktop 2.3.3 adds accessibility options and bundles Talk v25.0.6.
Nextcloud Talk
Nextcloud Talk patches v22 and v23 while v25 stable sits five weeks past its last RC.
See all Element Call alternatives → · See all Hopin alternatives →
Recent activity from Element Call and Hopin
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoElement CallElement Call 0.28.1 rc adds remote-SFU fallback and LiveKit migration
- 23d agoElement CallQuick audio menu, bell reaction sound and redacted analytics IDs
- 1mo agoElement Callv0.26.1-rc.1
- 1mo agoElement Callv0.26.0-rc.2
- 1mo agoElement Callv0.26.0-rc.1
- 2mo agoElement CallMatrixRTC legacy mode removed — all calls now run on the new protocol ⚡
- 6mo agoHopinCurrent
- 7mo agoHopinMarch 2026
- 8mo agoHopinFebruary 2026
- 9mo agoHopinJanuary 2026
- 10mo agoHopinDecember 2025
- 1y agoHopinOctober 2025
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Element Call and Hopin?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Element Call is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 1.3), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Element Call better than Hopin?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Element Call is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 1.3), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Meetings products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Element Call?
Top Element Call alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Element Call alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/element-call for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Hopin?
Top Hopin alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Hopin alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hopin for the full list with editorial commentary on each.