Mela vs Whova

Mela is an iPhone app for B2B consumer electronics resellers who capture leads at trade shows and follow up afterward. It reads both sides of business cards, decodes QR codes, and turns the details into an editable contact form. Contacts can be grouped by event, searched or filtered by consumer electronics categories, and kept in one history across shows. Mela transcribes voice notes and suggests hashtags. It drafts personalized WhatsApp and email follow-ups for the user to review and send; it does not send messages automatically. Other listed features include QR card exchange between Mela users, inventory matching, lead temperature tracking, and contact deduplication. The free plan is free, with core features within unspecified limits. Mela Individual costs $9.99 a month; team plans range from $24.99 a month for 2 seats to $44.99 a month for 6 seats. The app requires iOS 15.1 or later. Users must be at least 16 and use it for business purposes. Captured content belongs to the user and is not used to train AI models, though service providers may process it when a feature is invoked.

Whova is an event management platform for in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. Organizers can use its event app, online registration, event marketing, ticketing, and onsite check-in tools. Attendees receive personalized agendas, interactive maps, document sharing, announcements, live polling, surveys, and a community board. Networking features include SmartProfiles, business card scanning, messaging, video calls, matchmaking, and meeting scheduling. Sponsor and exhibitor tools provide digital booth profiles, lead capture, banner ads, appointment scheduling, and ROI reporting. Whova supports conferences, community events, expos, and trade shows. It integrates with Eventbrite, Constant Contact, Cvent, and RegFox, and supports Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Vimeo, and Webex for streaming. Native apps run on Android and iOS, with a web portal for laptop and desktop browsers. Whova states that it maintains SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, follows GDPR and named data privacy frameworks, and uses Stripe for PCI DSS-compliant online registration. Servers are hosted by AWS in the United States. Pricing is on request; a 20-minute demo is available to obtain a trial. There is no free plan.