Run Your Editorial Awards,
Not a Spreadsheet.
AwardKit is built for the nomination programs business publications and media brands run every year. Collect nominations with custom forms, shortlist with your editorial team, and publish a polished honorees list your readers can share. Self-serve from day one, no demo required.
No credit card. Build free, pay only to go live. No demo required.
- Unlimited award programs
- Custom nomination forms
- Multi-round weighted shortlisting
- Public honorees pages and certificates
- Optional nomination fees, 0% commission
Build for free, pay only when you go live. No demo required.
Awards software for business publications, built for the editorial cycle
AwardKit is awards software for business publications, trade media, and digital outlets that run recognition programs like 40 Under 40, Best Places to Work, and annual power lists on a predictable editorial cycle.
From the open call for nominations through your editorial shortlist to the published honorees page, you manage the whole program in one workspace: build custom nomination forms, score and shortlist with your editorial team using a configurable rubric, and publish a clean, shareable winners list when you are ready to announce.
Many publication awards are free to enter, and that is fine: AwardKit is a flat annual price for unlimited programs, not a per-entry tax. For the programs that do charge a nomination fee, payments run through your own Stripe account with zero commission. There is no sales demo to schedule. Build and test everything for free, then pay only when you go live.
The honorees page,
ready to publish
When your shortlist is set, AwardKit publishes a polished, public winners page like this one. It is the shareable centerpiece of the editorial package, ready for the issue, the newsletter, and every honoree to repost.
This is the public, shareable winners page your publication publishes to its audience.
Sample names shown for illustration.
What editorial teams tell us about running awards
The list drives traffic and ad revenue. The tooling behind it does not keep up.
Nominations live in a form-and-spreadsheet mess
A Google Form feeds a spreadsheet, the editorial team scores in a second tab, and someone reconciles duplicate nominations by hand. By the time the shortlist is set, you have lost a week to copy-paste and version control, and the published list is laid out manually.
A sales demo just to find out the price
The purpose-built platforms hide pricing behind a Request a Demo button. You run this list every year on a tight editorial calendar, but you cannot even get a number without sitting through a call and waiting on a custom quote.
Rebuilding the same list from scratch every year
Your 40 Under 40 or Best Places to Work list runs annually with mostly the same categories and questions. Last year that meant a fresh form, a new spreadsheet, and re-explaining the scoring to a rotating cast of editors and judges.
How it works
From a blank workspace to published winners, without a sales call in between.
Build your program for free
Create the program, add your categories, build the entry form, set per-category fees, and configure your judging rubric. Everything is free to build and test before you go live.
Open submissions and collect entry fees
Share the submission link. Entrants complete your form and pay the entry fee, which lands directly in your own Stripe account with zero commission.
Judge with your committee
Assign judges to categories, run one or more rounds with weighted criteria, and watch scores aggregate into a live leaderboard. No spreadsheets, no manual tallying.
Publish winners and report
Announce winners on a public results page when you are ready, issue certificates, and export entries, revenue, and judge participation for your board report.
A verifiable certificate every honoree wants to post
When you publish the list, each honoree gets a polished certificate with a public verification link. They repost it to their network, and every share points back to your program. No design work on your end.
What your awards program looks like on AwardKit
Launch without talking to sales
Build your entire program for free: categories, custom nomination forms, rubric, and judges. You only pay when you open nominations and go live. No demo, no quote, no waiting on an account rep.
One flat price, every list you publish
A single $1,995 per year workspace covers unlimited programs. Run your 40 Under 40, your Best Places to Work, and your reader awards side by side without per-program fees or a per-nomination cut.
Collect clean nominations, not spreadsheet rows
Build the nomination form each category needs, with the fields, supporting evidence, and eligibility questions your editorial rules require. Nominations land structured and ready to review, not as messy form responses.
Shortlist with your editorial team
Configure weighted criteria, run multiple rounds, and assign editors and judges to the categories they cover. Scores aggregate automatically into a live leaderboard, so your shortlist starts from ranked results, not a tally tab.
Publish an honorees page readers will share
Announce your list on a polished, public results page you control. It is the shareable centerpiece of the editorial package, ready for the issue, the newsletter, and every honoree to repost to their network.
Clone last year and reopen in minutes
Editorial awards recur annually. Duplicate the previous cycle, adjust the dates and categories, and reopen nominations. Your rubric and structure carry over so you are improving last year’s list, not rebuilding it.
Every editorial awards program, one workspace
Run as many of these as you like at no extra cost. Each gets its own categories, nomination form, rubric, and judges.
40 Under 40 and rising stars
Your flagship young-professional list, with an open nomination form, supporting evidence, and an editorial shortlist round before the final honorees are published.
Best Places to Work
Employer recognition programs that drive entries and engagement, with company nomination forms and a scoring rubric your editorial team controls.
Best of [city or industry]
Annual best-of lists for your market or sector, run as separate programs with their own categories, finalists, and published winners list.
Power List and Top 100
Influence and leadership rankings built from editorial nominations and a curated panel, published as a permanent, shareable honorees page.
Reader’s Choice awards
Audience-voted programs that drive return traffic, with a simple public submission flow and a clean results page when voting closes.
Editorial excellence and industry awards
Recognition for the best work in your field, with optional nomination fees that fund the program and land directly in your own account.
Built for editorial awards
The pieces a recurring publication list actually needs, ready out of the box.
Custom nomination forms
Build the nomination form each category requires, with the fields, file uploads, and eligibility questions your editorial rules ask for.
Weighted, multi-round shortlisting
Custom criteria and weights, multiple rounds, and per-category judge assignment so your editors can take a long list down to a shortlist with structure.
Optional nomination fees via Stripe
For programs that charge to nominate, set per-category fees. Payments route directly to your own Stripe account with zero commission.
Friction free for nominators and judges
People nominate and editors score without fighting the tool.
A modern nomination experience
A clean, fast flow that reflects well on your brand, not a 2010s portal nominators abandon halfway through.
Judges score from any device
Editors and guest judges score from a laptop, tablet, or phone with a personal link, no accounts and no training required.
No accounts to nominate
Nominators and audience voters submit through a simple public link, so you capture more of the entries you would otherwise lose to a signup wall.
After the shortlist
The publishing and follow-up work that usually eats a week, handled.
Public honorees and winners pages
Announce your list on a shareable results page you publish when the issue drops, ready for the newsletter, socials, and every honoree to repost.
Certificates for honorees
Every honoree and finalist can receive a verifiable certificate they can share with their own audience and network.
Export entries and participation
Export nominations, scores, and judge participation to CSV for the editorial recap, the sales deck, and next year’s planning.
See what you would pay elsewhere
Most platforms charge per program or take a commission on entry fees. Estimate your cost across every major platform against AwardKit’s flat $1,995 a year.
Keep exploring
Award program planning guide
A step-by-step guide to scoping, launching, and running an award program end to end.
Compare AwardKit to alternatives
See how AwardKit stacks up against Award Force, OpenWater, Submittable, and more.
How judging works
Weighted rubrics, multiple rounds, judge assignment, and live results explained.
Pricing
Flat $1,995 per year, unlimited programs, zero commission. Build free, pay to go live.
Questions editorial teams ask
Open Nominations This Week, Not Next Quarter.
Build your publication’s awards program for free and pay only when you go live. Flat $1,995/year, unlimited programs, fully self-serve. No demo required.
No credit card. Build free, pay only to go live. No demo required.