Product Updates

Awards run every year; rebuilding them every year is the part nobody misses. One Duplicate action now copies an entire program into a fresh draft: categories and their groups, the full entry form with its visibility rules, judging rounds with rubrics and criteria, awards, member and non-member pricing, early-bird tiers, and discount codes, ready for the new season.

The copy starts clean where it should: no dates, no entries, no judges, no results, and back in test mode until you go live. If your program name carries a year, the suggested name rolls it forward automatically, so "Design Awards 2025" is one click away from "Design Awards 2026". Duplicate lives in your organization settings under Programs, and works on archived programs too, because last season is exactly what you want to start next season from.

Flip one switch on a judging round and judges score entries without seeing who entered. Names and team members disappear from every judging screen, questions you mark "Hide from judges" are stripped before the page ever reaches a judge's browser, and uploaded file names are masked.

Blindness is set per round, so a blind screening round can feed an open final, and if public voting is on for a blind round the audience votes anonymously too. In one long-running study of blinded grant review, nearly one in five assessments changed once reviewers learned who the applicant was. Included in the flat plan; nothing to configure beyond the switch.

Long entry forms and long category lists both got the same cure: headings. Add section headings to break the entry form into titled chapters ("About your company", "The work", "Results"); they never count toward the question limit, and judges review each entry under the same sections the entrant filled in. Group related categories under a named heading and the group renders on your program page, the category picker, and your Categories tab, so a 40-category program stops reading like a wall of text.

Free-text questions can also carry a word or character limit now, with a live counter as entrants type.

Every public program page now lives at awardkit.io/your-organization/your-program: your handle, then the program name, with no record IDs anywhere in the link. The entry form, the gallery, and entry pages follow the same shape, so the address on a poster is one a person can retype from memory.

Pick your handle once and every program shares it. awardkit.io/your-organization is a page of its own, listing your live programs, and it never changes year to year: one durable link for this year's award and last year's showcase.

Entrants now land directly on your entry form and start typing: no account creation, no password, no wall before the form. Work autosaves as they go, and at submit a 6-digit email code confirms their address and quietly becomes their account. Returning to view, edit, or pay works the same way, with a fresh single-use code each time.

Every other awards platform we track makes entrants register an account before the entry form is even visible, and forced account creation is one of the most-documented causes of online form abandonment (Baymard Institute). Nothing to configure: this is how every AwardKit program works now.

Entering several works no longer means checking out once per entry. Choose Pay later and each submission completes on the spot while its fee joins a running balance; one itemized Stripe checkout then settles everything, with the multi-entry discount counted across the whole balance.

Unlike a cart, the balance cannot expire or be abandoned: unpaid entries stay visible with the amount owed, payment is due when entries close, and reminder emails go out automatically.

"10% off 2 or more entries" is now a rule you set once, not a code you hand out. Pick a minimum number of entries and a percentage or fixed amount off, and checkout applies it automatically; several rules form a tiered ladder (5% off 3+, 10% off 6+) where the highest reached threshold applies on its own.

Entrants see the offer right where they pick categories, and it composes with early-bird deadlines, member pricing, discount codes, and your declared VAT or GST in one fixed order.

The fee grid associations actually publish, member $190 early bird and $250 regular, non-member $275 and $350, now fits cell by cell: define entrant types and set a distinct price per type for every pricing period.

Entrants answer a required "Are you a member?" question, the same honor method the established platforms use, and the answer locks once they pay. The declared type shows in your dashboard and entries CSV, and varying prices always display as the full range, never a vague "from $190".

Entry fees can now change on a schedule: early-bird discounts before your standard price, late surcharges after it, each a percentage or a fixed amount applied to every category's fee, up to five pricing periods with the last running until entries close.

Prices switch over at each deadline in your program's timezone, on the entry form and at checkout alike. "Save 20% until March 1" stops being a discount code you email around and becomes how the program prices itself.

If your organization is tax-registered, declare your tax once: the name, the rate, and whether it is added on top of your fee or already included in it. Entrants see the rate next to every price, pay the right total at checkout, and receive a tax invoice with your registration number so business entrants can reclaim what they paid.

Discounts apply before tax, and the entries CSV breaks every payment into net, tax, and gross for filing. Works for UK and EU VAT, Australian and New Zealand GST, or any declared sales tax.

Your program pages should look like your program, not ours. Upload your logo and it takes over the navigation on every public page. Pick your brand color and the entire public surface follows it: buttons, links, timelines, the entry form, judging and voting screens, and the gallery. Top it with a wide hero banner that renders exactly as you cropped it.

AwardKit handles the contrast math automatically, so your color always stays readable, and your social share images are composed from your hero, logo, and color. All of it is included in the one flat plan; elsewhere, branding like this is an enterprise-tier upsell.

Skip the blank page. Paste your award program URL, upload your entry pack PDF, or paste the text of your call for entries, and AwardKit drafts the whole program for you: categories, entry fees with early-bird pricing, key dates, judging criteria, entry form questions, and awards. You review every field before anything is created, and if one source missed something, add another and it fills only the gaps without touching your edits.

In our testing, a real 42-page entry pack became a ready-to-review program with all 24 of its categories in under a minute.

Entrants never lose their work again. The entry form now saves progress automatically as they type, with a quiet indicator confirming every save. They can close the tab mid-entry and pick up exactly where they left off, on any device: drafts appear on the program page with a one-click Continue. And if someone steps away during an entry fee checkout, their entry waits on their entry page with a Complete payment button instead of vanishing. Long forms and paid entries deserve a safety net; now they have one.

Run your program the way real juries work: a screening round narrows the field, then a final panel judges the shortlist. Add a round in one dialog, give each round its own criteria, judges, and dates, and advance your shortlist straight from the results table. Judges keep the same link the whole way through, and a live funnel view shows exactly where every round stands. Single-round programs stay exactly as simple as before.

A new sidebar layout puts every part of your program one click away. Categories, awards, entry fees, and discount codes now live together in a single Categories tab, and scoring is built right into the Judging page.

AwardKit now works for organizers worldwide. Onboard a Stripe account from any supported country, and choose from 23 program currencies for your entry fees, up from 5. Fee inputs adapt to each currency symbol automatically.

A full documentation site is now live, with step-by-step guides and instant search to help you set up and run your program from start to finish. Self-serve, no sales call required.

Charge entry fees and get paid directly. Set per-category fees, collect payments when entrants submit, and route funds straight to your own Stripe account through Stripe Connect. Zero commission, with discount codes built in for early-bird or member pricing.

AwardKit is now available! The all-in-one award management platform that lets you focus on your program, not administration. Set up in under an hour, run without stress, and save 40+ hours on program logistics.

Entrants can now add verifiable certificates directly to their LinkedIn profile with one click. Each certificate links back to a unique verification page with program details, awards, and entry info. Great for entrants looking to showcase their award program achievements where it matters most.

Showcase all submitted entries in a beautiful public gallery after your program. Visitors can browse entries, see team members, and view award winners. Each entry gets its own shareable page, perfect for entrants to highlight their work and for organizers to celebrate what their community built.

Split your judging panel into parallel rooms. Create rooms, assign judges and entries, and each room scores its own set of entries. Perfect for large programs where you need judging to happen in parallel across multiple panels.

Organizers can now enable a dedicated scoring layer for categories and subcategories. Flip it on, and judges will score each entry within its categories separately alongside the standard criteria, making it easy to determine category-level winners independently from overall rankings.

Post announcements that display as banners on your program page, and send email updates to all entrants. Perfect for sharing deadline reminders, judging updates, or important announcements during your award program.

Creating a program is now a guided multi-step experience. Set up categories, prizes, and custom form questions before your program goes live. Choose exactly which features you need (program page, registration, entries), and everything can still be changed later.

A new voting method that lets judges or audiences quickly pick and rank their top entries. Voters choose their favorite entries and rank them, with points assigned by position. Perfect for large programs where speed and simplicity matter.

Preview the full entry details directly from the results page without navigating away. Click any entry to open a slide-out panel with all the details, making it faster to review and assign winners.

Entries now support embedded YouTube and Loom videos with a clean, distraction-free player. Videos appear everywhere entries are surfaced, on entry pages, during voting, and on the results page, so judges and audiences can watch demos without leaving AwardKit.

Bulk import entrants from a CSV file. Upload your spreadsheet, map columns to fields, and import hundreds of entrants in seconds. Great for adding pre-registered participants or importing from other platforms.

Control which entries each judge reviews. Assign judges to specific categories, manually include or exclude entries, or automatically distribute workload evenly across your judging panel.

We completely redesigned the organizer dashboard with a clean horizontal navigation bar and contextual tabs. Managing your award program now feels faster and more intuitive with everything just one click away.

Entrants can now submit multiple entries to a single program. Perfect for organizations entering across multiple award categories or entrants with multiple qualifying projects.

Instantly generate QR codes for your registration and entry pages. Display them at your venue, add to slides, or print on posters. Entrants just scan and go.

Entrants now receive professional confirmation emails when they register or submit an entry. Each email includes quick links to view or edit their information.

Set up your entire award program for free. Build your forms, categories, and judging workflow, invite your team, and preview everything before you commit. You only pay when you are ready to open submissions and go live.

Download your program results as a CSV file with one click. Get all entries, scores, and rankings in a spreadsheet-ready format for reports or further analysis.

All your program URLs now live under one clean structure. Entrants get a simpler experience navigating between registration, entries, and program information.

Control who can submit to your program. Enable the new "Require Registration" toggle on entry forms to only allow registered entrants to submit entries.

Forms are now smarter and simpler. Each program gets one registration form and one entry form with purpose-built fields. System fields like name, email, team members, and categories are automatically configured.

A flexible system for organizing your program. Create categories and subcategories, define awards at each level, and assign winners directly from the results page with a dedicated award management panel.

Results page now features a two-column layout with integrated winner selection. See all entries alongside available awards, assign winners with one click, and track progress visually.

Setting up voting is now easier than ever. Choose your voting method, configure criteria, and launch voting in minutes. Smart defaults get you started faster.

Visual badges now clearly identify category types across the platform. Instantly see if an entry is competing for overall prizes, category awards, or special awards.

Added dedicated support for special award categories. Create separate categories with dedicated awards, independent from main categories but fully integrated into judging.

Everything loads instantly now. Smart data caching keeps your dashboards responsive even with hundreds of entries. Handle programs with 1000+ entrants smoothly and reliably.

Your account is now more secure and easier to access. Sign in with Google for one-click access, add two-factor authentication for extra protection, and manage your sessions across all your devices.

Invite your organizing team to collaborate on AwardKit. Work together on forms, manage entries, and coordinate judging, all in one place. No more email chains or file sharing.

Zero-friction voting is here. No accounts needed for judges, instant results, and complete transparency. Share public links or send personalized invites to judges. You control who votes and how.