Does AwardKit take a commission on entry fees?

No. AwardKit charges zero commission. Every entry fee goes straight to your own Stripe account, and only Stripe’s standard processing fees apply. This is the biggest difference from Submittable, which deducts 5% plus $0.99 from each paid submission (on top of the subscription) and pays you out monthly rather than directly.

How much does Submittable charge per entry?

Submittable charges 5% plus $0.99 of the amount collected on every paid submission, according to its own fees page. About 4 of those 5 points are payment processing, so Submittable’s own margin is roughly 1% plus the flat $0.99 per entry. Either way, it is deducted from your entry fees and is on top of your subscription. With AwardKit there is no commission at all.

Is AwardKit cheaper than Submittable?

For an award program, almost always, once you count the per-entry commission. AwardKit is a flat $1,995 a year for unlimited programs with zero commission. With Submittable you pay a tiered subscription plus 5% plus $0.99 on every paid entry. A few hundred paid entries can mean thousands of dollars in commission alone, before the subscription. The exception is enterprise grants or CSR programs, where Submittable is the more specialized tool.

Can I try AwardKit before paying?

Yes. You build your entire program for free, with no time limit, and pay only when you open submissions. Submittable does not offer a free trial or free plan, and its buying process starts with a demo and a quote.

Where does Submittable genuinely beat AwardKit?

We will be straight about it. Submittable is the more capable platform for enterprise grants management and corporate giving, has deep integrations and a REST API, granular role-based permissions, and a long track record since 2010. For large-scale grantmaking or an org that needs those integrations, Submittable may be the better fit. AwardKit is built for award programs that want zero commission, flat pricing, and a fast self-serve setup.

How do I move from Submittable to AwardKit?

Build your program in AwardKit for free first, so there is no overlap cost. Recreate your categories and judging setup, import your entrant and judge lists, and switch over when your next cycle opens. Email hello@awardkit.com if you want a hand mapping your fields from a Submittable export.

Compare

Submittable Alternative

AwardKit vs Submittable. Keep Every Dollar of Your Entry Fees.

Submittable takes 5% plus $0.99 from every paid entry, on top of your subscription, and routes the money through Submittable. AwardKit charges zero commission: entry fees go straight to your own Stripe account, and you pay a flat $1,995 a year for unlimited programs. Here is an honest, line by line comparison.

Start Free See Pricing

The Short Version

AwardKit vs Submittable in Four Bullets

Submittable deducts 5% plus $0.99 from every paid entry, on top of the subscription. AwardKit takes zero commission. On a $150 entry across 400 entries, that is about $3,400 deducted from your entry fees in a single cycle, on top of the subscription. With AwardKit you pay only Stripe’s standard processing.

AwardKit is a flat $1,995 a year for unlimited programs, with public pricing. Submittable does not publish self-serve awards pricing and has no free trial; you request a demo and a quote.

With AwardKit, entry fees land in your own Stripe account immediately. With Submittable, funds flow through Submittable and are paid out to you monthly.

AwardKit is purpose-built for award programs. Submittable has pivoted toward enterprise grants and corporate giving, especially after acquiring WizeHive in 2024, so awards are no longer its focus.

At a Glance

AwardKit vs Submittable at a Glance

Dimension	AwardKit	Submittable
Commission on entry fees	Zero, paid to your account	5% + $0.99 per paid entry
Annual price	Flat $1,995, unlimited programs	Tiered, quote-based
Where entry fees go	Straight to your Stripe	Through Submittable, paid monthly
Build before you pay	Free until you go live	No free trial
Sign up without sales	Yes, self-serve	Demo and quote
Built for	Award programs	Grants and CSR focus

Feature by Feature

The Full Comparison Table

Every meaningful feature, side by side. Hover any cell with extra detail for the source or context.

Entry Fees & Commission

The difference that adds up fastest.

Feature	AwardKit	Submittable
Commission on paid entries	ZeroYou pay only Stripe’s standard processing fees (about 2.9% + $0.30, paid to Stripe, not AwardKit). AwardKit never takes a cut.	5% + $0.99 per entrySubmittable deducts 5% plus $0.99 from each paid submission (4% of which is processing, so roughly 1% is Submittable’s own margin plus the flat fee). Source: submittable.com/features/fees-and-payments, accessed 2026-06-16.
Funds paid directly to you	Yes. Entry fees land in your own Stripe account immediately.	No. Funds flow through Submittable and are remitted to you on a monthly payout, not directly to your own processor account.
Your own payment account	Stripe Connect	Stripe / PayPal, via Submittable
Tiered fees (early-bird, member rates)	Yes	Yes

Pricing & Plans

Feature	AwardKit	Submittable
Flat annual price	$1,995, unlimited programs	Tiered, quote-basedSubmittable does not publish transparent self-serve awards pricing; plans are tiered by submission volume and users, typically via a sales quote.
Public pricing on website	Yes	No
Free trial or build-for-free	Build free, pay to go live	No. No free trial or free plan.
No per-user or feature add-on fees	Yes	Tiered by usersReviewers frequently cite extra costs for added users and features.
Money-back guarantee	14 days	Not advertised

Setup & Onboarding

Feature	AwardKit	Submittable
Self-serve, no demo required	Yes	Demo and quote
Time to first live program	Under 30 minutes	Demo, then setup
Free onboarding call	Yes	Sales and CSM
Customer support	Email, 1-on-1 calls, help centerPriority email, 1-on-1 video calls with the team (included on the plan), and a full help center. Just ask.	Email, phone, help centerSubmittable offers email, phone, and a help centre, plus a Customer Success team. Consistently well rated by reviewers.

Submissions & Judging

Feature	AwardKit	Submittable
Custom submission forms	Yes	Yes
Multi-round review	Yes	Yes
Weighted rubric scoring	Yes	Yes
Ranked Top Picks voting	Yes	Scoring and votes
Parallel judging rooms	Yes	Stages and routing
Audience and hybrid voting	Yes	Review-focused

Results, Awards & Certificates

Feature	AwardKit	Submittable
Public results and winners gallery	Yes	Back-office focusSubmittable is workflow and back-office oriented; a public, showcase-style results page is not a documented native feature.
Ranked and named awards per category	Yes	Yes
Auto-generated certificates	Yes	Not advertisedWe did not find native certificate generation in Submittable’s documentation.
Shareable certificate verification links	Yes	Not advertised
CSV export with scores and comments	Yes	Yes

Grants, Integrations & Enterprise

Where Submittable’s maturity shows. We call it honestly.

Feature	AwardKit	Submittable
Grants and CSR management	No	Yes. A whole product category AwardKit does not address. Reinforced by Submittable’s WizeHive acquisition in 2024.
REST API and deep integrations	On the roadmap	Yes. Submittable offers a REST API and ~20 integrations including Salesforce, DocuSign, Blackbaud and Zapier.
Role-based team permissions	Core roles	Yes. Submittable offers five role-based permission levels.

Pricing

How Pricing Compares

AwardKit

One flat price, zero commission

Build your entire program for free, with no time limit
Flat $1,995 a year for unlimited programs and entries
Zero commission on entry fees, paid straight to your Stripe account
No per-user fees, no feature add-ons, no demo required
14-day money-back guarantee

See Full Pricing

Submittable

Subscription plus a cut of every paid entry

5% + $0.99 deducted from every paid submission
Funds flow through Submittable, paid out to you monthly
Tiered subscription on top, scaled by submissions and users
No transparent self-serve awards pricing, no free trial
Extra costs for added users and features (per reviews)
Strategic focus is now grants and corporate giving, not awards

Source: submittable.com

Where AwardKit Fits

Built for the Programs You Actually Run

Awards run on annual cycles with entry fees and real judging. AwardKit handles all of it without a sales process or a setup project.

Trade and professional associations

Run your annual excellence awards, member of the year, or "40 Under 40" with custom entry forms, entry fees collected to your own account, and a judging panel of board members or industry peers.

Industry publications and media

Power reader awards, best-in-category programs, and editorial competitions. Collect paid submissions, run multi-round judging, and publish a polished winners page under your own brand.

Creative and design competitions

Accept media-rich entries, score them against weighted criteria, let judges rank their Top Picks, and hand winners a verifiable certificate they can share. No enterprise software to learn first.

When Submittable is the right choice

You run large-scale grantmaking or corporate giving (CSR) programs, which is Submittable’s strategic focus and a category AwardKit does not address.
You need deep integrations with an existing stack: Salesforce, DocuSign, Blackbaud, Ellucian, or a REST API.
You are an enterprise or foundation processing very high submission volumes with large review teams and granular role-based permissions.
You want an established, well-known brand with a long track record going back to 2010.

Why organizers choose AwardKit over Submittable

Zero commission on every entry

Submittable deducts 5% plus $0.99 from each paid entry, on top of your subscription. AwardKit takes zero commission. On a $150 entry across 400 entries, that is roughly $3,400 deducted from your entry fees in a single cycle, on top of the subscription. With AwardKit there is no platform cut; you pay only Stripe’s standard processing.

A flat price you can actually see

AwardKit is a public, flat $1,995 a year for unlimited programs. Submittable does not publish self-serve awards pricing, tiers by submissions and users, and adds costs for extra seats and features. Affordability is the single most common complaint in its reviews.

Your money, in your account, now

Entry fees land directly in your own Stripe account the moment an entrant pays. Submittable collects the money and remits it to you on a monthly payout, sitting in the middle of your funds.

Self-serve, no demo, no quote

Sign up, build, and launch the same afternoon. Submittable has no free trial and routes you through a demo and a sales quote before you can buy.

Build the whole thing for free first

Set up categories, forms, and judging, then pay only when you open submissions. Submittable offers no free trial, so you commit before seeing your program run.

Purpose-built for awards, not grants

Submittable has pivoted toward enterprise grants and corporate giving, especially after acquiring WizeHive in 2024. AwardKit is built end to end for award programs: entry fees, multi-round judging, results, and certificates.

Verifiable certificates built in

Every winner gets an auto-generated certificate with a public verification page they can share to LinkedIn. Certificate generation is not a native Submittable feature.

A judging engine proven in production

Multi-round judging with weighted rubrics, category-scoped criteria, ranked Top Picks, audience and hybrid voting, and parallel Judging Rooms, all on the same engine that powers HackHQ events, including at Y Combinator.

A clean, modern interface

AwardKit is modern and fast, built around the award organizer’s workflow with smart defaults, so there is little to learn and nothing to configure with a consultant.

Common Questions