You've been quoted by Award Force, you've read the pricing page, and the $3,125/year minimum plus a $2,200 onboarding fee is more than your event budget. Or you sat through a sales call and realised the polished award-program software is overkill for the event you're actually running. Or your team wants self-serve, monthly billing, and a leaderboard on the venue screen — none of which is what Award Force is built for. Whichever brought you here — there are real alternatives at every price point and event shape.
What Award Force Actually Is
Award Force is an Australian award management platform, founded in 2013. It's one of the polished names in the dedicated judging-software category — the kind of tool a national industry awards body, a corporate "best of" program, or a creative awards organisation runs. The product covers the full lifecycle: custom submission forms, contestant uploads, moderated entries, multi-round judging with weighted rubrics, shortlist and finalist workflows, judge dashboards, and audit-grade reporting.
Pricing is annual, publicly described but sales-confirmed: Growth is $3,125/year (up to 10,000 entries), Pro is $6,250/year (adds branding, multi-currency, API), and Premier is around $18,750/year (10k+ entries, dedicated account manager, SLA). A $2,200 one-time onboarding fee applies in year one across all tiers. There's no free tier — demo and trial only. Setup runs days to weeks, not minutes.
When Award Force makes sense: annual or recurring award programs with formal submissions, file uploads, multi-round private judging, and a real budget. National industry awards, "best of" company programs, creative excellence awards, large-scale "year in review" award shows. The price is reasonable in context — if you're running an awards program with sponsor money behind it, the polish and SLA are worth it. The onboarding fee covers a real implementation: templates, branding, judge training, support.
When Award Force doesn't fit: a one-off hackathon weekend, a school talent show, a startup pitch day, a Friday-evening community contest. The submission lifecycle adds time you don't have, the annual contract is the wrong structure for one event, and the live-leaderboard "make the judging the show" angle isn't what Award Force is built for. For these events, lighter tools exist at fundamentally different price points.
The Question Worth Asking First
Before comparing alternatives, ask: does your event have a submission stage (contestants send something in beforehand, an organiser moderates, judges score over days) or is the judging itself the event (contestants show up live, present in person, the audience watches the leaderboard)? Award Force, Judgify, Evalato, and Submittable are submission-first. ScoreJudge and Judging Hub are live-first. They're not "lite" versions of each other — they're different categories for different event shapes. Picking on price alone, without checking the shape, tends to produce regret.
The Best Award Force Alternatives
1. Judgify
Judgify is the oldest product in the dedicated judging category (Singapore, founded 2009). It covers the same submission-lifecycle territory as Award Force — custom forms, moderated entries, multi-round private judging — but with a different pricing model. The free Basic plan covers 100 submissions, 5 categories, and 1 private judging round. Pro is $699 per event plus an onboarding fee, with 500 submissions, 25 categories, and 5 rounds. Pro Unlimited is $2,399/year plus onboarding for unlimited events at Pro specs.
For organisers running one or two events a year, Judgify's per-event pricing works out considerably cheaper than Award Force's annual minimum. The product feels a little dated next to Award Force's polish, and the per-event model means each event has its own onboarding fee. For a small awards program or a one-off creative contest with submissions, it's a credible Award Force replacement at roughly a fifth of the cost. See the full ScoreJudge vs Judgify comparison or the Judgify alternatives guide for deeper context.
Best fit: small to mid-sized awards programs running 1–3 events a year that want submission-lifecycle coverage without the annual contract.
2. Evalato
Evalato is a Bulgarian award and grants management platform, spun out of the Weemss event management suite in 2018. The product covers the same lifecycle as Award Force — submissions, multi-round judging, reporting — with some structural differences: no per-user charges, unlimited free testing before going live, no setup fees, and a 12-month-from-launch licence rather than a hard annual subscription.
Pricing is per-program in EUR: Grow 50 is €1,900 (up to 50 entries), Grow 100 is €2,900, Grow 200 is €3,900, and Pro is €4,900 (up to 10,000 entries). Enterprise is custom. EU data residency and GDPR compliance are emphasised.
The cleanest reason to pick Evalato over Award Force: no onboarding fee. The cleanest reason to stick with Award Force: more polished UI, broader integrations, larger user base. For European programs that want public per-program pricing as a priority, Evalato is the more transparent choice.
Best fit: EU-based award programs that want submission-lifecycle coverage without onboarding fees and prefer public per-program pricing.
3. Award Stage
Award Stage is a UK-based award management platform, founded in 2015. The product overlaps heavily with Award Force on features but with a UK and European audience focus. Standard is £2,350/year (around $3,150) for up to 249 submissions, Pro is £3,500/year (around $4,690) for 250–999 submissions, and Enterprise is custom-quoted with unlimited entries.
Award Stage has a strong backlink profile despite low organic traffic — most of its authority comes from award-program clients linking back, not SEO. For a UK industry awards body that values a local vendor and pricing comparable to Award Force, Award Stage is the direct competitor.
Best fit: UK and European award programs that want an Award Force-class tool from a UK-based vendor.
4. ScoreJudge
ScoreJudge takes a different shape: not a Judgify-or-Award-Force-lite, but a dedicated live competition judging tool. There's no submission stage — organisers add entries directly. There's no multi-round private judging — one scoring round, with a public leaderboard that updates in real time. Judges score from a phone or tablet via a private link (no account, no app install), and the leaderboard is designed to be projected on the venue screen during the event itself.
Pricing is public and self-serve: a free plan sized to run a real contest (not a trial preview), then $19/month Plus and $39/month Pro, with one-time and annual options. Pro covers unlimited competitions — no per-event fee, no onboarding fee, no sales call. Setup is around 5 minutes.
The honest gap versus Award Force: no submission stage, no file uploads, no multi-round private judging. If your event needs contestants to upload PDFs or media before the event, or you need a shortlist-semifinal-final structure inside one workflow, ScoreJudge isn't the right tool. For a hackathon, pitch day, talent show, science fair, bake-off, or live audience-choice award — where the judging is the show — that gap is exactly what gets removed.
Best fit: live competition organisers — hackathons, pitch competitions, school events, Eurovision watch parties, community contests — who need a tool a volunteer can run themselves, with a live leaderboard the audience can see.
5. Submittable
Submittable is the largest player in the wider category — a Y Combinator alumnus based in Missoula, Montana, founded in 2010, $66.6M revenue in 2024. It's positioned more broadly than Award Force — submissions, grants management, social impact programs, and judging in one platform.
Pricing isn't publicly listed. Third-party estimates put Starter at around $399/month (up to 5 users), Pro at $799/month (up to 20 users), and Enterprise at $1,499+/month (up to 50 users). Implementation runs $3,000–$10,000+, and the minimum commitment is typically around $10,000/year. For organisations that want Award Force's lifecycle coverage at greater scale — multiple programs, grants administration, social impact reporting — Submittable is the scale-up option.
For a single award program, Submittable is more product than you need. For a portfolio of programs across an entire foundation or large company, it's the more deliberate choice.
Best fit: foundations, nonprofits, and large enterprises running multiple submission and judging programs at scale.
6. Spreadsheets + Google Forms (the DIY route)
The honest free option. A Google Form to collect entries, a shared spreadsheet with a rubric, and the organiser averaging columns at the end of the night. For a small contest with a handful of judges and no budget at all, it works.
The limitations show up as the program scales. No moderation workflow. No multi-round judging. No per-judge audit trail. No reporting beyond what you build manually in the sheet. And — relevant for live events — no public leaderboard.
For most serious award programs, the DIY route is the prototype before buying a tool. For most live events, it's the system you replace the second time you run the event and the spreadsheet falls apart.
Best fit: one-off, low-stakes contests with under a dozen entries and no budget.
Comparison Table
| Tool | Starting paid price | Free tier | Live leaderboard | Submissions / file uploads | Setup time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judgify | $699/event + onboarding | Yes (100 submissions) | No (round reports) | Yes (5–250 MB) | Days | Per-event submission contests |
| Evalato | €1,900/program | No (free testing) | No (post-round reports) | Yes | Days | EU-based award programs |
| Award Stage | £2,350/year | No | No | Yes | Days | UK-based award programs |
| ScoreJudge | $19/month | Yes (real event) | Yes (real-time) | No | Minutes | Live competition events |
| Submittable | ~$4,800/year (estimated) | No | No | Yes | Weeks | Grants + scaled programs |
| Spreadsheets | $0 | Always | No | Manual | Minutes | One-off, no-budget contests |
| Award Force (reference) | $3,125/year + $2,200 onboarding | Demo/trial only | No (post-round reports) | Yes | Days | Annual award programs |
Pricing accurate as of May 2026. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before committing — this category moves quickly.
Why ScoreJudge Works for Live Events
Most products in this category, including Award Force, share a hidden assumption: your event has a submission stage. Contestants send something in, an organiser moderates, judges evaluate over days, and a report comes out at the end. Take that assumption away — the event is live, the contestants are in the room, the judging happens in front of an audience — and the category gets expensive and slow for no reason.
ScoreJudge was built for the live shape. The organiser adds entries directly (no submission stage to configure), criteria are defined in the wizard, judges get private scoring links (no account creation, no app install), and the leaderboard updates the moment a score lands. The whole point is to project the leaderboard during the event so the audience watches rankings move in real time — and announce winners the moment the last team pitches.
The trade-off is honest: no contestant-side submission forms, no file uploads, no multi-round private judging. For an annual industry awards program, those gaps are the wrong gaps to have. For a hackathon, pitch day, talent show, or community competition, those features were never the point — and removing them is what makes the product cheaper, faster to set up, and easier for one-off judges to use.
See the pitch competition judging page for a deeper walkthrough, the hackathon judging page for the demo-day angle, or ScoreJudge vs Judgify for a head-to-head with the closest comparable tool.
The Bottom Line
If you're running an annual or recurring award program with submissions, file uploads, multi-round judging, and audit-grade reporting — Award Force is a deliberate, mature choice, and its closest competitors (Judgify, Evalato, Award Stage, Submittable) are the right comparison set. The price is reasonable in context: you're paying for polish, support, SLA, and a tool that handles the full lifecycle.
If your event is the live moment — judges in the room, audience watching, winner announced when the last team pitches — the submission-lifecycle tools are the wrong shape. ScoreJudge is the dedicated live-event option in this market, and you can run a real contest on the free plan before you spend a dollar.
Looking for narrower context? See ScoreJudge vs Judgify for the closest head-to-head, the Judgify alternatives guide or Submittable alternatives guide if your shortlist also included those tools, or what is judging software? for the broader category overview.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest Award Force alternative?
ScoreJudge is the cheapest paid option that still gives you live judging, real-time leaderboards, and no per-event fees — Plus is $19/month with a free tier that runs a real event. Judging Hub starts at $9/month but is brand new. Judgify Pro is $699 per event, which can work out cheaper than Award Force's $3,125/year minimum if you only run one event a year. Spreadsheets are free, but you give up the live leaderboard, the per-judge audit trail, and audit-grade reporting.
Does Award Force have a free tier?
No. Award Force has a demo and trial, but no permanent free tier. Pricing starts at Growth ($3,125/year, up to 10,000 entries) plus a $2,200 onboarding fee in year one. If a free tier is a hard requirement, Judgify (free Basic plan, 100 submissions) or ScoreJudge (free plan that runs a real event) are the credible options.
When does Award Force's $3,125 base price make sense?
When you run a serious annual award program, need the full submission lifecycle, and the cost is buried in a sponsorship or program budget rather than coming out of an organizer's pocket. Award Force is what a professional industry awards body or a corporate program runs because it's polished, compliant, and supported. For a one-off hackathon or a school talent show, the per-year pricing is the wrong structure.
Which Award Force alternative is best for hackathons and pitch days?
ScoreJudge. The event is live, the judges are in the room, and you need a leaderboard the audience can see. Award Force's reporting-after-rounds model is built for a different shape of event. Judgify can also work but is priced per-event ($699+) which doesn't fit one-evening events well unless you're running them several times a year.
How do Award Force's onboarding fees work?
Award Force charges a $2,200 one-time onboarding fee in the first year on top of the annual subscription. The fee covers setup, training, and template configuration. Judgify and Evalato handle implementation differently — Judgify has an onboarding fee on its paid tiers, Evalato charges no setup fees. ScoreJudge and Judging Hub are pure self-serve with no onboarding fee on any plan.
Is ScoreJudge a true Award Force alternative or a different category?
Honest answer: a different category for a different event shape. Award Force is built for the submission lifecycle — contestants upload entries, organizers moderate, judges work through rounds, reports come out at the end. ScoreJudge is built for the live moment — judges in the room, leaderboard on the big screen, winner announced when the last team pitches. If your event has a real submission stage, the right comparison set is Award Force, Judgify, and Evalato. If it doesn't, ScoreJudge is in a different (cheaper, faster) category.
Which Award Force alternative supports multi-round judging?
Judgify Pro supports up to 5 private judging rounds; Enterprise is unlimited. Evalato supports multi-round judging across its tiers. Submittable supports multi-round at scale. ScoreJudge runs a single scoring round per competition — if your event needs shortlist → semifinal → final inside one workflow, ScoreJudge's workaround is to run each stage as its own competition, which is more friction than a true multi-round platform.
Can I migrate from Award Force mid-year?
Yes, but plan around your renewal date. Award Force is an annual contract, so the practical move is to finish out your current term and run your next event on the new tool. For migrating to ScoreJudge specifically, you don't move historical data — you create a new competition for your next event, paste in entries, and share judge links. Setup is under an hour.
Try ScoreJudge Today
No annual contract, no onboarding fee, no judge accounts. Create a competition in under five minutes — the free plan is enough for a real event.