ConfTool vs pretalx

ConfTool is conference management software for academic conferences, congresses, workshops, and seminars, including on-site and virtual events. It supports submissions and reviews, program scheduling, participant registration, administration, and invoicing. With ConfTool Pro, organizers can configure open or blind reviews, optionally use multiple tracks, schedule accepted submissions, and check presenter conflicts. Participants can create personal agendas. Pro registration supports participant groups, time discounts, event options, and admission limits; payments can be handled by bank transfer, PayPal, Stripe, or connections to more than 45 online credit card payment systems. Pro can link sessions and presentations to external virtual-event resources and export data in Excel, Word, CSV, JSON, and XML. ConfTool Standard is free on request for smaller non-commercial events, for up to 150 participants, and requires local installation. Pro is hosted and billed per conference; its fee depends on event requirements and size, and optional modules may cost extra. The maker lists HTTPS access, automatic backups, and role-based access control. Standard comes without support, while Pro includes professional support.

pretalx manages conference calls for participation and the work that follows, including submission review, talk selection, speaker communication, scheduling, and publication. Organizers can customize call pages, set multiple deadlines, accept submissions in multiple languages, and use a chosen domain. Review teams can rate and discuss submissions, and organizers can add questions for reviewers. The schedule editor uses speaker availability and warns about conflicts; published schedules can include an RSS feed and public changelog. Organizers can use full API access or download static schedule pages for hosting elsewhere. pretalx is open-source software under the Apache License and can be installed with pip. It can be self-hosted or used as a hosted service. Self-hosted software costs nothing, but server costs and maintenance apply. Hosted service includes backups, certificates, updates, operational maintenance, and assistance; pricing is per event and varies with conference size and ticket price, with no price listed here. The hosted service says it uses servers in Germany, encrypts data in transit, and does not track attendees with cookies, analytics, or sensitive IP logging. Event-page and schedule availability is usually guaranteed for six months after an event.