Congressio vs OpenConf

Congressio brings conference submissions, peer review, decisions, scheduling, and attendee registration into one platform. Its drag-and-drop form builder supports conditional logic, uploads, and co-author invitations, while review tools include automatic reviewer assignment, deadlines, conflict-of-interest detection, and double-blind review. Organizers can publish a public program with attendee agendas and iCal or PDF exports. Ticket sales through Stripe support tiers, discounts, add-ons, VAT invoices, and refunds. QR passes can be stored in Apple and Google Wallet and scanned at check-in, with zones controlled by ticket tier or capacity. Virtual-event tools include live and on-demand streaming, recordings, e-posters, Q&A, and polls. Congressio also describes ORCID, institutional single sign-on, API keys, and webhooks for integrations. It says data is kept in the European Union and card details are handled by Stripe. The free plan allows one active event, 100 submissions, and three team seats. Standard costs $49 a month; a 14-day trial is listed.

OpenConf is a system for managing peer review, conferences and abstracts. Organizers can build submission forms from built-in fields or add their own, then assign reviews manually or match submissions and reviewers by topic or bids. Its workflow includes scoring, acceptance decisions, notifications and committee discussion. Accepted submissions can be scheduled into a web program or print booklet, and proceedings can be published online. OpenConf can be installed on a customer's server or used through a hosting service administered by the maker. Authentication options include passkeys, magic links and single sign-on using OIDC and SAML. Privacy tools include policy links, cookie banners, consent checkboxes, personal-information review and administrator-managed data deletion. Professional Edition lists IEEE eCopyright, ACM copyright export and ORCID reviewer credit features. OpenConf 8 requires an HTTP server with TLS/SSL, PHP 7.3 or later and MySQL 8.0.4 or later. Support is included for hosting account and license contacts; Community Edition users receive no support. Community Edition has no listed price and is limited to three or fewer events and journals per calendar year.