Fourwaves vs OpenCFP

Fourwaves is a conference management service for academic and scientific events, covering abstract submissions, peer review, registration, event websites, programs and attendee apps. Submission forms can support calls for papers and abstracts, and organizers can export abstract books with author indexes. Review workflows offer single- or double-blind processes, reviewer conflict detection and custom scoring grids. Its iOS and Android app includes the event program, personal agenda, participant list and presentation materials, and works offline. An API with organization-specific keys provides endpoints for event, registration, form, submission and session data. The free Starter plan costs nothing and caps yearly submissions at 25. Essential costs $999 a year with a 100-submission limit; Advanced costs $2,599 a year with a 300-submission limit. Each lists a 3% service fee. When a yearly cap is reached, new submissions pause until an upgrade, though existing submissions, registrations and event websites remain accessible. The company describes its audience as research communities, universities, scientific societies and research networks.

OpenCFP is a free, PHP-based system for collecting conference talk proposals and managing their review. Speakers register with contact information, submit proposals, and manage profiles through a dashboard. Reviewers can view and rate talks, while administrators can review speaker information, favorite proposals, and make selections. Command-line utilities support administration of users and reviewer or administrator groups.

The application sends notifications through configured SMTP settings, and its configuration includes options for OpenCFP Central single sign-on. A Docker Compose file is provided for building and running it in containers. The README lists PHP 7.4 and recommends Apache 2 or later with mod_rewrite and AllowOverride enabled. OpenCFP is listed for Linux, self-hosted, and web use, and costs nothing. The project is in maintenance mode and accepts security fixes only. Setup guidance recommends enabling secure_ssl when possible; it requires a valid SSL certificate. The project also advises protecting collected personal information and deleting database data within 15 months of accepting submissions.