Fourwaves vs OpenConf

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.

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.