OpenCFP vs OpenSession

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.

OpenSession is a free, MIT-licensed platform for managing conference programs from proposal intake through speaker onboarding and agenda publication. Organizers create call-for-papers forms with MDX, conditional logic, multiple speakers, and file uploads; each speaker may submit up to three talks per event. Reviewers can vote, comment, and view aggregate scores without administrator access. The agenda builder assigns accepted sessions to rooms and time slots while flagging room and speaker conflicts. Schedule changes automatically update RFC 5545 ICS invitations. Accepted speakers receive a self-service portal for profiles, submissions, onboarding tasks, and files. Organizers can publish embeddable agendas and speaker galleries, plus JSON and ICS feeds. The software can be self-hosted on Cloudflare Workers, using D1 for its database and R2 for files. The listed plan is free, billed free forever. Cloudflare’s listed free-tier limits are 100,000 requests daily, 5 GB of D1 storage, and 10 GB of R2 storage. It does not cover CRM, marketing pages, or payment processing.