--- title: "Zealous Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of Zealous. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if Zealous is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/accreditation-management/zealous-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Scholarship Management Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/scholarship-management/) / [Zealous](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accreditation-management/zealous-profile/) / Zealous Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accreditation-management/zealous-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accreditation-management/zealous-profile/alternatives/) # Zealous User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.7/5 - Total reviews: 60 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.4/5 - Customer support: 5.0/5 - Value for money: 4.7/5 - Functionality: 4.3/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 44 reviews (73%) - 4 stars: 15 reviews (25%) - 3 stars: 1 reviews (2%) - 2 stars: 0 reviews (0%) - 1 star: 0 reviews (0%) ### Most mentioned pros - I can't fault the service I had with Zealous and would highly recommend them to others - their customer service is exceptional, they represent great value for money and offer a number of options to suit everyone's needs. - The zealous team are so proactive in reaching out if they spot anything on our subscription that could help us further - above and beyond. - Zealous has given us such an exceptional customer service over the last 3 years (even if a cheaper alternative) we would never go elsewhere. ### Most mentioned cons - Our old system was inefficient and, frankly, terrible. - Occasional bugs which impact the ease of submissions. - The dashboard isn't completely intuitive (at least for me). ## Zealous customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 60 (page 1). ### Unexpected Experience but a Smooth Sailing in Scoring Competition with Zealous - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Fikri H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: E-Learning - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: May 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I had so much fun and hoping to use this in the future. Worth every single pennies I spent. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Considering this a scoring platform, but take it as an automation software which made everything essential, from organising your judges, assigning the scoring to the judges, and even calculating your average scores with an easy UI and commandable UX. It takes some time to learn but the best thing is the customer service themselves helped by assisting me with detailed walkthrough (through Microsoft Teams), and countless email of questions to which they assist me very well. The application and the scoring data can be downloaded easily as csv files, and even all applications can be in PDF forms. Truly appreciate it especially if you have to manually assign later on. I'd like to appreciate too how the team helped me initially when we encountered problems with my card (I couldn't pay through the website), but they invoiced me the payment (through email) and everything went well. #### Cons I really wish that sub-categories can be introduced because mainly categories only might not be sufficient for the data. In example, Category A and sub-category 1 (instead of separating them into categories only). Another thing is, you may need to cater your own tutorial (but it's not really difficult) for the judges considering the level of understanding and literacy. #### Reasons for choosing Zealous CONSIDERABLY CHEAPER!! And I am so amazed by the helpful customer service. #### Vendor response Hi Fikri, Thank you so very much for your kind review! We'll take a look into subcategories - in the meantime, it's worth noting you can create different opportunities for different categories, and then use the categories tag as subcategories. This is especially useful when you have different judges for different categories - and allows you to measure progress on each category as you begin receiving submissions. Thank you again! Guy Replied May 2021 --- ### Functional and usable but small changes could make a big difference - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Katie S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Events Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: July 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall our experience with Zealous was positive - the platform is easy to use, the low pricing allowed us to forgive some of the (very small) annoyances and the excellent customer service throughout was also a strong bonus. We appreciate how welcoming they were of feedback and their desire to make improvements and changes to the functionality accordingly, so would definitely recommend Zealous and would be happy to use the platform again going forward. Our application numbers were up on the previous year. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros Overall, Zealous was a good platform - it was relatively straight forward to set up and use and served it's purpose (in our case, collating entries for an industry awards event). The pricing structure was a huge improvement on the platform we had used prior which compensated for some of the features we lost by changing platforms. However, the best thing about Zealous is their customer service. Their team are very warm and friendly, no query is too much trouble and they are quick to respond to any queries. They also invite feedback in a way which made me feel that they really do want to continue improving, not just as a box-ticking exercise, and I have already been informed that some of our suggestions are being actioned which is really encouraging. It makes us feel valued as customers and makes it all the more likely that we will return year on year. #### Cons It would have been good to have been able to fully customise the forms - some of the language didn't really suit our audience (it is quite arts-centric) so we had to be creative in how we made the obligatory fields work for our applicants. It would also be great to have greater control over comms sent via the platform, i.e. reminders of application deadlines etc, which currently can't be sent en masse to those with applications in progress (they had to be done individually) and also can't be branded to our company. Both of these would be great features to have. #### Reasons for switching to Zealous It was extremely expensive for an awards portal when we only attract up to 150 applications. It was also quite clunky and difficult to set up. Zealous was much more user friendly. --- ### Excellent customer service - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Stepanka F. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used other for free trial - Reviewed: March 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We used Zealous for launching an open call for free exhibition. Most of other platforms do not charge for free opportunities since they gain subscribers who need to register before they enter the opportunity. This was a little disappointing to receive a warning that we have reached the free trial limit and our account was going to be frozen. Zealous should make it more obvious that the service is free to only certain extent. Their quote on the website "It costs you nothing to be part of Zealous and it never will." is missleading. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros We really like the quick response we got from the customer service. The staff dealt with our issues very quickly, suggested several improvements and were overall very helpful. #### Cons It wasn't clear that launching an unpaid opportunity within the free trial was limited by only six submissions. However, our concerns were resolved with the customer service to mutual satisfaction. #### Vendor response Thank you for the great review Stepanka. Thank you also for the feedback, we'll be sure to take a look at our communications to make sure our pricing is clearer. (I know the pages aimed at artists using Zealous highlight us being free so that's where the ambiguity might be). All the best, Guy Replied March 2021 --- ### Outstanding Judging Platform with equally outstanding Customer Service - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: kathryn B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 1001-5000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: December 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I cannot express how delighted and thankful I am with the Zealous product and the Zealous team. The platform is extremely easy to use for the administrators, entrants and judges alike. The process saved hundreds of hours as the site organizes the project, presents options for the contest as well as provides options for judging. The team at Zealous is extremely supportive and has a sincere interest in ensuring the event is structured in a way to ensure success. The contest was an essay contest for a US High School, and ease of use was a critical need. The number of entries received were double what was expected. This success is highly correlated to the professionalism of the platform the users saw, and the ease of use for High School Students is a very big deal. This essay contest was for students to document how Covid-19 has impacted them, in 2020. It is likely the essay contest would not have taken place had it not been for Zealous. Thank you [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] - you are rock stars! If you are deciding on a platform to use for your contest, stop here and use Zealous. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The software was extremely flexible to use and was able to be modified to fit the needs of the Contest. The entrants are students, and some of the judges are also students, so anonymous judging was required. The contest was set up so the entrants would have minimal questions (i.e., distractions) to answer prior to entering the contest. We had a lower than expected drop out rate from initial review of contest to actual entry to contest, which is a huge win. The contest also required a large number of judges, from students, alumni of the school, and community members. This was also easily accommodated in zealous.co. The results of the contest will be posted on various local, state and ideally national museums and archives. A huge shout out to Zealous.co who has a flexible product that performs and is part of this historical process. Well done. #### Cons Nothing. The product met the objectives of the essay contest with clear guidelines, and ease of use for administrators, judges and entrants, as well as the museums who will be archiving this information. #### Reasons for choosing Zealous Flexibility, customer service and the clear match between the contest and its requirements to a judging platform. The contest is being run by a student as well, so ease of use was required, and again delivered by Zealous.co. #### Vendor response Hi Kathryn, thank you so very much for taking the time to submit your review! We're thrilled you had a good experience, and please don't hesitate to let us know if there is anything we can improve on in the future. Replied December 2020 --- ### Excellent competition portal and submission management - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Matt F. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Civic & Social Organization - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered The Zealous team has been really great at helping us manage our competitions and addressing our feedback. They are quick to respond and clearly value us even as a small customer. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros We've been using Zealous for our Creative Future Writers' Award competition for several annual rounds. It's fairly easy to set up, quite customisable, and provides an excellent portal for us to collect and sort submissions. Initially we were hesitant about the potential for people submitting having problems with it, having to mediate their technical problems and/or hiccups, but these have been nearly non-existent. Previously we had an in-house portal on our website and as submissions rose year on year (from 300 to 1,500) it was really clear this wasn't working at all, and the level of manual administration was totally eliminated by transferring over to Zealous. From a user-end standpoint, it's very professional looking and incorporates all of our branding. Previously we received a much higher proportion of e-mail/postal entries and these have probably gone down significantly due to the ease of entering via Zealous. #### Cons We have found Zealous really flexible and easy to use. There are only a couple of minor aspects we're working with them on (scoring before the closing date and processing optional entry donations)--and Zealous is doing all they can to address these. Occasionally we've found submissions slow to load when reading them but I gather this has been fixed. #### Reasons for choosing Zealous Although Submittable offers additional options and somewhat greater customisation/flexibility, the fact is its price was well beyond what we could afford as a small non-profit organisation whose competition doesn't charge a fee to enter. As a smaller portal, we probably receive a lot more ongoing support and consistent contact people from Zealous. Overall I doubt there are major differences between the platform aside from price. --- ### Zealous - the best platform to host artist call outs - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Laura E. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: September 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It has all the features we need (and some we didn’t know we needed!). It’s easy to set up and monitor our opportunities and the interface for judging and shortlisting is great. Really helpful that applicants can upload various types of media (images, video, sound, documents) into their submissions, which our judges can then easily view within the application. We received our highest number of submissions, an increase of 22%. The support from the Zealous team has been fantastic too - always on hand for questions. #### Cons I had one little hiccup during the process where I made a change to our schedule in the system and in doing so deleted lots of data. The Zealous team were so helpful, and had their technicians retrieve all of the data for me really quickly. I suggested a warning pop up if a change would impact on current data, and I think this has now been implemented. #### Reasons for switching to Zealous Airtable lacks functionality for different types of media to be uploaded to the forms. Zealous' capability for applicants to be able to save their application and return later was also a game-changer. The built-in judging, scoring and shortlisting on Zealous was also brilliant, and something we couldn't do that cleanly within airtable. #### Vendor response Hi Laura, thank you so very much for taking the time to submit your review and for your feedback on the popup! I've submitted it to the development team, and we'll have that deployed for you in no time! Replied December 2020 --- ### Great Program for Small Organizations - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Ziquita R. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: May 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Very easy to use and score artwork. I LOVE the analytics that come with the software. #### Cons As you collect more submissions the pricing increases. As a company that is growing I found it annoying to have to increase the package every month. #### Reasons for choosing Zealous The pricing at first was a great bang for your buck but if you plan on taking more than 500 submissions per year I would recommend using Typeform or some type of survey platform ,that seems to be the cheapest. --- ### Great Zealous Experience! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Lia P. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Hospitality - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered This is our second year using Zealous for our competition and we will be using it again next year as well! The customer support is wonderful and the actual platform for submissions is exactly what we need. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It is very organized for submissions and the judge feature is very useful! Easy to navigate user interface and amazing customer support anytime we had a question. #### Cons There were some minor glitches, sometimes with the email permissions, but we reached out to customer support and were greeted with a quick solution each time! --- ### Fabulous software for running a competition - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: WKLyhne L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered see above #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros We were a small start up during during lockdown who had never used a platform like this before. Zeaolus is easy to use, has wonderful features and flexibility and beyond belief good customer support. Heartily recommend #### Cons The site graphics are complex and it can take a little while to load --- ### Weather Photographer of the Year - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Kim-lin H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Environmental Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Really good customer service and support! A useful and affordable tool for managing photography competitions. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Fantastic and quick support. It was great to be able to rank the photographs during the judging process, to be able to easily pull of CSV files and access photographer quotes and information. Looking forward to using the new features next year. #### Cons Unable to use batch commands when ranking long lists of photos but this has been fixed. Special characters in foreign language addresses not always working but this has also been fixed. --- ### Very good awards submission platform with excellent customer service - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Iulia Alexandra Z. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Events Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: November 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The customer service. We had great help from [sensitive content hidden] in choosing the right plan for us and explaining us how the platform works initially and through the process before any major things we needed to set-up. The live chat was always very efficient and Bethan helped me with any questions and issues I had. It is very rare these days to receive so much support form a service provider and for that we are very grateful. #### Cons I would have liked to have a main opportunity where I set up all the dates and then go into each awards category where I set-up the questions only. This is something that I have been reassured that this issue is being addressed and the a new functionality of the platform will address this. --- ### I'd recommend Zealous as a competition platform - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jeremy B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Research - Company size: 5001-10000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: July 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Excellent #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I liked how it was easy to collate a large volume of competition entries from around the world . Excellent customer support with good transparency about when they were available to help solve any technical issues. #### Cons It was difficult to edit the categories that each judge was assigned to whenever there was a later change in plan. --- ### Zealous - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Gareth A. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: June 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Zealous made the organization of this competition easier for everyone involved. There is another, similar competition to ours which used google drive and a number of people said how much easier they found the whole experience because of zealous. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The ease of navigation through the different entries. We had nearly 400 entries across 14 different categories, and the fact that with a unique number I as administrator and all the judges could access the correct file within seconds. It also created spreadsheets we could use for sharing of information amongst the judging team. #### Cons The search function would only work with the assigned number from zealous. If you were searching for a student by name this could be a little hit and miss. #### Vendor response Hi Gareth, thank you so very much for the great review and the feedback about the search function. The good news is we've just integrated a better search service, allowing you to search entries by many more criteria. This update is available now, ready for your next competition. All the very best, Guy Replied June 2022 --- ### Very helpful tool for award management - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Neza P. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: May 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros We were looking for a secure public vote system for our annual award and found this amazing award management platform that took our submission process to a whole next level. We were most satisfied with excellent costumer support. #### Cons Zealous is at the moment still very much catering the art sector and so are some of the menues tailored. We would wish more flexibility in adding roles and fields, eg. we are nature conservation organisation and we couldn't fill out some of the information as we would wish to. #### Vendor response Hi Neza, Thanks so very much for the great review and the feedback. We are looking to give you richer customisation options which should remove the focus on the arts sector very soon. Thanks again for taking the time to leave us a review. Guy Replied May 2023 --- ### Great form function - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Julie Z. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Zealous is facilitating the operations of the Swiss Cultural Fund UK. Its form function allowed us to gather more systematized information and to assess it better. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The functions linked to the application form are the functions that are the most useful. It allows us to work easily with the applications and to get the right type of information. #### Cons As we are project based, it is not 100% intuitive to submit first the CVs and budget etc. and then fill in the application form, for both the applicants and the judges. --- ### Using Zealous for our annual Art Competition - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Alisa S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: March 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Using Zealous has simplified the admin and logistics of running our annual art competition. It was great to be able to do everything on one platform, from entry submission to judging. It has saved us huge amounts of time and is certainly something we will continue to use in future. The Zealous team were absolutely brilliant from day one - incredibly helpful, always on hand to answer questions and ensured our transition to using the platform was a smooth process. Thank you!! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The software is very easy to use. We were able to set up our competition in no time at all. Many of the admin tasks associated with running a competition (e.g. processing entries, reminder emails to judges, collating scores) is taken care of automatically which saved us hours and hours of work. We were also incredibly impressed by the level of support received from Zealous from day one. #### Cons It would be helpful if judges could add comments/feedback to the entries (I think this something they are working on!) #### Vendor response Thanks so very much for your feedback Alisa! Comments are on our roadmap - and hopefully should be ready for your next one! All the very best, Guy Replied April 2021 --- ### Zeolous used for an image collection - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Mia K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: June 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Zealous help our company to collect entries for an image collection, it was easy to use and the platform always provided enough support to deal with any problems encountered. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The platform offers an easy way to collect a large number of media submissions. I appreciated the customer support, which was always quick and amazing, and helped fix any issues with setting up an opportunity or helping with technical problems I have encountered over the past few months while using the platform. #### Cons There could be a bit more room in organising the files within the platform and thematic grouping that is not preset by category. --- ### Great software for managing large open calls - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Sophie H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: May 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Zealous made the management of our art prize so much easier - the platform enabled judges to view admissions individually as well as collectively and made our administration of the entries so much easier. Would definitely use again. #### Cons The pricing structure for paid entrants, this is very high compared to other options our there, especially as you're also paying a monthly fee. --- ### great service - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Denise B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: June 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I always struggle with new platforms but the Zealous team have been very helpful #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The best thing about Zealous has been the outstanding customer service. I haven’t always set things up as I should, and they have pre-empted issues by noticing and letting me know. #### Cons I may be dim but I had a little trouble scheduling judging rounds - in part because I had no idea how long my judges would take or how many entries to expect #### Reasons for choosing Zealous cheaper #### Vendor response Hi Denise, Thank you for your great review! Understanding your exact needs for your first competition is never easy - especially scheduling rounds! You might find this article we compiled about how to best plan rounds useful for your next competition. https://zealous.co/about/articles/insights/insights-for-orgs/planning-the-schedule-of-your-competition/. Thanks again for taking the time to review us. Guy Replied June 2022 --- ### Zealous - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Rebecca B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: March 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered The customer service was beyond fantastic. Informed, helpful, cheerful and accessible. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It was good at consolidating the information we information we needed in one place. #### Cons It was not organized as well as it could have been, I think that was a function of its versatility though. So, having only used it once, I think the next time I will have a better user experience as I will be a better user! #### Reasons for choosing Zealous Creating our own portal would be too labour intensive. --- ### photo magazine Zealous submissions review - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Rita G. - Industry: Publishing - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Pretty good! The team behind the software has been really helpful when needed attending to questions and issues quickly is SO important! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It's a great tool for working with a lot of submissions and judges. Once set up, it's been helpful to be able to take payments - or not, and review work in one place. #### Cons A few small glitches... (luckily the humans behind the software are lovely and helpful!) One main issue that would improve my life would be if the sales report info could be merged with the submissions info as a single document/ download. I currently have to combine these 2 documents manually. Additionally, the way that I have to manage the submissions I don't want the judges to see is glitchy/ manual. The way that pricing works is also a little confusing at times. The rates are great - but the way it sometimes gets managed can be tricky. #### Reasons for choosing Zealous Price was the main factor in selecting Zealous #### Reasons for switching to Zealous price and ease of use had us switch from $$$$ options and low cost/ high work options. --- ### Awards system review - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Claire R. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: June 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered It created a professional look and a relatively easy system to work with once teething problems were resolved. [sensitive content hidden] was great in supporting us. A lot of the challenges we had were with encouraging our judges to accommodate a new on-line system after many years of off-line forms but Zealous was a great step forward. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The support given by the team was hugely helpful - it makes such a difference to have access to people! #### Cons It would be useful to have different judging questions for different categories. It would also be useful to have freeform answers within the questions where judges could enter their comments, along with a section where you elect if the applicant won/highly commended/commended, or other categories that would be relevant to the awards. --- ### Zealous is a labor of love, and it shows. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Kimberly R. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Writing and Editing - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: August 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered My organization sought out Zealous after many years of running a contest using Excel spreadsheets and thousands of emails back and forth between the contest chairperson, the office staff, judges and entrants. Our old system was inefficient and, frankly, terrible. Zealous was a blessing to me (this year's contest chair), our office staff, and our judges. I'm not sure that our entrants had too different of an experience, but last year's contest chair told me running the contest felt like a full-time job. This year, using Zealous, putting the contest together was easy. The user-interface as an Opportunity organizer was very easy to understand, and provided me with some structure to organize information the way I liked. The reports I was able to pull at the end of the contest about entrant data are incredible and provide my organization with way more insight than we've ever had before. Beyond all of that, the woman who worked with me to train me in the software and ensure my contest was set up appropriately was incredibly helpful, nice, and made it very clear that Zealous is a labor of love that is constantly seeking ways to improve its service. I've had experience in the past using Submittable as a contest organizer, and can say that Zealous offers everything a contest organizer could need at a much better price (and with the option of being able to pay for the service for only a few months rather than a full year!) than other similar services. Truly I had a fantastic experience using Zealous and I urge anyone considering running a contest using Zealous to do so. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I loved so much about Zealous. The way it organizes entries, the way I can fully customize my opportunity to best represent my organization, and the data that I had access to during the duration of my organization's writing contest were all fantastic. The BEST part, though, was the amount of support and guidance I received from our contact there, [sensitive content hidden]. She was invaluable and so helpful at answering my many questions and providing guidance on how to use Zealous. #### Cons I found the process of creating private chat channels for each of my judges to leave private comments on entries was the most tedious part of my experience using Zealous, though the fact that I could create such a thing was greatly appreciated. --- ### 3 years in w zealous. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Tamara R. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Online Media - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We've used them for 3 years now and have always had ease of use with our judges (over 160 applications per year now) and entrant communications. The zealous team are so proactive in reaching out if they spot anything on our subscription that could help us further - above and beyond. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Zealous has given us such an exceptional customer service over the last 3 years (even if a cheaper alternative) we would never go elsewhere. #### Cons Sometimes there a cheeky box somewhere that I havent found to either tick or untick - but thats likely more a me problem than a platform problem! #### Reasons for choosing Zealous Ease of setup - self led trialling process. --- ### DI_PLOMA AWARDS experience - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Florina P. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: July 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall the experience was great. No matter the small problems that we got, we received great support, always fast answers and solutions to all the problems. This was a great plus cause we always knew that if we write to you we will receive support in minutes. Great customer support. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Easy to use and very intuitive. It was pretty easy to use all the features and we received great support from the team where we got stuck. #### Cons There was a step during the project where we could not go into the public vote without jury vote completed, and that gave us some anxiety, but we received help in managing this. Also with the jury allocation we were having some problems because of the fact that not all jury members entered the platform at the same time. #### Reasons for switching to Zealous Cost vs value. For what we needed the previous platform costs to much. ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accreditation-management/zealous-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- Zealous Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice