--- title: "OpenWater Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of OpenWater. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if OpenWater is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/virtual-event/openwater-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Grant Management Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/grant-management-comparison/) / [OpenWater](https://www.softwareadvice.com/virtual-event/openwater-profile/) / OpenWater 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/virtual-event/openwater-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/virtual-event/openwater-profile/alternatives/) # OpenWater User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.6/5 - Total reviews: 73 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.2/5 - Customer support: 4.9/5 - Value for money: 4.3/5 - Functionality: 4.2/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 47 reviews (64%) - 4 stars: 24 reviews (33%) - 3 stars: 1 reviews (1%) - 2 stars: 0 reviews (0%) - 1 star: 1 reviews (1%) ### Most mentioned pros - It allows us to receive applications, build the job board, send emails, organize participant information, and even lets us pull reports that we use for metrics/data needs. - Their customer support is strong and responsive, and they are generally able to help us configure the system to meet a wide range of needs. - This also means that it fosters your learning curve because of the resources but also because of the great customer support they provide. ### Most mentioned cons - Another downfall has been the number of programs and what is considered "active" versus "Inactive". - The Guidebook app is too difficult for attendees to download to their phones and log in to. - The platform is a little clunky to navigate, so it took me a moment to get familiar with it. ## OpenWater customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 73 (page 1). ### OpenWater has no competition - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Al B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Automotive - Company size: 5001-10000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Pain-free. They are highly responsive to questions and suggestions. Contest management is an added part of my workload. OpenWater's system keeps it from getting too out of hand. My supervisor deals with the financial aspects. I don't know the details, but she has been able to secure multi-year discounts. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros OpenWater's system is powerful and elegant. I'm only a daily user fwhen our contest is live, approximately half the year. I'm always pleasantly surprised by the improvements they've made when I open the next year's contest. I suspect that we are not using OpenWater's system to its full potential, but what we do utilize more than works for us. Their self-help guides are useful and when they're not, customer service is available (see caveat below). I have had several different dedicated service advisors; all have been uniformly excellent. Our entrants and judges find the system easy to use. #### Cons Communication is mostly by email. If you want a phone call, you need to make an appointment. That said, they are highly responsive when rare problems arise. #### Reasons for choosing OpenWater N/A. OpenWater and our previous vendor were the only contestants. As indicated, OpenWater proved its superiority. #### Reasons for switching to OpenWater OpenWater cold-called. I was skeptical at first, but they mentioned that they employed several staff from our then-current provider. They sold me by showing how their system could solve several problems I was having with the current system. --- ### ACE has been using Open Water since 2021 and going strong - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jenni M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Entertainment - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Our members enjoy all it has to offer and we are so grateful. The submissions are especially easy and most studios thank us for using open water. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The customer service has been wonderful and I really appreciate my personal representative. As I learn more it gets easier. #### Cons The platform is a little tricky, but they make updates every day, so I'm hoping while I learn it also gets easier. #### Reasons for switching to OpenWater Awards Force was not easy to customize and we needed to brand our event. #### Vendor response Hi Jenni, thank you for sharing your experience! We’re delighted to hear that OpenWater's customer service has been such a support. It’s wonderful to know your members enjoy the platform and find submissions easy. We’re grateful for your partnership and committed to making your experience with OpenWater the best that it can be! Replied August 2025 --- ### Useless Split Screen - Overall rating: 1/5 - Reviewer: Douglas R. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 5001-10000 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: March 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I hated using it. It slowed me down, was cumbersome and had no option to get a printout of the application to review off line. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 1/5 - Functionality: 1/5 #### Pros The split screen for reading the application and answering review questions is nothing short of useless - constant needless scrolling back and forth. #### Cons Split screen - lack of options to download the application as a pdf - need to be online to use this. --- ### How Open Water Saved the SME Awards and Scholarship Programs! - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Carol K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Events Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It has been a wonderful relationship working with the Open Water Customer Service and OW IT department. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Top Notch Customer Service Representatives. I never had to wait for someone to help when I needed it. Ease of implementation. User satisfaction. Virtually effortless to maintain and copy to the next year award cycle. #### Cons I have not found anything to complain about or wish I could have. Our last awards and scholarship was such a horrible software--Open Water has been a dream come true. The obstacle we have had the most problem with is our emails from the Open Water system getting through to our customers/users and not going to their spam accounts. #### Reasons for choosing OpenWater We we familiar with the product. We used it for abstracts. We saw the value of using it for awards and scholarships. We had a lot of programs that we could manage on one platform which made it more economical for the volume that we do. #### Reasons for switching to OpenWater Personify was horrible. I had non stop complaints for every cycle! --- ### Data Management - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Brandi T. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall I have been satisfied with the excellent technical support I received during the height of my event planning and management. I really appreciate having one dedicated support person[sensitive content hidden]). She's great!! The platform does a great job of being my central hub for collecting submissions. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I like having all my symposium submission data in one place and the ability to run reports. #### Cons There is a steep learning curve if you are brining new team members on to manage the platform. It is not an intuitive platform. I don't like the website platform. It lacks the ability to have more customizable features. I end up not using the website for my event because aesthetically it is not appealing. I wish the virtual display of submissions. Public view was better. It looks outdated. #### Reasons for switching to OpenWater Limited data management features and abstract submission collection and scoring. --- ### A very adaptable solution. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Taunie K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used other for less than 2 years - Reviewed: October 2019 - 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: 4/5 #### Pros We weren't actively looking for a contest management solution but a Sales representative reached out to gauge our interest in OpenWater, after hearing about our Construction Intern Awards scholarship program. Up until that point we had been using Wordpress to manage this competition, which included a lot of manual maintenance, popular voting plugins, a bulky media gathering process, entry content display delays, and several other headaches. On top of that, we had to use other solutions to manage the judging portion of the contest, which involved either rigging survey products or creating a mess of spreadsheets but both caused confusion for the judges. What we liked most about OpenWater is that it addressed all of the above problems we were facing and allowed us the freedom to customize almost everything. Every other contest management software that we looked at wouldn't let us use our own CSS/HTML to style the site, relying on some sort of WYSIWIG instead. After the initial setup, OpenWater was a huge timesaver. We have also had outstanding support reps since the beginning of implementation. We've asked for a lot during our time using OpenWater and they definitely come through for us. #### Cons Our contest is set up in a pretty unconventional way (weekly popular vote-based contests combined with a separate traditional scholarship application), and OpenWater has done a good job of keeping up with our requests. There are several smaller, nit-picky things about the popular vote functionality that could be improved but it's still better than what we were doing before. Another factor that we've had to work around is the fact that the contest dashboard looks the same for everyone who visits the dashboard, regardless of user type (applicant/judge/voter), which can be confusing for some users. #### Reasons for choosing OpenWater We decided to choose OpenWater over alternative solutions because of the customization options. We wanted more options than just being able to select our brand colors and upload a logo to a standard form (which is the case with most solutions we came across). OpenWater gave us the freedom to adapt the application portal to match are website CSS as well as other customization options, like SMTP for emailing. --- ### Best of the Best - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Carleen S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. We've been with OpenWater for about 7 years now. We haven't considered looking elsewhere for our Awards needs. The program has the functionality we need, the price is extremely reasonable, and the customer support is above reproach. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros OpenWater is very easy to use. The training videos and knowledge base are extensive and easy to use. The support team is superb - always available and willing to help. I have a dedicated support member, so there is excellent consistency. She knows our organization, she knows our program, and she knows our needs. #### Cons I would like more user-friendly reports. It would be nice to create my own custom reports a bit more easily. But this is not a deal-breaker. It likely has more to do with the kinds of complex reports I'm looking for than OpenWater's ability to provide good reporting. #### Reasons for choosing OpenWater The price was right. The sales team didn't harass us (as the others did for years). The implementation and roll-out processes were very easy. --- ### Makes our members happy! - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Shanita S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: September 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered OpenWater has been very pleasing for membership. It solved several of our issues: 1. We needed a software that would tie into our database. 2. We wanted to be able to perform membership renewals with pre-filled data so that our members would not have to redo much if anything. 3. Allow members to stop and start without losing data. 4. Allow new data that was entered to flow back into our database. We can now do all of this at a great rate and without a ton of hassle. I love that integration was not a long drawn out process either. The team at OpenWater worked well with our integration team and got us up and running in no time. It was helpful to have a couple of our programs created by OpenWater and then handed over to us after training as well. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros I like that we CAN integrate this software into our database and have our users log in using their credentials used in our site and have some fields pre-populated. #### Cons The multiple ways to access the emails and the judging settings. It would be easier to have a main area on the dashboard of the admin panel and be able to tie the information to a program. Would like to eliminate the number of places to remember to go set up. It also does not tie into our database to update a status as paid. #### Reasons for choosing OpenWater We received the recommendation from ATS. I trust them when it comes to knowing the best system to work in. #### Reasons for switching to OpenWater We had too many complaints from members and the emails from their system kept going to spam. --- ### Best application software - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Hannah L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros OpenWater is so intuitive and user-friendly. I also love the customer support that is provided. #### Cons Although the software is intuitive, it takes a little bit of training to get used to the functions. #### Reasons for switching to OpenWater OpenWater provided functions that JotForm didn't, such as Judge Scoring/Review. OpenWater is also much easier to use on a larger scale. --- ### OpenWater is the most dynamic way to achieve an active work team - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Helene V. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Public Relations and Communications - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: April 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Without a doubt, since we have OpenWater in the company, our projects are more dynamic, the work teams are more motivated to accomplish their goals and tasks, and the way in which projects and sales are presented, through notifications, templates, competitions and games, drives us to improve the performance of the activities we perform. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It has multiple templates of contests to improve sales, fulfilling different activities and goals. It also has templates that are customizable, to create our own contests, according to the goals, projects and sales, we have. Administrators have a module to see the competition, the progress of each person, and can include other activities. One of the most recommended software for the sales department, as it is a fun, effective and entertaining way to get employees to be always active with their sales and focused on improving their performance and earning the rewards they are offered. #### Cons The system gets a little slow when logging in and sometimes when entering information and progress of participants. Updates from other users also take time to be reflected on the screen, so it is almost not in real time. It could be a little more customizable, since there are not so many options when creating profiles. --- ### Excellent Customer Service... - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Branden A. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Open Waters Customer Service is second to none! They always respond quickly, ensure coverage and communication when a team member is out, and find a comprehensive solution. #### Cons The system is quite extensive... It took me too long to learn about the Essential Training for All Admins. #### Vendor response Hi Branden! We’re so glad our customer service team has been able to support you quickly and thoroughly. We also appreciate your feedback on training, as it helps us continue improving the experience. Thank you for your kind words! Replied August 2025 --- ### Good Platform for Capturing Information from Applicants - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Michael L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall I have had a good experience with OpenWater. We've always found their staff to be helpful and polite, and generally it's a good system and accomplishes what we need. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros We like OpenWater because it is a good platform for capturing information from our applicants. Customizable forms allow us to streamline operations and reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks... items like acceptance forms, photos, bios, and the like can all be collected in a passive way that makes it easy to collect and store in one place and now I don't have to worry about losing this in my inbox. #### Cons Some items can be a bit difficult to set up. The e-mail system is a particular issue - other submission systems and CRMs have one central email module where emails are generated using substitution variables, and are able to be created from a template. OpenWater's system is program-dependent (as opposed to being uniform system-wide). Wish this would get fixed. #### Reasons for choosing OpenWater Unsure - I was not a part of this discussion as it was before my employment. --- ### Continues to be a great return on investment - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Greg O. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered The entire OpenWater team from implementation to ongoing support have been terrific to work for. They put a great deal of effort into understanding our business needs to help us build programs that best take advantage of all the robust tools available through the platform. They also go to pains to solicit client feedback for new functionality and features, which only builds on the value of what has already been a terrific investment for our association. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros We purchased the software primarily for abstracts collection, which the OpenWater platform excels at, but what we have found most appealing about the software is that its flexibility and ease of configuration have allowed us to apply it to many other areas to replace aging legacy, custom built software solutions (awards, elections, nominations). #### Cons There's very little negative I have to say, but if I had to quibble with anything it would be sometimes the form and report building tools are a little clunky for nontechnical staff, but that's a pretty nitpicky complaint for such a powerful tool. #### Reasons for switching to OpenWater enSYNC's Abstract Studio was only compatible with iMIS, which we were migrating away from, and their replacement program and abstracts management software was still under development so they did not have a viable upgrade or replacement path available to us. --- ### Always helpful! - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Amanda B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Consumer Goods - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. The customer service is on point and that is AMAZING. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] is always available when we need her and works so well with us. She makes using the system easier and provides slight suggestions for improvement while maintaining professionalism. I would not be taking this survey if it weren't for how awesome she is - because it needs to be said. With that being said, the overall software is great - but wouldn't be as amazing if I didn't have the customer service aspect of someone being available to guide me in the right direction. Once I am there, the system is user friendly and easy to operate. The massive collection of FAQ's available is very valuable and appreciated. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It is fairly user friendly, which is always very nice and allows for us to continue to use and learn the program. #### Cons Sometimes updating the website portion is difficult and you do need to know how to code/html coding. If you don't know that, you aren't able to fix small issues because they are buried in the background of the coding. --- ### Good awards management software with great client support - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Michelle F. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Insurance - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: Used other for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. OpenWater offered a solution for my department to easily manage a new sweepstakes program for our members. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros OpenWater had everything I needed to manage our department's annual sweepstakes. While there aren't a lot of bells and whistles, this no-frills solution is straightforward and wasn't that difficult to use. The best part of OpenWater are the prompt and helpful account reps. If I had a question, they would respond right away. #### Cons The interface and customization tools can be a little confusing at first. There aren't a lot of opportunities to customize web forms or pages beyond very basic HTML and fields. If you aren't looking to create flashy pages, this software could be a great choice. --- ### Amazing customer service, tons of features, steep learning curve - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Matt S. - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: December 2017 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Incredibly customizable form creation and so much more. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The Open Water platform is one of the most robust and full-featured systems we've come across. It's extremely detailed and customizable, with the ability to adapt various templates to suit needs as simple or complex as you desire. Some of our favorite features include the external and internal linking within forms, program duplication, easy to create conditional child forms, and the autoscoring feature. However the best "feature" of Open Water is their customer service team. They are, hands down, the best CS team I have worked with out of hundreds of vendors in various industries. They are fast, polite, and know their product down to the smallest details. #### Cons After managing the Open Water platform as the primary admin over the course of nearly two years, I have no serious complaints. The platform has a steep learning curve and we have found it somewhat hard to retain configuration knowledge since the system makes it so easy to duplicate past programs, so we rarely start a new one from scratch. When we do we sometimes need to reach out to the OW team for a refresh, which they are always happy to help with. --- ### We love OpenWater - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Gabby S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Hospital & Health Care - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, we love our experience with OpenWater and everything has been very positive. We highly recommend the product. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros My organization has been using OpenWater for a little over a year and it has been a life-saver for our company. We love it! It is easy to teach yourself things, and admin can reach out to customer service for calls and for help. There are many help articles. You are able to have applications, judging, and surveys. Open Water is very versatile. #### Cons While Open Water is easy to navigate and teach yourself, it is also very intricate. There are so many things that can be done in Open Water and so many different ways to do them that sometimes it is difficult to teach others how to use the program. --- ### Great product - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Maria A. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. OpenWater has saved my organization money and time. It is a great product and I highly recommend it. We will likely use OpenWater for other business needs. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros he software does want we want to do. The implementation was very fast and customer service is amazing! I have never before worked with a vendor that is this responsive. #### Cons The software has a lot of functionality that we will likely not use making it at first overwhelming. Once you get use to the application, you know exactly where you need to go and overlook the features you do not use. --- ### A great company who truly cares about your organization - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Michael O. - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2016 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered This is our third year using OpenWater awards for our annual Golden Reel Awards program. We could not have found a better company to work with. The OpenWater platform is extremely user-friendly and the production team goes above and beyond our expectations. Successful programs take time to build. Please take the time to work with the support team and explore their tutorials. OpenWater will help you every step of the way! Michael Motion Picture Sound Editors #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros OpenWater will do their best to add custom solutions to their platform. #### Cons The back end doesn't allow for easy manipulation of large amounts of data. Would be great to have a table view to edit data. #### Vendor response Hi Michael, Thanks for your review. We added a bulk edit view to our software. It covers many, but not all cases. Take a look here: http://academy.getopenwater.com/v2/articles/bulk-edit-view Your support rep will be reaching out to you with some more info about it. Replied September 2016 --- ### Powerful and flexible awards management system - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Joshua Y. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: May 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I have developed several complex programs in the system and spoke with developers and customer service daily. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The system is extremely straight forward and easy to administer and develop programs. The customer support is also some of the best I have ever encountered. #### Cons The system has workflow limitations based on some standardized design features. Their sales promises more than they may actually be able to deliver when you have a unique or complex review workflow. --- ### OpenWater has transformed our clients' awards programs and we couldn't have achieved it without them - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Reggie K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2017 - 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: 4/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros The software is very robust and when when we're trying to do something that isn't within the platform, the team is always willing to find a work-around for us. #### Cons We would like to see the integration of more visual reporting(i.e ability to create more visual charts and graphs in the dashboard and the exported PDF's). --- ### Very expensive for what you get - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Leisure, Travel & Tourism - Company size: 10000+ 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 Overall, my experience has been positive. However, the expense outweighs the benefit of the overall software. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 2/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Openwater is very customizable compared to other Call for Papers tools currently on the market. It allows customizable questions and fields for submitters and same for reviewers. I love that it has the blind and double blind option for reviewers and some automatic email capabilities. #### Cons This software is extremely expensive compared to others on the market that can do the same exact thing and have the same features. --- ### Good functionality. Better service. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Brock R. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Our professional organization runs a biannual awards competition. OpenWater is the platform we use to manage entry submissions, payments, and applicant notifications. Overall it is a good platform, though there's definitely a learning curve. If I were to use it consistently over time, I suspect I would get quite a lot of value out of it. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The customer support was absolutely the best part of using OpenWater. Whenever I had a question, the rep was immediately on top of it. She was incredibly helpful. #### Cons The navigation is not particularly user friendly. There are a lot of features, but they can be difficult to find, because they are hidden down different rabbit holes. It's not always intuitive to use. --- ### Had to learn pretty quickly, some confusing aspects of the platform that I know I won't use. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Sara M. - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: December 2017 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros All-in-one concept where applicants can submit their applications, reviewers review/judge and can export data. Also, I like being able to go in on the admin side to edit or change anything. #### Cons It was tricky to learn the terminology and the platform itself. Also, the website seems to take a long time to load. --- ### OpenWater Platform Review: Experience, Support, and Functionality - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jenna K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, our experience with OpenWater has been positive. Their customer support is strong and responsive, and they are generally able to help us configure the system to meet a wide range of needs. This level of support and flexibility has been especially valuable in adapting the platform to our conference workflows and requirements. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros What I like most about OpenWater is the strong customer support and the flexibility to customize the system to fit our specific conference needs. Their support team is responsive and helpful when questions or issues arise, which is especially important during high-volume submission and review periods. #### Cons One current limitation is that we are not able to fully manage all of our data within OpenWater because programs cannot be linked together in a fully connected way. For example, we collect initial session information from a session organizer, including speaker details, but then we must create a separate program for individual speakers to submit their own required information. As a result, we rely on a separate system to manage these connected data points, which creates a duplicative and time-consuming workflow. #### Vendor response Thank you for sharing your experience, Jenna! We're delighted to hear that our support team and the flexibility of OpenWater have helped you tailor the platform to your conference workflows. We also appreciate your feedback on connected program management and will continue working to enhance the platform while delivering the responsive support you can count on. Replied June 2026 ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/virtual-event/openwater-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- OpenWater Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice