Best abstract management software for academic conferences: 13 tools compared (2026)

As of November 2026, the best abstract management software for academic conferences is Fourwaves. It is the only tool built for academic conferences that busy organizers can set up themselves, that includes a free native conference app with the full program and that is suitable for conferences of any size. One yearly price with no add-ons covers unlimited events and can be locked for up to 3 years, so costs stay predictable.

COMS (which sells its app as an add-on), ConfTool, Oxford Abstracts and Ex Ordo are among the strongest alternatives built for academic conferences, and EasyChair remains a good option for computer science program committees.

I’m the founder of Fourwaves, so I have a stake in this comparison. I tested 6 of the 13 tools hands-on and verified the others with vendors, their documentation and the event organizers who use them: how I compared each abstract management system explains the method.

Want the product rather than a roundup? See the Fourwaves abstract management software page.

Quick verdict: which abstract management software fits your conference?

The best abstract management software for your conference depends on how deep your submission and review process is, whether you want to set it up yourself and how predictable the price must be. Use this table to shortlist, then read the reviews below.

If you need	Choose	Why	Not ideal for
To run your own call for abstracts, at any conference size	Fourwaves	Can be set up easily, support answers in minutes, a free conference app with the full program and simple pricing for unlimited events	Symposia with nested papers, or committees that rely on reviewer bidding
Panels and session proposals	Oxford Abstracts	A symposium add-on that lets submitters submit an entire session with its title, chairs, discussants and associated papers	Teams that want everything in the base price, or a native attendee app
The vendor’s team to set up the review workflow	Ex Ordo	Its team configures and tests the workflow with you, with a strong reviewer allocation engine and a book of proceedings built by its support team	Trying the tool alone before buying, or tight budgets
A computer science or technical program committee	EasyChair	Reviewer bidding, committee discussion and author rebuttals, in a tool many reviewers already know	First-time organizers who need an intuitive user experience, a comprehensive help desk, or a mobile app
The interface in your committee’s own language	ConfTool	More than 15 languages, German included, with review depth close to EasyChair’s	Self-serve setup, or a native conference app
To pay once per conference, in euros	COMS	Abstracts, registration with invoices and bank transfers, and a native app synced with the program, from one Austrian vendor	Trying it before you buy: no free plan and no trial
A university event with video submissions	Dryfta	A yearly licence with a 14-day trial, panels and MP4 uploads in the submission form	Calls just over 100 abstracts, where the next published tier costs ten times more
An attendee app built for networking	Whova	Leaderboards, contests and matchmaking, with accepted submissions synced to the agenda	Deep peer review or a book of abstracts
One platform for many corporate or enterprise events	Cvent	Abstract management as an add-on next to registration, an on-site app and badge printing that excel at scale	A standalone academic conference: three weeks of vendor setup, one review round, no book of abstracts
Your meeting inside an association software stack	Cadmium or A2Z Events	Integrations with association management systems, and a project manager who configures the event with you	A standalone academic conference that wants a fast setup
Awards, grants and scholarships alongside abstracts	OpenWater	One tool for every kind of submission, with sign-in through iMIS membership accounts	Conference vocabulary, expertise matching or a real book of abstracts
A call for speakers at an industry conference	Sessionboard	Multi-round review and a sync with Cvent, Swoogo, Swapcard and Bizzabo for registration	A research conference that wants submissions and registration in one tool

Abstract submission forms compared

Seven of the 13 abstract management solutions are built for academic conferences:

• Fourwaves
• Oxford Abstracts
• EasyChair
• Ex Ordo
• ConfTool
• COMS
• Dryfta

The other six (Cvent, Whova, Cadmium, OpenWater, A2Z Events and Sessionboard) are event or association platforms with an abstract module. The three tables that follow compare the abstract management features of the seven tools built for academic conferences, one step of the abstract management process at a time, and a short note covers the others. Features and prices were checked with vendors, their websites and their documentation in November 2026.

Every tool built for academic conferences lets you create custom submission forms with your own fields. They differ on what the free plan includes, the flexibility of the conditional logic, session proposals and submission fees.

Software	Form on the free plan	Conditional logic	Session proposals	Submission fees
Fourwaves	Unlimited fields	Yes	Through the submission form, not a dedicated module	Yes, any priced form option
Oxford Abstracts	9 questions max	Yes	Yes, symposium add-on	One fee per form
EasyChair	Customizable, 20 submissions max	No	No	Not stated
Ex Ordo	No free plan	Per format only	Panels, enabled by support	Not stated
ConfTool	Standard form, self-installed	Per type only	Symposium proposals	Not stated
COMS	No free plan	No	Not stated	Not stated
Dryfta	No free plan (trial on request)	Yes	Panels	Yes

• Form on the free plan: Fourwaves’ free plan has no limit on form fields, while Oxford Abstracts’ free Basic package stops at nine questions and its paid packages lift the limit.
• Conditional logic: Fourwaves, Oxford Abstracts and Dryfta offer flexible conditional logic in the form, while Ex Ordo and ConfTool only let you display specific questions based on the submission format or type, which is more rigid.
• Session proposals, a panel or symposium submitted together with its own papers, are built in at ConfTool and Dryfta, an $850 add-on at Oxford Abstracts and enabled by support at Ex Ordo. In Fourwaves, conditional logic in the submission form lets you collect session information, which is not an ideal workaround for complex session or panel proposals.
• Submission fees: Fourwaves can put a price on any option of the form, with automatic early-bird increases. Oxford Abstracts charges one fee per form, through PayPal only, on paid packages.

Among the event and association platforms, Cadmium, OpenWater, A2Z Events and Sessionboard can charge a submission fee and Cvent cannot, and OpenWater runs session proposals as a separate call.

Peer review and decisions compared

Every tool built for academic conferences can handle blind reviews and lets you customize the review form with your own evaluation criteria. They differ on weighted criteria, how you assign reviewers, how conflicts of interest are caught and how decisions are recorded.

Software	Blind review	Weighted criteria	Reviewer assignment	Conflicts of interest	Decisions
Fourwaves	Single or double	No	Automatic or manual with workload caps and track matching	Detected by email (submitter and authors); reviewers can declare	Custom types, in bulk
Oxford Abstracts	Submitter hidden by default	No	Random by category, with caps	Optional email domain rule; reviewers declare	Custom types, in bulk
EasyChair	Double or triple	Not stated	By topics and bids	Reviewers declare; chairs remove	Custom types
Ex Ordo	Single or double	Yes, optional	By topics, with caps	Detected by domain, affiliation, co-authorship	Custom decision types, in bulk
ConfTool	Single, double or open	Yes	By bids, then expertise	Detected by name, email, organization	Custom statuses
COMS	Authors hidden (one switch)	Yes	Random under rules; bids	Detected by email	Three outcomes, in bulk
Dryfta	Single, double, triple or open	No	By topic or random, with caps	Reviewers declare; removed automatically	In bulk

• Reviewer bidding: reviewers can pick the submissions they want to review in EasyChair, ConfTool and COMS, and Dryfta records reviewer preferences.
• Review roles: track chairs who manage only their own track exist at Fourwaves, Ex Ordo, ConfTool and EasyChair. EasyChair and ConfTool have senior or meta reviewers. Fourwaves also has a Program chair role who can access all submissions, reviews and the program builder.
• Decisions: most tools allow bulk decision edits. EasyChair inserts the reviews into the notification email, and Fourwaves lets you turn that sharing on or off and choose which review form fields are shared. Ex Ordo asks accepted authors to confirm with automatic reminders.

Among the event and association platforms, Cadmium can detect conflicts by name, email or organization and Sessionboard by institution. Cvent only keeps reviewers off their own submissions: its automatic assignment does not skip reviewers from the submitter’s institution, and reviewers cannot declare a conflict (based on information from a sales call with Cvent in November 2026). Whova (Enterprise), Cadmium, OpenWater and Sessionboard allow you to adjust the weights of criteria.

Program, book of abstracts and conference app compared

Every tool built for academic conferences lets you insert abstracts into the conference schedule, with presentations nested in sessions. Program building differs on where the program is published, how the book of abstracts is produced and whether attendees get the program in a native conference app or not.

Software	Program published on	Book of abstracts	Native conference app
Fourwaves	Conference website and app	Word, author index, every plan	Yes, free on every plan with the full program
Oxford Abstracts	Hosted link or iFrame	Word or PDF	No (mobile web)
EasyChair	EasyChair pages	Editable Word	No
Ex Ordo	Online Programme Hub	PDF built by Ex Ordo’s team, add-on	Resold Guidebook app, $3,500 add-on
ConfTool	Public agenda	Word export	No; third-party apps
COMS	Agenda module and app	HTML or Word, author index	Yes, synced, add-on
Dryfta	Website and app	PDF with covers, every plan	Yes, add-on

• Book of abstracts: organizers produce it themselves everywhere except Ex Ordo, whose support team builds a PDF from a request form as a paid add-on. Fourwaves has editable styles in the Word format.
• Conference app: Fourwaves is the only one of the seven that includes a native conference app on every plan, including the free tier. COMS and Dryfta sell theirs as an add-on and Ex Ordo resells a Guidebook app for $3,500. Oxford Abstracts, EasyChair and ConfTool have none.

The event and association platforms are the opposite. Cvent, Whova, Cadmium (Eventscribe), A2Z Events and Sessionboard (early access) all have an app, but only OpenWater and Sessionboard produce a book of abstracts. Cvent and Whova export spreadsheets instead.

Knowing how time-consuming it is to create and format a book of abstracts, this feature alone can eliminate many vendors depending on your needs.

The 13 best abstract management software options

The 13 tools fall into two groups: seven built for academic conferences, and six event and association platforms with an abstract module. Each review gives a verdict, the key features and strengths, the limitations and pricing checked in November 2026.

Abstract management software built for academic conferences

The seven abstract management tools built for academic conferences are Fourwaves, Oxford Abstracts, EasyChair, Ex Ordo, ConfTool, COMS and Dryfta. They differ mainly in how you set them up, how deep the peer review goes and what you pay.

Fourwaves: best for academic and research conferences of any size

Verdict: the most complete abstract management software you can set up alone, with a free conference app and one yearly price for unlimited events.

Fourwaves is conference management software for academic conferences, and my company, so read this entry with that in mind. Most organizers launch their call for abstracts in one afternoon without talking to a sales rep. The Geological Association of Canada has run its national conference, about 800 participants and 500 abstracts, on it since 2022 (customer story).

Strengths:

• You set it up yourself, with help in minutes: the forms are pre-built and can be customized, you can purchase paid plans yourself and support’s median first response is under 5 minutes.
• Easy to reuse year after year: the submission forms, program and website of previous editions stay online for free. This public archive builds trust and eliminates the hosting problem of previous editions that disappear. The next edition is built with a clone, so you never start from scratch.
• From decisions to the program, without copy-pasting: decisions and emails go out in bulk, and accepted abstracts flow into the program, the event website, the book of abstracts and the free conference app.
• Built to break down the silos in research: that is our mission, so Fourwaves puts interactions first. The conference app and each presentation page have a Discussion section, participants can send direct messages, and every abstract keeps its slides, videos, images and posters within easy reach.
• One predictable yearly price: every plan covers unlimited events with no add-ons, and a 2- or 3-year term locks the price.

Limitations:

• No dedicated session proposal module: sessions and their abstracts are separate submissions.
• No bidding system that allows reviewers to bid on the submissions they prefer to review.
• Peer review with scoring and certificates are on the third tier (Advanced), but the free plan does cover a lot (decisions, program and the conference app).

Pricing: free up to 50 submissions a year, Essential $899 USD a year and Advanced $2,339 USD a year on a 3-year term, and Pro on quote, all with unlimited events and a 3% service fee on card payments through your own gateway.

Pro tip: Running the whole event, not just the abstracts? See our comparison of the best academic conference management software.

Switching from another tool?

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Oxford Abstracts: best for panels and session proposals

Verdict: collects panels, workshops and roundtables with their own abstracts through an $850 symposium add-on, with a price per event and other options sold as add-ons.

Oxford Abstracts, a UK company founded in 2004, was built for abstract management. Organizers comparing Fourwaves often shortlist it too, because it targets the same academic conferences.

Strengths:

• A symposium add-on that collects a session proposal with its papers, and a multi-stage add-on for an abstract round followed by a full paper round, each stage with its own form, review and decisions.
• Reviewers matched by category, with conflicts of interest and late reviews handled in the reviews table.
• Email templates with merge fields and scheduled sending, and abstract books in HTML, Word or PDF with templates since August 2026.
• A free Basic package with unlimited submissions.

Limitations:

• The free Basic package stops at nine form questions and has no automatic reviewer assignment.
• The add-ons stack up: symposium $850, multi-stage $850, certificates $150, website builder $200.
• No app of its own (a mobile web view), one review form per event, and grades averaged without weighting.

Pricing: $890 per event for the Abstract Management package, $2,290 and $3,450 for the conference packages, with a 2.5% charge on registration revenue capped at £3,750 per event (oxfordabstracts.com/pricing, November 2026). Our Oxford Abstracts alternative breaks down the comparison with Fourwaves.

EasyChair: best for computer science program committees

Verdict: the tool almost everyone in academia has used, deep on committee review and dated everywhere else.

EasyChair is based in Manchester, UK, has been on the market since 2002 and claims more than 125,000 conferences (easychair.org, checked November 2026). I have an account but have not run a conference on it, so this entry also draws on the organizers I talked to.

Strengths:

• Reviewer bidding, assignment with constraints and online discussion between committee members on every licence, and author rebuttals on Executive and VIP.
• Roles built for large program committees: a superchair over several tracks, track chairs, senior PC members and subreviewers.
• Smart CFP, a free directory of calls for papers that gives your call reach, and proceedings through the EPiC Series with Crossref DOIs.

Limitations:

• An interface that has barely changed in two decades, in English only.
• No helpdesk on the free licence, no mobile app and no public API.
• The free licence (20 submissions) is listed, but organizers tell us it is not available to them in practice, and the Word booklet and program need a paid licence.

Pricing: the Professional licence is $3.90 per submission up to 60, and Executive runs from $6.10 down to $3.70 per submission by volume (easychair.org/license_pricing, November 2026). Pavel Andreev, full professor at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, told me in July 2026: “I paid $1,399 Canadian for full support and unlimited functionality.” See Fourwaves vs EasyChair or the best EasyChair alternatives.

Ex Ordo: best for committees that want a vendor-led setup

Verdict: a polished review process that Ex Ordo’s team configures with you, at one of the highest prices here.

Ex Ordo specializes in managing submission reviews, with tools to track reviewer progress and send automated reminders, and it seems to be leaning into the publishing side recently. It partners with SPIE. That makes it suitable for larger conferences that wish to publish their proceedings to a journal, similar to IEEE. I had a chance to test it through a demo environment.

Strengths:

• An allocation engine that matches reviewers by expertise with load limits and nepotism rules (same email domain or organization excluded by default), then lets you swap a reviewer in one click.
• A dashboard organized using workflow cards that show key metrics and quick actions to manage submissions, which I find eases the learning curve and makes it quite user-friendly.
• An RSVP step after acceptance with automatic reminders, panels and symposia since 2024, and a book of proceedings built by its support team.

Limitations:

• A rigid workflow: the presentation formats, the marking scheme that locks once review opens and the submission form setup are quite rigid and lock you into their way of doing things.
• No self-serve access: you cannot set up the platform alone and must go through a sales process.
• No certificates and no event website builder, a Guidebook app resold for about $3,500 USD per event (based on a quote received from sales), and support is from 9 am to 6 pm GMT.

Pricing: verified with its sales team in July 2026: $2,000 for 125 submissions, $3,500 for 250, $5,500 for 500 and $8,000 for 1,000, plus $650 for the book of proceedings. Organizers have managed to negotiate it down. See Fourwaves vs Ex Ordo.

ConfTool: best for committees that want their own language

Verdict: review depth close to EasyChair’s in more than 15 languages, with most of it on the paid Pro edition.

ConfTool is made in Hamburg, has existed since 2010 and has been used for more than 5,000 events. The submission formats lock you into its way of working, similarly to Ex Ordo, but I find it has more customization options that resemble those of EasyChair. It comes as a free Standard licence for non-commercial academic events up to 150 participants, installed on your own server without support, or as a hosted Pro edition priced by written offer. I explored it through a real ConfTool account.

Strengths:

• An interface in more than 15 languages (24 on the demo installations), up to four per installation on Pro.
• Reviewer bidding, rebuttals, meta-reviewers, up to 9 review forms and 16 weighted criteria, and conflict detection by email, domain and organization (Pro).
• Registration with invoices, VAT and a front desk, with payments through your own gateways.

Limitations:

• No self-serve: the Standard licence is requested by email and Pro needs a signed written offer.
• No event website builder and no app of its own (third-party apps on Pro), and the book of abstracts is exported as Word documents you finish yourself.
• Pricing is not published: a base fee by number of submissions plus a fee per participant, with modules billed separately.

Pricing: quote only (ConfTool Pro brochure, November 2026).

COMS: best for European conferences that pay per event in euros

Verdict: abstracts, registration and a native app from one European vendor, ordered through sales.

COMS is based in Korneuburg, Austria, runs its servers in Germany and has supported academic conferences since 2008. I have not run an event on it. This entry is based on its online documentation, as well as a price list and information sent to me by Marianne Mandl from COMS.

Strengths:

• Reviewer bidding, up to 9 weighted criteria, two-stage review, and automatic assignment that balances topics, bids and conflicts flagged by email.
• Registration with invoices, credit notes, bank transfers and online payments paid straight into your own account.
• With Fourwaves and Dryfta, COMS is one of only three tools built for academic conferences that has a native conference app where you can find the program.

Limitations:

• No free plan, no trial and no self-serve sign-up.
• The interactive agenda and the mobile app are paid modules. The COMS home page, checked on November 10th 2026, shows an “Autumn Special” that offers the mobile app for free with your first order. Worth checking if that is still the case.
• No API or conditional logic stated, blind review is one switch for the whole event, and there is no track chair role.

Pricing: per conference, from €530 for 100 submissions, €560 for 100 participant accounts, €615 for the interactive agenda and €1,200 for the app (COMS price list, checked November 2026).

Dryfta: best for university events with video submissions

Verdict: flexible forms and review on a yearly licence, with a steep jump between price tiers.

Dryfta is a US company with an office in Delft, the Netherlands, that sells event management software to universities, with tools for submissions, reviews and session scheduling (dryfta.com, checked November 2026). I could neither test it nor speak with an organizer who used it, so this entry is lighter than the others.

Strengths:

• Flexible conditional logic for follow-up questions based on earlier answers, submission fees, and PDF and MP4 uploads.
• One of the few tools, with EasyChair, that offer triple-blind review. It allows different questions and reviewers per submission stage.
• A PDF abstract book, certificates, a public API and 24/7 email support.

Limitations:

• The mobile app and the virtual event toolkit are paid add-ons.
• The price jumps from $1,499 a year for 100 abstracts to $14,999 for 1,000.
• Conflict checks stop at the reviewer’s own submissions and organization, plus conflicts that reviewers declare (dryfta.com, November 2026).

Pricing: $1,499 a year for up to 100 abstracts, $14,999 a year for up to 1,000, and a quote above that (dryfta.com/plans, November 2026).

Event and association platforms with an abstract module

Cvent, Whova, Cadmium, OpenWater, A2Z Events and Sessionboard add abstract management features to a wider event or association suite. They fit large or association-led events, but setup usually goes through the vendor and most prices are quoted on request.

Cvent: best for enterprise programs already on Cvent

Verdict: worth it when your other events already run on Cvent, too heavy for a standalone academic conference.

Cvent, based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, sells abstract management as an add-on to its event platform, and is replacing the module with a “Call for Content” experience in beta from November 2026 (release.cvent.com). On a sales call with Cvent in November 2026, I was told a first event takes at least three weeks to set up with its team, with no sandbox to explore beforehand because the platform is “too robust” without proper training. That’s how I got most of my information, because their help desk doesn’t provide a lot of details.

Strengths:

• Submission forms with sub-questions shown by earlier answers and up to 100 co-authors, and a way to assign reviewers automatically by topic of expertise.
• Review forms with one or more questions scored from 1 to 5, averaged across reviewers.
• Email automation, accepted submissions synced to speaker records, and an on-site app and badge printing that are excellent at scale.

Limitations:

• A single review round and a single decision, accept or reject.
• No conflict of interest detection upon assignment, and reviewers can’t declare a conflict on an assigned submission, which makes the peer review process painfully manual (verified on a sales call with Cvent, November 2026).
• No submission fees, no book of abstracts, and no native way to show posters in the Attendee Hub app.

Pricing: quote only, with abstract management as an add-on. On a sales call with Cvent in November 2026, the sales team quoted $8.75 USD per submission for an event with 400 submissions. This quote included other modules, and they said pricing is set per customer and varies with the other Cvent modules you buy. It gives an idea of what the price can look like, but it is subject to change depending on the context. See Fourwaves vs Cvent.

Whova: best for events built around gamification and networking

Verdict: the most engaging attendee app here, with abstract management that is still catching up to dedicated tools.

Whova, an event app from San Diego, added a call for speakers and abstract management module in March 2024. I ran a test event on my own Whova account to take the screenshot in this entry.

Strengths:

• Forms for abstracts, posters, demos, panels and workshops, with color-coded review results on the submission dashboard.
• Assignment by topic, at random or by hand, and a confirmation form with reminders after acceptance (Premium and Enterprise).
• Accepted submissions appear in the app automatically, as sessions or sub-sessions, next to leaderboards, contests and matchmaking.

Limitations:

• Once a submission is in the agenda, you cannot change the decision without deleting the synced session, nor control the order of presentations inside a session.
• Blind review starts on Advanced and weighted criteria on Enterprise, and an organizer told me the rubric cannot be edited once the first review is in.
• No book of abstracts, no automatic conflict detection and no public API documentation.

Pricing: quote only. The call for speakers module comes in four tiers, Standard, Advanced, Premium and Enterprise, with caps of 500, 1,000 and 2,000 submissions on the top three (whova.com, November 2026).

Cadmium (Abstract Scorecard): best for associations on Eventscribe

Verdict: deep association tooling with a project manager, in an interface that shows its age.

Cadmium, based in Forest Hill, Maryland, and founded in 2000, sells abstract management through Scorecard, part of its Eventscribe suite (gocadmium.com, checked November 2026).

Strengths:

• Submissions broken into tasks (abstract, authors, disclosure, upload, payment), so you see the submission status of every step for each submitter.
• Workload-balanced assignment by topic, conflicts avoided by name, email or organization, and a recusal checkbox for reviewers.
• Native integrations with iMIS, Fonteva, Salesforce, Personify and Nimble, and a speaker portal.

Limitations:

• A Cadmium project manager handles the advanced setup, which an organizer I spoke with described as lengthy.
• Ticket support on weekdays, 9 to 5 Eastern, and no submission API stated.
• No book of abstracts as such: Word reports and an Excel author index.

Pricing: quote only, with organizer reports above $3,000 USD.

OpenWater: best for awards, grants and abstracts in one tool

Verdict: a flexible submission engine for associations, built around awards rather than conferences.

OpenWater, based in Alexandria, Virginia, and owned since 2022 by ASI, the company behind the iMIS association management system, runs submissions and reviews for associations, foundations and universities (openwater.com, checked November 2026). What it calls a “program” is a submission form with its review workflow, not a conference program, so session proposals and abstracts take two programs.

Strengths:

• Forms with conditional logic, submission fees with early bird and member rates, and programs cloned from year to year.
• Evaluation forms with custom scoring ranges and weights, bulk assignment rules and a lead judge role for committee chairs.
• A session builder, webhooks, a REST API and integrations with iMIS, Salesforce, Fonteva and Nimble.

Limitations:

• Awards vocabulary (programs, rounds, applications, winner types) instead of conference terms.
• No attendee app of its own, and registration is not stated as a module.
• No automatic conflict detection or expertise matching, and the book of abstracts is a “Winners Book” you build from a template.

Pricing: quote only, on a subscription, with a Starter edition limited to 150 applications in an active program (openwater.com, November 2026). For more on running the review itself, see our article on conference reviewer processes.

A2Z Events (formerly Attendee Interactive): best for associations on Momentive Software

Verdict: an enterprise suite where a project manager builds your process, overkill for a standalone academic conference.

Attendee Interactive is no longer sold on its own: on 21 July 2026, Momentive Software folded it into A2Z Events, its event management platform (momentivesoftware.com, checked November 2026). Momentive Software, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, also sells association management and learning management systems. There isn’t a lot of public information about the abstract module, so I attended a specialized webinar to learn more.

Strengths:

• A step-by-step submission process with rules per submission type, reviewer and speaker portals, and payments for submissions.
• Multiple rounds of review, blind or double-blind, with comments compiled and average scores calculated.
• Custom reports, and a project manager who sets up your submission and review process, with many solutions launched within 30 days.

Limitations:

• No self-serve, no trial and no published pricing.
• Conditional logic, a book of abstracts, an API, automatic assignment and conflict detection are not stated, and the help centre is not public.

Pricing: quote only, on a subscription per module (Momentive Software FAQ, November 2026).

Sessionboard: best for calls for speakers at industry conferences

Verdict: modern speaker management and session content for professional events, with registration left to another tool.

Sessionboard, founded in 2022 and based in Florida, runs calls for speakers, papers and abstracts. It is strictly a platform dedicated to modules for collecting sessions, speaker information and abstracts. Looking at their website (November 2026), I noticed they have AI tools, which shows their innovative nature. The interface looks clean, which indicates ease of use, something event organizers will appreciate.

Strengths:

• Multi-round review, each round with its own scorecard and reviewer pool, conflict rules that keep reviewers off their own institution’s work, and a cap per reviewer.
• Forms with branching per submission type, payments in the submission form, and roles such as author, panelist and discussant.
• A public API, webhooks and an MCP server that works with Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot, and a posters product since September 2026.

Limitations:

• No registration of its own: Sessionboard syncs with Cvent, Swoogo and Bizzabo instead.
• Sales-led, with a sandbox on request during a demo and a help centre behind a login.
• The program site and the attendee app (in early access) belong to a separately priced product.

Pricing: quote only, by events, speakers and portal users (sessionboard.com/pricing, November 2026).

Ease of setup and support compared

Which abstract management software can you set up yourself?

Fourwaves is the only abstract management software that lets you create submission forms and start collecting submissions without requesting access or speaking with sales, as of November 10th 2026. This is important for academic conferences because their organizers are often volunteers who have full-time jobs (for example as researchers) and little time. They need to get up and running quickly and get fast customer support when needed, which Fourwaves provides.

EasyChair and Oxford Abstracts have a free plan, but it’s not accessible from their website: it requires a sales call or a form to fill out, and your account must be approved. Dryfta has a 14-day trial from a request form too. ConfTool’s free licence is installed on your own server and requires approval from them. Every other tool starts with sales or a demo, and at Ex Ordo, Cvent, Cadmium and A2Z Events the vendor’s team or a project manager configures the event with you. On a sales call with Cvent in November 2026, I was told a first event takes at least three weeks to set up with its team, with no sandbox to explore on your own.

How does support compare between abstract management tools?

Support varies widely between abstract management tools: some answer within minutes on every plan, others only on paid plans or during office hours in their own time zone.

• Fourwaves: chat, email and an AI chatbot on every plan, with a median first response under 5 minutes. A dedicated account manager on the Pro plan.
• EasyChair: no helpdesk on the free licence.
• ConfTool: no support on the free Standard licence; email and phone on Pro.
• Oxford Abstracts: knowledge base and video calls, priority support on paid packages.
• Ex Ordo: email from 9 am to 6 pm GMT, and phone.
• COMS: email or Zoom.
• Dryfta: 24/7 email, live chat on the Large plan.
• Cadmium: tickets, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 Eastern.
• Cvent: 24/7.
• A2Z Events: 24/7 email, chat on weekdays.
• Whova: email, chat and an account manager per event.
• OpenWater: in-app messenger for one supported administrator.
• Sessionboard: a customer success manager.

How much does abstract management software cost?

Abstract management software costs anywhere from nothing to more than $10,000 a year, as of November 2026. Five of the 13 abstract management software options publish their prices (Fourwaves, Oxford Abstracts, EasyChair, COMS and Dryfta), and the others quote on request.

Which abstract management software is free?

Four tools have a free option for abstract collection beyond a trial: Fourwaves (up to 50 submissions a year), Oxford Abstracts (free Basic package with unlimited submissions and up to 9 form fields), EasyChair (up to 20 submissions) and ConfTool (free Standard licence for non-commercial events up to 150 participants, installed on your own server, without support). Fourwaves is the only one you can start from its website without a request or a sales call. Dryfta offers a 14-day trial on request.

Per submission, per event or per year: which pricing model fits?

Abstract management software is priced per submission (EasyChair), per event (Oxford Abstracts, Ex Ordo, COMS, Whova and ConfTool Pro) or per year (Fourwaves and Dryfta), and the enterprise platforms quote on request.

A yearly plan with unlimited events, like Fourwaves’, covers the main conference and the smaller events an organization runs during the year, such as workshops and research days, on one platform, which simplifies event planning across the year. The different tiers have different submission caps per year, calculated across all events.

Always watch out for add-ons. A per-event package might seem cheap, but additional costs for an add-on (for example the multi-stage module with Oxford Abstracts) or extra costs for an app can be frustrating.

Abstract management software prices compared

Paid plans start at $590 (converted from €530) per conference for 100 submissions at COMS, $890 per event at Oxford Abstracts, $899 a year at Fourwaves (3-year term that can be cancelled anytime) and $1,499 a year at Dryfta, while EasyChair charges $3.90 per submission.

Software	Free option	Pricing model	Starting price (USD unless noted)
Fourwaves	Free plan, unlimited submission form fields and up to 50 submissions per year	Yearly plan with unlimited events and a submission cap per year that varies per tier	$899 a year for 100 submissions, $2,339 for 300 (3-year term), Pro on quote; no add-ons
Oxford Abstracts	Free Basic package with a maximum of 9 submission form fields and unlimited submissions	Per event, plus add-ons	$890 per event (Abstract Management), conference packages $2,290 and $3,450; symposium and multi-stage add-ons $850 each
EasyChair	Free licence, up to 20 submissions	Per submission	$3.90 per submission (Professional, up to 60); Executive $6.10 down to $3.70 by volume (one organizer reported in July 2026 a plan for $1,399 CAD with unlimited submissions and full support)
Ex Ordo	None	Per event, tiered by submissions	$2,000 for 125 submissions, up to $8,000 for 1,000 (verified with sales, July 2026)
ConfTool	Free Standard licence, small non-commercial events	Per event: base fee by submissions plus a fee per participant (Pro)	Quote only
COMS	None	Per conference, per module	€530 for 100 submissions; €560 for 100 participant accounts; app from €1,200
Dryfta	14-day trial on request	Yearly	$1,499 a year for up to 100 abstracts, $14,999 for up to 1,000
Cvent	None	Quote	$8.75 per submission for 400 submissions, quoted with other modules and set per customer (sales call with Cvent, November 2026)
Whova	None	Per event	Quote only
Cadmium	None	Quote	Above $3,000 (organizer reports)
OpenWater	None	Subscription, quote	Quote only; API access sold separately
A2Z Events (Attendee Interactive)	None	Subscription, per module	Quote only
Sessionboard	None	Quote, by events, speakers and portal users	Quote only

Fourwaves plans and what each one includes are on the pricing page.

How I compared each abstract management system

I’m the founder of Fourwaves, so here is exactly how I built this comparison.

• Hands-on: I tested 6 of the 13 tools, 5 with my own accounts (Fourwaves, Oxford Abstracts, EasyChair, ConfTool and Whova) and Ex Ordo through its demo environment, and took several of the screenshots myself.
• Research: for the others, I relied on vendors’ websites, help centres, public demos and webinars.
• Organizers and vendors: I spoke with organizers who use these tools, and verified unpublished prices with sales teams in July and November 2026. Prices reported by organizers are labelled as such.
• “Not stated” in the tables means the vendor’s website and knowledge base don’t mention it, not that the feature is missing. Costs are in USD unless noted.

I compared these abstract management solutions on the 6 questions buyers ask, drawn from almost 15 years of selling and building abstract management software and from academic conferences I organized and attended during my PhD:

• Is it built for academic conferences?
• How deep and flexible is the abstract management (submission forms, review process, program building)?
• How much effort does setup take, and how good is the support?
• Can it grow beyond abstracts, with registration, an event website and a conference app?
• Does it have an API, an MCP server and integrations?
• Is the pricing transparent and predictable?

Where another tool fits better, I say so. I keep this comparison current as vendors ship changes; it was last updated in November 2026.

Which abstract management software should you choose?

The right abstract management software depends on a few important things: how deep your submission and review process needs to be, if you need it to be integrated with a program tool and a conference app, whether you want to set it up yourself or have the vendor do it, and how predictable the price must be.

• An academic conference of any size that runs its own call: Fourwaves.
• Panels and session proposals at the core of the call: Oxford Abstracts, Ex Ordo or Dryfta.
• A computer science committee that relies on bidding and rebuttals: EasyChair or ConfTool.
• A European conference paying per event, in euros: COMS.
• An association already on an event or association suite: Cvent, Cadmium or A2Z Events.

After almost 15 years in this space, I’ve learned that “best” is always a question of trade-offs. To test Fourwaves with your own call for abstracts, create your event for free or book a demo.