OpenWater Awards Reviews in July 2026: User Ratings, Pros & Cons

Use OpenWater for Awards Management

What do you like best? User interface is very intuitive and easy for entrants and judges to use. Has allowed us to streamline our awards program by transitioning them to the OpenWater platform. It is also nice to be able to customize and build our own programs. What do you dislike? There are some limitations on reporting and making judging assignments. There is no quick way to assign multiple judges half of a category without splitting into subcategories. What problems are you solving ...

Whole heartedly endorse OpenWater

What do you like best? Extremely functional and easy to use, set up is quick and can be done in less than a day (even for a detailed program like our own. What do you dislike? Excel budget options are not available, it would make the budget abilities within the grant application so much easier. Maybe they will add it later?? Recommendations to others considering the product: Consider your needs, write them down, when talking to the OpenWater sales staff skip the sales pitch and ask them ...

Simple yet elegant

What do you like best? Simplified Content management, being a web developer I have to do content management occasionally the WYSWIG editor is highly helpful along with organized content management. Since everything is at 1 place starting from billing to website management it makes my work easy. What do you dislike? There are few complaints where it is a bit annoying for a developer like me for not able to complete some of the basic development or UI UX changes since the system is bit ...

Makes my Award Program's Progress Very Easy to Track

What do you like best? Reports are easy to pull and understand. It's very nice that you are able to move winners to the next round. Being able to create your own judging form is nice as well. What do you dislike? It would maybe be nice if the judges could interact with each other. What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized? Easy reports, easy to use for judges and for admin usage. Easy to move winners to next rounds.

Making Life Easier

What do you like best? I loved how we were able to take a very complicated award process and make it so much easier. The staff was with us every step of the way and turned our dreams into reality! What do you dislike? I would say the only dislike is not having more time included for customization. Recommendations to others considering the product: If you are looking to save time, this is the time to consider OpenWater. What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have ...

YAZ's review

What do you like best? The user experience, super easy to navigate the system. What do you dislike? The lack of customization abilities. I would like to use more color and more branding opportunities. What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized? Easy and convenience of running an awards program. Management of nominees and information.

Platform Uses Far Exceed Capabilites

What do you like best? I've been using OpenWater since the beginning of the Year, my company has been using about a year. I also became a Master User in order to facilitate grant applications for four different programs. The company does not use OpenWater for all of it's possible capabilities, particularly scheduling and assessing conference sessions. It's typically used for application processes, and we don't even collect payment on the platform. There are so many ways that Open Water can ...

Flexible & intuitive

What do you like best? It's straightforward to use. I had very few users come to me with tech questions. When I need to learn or solve something, Cody (our designated tech at OW gets us answers fast. What do you dislike? The canned reports are very limited and I haven't really had time to learn how to create custom reports yet. What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized? We consolidated a lot of different vendors by switching to OpenWater, so that ...

OW has a strong design and superb customer support

What do you like best? The customer support is excellent. They offer walk through meetings and step by step instructions via email. What do you dislike? Some terms on the portal are not intuitive. This is likely because we are using the system for conferences rather than awards and grants. What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized? Still fairly new to the system so cannot answer

Customizable, Great User Experience

What do you like best? This can be as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be. The settings and ability to really customize your program are endless. New features are being added and improved all the time. What do you dislike? Sometimes terms are very technical and maybe not as easy to understand for the common user. What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized? End user experience has improved ten fold. Ability to easily accept payments and have ...