Judgify

What do you like best?

As the administrator of an annual journalism contest, I've relied on Judgify for the past two years to manage entries and judging of a contest with over 900 entries from 65 organizations. Contest setup is easy, allowing different pricing for each entry or entry group and a very complete list of entry attributes, including file uploads up to 50mb (with the Pro upgrade) and links to external files. The system integrated with PayPal for quick payment and also allows for offline/check submissions. Judgify was helpful in adding a discount code to our contest and duplicating the contest from the first to second year couldn't have been easier.

What do you dislike?

There is a bit of complexity to assigning judging and judging groups, but once you have the basic layers of administration set up for judging, it runs very smoothly. In our first year, a few organizations with high-volume entries (more than 30) had issues checking out. It turned out to be due to the number of large files attached to their entries. In our second year of using the software, we didn't experience this problem. I advised organizations to enter multiple smaller batches of entries, which may have helped.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

I searched for nearly a year to find a replacement for our custom-developed contest system and Judgify came out on top of the competitors. Not only was it the easiest to configure in "test" mode, but once we paid to upgrade to the "pro" version, a fuller set of options was available. The software has a high ROI for us and I'll be happy to use it again for our contest next year.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Our previous contest system was custom developed and required high maintenance costs each year. Judgify's platform cost and per-entry fees are much less than we paid for annual maintenance on the custom software and those entering the contest are very pleased with the integrated submission and payment system.