Sessionboard vs Evalato.
Evalato delivers configurable awards and grants workflows for nonprofits and associations. Sessionboard Awards is built for societies where award winners speak at the annual meeting, abstract authors compete for prizes, and speaker CRM should accumulate — not reset when the review season ends.
SIDE BY SIDE
Where each one does its work.
Read from the approved comparison, not from a feature checklist. Where we could not verify a Evalato capability from their own material, the cell says so.
| Capability | Sessionboard | Evalato |
|---|---|---|
| Awards and nominations | Nominations, review rounds and winner showcases on the same forms, review plans and portals as sessions. | Horizontal submission platform across nonprofit and corporate programs. |
| Review rounds and rubrics | Review plans with rounds, committees, rubrics and conflict-of-interest rules. Your team changes forms and review steps without a services ticket. | Flexible stages and reviewer assignments for varied award types. |
| Awards without a meeting | Awards runs on its own or beside the annual meeting, on the same record either way. | Built for standalone awards, so it fits only when outcomes never tie to a conference program. |
| Nominee and reviewer portals | Nominee and reviewer portals on the same branded portals as speakers; the Coordinator agent reminds whoever is late. | varies |
| Call for papers beside awards | Submission forms with logic per track and format; abstracts, disclosures and files on one submission. Returning speakers arrive with their history. | varies |
| Ceremony and winner content | Live Transcribe in the room or from Zoom, ON24 and Goldcast; transcripts, captions, clips and quote cards in a library searchable across events. | varies |
| Winner promotion with attribution | Share kits with tracked links for speakers, sponsors and attendees; registrations traced back to the share. | varies |
| CRM and AMS | Two-way sync with HubSpot, Salesforce, iMIS, Fonteva and Nimble AMS; public API, webhooks and an MCP server. | varies |
| Registration | Stays where it is. Accepted sessions and speakers sync to Cvent, Swoogo, Bizzabo and others. | varies |
Where Evalato fits best: multiple unrelated submission programs on one horizontal contract. What often stays with Evalato for now: legacy Evalato cycle mid-contract for grants-only programs. This page compares workflow and product fit, not a feature checklist.
WHERE IT DIFFERS · ONE RECORD
Nominees, reviewers and winners are the same people as your speakers.
Awards run on the same forms, review plans and portals as sessions, so a winner becomes faculty and a reviewer returns next cycle without a volunteer list rebuilt from email. Evalato ends a season in an export; the record carries it into the annual meeting.
- Nominations
- Review rounds & rubrics
- Reviewer records persist
- Winner showcases
GROWSMember engagement and non-dues revenue
WHERE IT DIFFERS · WINNERS AS CONTENT
The ceremony is a session. Treat it like one.
Capture the ceremony, clip the acceptance, and hand winners a share kit with a tracked link. Registrations traced to those shares land on the winner’s record and on the attendee who came.
- Live Transcribe
- Clips & quote cards
- Winner share kits
- Registrations traced
GROWSReach from the people you just celebrated
Questions, answered
Evalato vs AwardForce vs Sessionboard?
Evalato and AwardForce excel at awards-only cycles; Sessionboard wins when conference faculty and awards share CRM.
Does Sessionboard handle grants?
Awards and conference program focus — pure grants shops without events may stay on Evalato.
Can we migrate mid-season?
Plan around review calendar — often start next cycle on Sessionboard while finishing current Evalato season.
Do reviewers carry forward?
Yes. Reviewer records persist; chairs clone rubrics and assignments across years.
Can we export everything later?
Yes. Submissions, scores, speakers, agenda, transcripts and media export by CSV, program book export, the public API and webhooks.