Aclamos vs OpenWater
OpenWater publishes price estimators on its own site: from $2,700 a year (1–150 applications), and $9,050 a year for one program with one supported admin seat (checked 11 Oct 2026). Aclamos publishes every tier, ships AI Show Director and Open Badges, and has a spreadsheet-style bulk editor.
AclamosRecommended
OpenWater Pricing published
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Aclamos | OpenWater |
|---|---|---|
Pricing published publicly OpenWater: price estimators at openwater.com/pricing and openwater.com/pricing-tiered, checked 11 Oct 2026. | ||
0% platform fee on entry fees Aclamos charges 0% today. | ? | |
Mobile judging app Aclamos: mobile judging app in beta; store availability is not confirmed yet. | ◐ | ? |
Open Badges 2.0 + 3.0 winner credentials (Ed25519 signing) | ? | |
AI Show Director (1-paragraph → full show config) | ? | |
AI features (eligibility check, copy polish, translation, judge summaries, score suggestions) | ? | |
Calibration scoring (z-score outlier detection) | ? | |
Spreadsheet-style bulk-edit nominations | ? | |
REST API + OpenAPI 3.1 spec Aclamos v1 endpoints are read-only today. | ? | |
Blind judging | ? |
✓ = ships today · ✗ = not available · ◐ = partial / beta · ? = we could not confirm this on the vendor's own site
When OpenWater is the better choice
We don't pretend OpenWater has no strengths. Pick OpenWater if any of these match you.
- You already run programmes on OpenWater and the migration cost outweighs any saving — we have not verified its feature set beyond its public site.
- Your procurement team needs a vendor reference at your size and we cannot yet provide one.
Why teams switch from OpenWater to Aclamos
- Every Aclamos tier is published: $79 Solo, $199 Growth, $799 Studio, from $24,000 Enterprise.
- Spreadsheet-style bulk-edit for nominations.
- AI Show Director and Open Badges 2.0 + 3.0 ship today.
- Calibration scoring with z-score outlier detection.
Frequently asked questions
Does OpenWater publish pricing?
Yes. When we checked on 11 Oct 2026, OpenWater's own estimators showed prices from $2,700 a year for 1–150 applications (openwater.com/pricing-tiered), and $9,050 a year for its main plan: $6,650 a year for one program plus $2,400 a year per supported admin seat (openwater.com/pricing). All plans include unlimited self-service admins; implementation is optional at $205 an hour. Aclamos publishes every tier — $0 14-day trial, $79 Solo, $199 Growth, $799 Studio, from $24,000 Enterprise.
Can I migrate from OpenWater to Aclamos?
OpenWater is a listed source in the Aclamos migration importer. Upload an export ZIP (CSV plus attachment files); Claude proposes the column mapping and you confirm it. What an OpenWater export contains is set by OpenWater.
Ready to try Aclamos?
14-day trial. No credit card. Migration importer accepts CSV or a ZIP with binary attachments.
Sources
Competitor details checked on 11 Oct 2026 against OpenWater's own site.