Best academic conference management software for 2026 and 2027
Organizing an academic or scientific conference requires balancing peer review workflows, author communications, registration ticketing, and dynamic event schedules. Below are detailed overviews of eight leading conference management tools, highlighting their core focus, key features, and best-use cases.
1. COMS (Conference Management Software)
COMS is a conference management platform that supports academic events since 2008. It is fully GDPR compliant, with self-managed servers located in Germany. It handles abstracts, papers and presentations, from submission and peer review through to the creation and display of the conference programme and proceedings. It manages registration and payments. It is used by events ranging from small wrkshops to large international scientific conferences with thousands of participants.
- Abstract & Peer Review: Collects full papers, abstracts, and presentations. It supports customizable review forms, double-blind or single-blind peer review, automatic confict detection and topic-based reviewer assignments. Reviews can be assigned automatically or manually.
- Program & Proceedings: Interactive agenda builder with built-in search and filtering tools for attendees. It can automatically aggregate accepted abstracts into exportable and searchable proceedings.
- Participant & Payment Management: Features multi-currency registration, invoicing, payments by bank transfer, online payments, refunds, quotas and discount codes.
- Mobile app & Virtual platform: Its companion mobile app and virtual platform are kept in sync with the data. Attendees can view and search the agenda and abstracts, view presentations, access online sessions, network via a powerful chat and receive push notifications. Organizers can display practical information, maps, sponsors and speakers on both.
- Language support: COMS is designed for use in multiple languages, including right to left languages. It features translations out of the box for English, French, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Arabic and Turkish. For a small fee, any language can be quickly added.
- Auxiliary functions: A number of auxiliary functions are included with all orders, for instance, certificate of participation, custom forms, onsite check-in, the creation of a website. Hourly backups and strong support are also included.
- Best For: Mid-to-large-scale academic societies and scientific congresses looking for a simple yet flexible, highly dependable end-to-end administration platform.
3. Oxford Abstracts
Oxford Abstracts is a modern, cloud-native platform designed to make abstract management and program scheduling as intuitive as possible. It breaks away from clunky legacy academic software with a clean UI for administrators, reviewers, and submitters.
- Abstract Lifecycle: Real-time dashboard to track submission statuses. Includes automated reviewer assignment tools based on predefined rules or subject tracks.
- Drag-and-Drop Program Builder: Effortlessly build multi-track interactive schedules directly from accepted submissions.
- Virtual & On-Site Capabilities: Offers integrated digital poster galleries, delegate networking tools, and native registration ticketing.
- Best For: Academic committees seeking a modern, user-friendly interface that reduces the learning curve for non-technical reviewers and attendees.
4. Fourwaves
Fourwaves is an all-in-one event platform engineered specifically for scientific symposiums, research summits, and poster sessions. It focuses heavily on research presentation and scientific engagement.
- Virtual Poster Sessions: Standout feature allowing presenters to upload high-resolution posters, pre-recorded audio explanations, and engage in live text or video Q&As with visitors during poster hours.
- Integrated Event Website: Automatically generates a branded event website that houses the call for papers, registration portal, and live program seamlessly.
- Streamlined Workflows: Simple form builders for collecting abstracts, managing peer reviews, and processing registration payments via Stripe integration.
- Best For: Universities and research centers running poster competitions, student research days, or single-to-multi-track scientific symposiums.
5. Ex Ordo
Ex Ordo is a premium, end-to-end conference management system built specifically for scholarly associations and research organizations. It covers every phase of the conference lifecycle with a focus on workflow automation.
- Scholarly Focus: Tailored to academic workflows—offering features like blind peer reviews, camera-ready submission management, and copyright collection.
- Interactive Mobile App & Web Program: Synchronizes accepted submissions, author bios, and track schedules into a polished mobile app for attendees.
- Book of Abstracts & Publishing: Offers automated formatting to compile hundreds of papers into publication-ready digital volumes or index-ready metadata exports.
- Best For: Large academic associations and recurring annual congresses needing dedicated account management and high-end publishing workflows.
6. EasyChair
EasyChair is one of the oldest and most widely recognized submission management systems in academia, particularly dominant in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Engineering disciplines.
- Core Focus: Almost strictly focused on the peer-review engine (abstract submission, paper distribution, track management, proceedings generation, and decision-making).
- Review Analytics & Discussion: Advanced mechanisms for program committee (PC) members to discuss disputed papers, re-evaluate scores, and handle bidding on papers based on subject expertise.
- EPiC Series Publishing: Offers native integration to publish conference proceedings directly under the EasyChair EPITalks / EPiC Series umbrella.
- Best For: Computer science, engineering, and hard-science conferences where peer review discussion among committee members is the absolute priority, and visual flair is secondary.
7. Whova
Whova is an industry-leading event management platform known primarily for its high attendee engagement, mobile event app, and networking features. While it serves corporate events, it includes robust tools for academic conferences.
- Attendee Engagement: Leader in gamification, community bulletin boards, attendee matchmaking, speed networking, and live polls/Q&As during sessions.
- Logistics & On-Site Tools: Native name-badge generation, lead retrieval for sponsors/exhibitors, floor-map builders, and live event check-in via mobile scanning.
- Abstract & Agenda Management: Includes submission portals and schedule builders that feed directly into the Whova mobile app.
- Best For: Hybrid or in-person conferences where attendee networking, sponsor visibility, and a top-tier mobile app experience are the primary goals.
8. Dryfta
Dryfta is an all-in-one event management software designed for non-profits, universities, and professional associations. It provides an all-inclusive suite of tools at an accessible price point.
- Comprehensive Feature Set: Combines abstract submission, peer review, ticketing, badge printing, event app, email broadcast, and CRM into one ecosystem.
- Association & Membership Management: Includes built-in tools to track member statuses, issue certificates of attendance, and award Continuing Education (CE/CME) credits to attendees.
- Custom Customization: Offers customizable submission workflows, custom form fields, and tailored URL hosting for the conference site.
- Best For: Educational institutions and non-profit associations managing annual meetings on a budget while needing membership management alongside event tools.