# Zealous Reviews **Vendor:** Zealous Solutions Ltd. **Category:** [Awards Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/awards-management) **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 16 ## About Zealous Zealous is a cloud-based submissions management platform that helps you focus on your program's impact, not its paperwork. We eliminate the administrative burden of running competitions, awards, grants, and application programs. Our intuitive solution automates entry collection, streamlines judging workflows, and enables integrated public voting, helping organizations grow their submissions, not their workloads. Purpose-built to handle diverse entry types, Zealous has an obsession with presentation, providing a beautiful and intuitive viewing experience for everything from visual portfolios and video submissions to academic papers and business proposals. The platform handles diverse media formats seamlessly, transforming manual, time-consuming processes into efficient, transparent workflows that enhance your reputation while building lasting communities. Key Features & Capabilities Zealous offers comprehensive submission management with customizable application forms, automated fee collection, and flexible judging tools that require no training. Applicants can save drafts and refine their presentations in a user-friendly environment, while judges benefit from side-by-side comparison tools designed for in-depth evaluation. The platform includes automated communications, public voting integration, comprehensive reporting, and transparent tracking that builds trust with applicants and stakeholders. Target Users & Applications Our platform serves arts organizations, creative agencies, galleries, museums, academic institutions, corporate innovation programs, and cultural foundations. Whether managing prestigious art awards, design competitions, photography contests, creative grants, research proposals, pitch competitions, or academic programs, Zealous provides the professional infrastructure that matches the quality of work being submitted. Performance & Impact Organizations report an 80% reduction in administrative workload and a 22% increase in submission rates year-over-year. Users consistently highlight improved submission quality, enhanced judge satisfaction, and stronger community engagement. The platform’s visual-first approach leads to better discovery of exceptional talent and ideas, creating opportunities that extend beyond individual competitions. Pricing & Support Zealous offers transparent monthly pricing without annual lock-ins or hidden fees, plus complimentary onboarding support. With ready-to-deploy templates and intuitive setup, organizations can launch professional programs in hours rather than weeks. Our pay-as-you-grow model includes 20 free entries to get started, making it accessible for organizations of all sizes. Why Choose Zealous Unlike generic awards platforms, Zealous understands that every submission—whether a creative portfolio or a groundbreaking business idea—requires specialized presentation and evaluation tools. We're not just managing submissions—we're amplifying creativity and innovation, building communities, and creating sustainable recognition programs that elevate industries. Every feature is designed with the understanding that awards change creators' and innovators' trajectories and open doors that might otherwise remain closed. ## Zealous Reviews ### 1. Outstanding customer service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Simon C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 13, 2023 **What do you like best about Zealous?** Customer service is by far the standout element of our experience with the Zealous platform. The platform is great but the personal, always on customer service is the element that makes the Zealous experience. This is the second year we have used Zealous as our awards platform and we saw a 50% increase in submissions this year which has far exceeded any expectations we had. Updates in UX and search functions have also aided to the usability of the platform. Both for artists submitting entries and also us using the platform to compile and judge entries. Five star service on a five star platform. Would highly recommend. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** We genuinely don't have any dislikes. As a returning customer, there's a reason we came back. And that was the usability and pricing of the platform and the personal customer service from the team at Zealous. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** We had hundreds of entries for our Awards this year. Without the platform managing that level of submissions would have been very time consuming. Zealous enables us to manage our awards within a framework that gives us structure and timing ensuring all entries are properly processed and judged. ### 2. Zealous: fantastic customer service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marieke M. | Senior Executive, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 23, 2023 **What do you like best about Zealous?** It has everything in one place: your competition page, competition entries, and scoring. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** It can be a bit daunting when you get started, but the help desk has a lot of articles that are easy to navigate, complemented by strong customer service. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's a one-size-fits-all platform for running smaller / less complex competitions with clear steps and notifications throughout to keep me on track. ### 3. Brilliantly designed software produced by an agile and responsive company **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 14, 2022 **What do you like best about Zealous?** The Zealous back-end is incredibly simple and user-friendly. There's lots of brilliant advice and articles on the Zealous website - both with support for building a brilliant call-out but also for running an Awards project full stop. The customer service and support from the team were excellent. Diana, my account manager, was a huge support, and when she wasn't available, there was always someone equally as lovely on hand to provide advice. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** The main issue we ran into was during the first round of judging. We needed to split scoring between several Judges, and the process became complicated due to the sorting functions. However, the team are incredibly responsive to feedback, and I have a feeling Zealous will rectify the issue soon :) **Recommendations to others considering Zealous:** Make full use of the additional support offered - whether that's sessions with your account manager or reading their support articles. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** This project was our first time using a platform like Zealous, so from our perspective, it solved a lot of possible problems! Because the platform is user-friendly (both front and back end), we became very confident using it very quickly - meaning there was more time to focus on building the best possible call-out and ensuring it looked really exciting. Another benefit to the user-friendly interface is that we spent very little time dealing with applicant queries and questions. ### 4. Good system **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marie J. | Artist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2022 **What do you like best about Zealous?** Recently used for submissions to an exhibition. Much better than receiving 100s of emails in my inbox. Scoring for judges is great and the Zealous team are always SO helpful with any questions I or my team have had. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** I wish I could select what information (using a sort of tick box) I want to download in a spreadsheet and be able to arrange the table myself. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having a platform gave the project a more professional feel. It was great that all of the team and judges could log in independently to do their own work on the project. ### 5. Great submission platform with no real worthy competitors **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Matt F. | Deputy Director **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2022 **What do you like best about Zealous?** Zealous has few competitors for our usage--accepting, managing submissions, shortlisting and judging for our Writer's Award. In terms of flexibility, price and accomodating us, they win hands down. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** The Zealous team is trying to accommodate our last sticking points--collecting optional donations--so we're hopeful this will work this year. The other portal we were considering offers the option of fee-free submissions, with no subscription fee, charging us only a percentage of donations made (which would likely beat Zealous on price). However, there's a basic question format they can't accommodate, so we're sticking with Zealous! **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our Writer's Award has grown and grown in submissions annually, and collecting, reviewing and scoring them through Zealous has saved literally thousands of pounds in staff time. ### 6. Excellent platform that offers a 360 degree service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** James W. | Managing Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 02, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** The platform is easy to use, gets updated frequently and it enables me to run two competitions without having to build the structure myself. Diana and Vasena are also extremely helpful in onboarding and managing the process too. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** Not really sure what the downsides are because it provides something that has proved really useful. There might be some comparative differences to similar platforms. **Recommendations to others considering Zealous:** Start smaller with submissions limits and creep it up as needed, it takes seconds to change it so you don't need to worry. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** The platform helps us run the comps smoothly and centrally which saves my time but also means that the entrants know the deal and timeline plus the judges have a central place to judge from. This is way more important than it sounds when you find yourself with hundreds of entries. ### 7. Zealous is fantastic! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daphne S. | Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2022 **What do you like best about Zealous?** Zealous has by far the best prices and allows monthly subscription which for us is a game changer. The customer service is also unparalleled! Website has a very easy-to-use muti functional backend! I cannot speak highly enough of this platform. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** Honestly there is nothing I dislike, but I wish they had the ability to create waiver codes for our members. I believe they are working on this! **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** Zealous has completely streamlined our application process! This year we van allocate specific entries to judges, and upgrade our subscription as we go. These are huge benefifs! ### 8. Good service supported by an excellent team! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rohan G. | Policy and Events Coordinator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** The support from our Account Manager and from the rest of the support team was professional and quick - all issues were solved within a couple hours of logging it. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** A few features were lacking, specific to our Awards programme, but with the support of the Zealous staff we found workarounds quickly. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have found a quick and easy Awards judging platform which is great value for money. ### 9. This platform has changed the game for us! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dr. Maggie M. | Curator (Studios & Residencies), Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 16, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** The judging and selection process is super easy to use, collaborative and saves so much time during recruitment! **What do you dislike about Zealous?** The only thing that didn't work so well for us is that you can't edit the template email that goes out to unsuccessful applicants - it would be good to have greater control over this part of the process. We found ways around it though. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** This year we managed one of our first major awards, and underwent a large recruitment drive. As a small team, Zealous has made this a total breeze. It makes it so much easier to collate and review applications all in one place, have numerous colleagues judge and score applications and manage the feedback process! We are now using the platform for all our recruitment and other oppertunities, as it makes life so much easier. ### 10. Above and beyond service, a must have for organisers of creative open calls! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Media Production | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** The dedicated account manager Diana who has guided me from Step 1 and continues to in every aspect of the submission process, I really couldn't ask for a better service! **What do you dislike about Zealous?** There are a couple of functions that could improve, for example, an auto-save on the guideline page and bespoke templates to send to the unselected/selected submissions. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** Zealous is helping with mass communication by marketing the open call and then organizing and contacting the submissions through spreadsheets and auto-email! The benefits are never-ending. Everything about Zealous is a benefit! ### 11. A very good experience **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mara A. | Contemporary Art Curator & Head of Art Projects , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 16, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** Zealous is a very straightforward platform to use to promote your creative projects. I found it extremely intuitive and easy to navigate and upload the relevant information. It was fantastic to be able to manage and have all details in one single place. The team is incredibly helpful, and I even had some 121 tutorials to help me understand and improve my usage within the platform. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** There were only a couple of times when I would update/change the deadline details and had some issues saving these as the platform kept directing me to the dashboard page without saving the changes. Apart from this, all good. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** The benefits were the ease in managing everything from one single platform. I could manage all information and submissions from within the Zealous platform. ### 12. Fabulous Team and Great Service! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sue E. | Founder and Administrator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 04, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** The Zealous experience is great from start to finish. The team at Zealous helped me set up our opportunity on their site allocated a project manager who was available to deal with any problems that occurred. The system is easy to use and can be tailored to meet most requirements. When an issue arose with a user incorrectly entering data that could not be changed, the team went in and changed it for us, which is great service! **What do you dislike about Zealous?** I don't dislike anything about Zealous. If you have a problem they sort it out and I have to say any problems we encountered were either because we, or our users, were making errors. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using the Zealous system took away 80% of my workload, and if it cost a little more than our old system, it was well worth it. ### 13. Great support from Diana Todd **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 18, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** Diana has been my Account Manager for two of my opportunities and honestly has been incredibly helpful and supportive of our opportunities. Diana has gone far and beyond to ensure we get maximum exposure, the best submissions, and creating competition so smooth and efficient. It's been great having Diana, as she has been super communicative and responsive to all my needs. I only want to work with Diana going forwards. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** I do not dislike anything about the platform. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used to host competitions using google forms, but the process was very inefficient and required administration. Using Zealous has mitigated all of those issues and creates a more professional platform for our competitions and opportunities. ### 14. Great option for open calls **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Arts and Crafts | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 08, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** The applicant portal is easy to navigate, and we like how easy it is to edit the application forms. Looks great on both ends. Also a great deal compared to other brands. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** We wish we could edit the result emails/ automatic emails. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** Zealous has cut down on our administrative workload during open calls. ### 15. Simplifying Project Management with Great Personal Service **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** S W. | Curator and Co-Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 28, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** What has helped our business the best is the excellent personal care, and help with using the system. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** I'd like a few more customisable options for our project but I believe these are things that could be developed in the fututr. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** This system makes it much easier to manage general workflow, data and customers. It is also a little more cost effective than our established system when it comes to sales. ### 16. Zealous Review **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Fine Art | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Zealous?** Amazing team, very supportive who all know the product very well. Ongoing support for applicants using the platform. Sophisticated judging system. **What do you dislike about Zealous?** Lack of personalization on the main page and inability to embed the platform into one's own website. The judging process is sometimes a little confusing. **What problems is Zealous solving and how is that benefiting you?** Submissions to prize. Easy to use prize submission platform with support for applicants. ## Zealous Discussions - [What is Zealous used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-zealous-used-for) - [View Zealous pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/zealous/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+09%3A24%3A54+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=61dc7985-b4d2-4412-a297-8d472e9fc2de&secure%5Btoken%5D=31dfb46d26a6c0daf0aac064c0ea04441584c006189b56c30e7f63e27f08af38&format=llm_user) ## Zealous Features **Application Collection** - Custom Application Forms - Attachments - Application Tracking **Proposal Management** - Form Building - Review Tools - Grantee Portal - Attachments **Submission Management** - Form Builders - Countdown Timers - Landing Pages - Applicant Portal **Application Review** - Automated Review Assignments - Scoring Tools - Review Portal - Review Comments - Messaging **Fund Tracking** - Email Notifications **Judging Management** - Judge Assignments - Multiround Scoring - Scoring and Voting - Submission Dashboards **Administration and Integrations** - Administrative Dashboard - Reports - Integrations **Impact & Outcomes** - Data Analytics - Ad Hoc Reporting **Awards Administration** - Applicant Communications - CRM - Reporting **Grant Prospecting** - Automated Responses ## Top Zealous Alternatives - [Bloomerang CRM](https://www.g2.com/products/bloomerang-crm/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (874 reviews) - [Award Force](https://www.g2.com/products/award-force/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (258 reviews) - [Submittable](https://www.g2.com/products/submittable/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (167 reviews)