A comparative note —— Grants · Fellowships · Awards
How CallSherpa compares.
Responsible AI. AI-Native. Built for every organization size, with transparent, per-call pricing.
The affordable Submittable alternative.
Built for lean teams and large programs alike — CallSherpa does what SM Apply, Submittable and OpenWater do, without the enterprise price tag or the annual contract.
If your policy says AI can't evaluate applications, you have one option here.
Submittable's Automated Review scores applications against your rubric and hand-validates a subset. OpenWater's AI scores entries and flags areas needing attention for judges. Both are reasonable answers to volume — neither clears a policy that says AI may not evaluate an application. On CallSherpa your reviewers score, and the one place AI assesses a submission is eligibility screening, where a human confirms every suggestion. See our Responsible AI commitments.
Example: grant program with 80 applications and 12 reviewers
$59
BYOK · up to 100 applications · one-time
$99
AI Included · up to 100 applications · one-time
SM Apply
$6,000+
Annual · 1,000 apps min · Sales call
Submittable
$3,000+
Annual · Sales call
OpenWater
$5,000+
Annual · Sales call · Implementation fees
| Feature | CallSherpa | SM Apply | Submittable | OpenWater |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use Cases | ||||
| Grant programs & funding calls | ||||
| Fellowships & scholarships | ||||
| RFPs & internal review | ||||
| Awards & competitions | ||||
| Getting Started | ||||
| AI document extraction (PDF/text → call)Upload a CFP, get a full call in ~10 min | ||||
| Quick setup without trainingOpenWater: implementation services & training typically required. | ||||
| Self-serve signup (no sales call)SM Apply: minimum 1,000 applications. Submittable & OpenWater: contact sales required. | ||||
| Hosted (no server to manage) | ||||
| Call Management | ||||
| Custom application forms | ||||
| File uploads in applications | ||||
| Custom scoring rubric | ||||
| Blind reviewSM Apply: must configure per-field, doesn't auto-hide application name | ||||
| Applicant draft saving & resume | ||||
| Custom call landing pageSM Apply, Submittable & OpenWater: branded portal (enterprise: CSS customization) | ||||
| Reviewer discussion threadsOpenWater: comments/annotations; CallSherpa: realtime deliberation panel with per-proposal threads | ||||
| Responsible AIResponsible AI | ||||
| Human-only review scoringReviewers score on CallSherpa; AI never fills in a rubric or ranks submissions. Submittable's Automated Review scores against your rubric and hand-validates a subset; OpenWater's AI scores entries for judges. (AI can suggest eligibility outcomes at screening — see the next row.) | ||||
| Human-confirmed eligibility screeningAI may suggest pass/flag/fail with an explanation; a human screener confirms before any applicant is filtered out. | ||||
| Published model list & no-training commitmentWe name every model we use and contract for no-training on submissions. See Responsible AI. | ||||
| AI master toggle (turn AI fully off per call) | ||||
| AI call extraction from PDF/textUpload a CFP, get a complete draft call | ||||
| AI-assisted review for reviewersSummaries, note-drafting, real-time consistency checks. Never AI scoring. | ||||
| AI note-taking for reviewers | ||||
| AI-drafted result notification emailsReviewer-directed drafts; every send is human-confirmed | ||||
| Automated reference verificationPowered by SourceVerify | ||||
| Bring your own AI key (BYOK) | ||||
| Reviewer Experience | ||||
| Reviewer invite via email | ||||
| Reviewer assignment to submissions | ||||
| Per-dimension rubric scoring | ||||
| No per-reviewer seat fees | ||||
| Communication & Reporting | ||||
| Email notifications | ||||
| AI-drafted personalized result emails | ||||
| CSV/Excel export | ||||
| Analytics dashboardCallSherpa: rankings, reviewer consistency & outlier analysis, score distributions | ||||
Feature information is based on publicly available documentation as of April 2026. Features and pricing may have changed. All product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
Ready to modernize your review process?
Get started in minutes. Responsible AI. AI-Native. No enterprise sales call required.