--- title: "OpenWater Alternative for Scholarship Management | AwardSpring" description: "Comparing AwardSpring and OpenWater? See how a purpose-built scholarship and donor platform differs from a generalist application-and-review engine." canonical_url: "https://www.awardspring.com/compare/openwater-alternative" markdown_url: "https://www.awardspring.com/compare/openwater-alternative.md" --- 1. [Home](https://www.awardspring.com/) 2. [Compare](https://www.awardspring.com/compare) 3. OpenWater PLATFORM COMPARISON # Looking for an OpenWater alternative? OpenWater is a generalist application-and-review engine for awards, abstracts, grants, fellowships, and scholarships, with standout high-volume judging workflows and fast support, owned by ASI, the maker of iMIS. AwardSpring is purpose-built for scholarships, donors, and funds at colleges, universities, and scholarship foundations. The difference is judging breadth versus scholarship-and-donor depth. AT A GLANCE ## Comparison table AwardSpring and OpenWater at-a-glance comparison Criterion AwardSpring OpenWater Core buyer Colleges, universities, and scholarship foundations Associations, foundations, and institutions running many program types Single application with auto-matching Yes, for every customer Eligibility rules block ineligible submissions; cross-fund matching not documented as of August 2026 Scholarship + donor management Donor Management and Donor Experience on the awarding record Stakeholder reports and disbursement tracking; no donor module documented as of August 2026 Integrations Built for financial aid and foundation office workflows 65+ AMS, CRM, directory, and payment platforms; SAML SSO Support 16-minute average response; 4.7 of 5 on G2 across 110 reviews Published 10-minute average response; 4.4 on G2; Capterra 4.6 across 73 reviews AI SpringIQ: AI drafts and prepares, people decide OpenWater AI (announced January 2025): submission condensing and judge scoring assistance, opt-in beta with metered tokens ### Core buyer AwardSpring Colleges, universities, and scholarship foundations OpenWater Associations, foundations, and institutions running many program types ### Single application with auto-matching AwardSpring Yes, for every customer OpenWater Eligibility rules block ineligible submissions; cross-fund matching not documented as of August 2026 ### Scholarship + donor management AwardSpring Donor Management and Donor Experience on the awarding record OpenWater Stakeholder reports and disbursement tracking; no donor module documented as of August 2026 ### Integrations AwardSpring Built for financial aid and foundation office workflows OpenWater 65+ AMS, CRM, directory, and payment platforms; SAML SSO ### Support AwardSpring 16-minute average response; 4.7 of 5 on G2 across 110 reviews OpenWater Published 10-minute average response; 4.4 on G2; Capterra 4.6 across 73 reviews ### AI AwardSpring SpringIQ: AI drafts and prepares, people decide OpenWater OpenWater AI (announced January 2025): submission condensing and judge scoring assistance, opt-in beta with metered tokens WHY AWARDSPRING ## When institutions choose AwardSpring over OpenWater Criterion 1 ### Matching across every fund. Students complete one AwardSpring application and are matched to every scholarship they qualify for, so committees start scoring on day one. OpenWater's documentation covers automatically blocking submissions that violate a program's eligibility rules; matching one general application across multiple funds is not documented, and fund awarding is recorded per submission by an administrator (per OpenWater's help center, August 2026). Criterion 2 ### Donor work on the awarding record. AwardSpring pairs awarding with Donor Management and Donor Experience (available now). OpenWater documents customizable reports for sponsors, boards, and donors, and fund-disbursement tracking; a donor-facing portal or donor management module is not documented on its product pages or help center as of August 2026. Criterion 3 ### Campus-shaped, not association-shaped. OpenWater's documented integrations cover 65+ AMS, CRM, directory, and payment platforms plus SAML single sign-on; student information systems and campus finance connectors are not among its documented integrations (per OpenWater's integrations documentation, August 2026). THE HONEST FIT ## When OpenWater may fit better - An association or foundation running several program types on one platform: awards, fellowships, conference abstracts, grants, and scholarships together. - An iMIS-based association: OpenWater is owned by ASI, integrates with all iMIS versions, and pushes application data back into iMIS for one view of member activity. - A high-volume, multi-round judging operation, such as a thousand-plus submissions divided across large categorized expert panels with automated judge assignment, which reviewers specifically cite as its strong suit. SWITCHING ## Switching from OpenWater: what the move looks like 1. **Export your data.** Applicants, awards, and fund history come out as spreadsheets. You own your data. 2. **Guided rebuild.** SpringBoard onboarding recreates your scholarships, cycles, and review workflows, and imports historical data. 3. **Cut over between cycles.** Implementation is timed so your next award cycle opens on AwardSpring. FAQ ## Questions about this comparison Is AwardSpring a good alternative to OpenWater? For scholarship-first programs that want matching for every applicant and donor work on the awarding record, yes. For associations running awards, abstracts, and grants alongside scholarships, OpenWater's breadth may serve better. How does AwardSpring pricing compare to OpenWater? Both are quote-based annual subscriptions. AwardSpring includes unlimited applicants, reviewers, and admins, scoped to institution size and award volume. Can we migrate from OpenWater to AwardSpring? Yes. Most customers switch between award cycles, and historical data comes across during onboarding. KEEP COMPARING ## Related comparisons [AwardSpring vs Blackbaud Award Management Read the Blackbaud Award Management comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/awardspring-vs-blackbaud) [Looking for a Foundant SLM alternative? Read the Foundant SLM comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/foundant-alternative) [Looking for a Kaleidoscope alternative? Read the Kaleidoscope comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/kaleidoscope-alternative) [Looking for a NextGen Scholarship Manager alternative? Read the Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/nextgen-scholarship-manager-alternative) [Looking for a ScholarshipUniverse alternative? Read the ScholarshipUniverse (Ellucian) comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/scholarshipuniverse-alternative) [Looking for a SmarterSelect alternative? Read the SmarterSelect comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/smarterselect-alternative) [Looking for a Submittable alternative? Read the Submittable comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/submittable-alternative) [Compare scholarship management platforms Return to the comparison hub and choose another live evaluation path.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare) ## Request a demo. Bring your renewal quote and we will walk the same workflow side by side. [Request a demo](https://www.awardspring.com/demo)