TLDR
Submittable is an application intake and review platform built for grantmakers. Pricing typically starts around $10,000 per year for the base product and climbs with submission volume and users. For grant-receiving nonprofits, the cost rarely matches the value. GrantPipe is built for the grant-receiving side and includes donor CRM plus compliance starting at $99 per month.
Winner: GrantPipe
Submittable is an application intake and review platform built for grantmakers. Pricing typically starts around $10,000 per year for the base product and climbs with submission volume and users. For grant-receiving nonprofits, the cost rarely matches the value. GrantPipe is built for the grant-receiving side and includes donor CRM plus compliance starting at $99 per month.
| Feature | Submittable | GrantPipe |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing posture | ~$10,000+/yr, volume-based | $99-$499/month |
| Setup profile | Implementation packages often $2,500-$7,500 | No setup fee |
| Grant workflow depth | Varies | Application through post-award workflow |
| Compliance depth | Varies | Restricted-fund and reporting workflow built in |
| Best fit | General nonprofit software buyers | Mid-sized nonprofits managing donors, grants, and restricted funds in one system |
GrantPipe keeps donor CRM, grant workflow, and restricted-fund reporting in one system, while Submittable is a better fit only if its narrower workflow matches your team exactly.
What Submittable Does Well
Submittable built a polished application intake product. Applicants fill out branded forms, reviewers score submissions, and administrators track decisions through a clean pipeline. For a grantmaker, writing contest, or fellowship program, the product works.
The review panel features are particularly strong: blind review, weighted scoring, and commenting are baked in. That is why corporate foundations and arts councils choose it.
Who This Alternative Is For
You are probably reading this because you are a grant-receiving nonprofit and someone mentioned Submittable. Read this section carefully. Submittable is a grantmaker tool. If your organization applies for grants rather than awarding them, the product is pointed the wrong direction.
Some grant-receiving nonprofits use Submittable to collect their own internal submissions (think: impact stories, scholarship applicants to a program they run). That is a legitimate use case. It is not grant management.
Where Submittable Falls Short for Grant-Receiving Nonprofits
Wrong side of the table. Submittable’s workflows assume you are reviewing applications, not drafting them. That is a fundamental mismatch for a grant-receiving nonprofit whose main workflow is “win a grant, track the award, report back to the funder.”
No donor CRM. Individual giving, recurring gifts, pledges, and receipts are outside the product.
No post-award compliance. Once you win a grant, Submittable has no tools for restricted fund tracking, spend-down monitoring, funder reporting, or audit documentation.
Volume-based pricing penalizes scale. Submittable’s contracts scale with submissions and users. Grant-receiving nonprofits with many active applications end up paying for a workflow they do not fully use.
How GrantPipe Compares
| Capability | Submittable | GrantPipe |
|---|---|---|
| Target buyer | Grantmakers | Grant-receiving nonprofits |
| Donor CRM | Not included | Included |
| Application intake from external applicants | Yes | No (not needed for grantseekers) |
| Post-award compliance | Not native | Included |
| Restricted fund tracking | No | Included |
| Published pricing | No | Yes, $99-$499/mo |
GrantPipe is built around the grant-receiving nonprofit’s actual workflow: track the pipeline of grants you are pursuing, manage awards once they land, allocate restricted funds to programs, and produce funder and audit reports. It also includes a full donor CRM, which Submittable does not.
When to Stay With Submittable
Stay with Submittable if you are a grantmaker, fellowship program, writing contest, or any organization collecting applications from external parties. Its intake and review workflows are genuinely strong.
Switch to GrantPipe if you are a grant-receiving nonprofit that needs to manage donors and grants in one system.
Migration Path
There is not much to migrate from Submittable to GrantPipe because the two tools solve different problems. If you are currently using Submittable as a workaround (tracking your own grant applications as “submissions”), export the applications to CSV and import them into GrantPipe’s grant pipeline. Awards, restricted funds, and reporting are new workflows you will set up in GrantPipe directly.
Questions to Answer Before Switching
- Does your organization receive grants or award grants? If you award grants, stay with Submittable. If you receive grants, GrantPipe is the better fit.
- What problem are you actually solving? If the answer is post-award compliance, restricted fund tracking, or donor management, Submittable was never designed for it.
- What do you pay Submittable today, and what do you also pay for a donor CRM? The combined total is usually 3-5x GrantPipe’s all-in price.
Free resource
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PROS & CONS
Submittable
Pros
- Polished application intake experience for applicants
- Strong review panel and scoring workflows
- Known brand, easy to explain to boards
Cons
- Built for grantmakers, not grant-receiving nonprofits
- No donor CRM or gift management
- Pricing scales with submission volume and users
- No restricted fund tracking or audit documentation
Source: Nonprofit Finance Fund 2022 State of the Sector Survey
Q&A
Should grant-receiving nonprofits buy Submittable?
Usually no. Submittable's strength is application intake for grantmakers. Grant-receiving nonprofits need post-award compliance, restricted fund tracking, and donor management, which Submittable does not provide.
Q&A
What is the best alternative to Submittable for nonprofits that receive grants?
GrantPipe. It focuses on what happens after an award: restricted fund tracking, compliance reporting, and donor relationships in one system.
Q&A
What does Submittable actually do?
Submittable is an application intake and review platform. Applicants submit forms, reviewers score them, and grantmakers track decisions. It does not track awards after the decision is made.
Frequently asked