EventsAir Alternative for Peer Review

Which is the better fit for a conference that runs on peer review?

Ex Ordo is the better fit when a conference depends on peer review: configurable anonymous review, reviewer allocation, automatic conflict checks, scoring, decisions and a programme built from accepted work, all in one system built for scholarly events, with registration in the same account. EventsAir is a general event management platform for agencies, government and higher education. Its tools, such as sponsor management, wallet payments and an Open API, cover a wider range of events, and its pages describe much less about peer review.

Everything about EventsAir on this page comes from its own website, checked on 22 October 2026. Where we say its pages do not describe something, we mean exactly that: it is not listed on the pages we read, so ask EventsAir about it in a demo.

How do Ex Ordo and EventsAir compare at a glance?

How does peer review compare?

How are reviewers allocated?

In Ex Ordo you decide how many reviews each submission needs and how many submissions each reviewer receives. The allocation engine matches submissions to reviewers, you can test the allocation and rerun it until you are satisfied, and you can start allocating as soon as submissions arrive. EventsAir's abstract management page describes automatic assignment of reviewers by themes, topics or keywords. It does not describe limits per reviewer or testing an allocation before you finalise it.

How do anonymous review and conflict checks work?

Fair review depends on two things: hiding identities where the process requires it, and keeping reviewers away from work they have a connection to. Ex Ordo lets organisers configure single-anonymous or double-anonymous review, and its abstract management software checks for conflicts automatically when submissions are allocated. EventsAir's abstract management page does not describe anonymous review or conflict of interest handling.

How do reviewers score, and how do you keep them on track?

Ex Ordo reviewers grade with scores or comments against a marking scheme you build, online or from downloaded submissions. You can track each reviewer's progress, send reminders to those who fall behind, reassign submissions, and close or disable reviews. EventsAir describes a reviewer portal where reviewers submit scores, notes and comments, and real-time progress tracking. It does not describe a scoring scale, reminders or reassignment.

How are decisions made and communicated?

Ex Ordo chairs add comments, choose whether reviewer comments are public or private, accept or reject submissions from a dropdown, and send letters of acceptance from the dashboard. EventsAir's page says it is easy to accept abstracts, assign speakers to sessions and manage schedules, with automated notifications to presenters. It does not describe decision letters or a chair role.

How do they compare as a conference grows?

For a peer review conference, size is less about how many people attend and more about how many submissions, reviewers and parallel sessions you have to manage. That is where the workload sits, and where a general event platform and a scholarly one tend to diverge.

Ex Ordo has proof at the large end, handling thousands of submissions. The Society of Engineering Science case study describes a conference with more than 1,000 submissions, 152 reviewers across 54 topics, 20 parallel sessions in the programme and more than 900 delegates. The International Pragmatics Association case study describes 767 abstract submissions and 1,081 peer reviews. At that volume, the allocation engine lets you set how many reviews each submission needs and cap how many each reviewer receives, abstract management gives each track its own deadlines and chairs, and the conference programme builder has a conflict checker for parallel sessions. The same workflow runs a single track conference just as well.

EventsAir describes itself as offering tools for every event, big or small. Its abstract management page features a hybrid conference with more than 2,000 attendees. What its pages do not describe is how many submissions or reviewers a conference can run through peer review, or how allocation, scoring and decisions work at that volume. If you expect hundreds or thousands of submissions, ask EventsAir for a reference conference of that scale, and ask Ex Ordo has many IEEE and more Ex Ordo. Our customer stories show conferences of many sizes.

Where is EventsAir the better fit?

EventsAir describes itself as an all-in-one platform for in-person, virtual and hybrid events, used by agencies and professional conference organisers, associations, government and higher education. Its home page mentions academic conferences once, among the education events it supports. If your event is not built around peer review, its wider toolset may suit you better: sponsors and exhibitors, travel and accommodation, check-in and badging, lead management, an Open API and AI assistants are all on its site. On registration, it describes its own payment processor with Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat Pay and Klarna, group registrations, waitlists, registration in several languages.

What happens after acceptance?

In Ex Ordo, accepted work flows into the conference programme, where a visual builder lets you assign submissions to sessions and a conflict checker stops presenters being booked in two places at once. EventsAir builds sessions and agendas from reviewed abstracts and syncs them across its event sites and apps. For membership, Ex Ordo supports single sign-on and a Naylor AMS integration, and the International Pragmatics Association uses single sign-on with its membership system.

How does registration compare for a peer review conference?

Registration is an add on in both products, but it is where a conference collects its income, and it works best when it sits in the same account as submission and review. Ex Ordo designed its registration system for research conferences. EventsAir lists registration among its core capabilities, as part of an all-in-one platform.

Do authors, reviewers and delegates use one account?

In Ex Ordo, authors and delegates use a single account to submit, register and pay. Delegates can edit their own registrations, delegates or admins can register other people, and you can see which presenters have paid from the People Hub, without a spreadsheet. EventsAir's registration page describes a drag-and-drop form builder with conditional logic, custom registration types that include speakers, and attendees who can register with or without an account. It treats speakers as a registration type and does not describe linking registration to accepted abstracts.

How do fees, tickets and discount codes work?

Ex Ordo organisers charge early and late prices, sell tickets for workshops, events and social occasions, limit ticket sales for specific fees, ask delegates customised questions and run test registrations before going live. Reminders or discount codes can go to people who have not yet registered. EventsAir describes ticket categories such as early bird, VIP and member tickets, group registrations, multi-session sign-ups and waitlists. Its registration page does not describe discount codes. For member rates, see our post on member-specific pricing.

Which payment methods are supported?

Ex Ordo delegates can pay by Visa, Mastercard and AMEX through Stripe and PayPal, with PCI compliant, encrypted payments and fraud detection with Stripe. They can also pay by purchase order, wired payment or bank transfer. Organisers can see who has not paid, send reminders and record when invoices are paid, which limits bad debt, and delegates receive automatic receipts. Ex Ordo supports all major currencies, and organisers are paid in less than a week.

EventsAir Pay is its own payment processor, embedded in registration. Its payments page describes cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, WeChat Pay and Klarna, multi-currency support, built-in reconciliation and PCI Level 1 compliance.

Who uses Ex Ordo for peer review?

Ex Ordo is a preferred partner of the IEEE, and the IEEE and the American Chemical Society are among the organisations we support with their conference software needs. We have supported research conferences for 19 years, and organisers in more than 60 countries use Ex Ordo. Three more customers describe peer review and submissions in their case studies:

• International Pragmatics Association. It moved from an in-house platform that had become costly to maintain, and its conference handled 767 abstract submissions and 1,081 peer reviews. Founder Jef Verschueren said: 'the automatic allocation in Ex Ordo makes an enormous difference'. Read the IPrA case study.
• American Marketing Association. It runs its call for papers and reviewer assignment on Ex Ordo. Monica Gerhardt, Senior Manager, Academic Communities, said: 'We couldn't be happier with the submissions product.' Read the American Marketing Association case study.
• American Society for Engineering Management. It took submissions through to its first hybrid conference. Conference director Dr Gana Natarajan said: 'the one thing that stands out is their ability to take feedback and continuously improve the platform'. Read the American Society for Engineering Management case study.

More organisations describe their experience on our customer stories page.

See peer review in Ex Ordo with your own event

If peer review is the heart of your conference, see how Ex Ordo handles submission, review and decisions with your own tracks and review rules.

Last updated 22 October 2026. EventsAir details were checked against its own website on that date.