Fourwaves alternative: Ex Ordo compared

Ex Ordo vs Fourwaves: which suits your conference?

Fourwaves suits smaller, simpler academic workflows: events and university research days that want published yearly prices, a free plan, a branded event website, and a free attendee app, with English and French built in. Ex Ordo is the better fit when the conference runs on structured peer review and connects to the rest of your organisation: tracks with their own deadlines and chairs, reviewer allocation with workload limits and automatic conflict checks, panels reviewed as sessions, single sign-on and member-only fees from your membership system, and onboarding for every conference.

Both are built for academic conferences, and both cover submission, peer review, decisions, programme, and registration. The differences are in what sits in the core product rather than a higher plan, in how each works with a membership system, and in how each is priced.

How do Ex Ordo and Fourwaves compare at a glance?

Fourwaves details are from its own pricing page and its other public pages, including its comparison post, read on 29 October 2026.

Which is better for peer review?

Both run conference peer review. The difference is what you need to buy to get it. On Fourwaves, peer review starts on the paid Advanced plan and tracks management needs the paid Pro plan. On Ex Ordo, tracks, peer review, and panels are all part of the review product, so a conference with several tracks and a large volunteer reviewer pool gets the full workflow from the start.

In Ex Ordo's peer review software, you set how many reviews each submission needs and how many submissions each reviewer gets. The allocation engine matches submissions to the best-qualified reviewers, and you can test and rerun it until it is right. Conflicts of interest are checked at the point of allocation, as our abstract management software page explains. Each track has its own deadlines and chairs, and chairs accept or reject from a dropdown and send letters from the dashboard.

Fourwaves' pages describe automatic or manual assignment by custom criteria, unlimited reviewers, structured scoring forms, and revision rounds with track-changed files. That last one is a strength if your call for papers runs several review rounds. Its pages do not describe workload caps per reviewer or testing an allocation before it runs.

Ex Ordo is proven at volume. The Society of Engineering Science collected more than 1,000 submissions, with 152 reviewers across 54 topics and 20 parallel sessions. The International Pragmatics Association handled 767 submissions and 1,081 peer reviews: 'the automatic allocation in Ex Ordo makes an enormous difference,' says its founder, Jef Verschueren. Read the IPrA story.

How do panels and symposia compare?

Ex Ordo has a dedicated panel workflow; Fourwaves collects panels through conditional logic in one submission form, as its own comparison post explains.

In Ex Ordo, panel organisers submit themed sessions, reviewers see them as clusters or score individual submissions within them, and you accept or decline a panel in one click. Accepted panels become sessions in your programme, and the conflict checker flags presenters booked in two places at once.

Which works better with a membership system?

Ex Ordo connects to the systems societies already run. Fourwaves' own comparison post lists membership sync as 'Not offered'.

Submitters and reviewers can sign in to Ex Ordo with their existing membership account through SAML or OpenID Connect, so nobody needs another password. Ex Ordo integrates with Naylor AMS, and Naylor membership types feed member-only fees in registration, so delegates can only buy the fees they qualify for. The International Pragmatics Association uses single sign-on with its own membership system.

How does registration compare?

Both have strong registration built for academic events. Ex Ordo's conference registration links registration to submissions: delegates submit, register, and pay from one account, you see which presenters have not paid, and you can take purchase orders and bank transfers alongside cards. Fourwaves also links registration to presenters, and adds tax rules by country, university payment gateways, waitlists, and conditional logic in the registration form.

How do the mobile apps compare?

Fourwaves includes one shared conference app with every plan, covering the programme, personal agendas, posters, and the participant list. Ex Ordo's mobile app goes further for conferences that want delegates engaged and sponsors seen, and comes in several licence options so you choose the level your event needs.

Our mobile conference app is powered by Guidebook, a leading mobile event app developer whose technology has powered more than 50,000 events. Partnering with a specialist means your delegates get an app built for security and usability by a team that does nothing else, while your programme flows in from Ex Ordo with no copying and pasting.

Delegates get a programme that works without wifi and a personalised itinerary, plus private messages, public posts, and meeting booking with other delegates. You can send push notifications when plans change, run live polls and surveys in sessions, and add an interactive venue map. Sponsors get in-app banners and promoted posts, with usage statistics you can share with them, and you see live metrics on how delegates use the app.

Fourwaves' app page describes the programme, agenda, posters and slides, participant list, livestream links, upvotes, offline access, and live sync. It does not describe in-app polls, sponsor banners, meeting booking, or a venue map.

How does pricing compare?

Fourwaves publishes yearly plans and a free plan. Which plan you need depends on how many submissions you expect a year (25, 100, or 300 on its published plans) and on features: peer review starts on the paid Advanced plan, and tracks management and a dedicated account manager are on the paid Pro plan. Ex Ordo sends a detailed price built around your conference instead. Whichever you choose, compare what your conference needs against what each price includes.

What sets your Ex Ordo price:

• the number of submissions you expect;
• the products you choose, such as review, registration, and virtual or hybrid, plus add-ons like the mobile app and book of proceedings;
• how many events you run with us: we offer flexible discounts for multiple events and multiple years.

What comes with every Ex Ordo conference:

• onboarding, with our team configuring your workflow and testing it with you before launch;
• hands-on support from set-up through to programme building, including your busy submission and review periods;
• tracks, peer review, and panels in the review product, with panels never an add-on.

Getting a price: tell us your expected number of submissions and your currency, and your detailed price arrives in under 30 minutes. Get a price for your conference.

Where is Fourwaves the better fit?

Fourwaves is a strong choice in these cases:

• your event has fewer than 125 submissions and a simpler workflow;
• you want to see the price before you talk to anyone, or need a free plan;
• you want a branded event website and a free attendee app on every plan;
• you need English and French interfaces;
• you run many small events a year under one plan.

Questions organisers ask when switching

Can we bring our submissions across from another system?

Yes. Ex Ordo imports submissions from other systems, and our team helps configure and test your workflow before launch.

Can papers and abstracts have different deadlines?

Yes. Set up multiple tracks, each with its own deadlines and chairs, and ask different questions depending on the submission format.

See it on your own conference

Tell us how many submissions you expect and your detailed price arrives in under 30 minutes. Ask for your price, or read how organisers use Ex Ordo in our customer stories.

Last updated 3rd November. Fourwaves details were checked against its own website on 29 October 2026.