Brownbag review
A free, focused workflow for conferences managing papers, reviews, programs, and registration.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Brownbag is a web-based conference management platform for academic researchers and conference organizers. It brings public conference pages, calls for papers, configurable paper submission forms, reviewer assignment, scoring, email communication, program building, attendee registration, and analytics into one workflow. Authors can submit papers with abstracts and co-authors, while organizers coordinate reviews and publish schedules for sessions, rooms, and time slots. It is best suited to free academic conferences that need core paper-management tools without a complex enterprise setup.
Pricing is straightforward. The Free plan costs $0 per conference and includes full conference management tools, reviewer workflows and scoring, a program builder, analytics, and CSV exports. The published description also places the Free plan at up to 100 submissions. Premium costs $1,000 per conference and includes everything in Free, with all submissions available to view and no cap. That makes the paid tier mainly a capacity upgrade rather than a broader feature package. Conferences within the Free plan’s submission limit have a clear reason to stay on the no-cost tier; larger events should weigh the one-time Premium price against their submission volume.
Brownbag’s strength is breadth across the basic conference lifecycle, from submission forms through registration and program publication. Its forms can define required fields, accepted file types, deadlines, and co-authors, while reviewers receive assignment and scoring tools with confidence tracking. The platform is web-only, and its listed integrations are ChatGPT and Stripe, so organizations seeking a wider ecosystem fit may find the connection options narrow. Teams that need verified blind review or revision workflows should compare alternatives. For a focused, free paper workflow, Brownbag is a practical fit; for more specialized review controls or broader integrations, it is less compelling.
Brownbag pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Free plan covers submissions, reviews, programs, registration, and analytics
- Custom forms support fields, file types, deadlines, and co-authors
- Program building, email scheduling, CSV exports, and analytics are included
- Where it doesn't
- Premium costs $1,000 per conference
- Integration options are limited to ChatGPT and Stripe
- Teams needing verified blind review or revision workflows may need an alternative
Brownbag fact sheet, pricing and score →
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