SmarterSelect review
A structured application platform with published annual plans for scholarship teams.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
SmarterSelect is cloud-based application management software for nonprofit program leads, foundations, associations, educational institutions, and corporations. It supports scholarship, grant, award, fellowship, and other structured programs, with online application creation, document uploads and validation, evaluator collaboration, configurable scoring, workflow rules, reporting, communications, and award tracking. Applicants submit applications online, while evaluators review and score them through a centralized web interface. Scholarship teams are the clearest fit, especially those managing multiple programs or multi-stage evaluations.
According to the vendor’s pricing page, Create costs $2,000 per year and includes unlimited programs, online evaluation, file attachments, and support. Enhance costs $5,000 per year and adds online recommendations, application rules, and autoscoring. Enterprise costs $7,500 per year and adds scholarship matching, award tracking, and single sign-on. Subscriptions are billed as a single annual payment. The published trial has no time limit and is limited to ten users, providing a way to review the platform before committing to a plan.
Its feature set covers the full lifecycle from custom application forms and document collection through configurable workflows, scoring rubrics, evaluator groups, shared notes, multi-stage review, custom reports, CSV/PDF exports, and email and SMS notifications. Salesforce and Zapier integrations support connections with other systems. The main tradeoff is plan structure: several capabilities that matter to larger scholarship operations, including scholarship matching, award tracking, and SSO, are reserved for Enterprise. Teams needing a broad program-management workflow should consider SmarterSelect; smaller groups seeking a free option or flexible non-annual billing should look elsewhere.
SmarterSelect pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Unlimited programs and online evaluations start at $2,000 per year.
- Rules, rubrics, evaluator collaboration, and automated scoring support review workflows.
- Award tracking, notifications, reports, and exports cover post-application work.
- Where it doesn't
- There is no free plan.
- Subscriptions are billed as a single annual payment.
- Scholarship matching, award tracking, and SSO require Enterprise.
SmarterSelect fact sheet, pricing and score →
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