The assumptions: 100 entries, 10 jurors, € 50 internal hourly rate. Deliberately conservative and made to be re-checked — put your own figures in: the ranking of the four options does not tend to change.
Four ways to run an award
📧 Email & spreadsheets
- Entries arrive as email attachments, copied into lists by hand
- Missing documents chased one by one
- Judging packs assembled and sent per juror
- Results merged manually from every reply
- Invoices written individually, payments ticked off individually
- High error rate · GDPR hard to evidence
≈ 200 hstaff time / season
≈ € 10,000internal cost
📋 Online form + spreadsheets
- A generic form tool collects the entries
- Uploads scattered across cloud folders, data in tables
- Judging stays fully manual — packs, distribution, consolidation
- No pricing phases, no payment, no invoices
- Medium error rate · GDPR depends on the tool mix
≈ 120 hstaff time / season
≈ € 6,000internal cost
🛠 Custom development
- Briefing, agency selection, build, test and revision cycles
- Maintenance, hosting and further development permanently on your budget
- Jury rounds, pricing phases and invoices are expensive extras
- High project risk · security and GDPR rest entirely with you
€ 25,000+one-off build
≈ € 10,300per award (spread over 3 seasons)
🏆 Award software: Laureo
- Entrants upload themselves — completely, because the form enforces it
- The jury scores inside the platform, multi-stage rounds, automatic ranking
- Pricing phases, Stripe payment and VAT-compliant PDF invoices included — from the smallest plan
- GDPR-compliant, EU hosting or self-hosting, processor agreement included
≈ 10 hstaff time / season
≈ € 2,290+total cost / season
The comparison in numbers
Total cost per season, with staff time valued at the € 50 internal rate and added to the platform fee:
| Option | Staff time | Internal cost | Platform / season | Total / season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Email & spreadsheets | ≈ 200 h | ≈ € 10,000 | € 0 | ≈ € 10,000 |
| Online form + spreadsheets | ≈ 120 h | ≈ € 6,000 | low | ≈ € 6,000 |
| Custom development | variable | + maintenance | € 25,000+ one-off | ≈ € 10,300 (over 3 seasons) |
| Laureo | ≈ 10 h | ≈ € 500 | € 1,790–3,490 | ≈ € 2,290+ |
The real lever is not the licence fee but the roughly 190 hours saved. They never arrive as an invoice — they arrive as evenings, weekends and work left undone, which is precisely why they appear in no procurement comparison.
What the PDF adds
- The full model calculation with every intermediate step
- The 200 hours broken down by process step
- The entry volume at which switching pays off
- A template for entering your own figures
📄
Factsheet Cost comparison
PDF · 4 pages · July 2026 (German) — ready to forward to your board.
More dossiers
The jury's perspectiveHigh-profile jurors work unpaid — and decide after one season whether to accept again. Four pain points of manual judging that cost you that yes, and what replaces them.
Product & pricing informationThe complete feature matrix across Starter, Professional and Sovereign — every price stated openly. Built to be attached to procurement comparisons and board papers.
The GDPR checklistTen points that make any prize competition data-protection-proof — from processor agreements to storage location and jury access. Applies with any software, Laureo or not.
Let's talk about your award
In 20 minutes we walk through the entire process on your own award.
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