When Submittable stops keeping up
The lifecycle ends at award
Intake and review are only part of the job. Contracting, variations, finance and acquittals happen outside the platform, creating manual work and reconciliation.
No native document generation
Agreements and letters depend on a signing integration rather than a built-in document engine, so producing branded, tokenised documents is limited.
Finance stops at the edge of the system
There is no direct finance system integration, so payments and general ledger updates rely on spreadsheets or custom builds.
Governance and panels are limited
Fixed permission levels and no dedicated meetings and panels module make it harder to run and evidence structured, defensible decisions.
OmniStar Grants: Built for accountability and scale
Reporting that answers the questions that matter
Interactive dashboards, temporal analysis and geospatial visualisations give grant managers and leadership a real-time view of portfolio performance, without exporting a spreadsheet.
Structured assessment you can stand behind
Weighted scoring, conflict of interest controls and collaborative review tools embed fairness and consistency into every funding decision.
Governance and audit-readiness built in
OmniStar Grants adapts to your organisation's specific workflows, forms and approval requirements, with ongoing support from dedicated grants management specialists who understand your context.
Integrated contracts and payments
Integrated contracts and payments
Generate templated funding agreements, track variations, monitor compliance and manage payments, all within the platform.
OmniStar Grants vs Submittable: comparison
See how OmniStar Grants empowers you with advanced capabilities across the complete grant lifecycle.
Category | Feature | OmniStar Grants | Submittable |
Capacity and Scalability | Unlimited applications, grant programs, rounds, forms, workflows, reports, dashboards and submissions | Yes | Partial Tier-capped |
Workflow and Automation | Workflow designer | Yes Full designer, 185+ steps | Yes |
Conditional logic, task and data automation | Yes | Yes | |
Form Builder (SmartForms) | SmartForm Designer (Form Builder) | Yes | Yes |
Conditional pages and sections | Yes | Partial | |
Formula fields and autosave | Yes | Partial | |
On-screen signature, input masking (phone number, currency, etc) | Yes | No | |
Excel, Word, PDF and XML output documents | Yes | No No native document generation | |
Grants Opportunity | Program budgeting and forecasting, single and multi-stage rounds, round documents, configurable rounds and stages | Yes | Partial |
Portfolio and program definition | Yes | Yes | |
Round notifications and reminders | Yes | Yes | |
Reviews and Assessment | Non-disclosure agreements, review assignment and individual reviews | Yes | Yes |
Conflict of interest | Yes | Partial Anonymise and PII-hide | |
Weighted scoring and collaborative reviews | Yes | Yes | |
Bulk reviews | Yes | Yes | |
Application, document, milestone and form reviews | Yes | Yes | |
Meetings and Panels | Meeting attendees and RSVP, meeting pack PDF generation | Yes | No |
Online meeting collaboration and access | Yes | Partial | |
Meeting agenda and minutes generation | Yes | No | |
Outcome and decision recording | Yes | Yes | |
Decision and Approval | Digital multi-stage, bulk approvals, assign decision, linked and quorum approvals | Yes | Partial No quorum |
Contracting and Variations | Templated and tokenised funding agreements, schedules, sharing and notification, status tracking, agreement compliance | Yes | Partial Templates via DocuSign |
Finance and Payments | Financial system (FMIS) integration | Yes | No CSV or custom API |
Export approved payments and import payment confirmation | Yes | Yes | |
PO tracking, partial payments | Yes | Partial | |
Monitoring and Reporting | Dashboards and report designer | Yes Interactive dashboards | Partial Advanced reporting add-on |
Temporal data | Yes | Partial | |
Geospatial visualisations | Yes | No | |
Pre-built reports | Yes | Yes | |
Compliance and Security | ISO 27001 certification | Yes | No |
IRAP compliance | Yes | No | |
SSO and data encryption | Yes | Yes | |
MFA and audit logs | Yes | Yes | |
Annual independent vulnerability and penetration testing | Yes | Yes | |
Record-based security | Yes | Partial Five preset levels | |
WCAG compliant | Yes | Yes | |
Disaster recovery | Yes | Yes | |
APIs and Integrations | Integration API and API documentation | Yes | Yes |
DocuSign and GrantConnect integration | Yes | Partial DocuSign | |
Zapier, Webhook and Google Analytics integrations | Yes | Partial Zapier, webhooks | |
Global Functions | Configurable homepage and tiles, favourites and recent | Yes | Partial |
Multi-language support | Yes | Yes Paid add-on | |
Mobile access | Yes | Yes | |
Bulk document download | Yes | Yes | |
In-system document preview | Yes | Yes | |
Data import (data migration) and data export | Yes | Yes | |
Support | 12/5 support and 24/7 support | Yes 24/7 optional | Partial Phone and chat extra |
Dedicated account manager | Yes | Partial Pro and Enterprise | |
Interactive Q&A sessions, live webinars, in person training | Yes | Partial | |
Online wiki and video tutorials | Yes | Yes | |
Learning hub, knowledge base, page and field level help | Yes | Yes | |
Web, phone and email support | Yes | Partial Email included |
This comparison is based on publicly available information at the time of writing. Capabilities change over time, and where a feature could not be confirmed from public sources it is shown as 'No'. We recommend confirming current capabilities with the vendor.
Trusted by industry leading organisations
Duke‑NUS Medical School
Duke‑NUS Medical School previously relied on a combination of Excel spreadsheets and shared folders to administer grants. While sufficient in the early stages, this approach became increasingly strained as the programmes were scaled and increased in complexity.
Testimonials
The level of ongoing customisation and support gives us peace of mind in our investment. We now have a one-stop solution: streamlined processes, great user experience and transparency.
Cindy Liew
Senior Executive
Sunway University
OmniStar had the ability to combine our three systems into one to make everything easier from an administration perspective but also from an applicant and reviewer perspective.
Samantha Oakes
Director, Research Investment
National Breast Cancer Foundation
We couldn't persist in a paper environment. We were looking for a solution that could cover the pre-award and post-award requirements, and we wanted a system that could do ethics as well.
Laila Simpson
Director of Research Operations
The University of Western Australia
It's very accessible to users and administrators with clear processes to follow. It's also flexible allowing you to build your own forms, which are straightforward, and for which you don't need to understand code.
Anna
Research Development Senior Coordinator
Cancer Council WA
The ability to customise the OOTB functionality of the system to align to our specific grant program processes and framework. Pre-award functionality provides for easy and efficient application submission.
Amanda
Senior Project Officer
Department of Resources
It has made our work so much more effective and efficient, especially as we adapt to a hybrid working model, post-Covid.
Michael
CEO
Soil CRC
Easy integration. Great user experience for grant applicants and for the grant management team. Fantastic support from the OmniStar team - very responsive and end to end complete solution.
Adam
Head of Foundation
Plenty of features to use to manage grants and grant processes.
John
Manager
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Frequently asked questions
OmniStar Grants delivers end-to-end solution for grants management - streamlining workflows and ensuring transparency and accountability across the entire lifecycle.
Common indicators include staff maintaining spreadsheets alongside the system, manual processes for contracts or payments, difficulty meeting reporting requirements, or limitations preventing process improvements you want to implement.
OmniStar Grants uses subscription-based pricing calculated per internal user. Pricing is tailored to the number of users. Contact us for a detailed quote based on your organisation's needs.
OmniStar's implementation team manages data migration directly, ensuring your existing data, workflows, and configurations transfer securely with validation at each stage.
Discovery workshops map your workflows and data structures. Historical data transfers with validation. Workflows are reconfigured into OmniStar's automation capabilities. Timeline depends on complexity but typically ranges 4 to 16 weeks.
OmniStar connects with financial systems, CRM platforms, HRIS software, and other applications through a robust API and a large number of out-of-the-box integrations. Contact us to discuss your specific requirements.
OmniStar provides 12/5 support via phone, email and web, with optional 24/7 coverage. Every customer has a dedicated account manager, and our support team has deep grants management knowledge, not just platform knowledge. We also provide an online knowledge base, video tutorials, live webinars, interactive Q&A sessions and in-person training options.