SmartSimple Cloudvs
Submittable
Submittable: Faster to launch and cheaper for open calls where review volume matters more than bespoke workflow
SmartSimple Cloud
Configurable grants, research and case management platform for large funders
As of 31 August 2026, SmartSimple Cloud's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. A configuration-heavy platform for foundations, research funders and government agencies whose processes are too idiosyncratic for packaged software. Softwr lists it under Nonprofits. SmartSimple Cloud is made by SmartSimple Software, available on Web.
Overview
What SmartSimple Cloud does
SmartSimple Cloud is a Canadian-built platform for grants management, research administration, scholarship programmes and case management. Rather than shipping a fixed workflow, it provides an object model, a form and workflow builder, and a reporting layer that a configurator assembles into the funder's own process, including budgets, payment schedules, compliance checks and multi-currency awards. The distinguishing property is depth of configuration. Complex requirements that break packaged grants software, such as multi-year tranche payments with milestone conditions, peer review panels with conflict rules, matched funding, or a single system serving grants and case management side by side, are achievable here. That is also the commercial catch: nearly everything of value is configured rather than switched on, so professional services are a large and recurring line item, and internal capability to maintain the configuration matters more than the software choice itself. Buyers are large private foundations, national research councils, government departments and health funders, typically ones running multiple distinct programmes. The trade-off is agility. A small foundation wanting to launch a new grant round next month will move faster on a packaged tool; SmartSimple rewards organisations that will still be running the same complicated process in five years.
What people use it for
- A national research council running peer-reviewed funding calls with panel conflict rules and multi-year milestone payments
- A private foundation whose grant process differs enough between programmes that packaged software would need four separate instances
- A government department that must show a full audit trail of every decision and payment against public funds
- A health charity running grants and beneficiary case management in one system with shared contact records
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about SmartSimple Cloud.
- Almost everything useful is configured rather than switched on, so first-year cost is dominated by professional services and a live system is typically months rather than weeks away.
- Because each deployment is bespoke, upgrades and new platform features often need configuration work before they apply to your instance, which slows the benefit of paying an annual subscription.
- Organisations that lose their internal configurator become dependent on the vendor or a partner for even routine form changes, which turns small requests into billable work.
- The user interface is dense and utilitarian; occasional users such as grant reviewers and applicants need instructions, which increases support load during a funding round.
- It is priced and scoped for large funders, so a small foundation running one annual round will pay for flexibility it never uses and would be served faster by a packaged tool.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of SmartSimple Cloud
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- SmartSimple CloudvsBlackbaud Raiser's Edge
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge: Where the organisation is primarily raising money rather than distributing it
Pricing
What SmartSimple Cloud costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
SmartSimple Cloud
On request
- Configurable grants, review and case management
- Grantee and reviewer portals
- Annual subscription plus separate implementation engagement
- Implementation typically a multi-month professional services project
- Priced by modules, users and programme complexity
Capabilities
Features
Configurable object model
Custom record types, fields and relationships without code
Workflow and approval engine
Rule-driven routing, escalation and conditional approvals
Peer review
Panel assignment, scoring, conflict of interest management and reviewer portals
Budget and payments
Multi-year, tranche and milestone-conditional disbursement with multi-currency support
Grantee portal
External portal for applications, reports and document submission
Report writer
Built-in reporting and dashboards over the configured data model
Research administration
Pre-award and post-award modules for institutional research offices
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
How long does implementation take?
Plan in months, not weeks. Complex multi-programme funders routinely run six to twelve month implementations, and that work is billed separately from the subscription.
Is pricing published?
No. It is quoted by modules, user counts and configuration scope. Ask specifically what future configuration changes cost, because that is the recurring surprise.
Can it handle multi-currency, multi-year grants?
Yes. Tranche payments conditional on milestone reports and multi-currency awards are among the reasons large international funders choose it.
Do we need our own administrator?
Practically, yes. Organisations without an internal configurator end up paying the vendor for routine form and workflow changes.
Keep looking
Where to go from SmartSimple Cloud
- SmartSimple Cloud alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- SmartSimple Cloud pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- SmartSimple Cloud badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Nonprofits softwareThe full category
- Best Nonprofits softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
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Compare SmartSimple Cloud with
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- Candid
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- Cause IQ
- Charity Navigator
- Blackbaud Raiser's Edge
- Bonterra
- CiviCRM
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for SmartSimple Cloud, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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Best Nonprofits software alternatives
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quote
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