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September 30, 2026
Devpost and Hackathon.com both help organizations run public and internal hackathons, but they work differently. Devpost is a hackathon platform with a 6M+ builder and developer community, which organizers can run fully self-serve or with as much help as they need from Devpost's hackathon consultants, for public, internal, and customer hackathons. Hackathon.com is a full-service agency that recruits participants for each event and runs corporate hackathons for its clients on a white-label platform.
Devpost is the most trusted platform for running hackathons. It was founded in 2009 and has long-standing partnerships with companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Devpost runs public, developer-facing hackathons on its public platform, and private internal and customer-facing hackathons on Devpost for Teams. Public hackathons on Devpost can be run virtually, in-person, or in a hybrid format.
Hackathon organizers using Devpost reach an engaged 6M+ builder and developer community. Organizers can choose the level of support they need to run hackathons and have the option to run it fully self-serve or hand as much of it as they need to Devpost's hackathon consultants, a team that plans and runs hackathons full time, through project management and marketing services. Devpost is also certified to both ISO 27001 and SOC 2.
Hackathon.com supports public and internal hackathons. Its public site, hackathon.com, is a directory where people search for upcoming hackathons by theme, city, or country. Its corporate side, corporate.hackathon.com, is a full-service agency that designs and runs external, internal, and online hackathons for companies on a white-label platform branded for each client. Hackathon.com's corporate hackathons most commonly serve developer relations, startup programs, and talent recruitment.
Here's how Devpost and Hackathon.com compare in more detail.
Devpost's 6M+ builders and developers make up one of the largest communities anywhere built specifically around hackathons. Developers come to Devpost to find hackathons, form teams, submit projects, and build a public portfolio of their work, so a hackathon launched on Devpost starts in front of people already looking for their next one. On Devpost, participants can search and filter open hackathons by interest, host company, length, submission date, prize amount, and location, and can tell which listings Devpost manages. Devpost's reputation with that community comes from a long public track record, including hackathons for Google since 2019 and for Amazon and Microsoft since 2016. Hackathons on Devpost turn 5-33% of registrants into project submissions, far above the roughly 1% response rate typical of developer marketing channels such as ads, banners, and conference sponsorships. Developers also recommend Devpost on their own in hackathon threads on Reddit and other community forums.
Hackathon.com builds each event's audience as part of the engagement. Its agency team recruits participants from Hackathon.com's own database of developers, designers, and innovators and runs targeted promotion for that specific hackathon. Hackathon.com's public directory works well for participants who already know which hackathon they're looking for. The directory organizes listings by theme, country, city, and organizer, but offers fewer filtering options than Devpost for browsing open hackathons.
Organizers can run a hackathon on Devpost's platform themselves or with help from Devpost's team. Hackathon.com's platform comes as part of its agency engagement and is white-labeled with each client's branding, fonts, colors, and copy. Here's how the two platforms compare feature by feature.
Devpost runs virtual, in-person, and hybrid hackathons. Most online public hackathons on Devpost run for six to eight weeks. Private hackathons typically run for one to five days, but the length depends on the organizer’s goals.
Hackathon.com runs virtual, in-person, and hybrid hackathons. Its external hackathons typically run 48 hours over a weekend, its online hackathons run four to six weeks, and its internal formats run one to four days.
Participants register, find teammates, and submit projects on Devpost itself. Anyone still looking for a team can post on the hackathon's Participants page, say what kind of collaborator they need, and send a Team-up request, and the team is confirmed once the other participant adds them to the project. Devpost also runs a dedicated Discord channel for participants who are still looking for teammates. Every Devpost hackathon site has Rules and Resources tabs with the submission requirements, and participants use Devpost to write up their project, attach media, and submit it for judging.
Hackathon.com's platform lists team formation, individual chats, chat rooms, email campaigns, and gamification among its features. In Hackathon.com's agency-run event timeline, teams usually form during an idea-pitching session at the start of the hackathon and present their projects in a final pitch before judging. Hackathon.com's public materials don't describe a participant-facing tool for browsing and requesting teammates comparable to Devpost's Participants page.
Projects submitted on Devpost stay publicly viewable in the hackathon's project gallery after the deadline, which gives participants a lasting showcase and gives organizers a permanent record of what got built. Winning projects carry a winner's badge, each Devpost profile lists every project that person has submitted, and other Devpost users can like and comment on projects. Organizers can export reports at any point during the hackathon, covering registrations, submissions, participant demographics, project themes, and answers to any custom registration or submission questions. Organizers using Devpost's project management or marketing services also receive a comprehensive wrap-up report.
Hackathon.com's platform offers statistics tracking and analytics integrations for organizers, and its agency tracks business impact after the event. Hackathon.com's materials mention project showcases, but don't describe a permanent, public project gallery comparable to Devpost's.
Devpost is certified to both ISO 27001 and SOC 2.
Hackathon.com doesn't name a security certification, such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001, anywhere on its site. The privacy policy linked from Hackathon.com says only that it uses "commercially acceptable means" to protect personal data.
Devpost organizers decide how much of the hackathon to hand off. The platform works fully self-serve, and organizers who want more help can add managed services from Devpost's hackathon consultants, a team that plans and runs hackathons full time across a wide range of formats and programs. Project management support comes in Basic, Mid, and Full plans, up to Devpost running the entire hackathon from design to prize fulfillment. Marketing support comes in Basic, Mid, Full, and Max packages that promote the hackathon to Devpost's community and broader developer audiences.
Hackathon.com's corporate offering is agency-led by default. Its team handles strategy and planning, the white-label platform, marketing and participant recruitment, stakeholder workshops, event operations on the ground or online, and judging, prizes, and post-event follow-up. Hackathon.com's materials focus on running the event on a client's behalf and don't describe a self-serve option, which gives organizers fewer choices than Devpost in how involved they want to be.
Judges on Devpost score each submission against the hackathon's own criteria from a dedicated judging dashboard, using a five- or ten-star scale set by the organizer. Organizers can follow each judge's progress from their own dashboard for the whole judging period. Organizers can also add submission screening through Devpost's managed services, so only eligible projects reach the judges.
Hackathon.com's platform includes a project judging system and live voting, and its agency sources mentors, judges, and speakers for each event. Hackathon.com's public materials don't describe criteria-based scoring, conflict-of-interest recusal, or an organizer-facing judge-progress view comparable to Devpost's.
Devpost's pricing follows what the organizer needs. A self-serve hackathon costs a flat fee, and organizers can add project management (Basic, Mid, or Full) and marketing support (Basic, Mid, Full, or Max) for more reach and hands-on help. Student hackathons are free on Devpost, where the organizers and all participants are students.
Hackathon.com doesn't publish pricing or plan tiers. Each engagement is scoped individually, and Hackathon.com's inquiry form asks prospective clients for their company size and estimated hackathon budget.
Devpost is best for organizations that need to reach a large, established community of builders and developers, on a trusted, certified platform they can run themselves or with Devpost's experienced project management and marketing teams, for public hackathons and, through Devpost for Teams, private internal and customer-facing hackathons.
Hackathon.com is best for companies that need an outside agency to design and deliver a corporate hackathon, most often for developer relations, startup programs, or talent recruitment, on a platform branded entirely as their own.
Devpost and Hackathon.com both run private, internal hackathons. Devpost's internal and customer-facing hackathons run on Devpost for Teams, sold as an annual, per-seat subscription that covers unlimited hackathons throughout the year. Hackathon.com positions its internal format around workforce training, team building, and developing "intrapreneurs" inside a company. For a side-by-side look at internal hackathon platforms, see our roundup of the best platforms for internal and company innovation hackathons.
Ready to run your next hackathon on Devpost? Book a demo to start with a hackathon consultation and explore Devpost's service plans.