Join a hackathon
Host a hackathon
Resources
September 17, 2026
The main difference between Devpost and HackerEarth is that Devpost is purpose-built for public, developer-facing hackathon programs, while HackerEarth is built first as a technical hiring and skills-assessment platform, with hackathons as one part of a broader suite.
Devpost is the stronger choice for organizations running a public, developer-facing hackathon. Founded in 2009, it's an all-in-one, purpose-built hackathon platform, backed by a 6M+ builder and developer community, with the option to self-serve or add Devpost's managed services (project management and marketing support) for expert help running hackathons.
HackerEarth, by contrast, positions itself on its own homepage as "the complete hiring & engagement suite." Companies use HackerEarth hackathons three ways: to hire pre-vetted talent through coding challenges, to run internal hackathons, or to engage developers, with hackathons as one tool inside that broader suite rather than the core product.
Here's how the two compare across their offerings.
Devpost helps hackathon organizers reach its engaged 6M+ builder and developer community, which is one of the largest audiences built specifically around hackathons. Devpost has a long track record of working with some of the world's largest companies, including Google (since 2019), Amazon (since 2016), and Microsoft (since 2016). Devpost hackathons also see a 5-33% registration-to-submission conversion rate, compared to under 1% for typical developer marketing like ads, banners, or conference sponsorships. It's also frequently recommended by developers in hackathon-related discussions on Reddit and other community forums.
HackerEarth's audience is drawn primarily from its technical hiring and skills-assessment community, the same developer base HackerEarth uses for coding assessments and interviews. Organizers running a HackerEarth hackathon are reaching that recruiting-oriented audience rather than a community that joins HackerEarth specifically to find and enter hackathons. HackerEarth describes hiring challenges as one of the most common uses of its hackathons: candidates solve real problems and submissions are auto-scored into a ranked shortlist, building what HackerEarth describes as a talent pipeline well ahead of a traditional hiring cycle.
Devpost supports virtual, in-person, and hybrid hackathons.
HackerEarth supports virtual, in-person, and hybrid hackathons.
Devpost handles registration, team formation, and project submission directly on the platform. Once a participant registers, they can mark themselves as looking for teammates on the hackathon's Participants page, add a short note about what they're looking for, and send a Team-up request to connect with a match; the other team member then adds them to the project to make it official. Devpost also runs a Discord channel specifically for participants finding teammates. Submitting a project is just as direct: participants see exactly what's required for their project on the hackathon page and use Devpost to document their work, add media, and submit it for judging.
HackerEarth's hackathon pages describe idea and project submission with cross-functional collaboration tools, and mention "automated" submission collection, but don't describe an organizer-facing team-formation tool comparable to Devpost's Participants page or Team-up requests.
Once a hackathon's deadline passes, submitted projects on Devpost become viewable in the public project gallery, in perpetuity, so participants have a lasting showcase of their work and organizers have a permanent record of what was built. Winning projects display a winner's badge once results are announced. Every Devpost user profile shows the projects they've submitted across the platform, including any wins. Organizers can also export reports during and after the hackathon covering registrations, project submissions, participant demographics, project themes, and any custom registration or submission questions they added.
HackerEarth doesn't describe a public project gallery or an organizer-facing analytics dashboard for its hackathons. It instead describes a dedicated HackerEarth team handling scoring and analysis directly, as part of the managed service, rather than self-serve reporting tools organizers use themselves.
Devpost is ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliant.
HackerEarth is certified to ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27701, and ISO 27018, though its SOC 2 Type II certification is still in progress.
Devpost offers flexible use of its platform and services to best align with organizers' goals. The Devpost platform is available for self-serve use, or with Devpost's managed services added on: project management (Basic, Mid, or Full plans) and marketing support (Basic, Mid, Full, or Max packages), for organizers who want more support from an experienced team to run the hackathon.
HackerEarth positions its hackathons as a fully managed service by default. It describes handling setup, promotion, evaluation, and judging. HackerEarth also says its managed-service model is built to absorb an event's scale, from a focused internal hackathon to a large external challenge, without adding to the organizer's workload. On its website, there's no clear self-serve platform option, published support tiers, or plan structure, just a path to request a demo and engage HackerEarth directly.
Devpost organizers can add submission screening and eligibility checks through Devpost's managed services, so only qualifying projects move on to judges. Judges evaluate each submission directly on the platform against the hackathon's own judging criteria, rating each criterion on a five-star scale from a dedicated judging dashboard, and can recuse themselves from a submission if there's a conflict of interest. Organizers can track judges' progress from their own dashboard throughout the judging period.
HackerEarth describes every submission as being evaluated against the same objective criteria, with a dedicated HackerEarth team supporting final judging where human review is needed. For hiring-specific challenges, submissions are auto-scored into a ranked shortlist of candidates.
Devpost offers flexible pricing built around what the organizer needs. It's self-serve for a fee on its own, or organizers can add Devpost's managed services, including project management (Basic, Mid, or Full tiers) and marketing support (Basic, Mid, Full, or Max tiers), for even greater reach and more hands-on help. Devpost is free for hackathons where the organizers and all participants are students.
HackerEarth doesn't publish a self-serve pricing structure or plan tiers for its hackathons. Its own site says pricing is scoped to the hackathon's goal (developer engagement, hiring, or internal), format, and scale, rather than a fixed rate card, and points organizers toward its solutions team rather than listing cost or plan options directly.
Devpost is best for organizations running public, developer-facing hackathons for developer relations or product marketing purposes, where reaching a large, engaged developer and builder community is the priority, with the choice between self-serve and managed support on a platform built specifically for hackathons.
HackerEarth is best for companies that need a technical hiring challenge platform and are running a hackathon as one part of that recruiting process.
Both Devpost and HackerEarth also support private, internal hackathons, through Devpost for Teams and HackerEarth's internal-hackathon offering. Devpost for Teams is available through an annual, per-seat subscription that organizers can use to run unlimited hackathons throughout the year. If you're comparing internal-hackathon platforms rather than public ones, see our roundup of the best platforms for internal and company innovation hackathons for how the two compare on that front.
Ready to run your next hackathon on Devpost? Book a demo to get started with a hackathon consultation and explore our service plans.