Crafted Call vs EntryThingy for Art Galleries: An Honest 2026 Comparison

If you run a gallery, an arts nonprofit, or a juried exhibition program, EntryThingy has probably been on your shortlist for years. It is one of the established names in call-for-artists software, and for good reason. So the real question is not "is EntryThingy any good" (it is), but "is it still the best fit for how my organization runs calls, juries, and shows in 2026?"

Here is the one-line answer. EntryThingy is the proven, low-cost incumbent with a large artist network. Crafted Call is the modern challenger that takes you further into the workflow: deeper multi-round blind jurying and native exhibition management after the decision, in a cleaner interface, free for artists. Which one wins for you comes down to whether you need the show managed too, and how much you value modern UX over the lowest possible entry price.

This guide compares the two fairly, with real numbers where we have them, so you can decide with eyes open.

The honest framing

Let's be clear about what each platform is.

EntryThingy is an established, art-specific call and jury platform. It has been serving galleries for a long time, it publicly claims thousands of galleries and over 100,000 artists, and that reach is a genuine asset. When you post a call, you are tapping into an audience of artists who already know the platform and already have it bookmarked. Its pricing is low, its setup is straightforward, and it does the core job (collect submissions, run an anonymous jury, communicate decisions) reliably. None of that is in dispute.

Crafted Call is the newer, purpose-built platform that covers more of the workflow. It was built for art organizations specifically, and it is opinionated about the parts of the process that legacy tools tend to treat as someone else's problem: the depth of the jury process, what happens after acceptance, and the experience the artist actually has on a phone. It is modern, mobile-responsive, and accessibility-tested (we run axe checks against the UI), and it runs on a current AWS stack (Cognito for auth, S3 for storage, RDS for data).

The fair summary: EntryThingy wins on maturity, network, and entry price. Crafted Call wins on modern workflow and breadth. The rest of this guide shows where those lines actually fall.

Side-by-side comparison

Factor	EntryThingy	Crafted Call
Pricing model	Subscription, roughly $14.95 to $74.95/month (verify current)	Free $0/mo + $45/call activation, or $19 to $99/mo plans
Per-submission economics	Around $3/submission in some configurations	$0.79 to $0.12 by tier, only when money flows through the platform
Artist cost	Artists may absorb per-submission fees	Free for artists (they pay only an org's submission fee where set)
Interface / modernity	Established, functional, dated	Modern, mobile-responsive, accessibility-tested (axe)
Blind jury depth	Anonymous jurying supported	Platform-enforced blind jury, admin-controlled reveal, audit trail
Multi-round scoring	Lighter	Triage, numeric, rubric, and ranking rounds with juror portals
After the decision	Lighter on exhibition management	Native exhibitions: shows from accepted works, artwork tracking, logistics
Artist network	Large, established (claims 100k+ artists)	Growing; artists apply free
Payments	PayPal / Stripe standard	Direct Stripe payments to the organization
Best for	Lowest entry price, biggest existing artist network	End-to-end call → jury → exhibition in one modern system

A note on the numbers above: EntryThingy's pricing figures are as of 2026 and you should verify current pricing directly with EntryThingy before deciding (we cite their site in Sources below). Crafted Call's pricing is listed in full in the next section.

Pricing and per-submission economics

The two platforms price differently, so the right comparison is not "which monthly number is smaller" but "what does a real call cost me end to end."

EntryThingy charges a low monthly subscription, roughly $14.95 to $74.95/month as of 2026 (verify current pricing), and in some configurations adds a per-submission fee in the neighborhood of $3. That per-submission fee is the line item to watch. On a small call it is negligible. On a 400-entry national show, around $3 a submission is real money, and depending on how you have it configured, that cost may land on the gallery or get passed to artists.

Crafted Call is structured so the per-submission cost shrinks as you grow, and it only applies when money actually flows through the platform:

• Free: $0/month plus a $45-per-call activation. 3 jurors, 1 round, 10MB uploads, 5 images per submission.
• Core: $19/month or $199/year. 5 jurors, 2 rounds, 10MB, 5 images.
• Studio: $39/month or $399/year. 10 jurors, 3 rounds, 15MB, 8 images.
• Gallery: $59/month or $599/year. 15 jurors, 5 rounds, 25MB, 10 images.
• Premier: $99/month or $999/year. Unlimited jurors and rounds, 100MB uploads, 20 images, white-label with a custom domain.

The Crafted Call per-submission platform fee runs from $0.79 on the lower tiers down to $0.12 on the higher ones, and it only kicks in when a payment moves through the platform. Compared to a flat per-submission charge around $3, that difference compounds quickly at volume.

The honest read: if your priority is the lowest fixed monthly number and you run free-to-enter calls, EntryThingy's entry price is excellent and you will not pay much. If you run entry-fee calls and care about the per-submission economics at scale, Crafted Call's model tends to come out ahead as volume grows, and it gets cheaper per submission the more you run. Calculate your real call (subscription + per-submission fees at your typical entry count) on both before deciding.

Workflow depth: blind jury and multi-round scoring

Both platforms support anonymous jurying. The difference is in how far the jury workflow goes.

Crafted Call's blind jury is platform-enforced, not a convention you have to remember to follow. Jurors never see artist identity during scoring. The reveal is admin-controlled, and when it happens, it is written to an audit trail, so you can demonstrate after the fact that scoring really was blind up to the moment you chose to reveal. For grant-funded programs, member shows with conflict-of-interest concerns, or any call where fairness is something you have to be able to prove, that auditability matters.

On top of blind review, Crafted Call supports several round types in a single call:

• Triage for a fast first-pass cut on large pools.
• Numeric scoring for straightforward 1-to-N rating.
• Rubric scoring for structured, multi-criteria evaluation.
• Ranking for forced-choice ordering when you need a clear top tier.

Jurors work in dedicated portals, and decision emails go out automatically once you finalize. EntryThingy handles the core anonymous jury step well; Crafted Call adds depth in multi-round structure and in the auditability of the blind reveal. If your jury process is a single round of scoring, both will serve you. If it is a triage pass followed by a scored round followed by a ranked final, Crafted Call models that natively.

For a full walkthrough of setting this up, see our blind jury review setup guide.

After the decision: native exhibition management

This is the part of the workflow most call platforms simply stop short of, and it is where Crafted Call is most clearly different.

On most submission tools, the platform's job ends when the jury decides. You export a list of accepted artists, and then the actual exhibition (building the show, tracking which physical pieces are coming in, coordinating drop-off and pickup, putting up a public page) happens in spreadsheets, email threads, and a separate website. EntryThingy is lighter on this post-decision stage, so galleries running real shows typically move accepted work into other tools to manage it.

Crafted Call includes exhibition management natively:

• Build a show from accepted works. Promote jury results straight into an exhibition without re-entering anything.
• Track artwork. Keep tabs on each accepted piece through the show.
• Manage logistics. Coordinate drop-off and pickup so you are not chasing artists by email.
• Publish a public exhibition page. Give accepted artists and the show itself a clean, shareable, public presence.

If your organization's work does not end at "decisions sent" (if you actually hang a show), this is the difference between one system and three. The call, the jury, and the exhibition all live in the same place.

Artist experience

A submission platform is two products at once: the admin tool your staff uses, and the application experience every artist sees. The second one shapes how many artists actually finish applying.

Crafted Call is free for artists. There is no artist subscription. Artists pay only the organization's submission fee where one is set, which is the entry fee they already expect for a juried call. That removes a barrier to entry and keeps your applicant pool wide.

The application experience is built for how artists actually apply in 2026:

• Mobile-responsive. Artists routinely apply from a phone. The flow is built for it, not merely tolerant of it.
• Accessibility-tested. We run axe accessibility checks against the UI so artists using assistive technology are not shut out.
• Modern and clean. The form is the kind of interface artists expect from current software, which reduces drop-off and support questions.

EntryThingy's large existing artist network is a genuine counterweight here. Many artists already have accounts and already trust it, and that familiarity has real value on the day you open a call. The trade-off is the interface itself, which is functional but dated. Crafted Call bets that a modern, accessible, free-for-artists experience converts more applicants over time; EntryThingy bets on the reach it already has. Both bets are reasonable.

When EntryThingy is the better choice

We would rather you pick the right tool than the one with our name on it. EntryThingy is genuinely the better choice when:

• You want the largest established artist network today. If your call's success depends on tapping an existing audience of artists who already know and use the platform, EntryThingy's reach is a real, immediate advantage that a newer platform cannot instantly replicate.
• You want the lowest possible fixed entry price. If you run free-to-enter calls and your goal is to minimize fixed monthly cost above all else, EntryThingy's low subscription is hard to beat.
• You do not need exhibition management. If your workflow genuinely ends when decisions go out (you are running a competition or an online-only show, not hanging a physical exhibition), the post-decision tooling that distinguishes Crafted Call is not something you will use, and you should not pay for workflow you do not need.

If most of those describe you, EntryThingy is a sound, respected choice and you can stop reading here with a clear conscience.

Bottom line

EntryThingy is the established incumbent: low entry price, a large artist network, and a reliable core call-and-jury workflow that has served galleries for years. If reach and the lowest fixed cost are what you optimize for, it is an excellent pick.

Crafted Call is the modern challenger that covers more of the job. Platform-enforced blind jurying with an audited reveal and multiple round types. Native exhibition management that takes accepted work all the way to a public show. A modern, mobile-responsive, accessibility-tested experience that is free for artists. For a growing organization that wants the call, the jury, and the exhibition in one current system, that breadth is the reason to switch.

The best way to decide is to run a real call's numbers on both and to actually click through each interface. You can compare Crafted Call side by side, see full pricing, and (when you are ready) start a call free. It costs nothing to try, and artists never pay a subscription to apply.

Want more context first? See our broader Submittable alternatives guide and our EntryThingy vs ArtCall comparison.