Plans and Billing
HackHQ pricing plans, feature limits, and how to upgrade. Free, Starter, and Pro tiers with transparent limits.
HackHQ offers three plans to fit events of different sizes. Every event starts on the Free plan, and you can upgrade at any time from the event's Settings tab.
Plan comparison
| Free | Starter | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $199/event | $599/event |
| Payment | - | One-time | One-time |
| Submissions | 10 | 50 | 200 |
| Judges | 3 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Audience voters | 50 | 500 | Unlimited |
| GitHub Insights | - | Yes | Yes |
| Email announcements | - | - | Yes |
Everything else is unlimited on all plans: competitions, tracks, challenges, awards, criteria, team members per submission, and custom form questions.
What each plan includes
Free
Test the platform with a small event. You get up to 10 submissions, 3 judges, and 50 audience voters. All core features work: custom forms, weighted scoring, Top Picks, judging rooms, results, certificates, and CSV exports.
Starter
For smaller events and team hackathons. Raises limits to 50 submissions, 10 judges, and 500 audience voters. Unlocks GitHub Insights: commit timeline analysis, pre-event activity detection, and repository metadata for every submission with a GitHub URL.
Pro
For full-scale hackathons and public events. Supports up to 200 submissions with unlimited judges and audience voters. Adds email announcements: send updates directly to all participants from the event dashboard.
How limits work
Limits are enforced per event, not per workspace. When you reach a limit, you'll see an upgrade prompt with the next available plan. Existing data is never deleted when a limit is reached; you just can't add more until you upgrade.
- Submissions: The maximum number of projects that can be submitted to a single event
- Judges: The maximum number of judges you can add to the Voting tab
- Audience voters: The maximum number of unique audience members who can vote via the public voting link
Upgrading an event
- Go to the Settings tab on your event
- In the Billing section, click the upgrade button for Starter or Pro
- Complete payment via Stripe
- Your event limits are updated immediately
Running a larger event?
Pro covers up to 200 submissions, which handles the vast majority of events. For events with 200+ submissions or custom requirements, email hello@hackhq.io.
For recurring award programs with entry fees, see AwardKit.
Support
Support is async email plus these Help Center docs. SLAs are measured in Pacific Time business hours, Monday through Friday.
- Free: Help Center docs
- Starter: Help Center + email, 48h response
- Pro: Help Center + priority email, 24h response
Features explained
GitHub Insights (Starter+)
When a submission includes a GitHub repository URL, HackHQ analyzes the commit history and shows organizers a timeline of activity. You can see when the work was done relative to your event dates, identify pre-event commits, and compare contributor count to registered team size. See GitHub Insights for details.
Email announcements (Pro+)
Send email announcements to all participants who have submitted projects. Useful for schedule changes, reminders, or updates during the hackathon. Emails are sent from HackHQ and tracked in the event dashboard.