What is Dapple and who is it for?

Dapple is a submissions and workflow platform built primarily for the creative industries. It helps organisations collect, review, manage, and report on submissions, applications or entries in one place without relying on inboxes, spreadsheets, or outdated application tools. Dapple is for creative organisations such as art institutions, publishers, literary magazines, awards bodies, agencies, festivals, academic institutions and teams running open calls, contests, or applications. It's also designed with creators in mind, making submissions clearer and more transparent.

How does Dapple help reduce admin?

Dapple centralises everything—submissions, reviews, communication, statuses, and reporting—into one structured workflow. This removes manual tracking, cuts down on repetitive tasks, and saves teams hours of administrative work in the process.

Can multiple people review submissions?

Yes. Dapple supports collaborative reviewing with clear permissions, allowing multiple reviewers to assess submissions independently and remotely.

Is Dapple suitable for small teams?

Absolutely. Dapple is designed to scale with you—whether you're a small team managing a few hundred submissions or a larger organisation handling thousands.

How is Dapple different from other submission platforms?

Most submission platforms were built for generic workflows and bolted onto the creative world as an afterthought. Dapple was built from the ground up for organisations running awards, open calls, contests, and grants — and it shows in every feature. Where other platforms charge applicants fees just to submit their work, Dapple has no application fees. Payments go directly to your Stripe account instantly minus small transaction fees. Intuitive judging and visual kanban boards let your admin team move submissions through review stages the way creative teams actually think — not buried in spreadsheets or clunky list views. Combined with next-level filtering that lets you cut and sort entries by any field, attribute, or status, your team can go from hundreds of submissions to a shortlist in minutes rather than days. It's a modern, sleek platform that makes complex workflows feel simple. See how Dapple compares feature by feature on our competitors page.

Do applicants need an account to submit?

Yes, however, it's very quick and simple to create and can be done in a matter of seconds. When a creator opens a form, they will be prompted to create a free account. They can either use their Google/Microsoft account, or they will be sent a link via email to confirm. Once created, they will be able to use their account to track the status of all their submissions, any messages, payments made and download any attachments.

Can I communicate with applicants through Dapple?

Yes. Dapple has an inbuilt messaging platform enabling you to manage communication in one place, keeping inbound/outbound messages organised and linked directly to each submission. You are able to send single or bulk messages to multiple applicants, create message templates and configure whether an applicant can respond.

Yes. Dapple is built with modern security standards and role-based permissions to ensure submissions and data are handled safely and responsibly.

Is there a free trial?

You can create an account for free with no credit card details required. We allow this in order to try the system out, see how it works and set everything up in advance of setting your forms live. As soon as you want to make your forms active, you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan. Please note that there is a 'demo mode' feature enabling you to create different projects and workflows, make test payments and submissions without affecting your live data.

I'm stopping submissions for a while. Can I pause my account?

Yes! You have the option to pause your account on every plan. We'll keep your account on ice, keep your setup complete and data safe so you can come back later.

Why can’t I see my message sent to me through Dapple?

If you've received a message from an organisation through Dapple, but after following the link, you see a "Submission not found" message, the reason is that Dapple can't match it to a submission on the account you're currently signed into. Almost always, you're signed into a different account than the one you used to submit. Click Sign out and try a different account, go back to the original email, click the link again, and sign in with the same email address the notification was sent to. In rare cases the submission has been deleted or the link itself is broken — this article covers how to tell the difference and fix each one.

What does the "Submission not found" screen mean?

Dapple shows this screen when it can't locate the submission linked to the message you clicked. There are three possible causes, and the screen itself tells you which account you're currently signed in as (example below shows a partial email address like oz.wi...@gm...com) so you can check it against the notification.

Reason shown on screen

What it means

How common

It was made using a different account

You're signed into a Dapple account that doesn't have this submission — usually because you signed in with a different email address than the one you used to submit.

By far the most common cause

The submission has been deleted

The organisation has removed the submission from Dapple.

Rare

The link is incorrect

The link in the email is malformed or no longer active.

Rare

Why does Dapple sign me into the wrong account?

When you click a message link, Dapple opens a sign-in screen. If you authenticate with Google or Microsoft using a different email address than the one the notification was sent to, Dapple opens (or creates) a separate account — one with no record of your submission. Your original submission and its messages stay attached to the account tied to the email address you used when you first submitted.

This is the single most common cause of "Submission not found", and it's the easiest to fix — the wrong account, not a lost submission.

How do I fix a "Submission not found" error?

Dapple gives you a direct fix on the error screen itself:

On the "Submission not found" screen, click Sign out and try a different account.
Go back to the original email from the organisation and click the message link again.
On the sign-in screen, choose the same method you used originally — Google, Microsoft, or email.
Authenticate with the same email address the notification was sent to.
Dapple takes you straight to the submission and message once you're signed into the right account.

How do I know which email address to sign in with?

Open the notification email from the organisation and check the To field — that's the email address your Dapple account is registered under, and the one you need to authenticate with. If you have several Google or Microsoft accounts, it's easy to select the wrong one at the sign-in prompt without noticing. The "Submission not found" screen shows a partial version of the account you're currently signed in as, so you can compare it directly against the To field to confirm a mismatch.

What if I no longer have access to that email account?

Contact the organisation directly. Explain that you submitted using an email address you can no longer access, and provide whatever submission details you have (project name, submission title, approximate date). The organisation can locate your submission on their end and advise on next steps — Dapple itself can't reassign a submission to a different account.

What if I'm signed into the right account but still see the error?

Compare the partial email address on the error screen against the To field in the notification. If they match, the account isn't the problem — the submission has most likely been deleted by the organisation, or the link is broken. Either way, contact the organisation directly. They can confirm the submission's status and resend a working link if needed.

How do I avoid this in future?

Always use the same email address and sign-in method (Google, Microsoft, or email) every time you access Dapple.
Before clicking a sign-in button, check which account your browser or device currently has active.
If your browser auto-fills a different account at sign-in, close the prompt and switch to the correct one before continuing.
If you submit to several organisations, keep a note of the email address you used for each — it's the one that receives all message notifications.