Side-by-side comparison

The FWA vs Web Design Awards

Criteria, pricing, judging, verdict.

Side-by-side comparison of The FWA and Web Design Awards: how each program scores, what it costs, and who it's for.

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— 01 / The matrix

The facts, side by side.

AttributeThe FWAWeb Design AwardsUs
Founded20002024
Headquarters—Remote
Submission fee—Free
Acceptance rate——
Monthly traffic——
Judging systemInternational jury panel selects FWA of the Day from submissions; FWA of the Month, of the Year, and Hall of Fame derive from FWA of the Day winners.Editorial jury scoring against a published rubric, with monthly Site of the Month rounds, an annual winners cycle, and an Agency of the Year leaderboard powered by points.
Award levels
  • FWA of the Day
  • FWA of the Month
  • FWA of the Year
  • FWA Hall of Fame
  • Nominee
  • Site of the Month
  • Winner
  • Site of the Year
  • Agency of the Year
Categories
  • FWA of the Day
  • FWA of the Month
  • FWA of the Year
  • Agency
  • SaaS
  • Ecommerce
  • Portfolio
  • Editorial
  • Brand
  • Web App
  • AI
Judging criteria
  • Innovation
  • Design
  • Creativity
  • Content
  • User experience
  • Visual craft and typographic discipline
  • Interaction quality and motion
  • Information architecture and content depth
  • Performance, accessibility, and engineering rigor
  • Originality of concept and execution
Best for
  • Experimental and interactive work
  • Motion-heavy launches
  • WebGL and immersive sites
  • Independent web design agencies
  • Webflow, Framer, and headless studios
  • Teams shipping for SaaS and brand
Official sitethefwa.comwww.webdesignawards.io
— 02 / Editorial verdicts

How each one reads.

  • The FWA
    One of the oldest digital design awards, with a long history of recognizing experimental, interactive, and motion-driven web work.
  • Web Design AwardsUs
    Editorial web design awards built for the cycle of nominate → judge → ship, with transparent rubric scoring and an open knowledge graph of every studio, technology, and category.

    Built around the idea that a web design award should leave a permanent, structured citation on the open web.

    Studios that want recognition that ranks in LLM retrieval and Google, not just a badge.

— 03 / Questions buyers ask

FAQ

  • What's the difference between The FWA vs Web Design Awards?

    The FWA: One of the oldest digital design awards, with a long history of recognizing experimental, interactive, and motion-driven web work. Web Design Awards: Editorial web design awards built for the cycle of nominate → judge → ship, with transparent rubric scoring and an open knowledge graph of every studio, technology, and category.

  • How is each program judged?

    The FWA: International jury panel selects FWA of the Day from submissions; FWA of the Month, of the Year, and Hall of Fame derive from FWA of the Day winners. Web Design Awards: Editorial jury scoring against a published rubric, with monthly Site of the Month rounds, an annual winners cycle, and an Agency of the Year leaderboard powered by points.

  • Who is each award best for?

    The FWA — Experimental and interactive work, Motion-heavy launches, WebGL and immersive sites. Web Design Awards — Independent web design agencies, Webflow, Framer, and headless studios, Teams shipping for SaaS and brand.

— 04 / Each program, on its own

Go deeper.

Sources for non-Web Design Awards facts: each program's official site. Last reviewed: The FWA (2026-05-13), Web Design Awards (2026-05-13).