SimplyConf is a comprehensive conference management system built for WordPress. It provides everything you need to run an academic conference — from accepting abstract submissions to managing peer reviews and building event schedules.

Core Features (Free):

Event Management — Create and manage multiple conference events with configurable settings
Abstract Submissions — Accept abstracts via a guided wizard or single-page form with custom fields, file attachments, and co-authors
Track Management — Organize submissions into tracks with configurable submission types
Custom Fields — 25+ field types with conditional logic, admin-only and frontend-only options
Status Workflows — Dynamic, configurable status system per event (not hardcoded)
User Roles — Event-scoped roles: author, reviewer, track chair, viewer
Frontend Dashboard — Shortcode-based author portal for submissions and profile management
Registration Portal — Shortcode-based registration with customizable fields
Internationalization — Fully translatable with included translation tooling

Premium Add-ons:

Extend SimplyConf with premium add-ons available at simplyconf.com:

Reviews — Peer review assignments, blind review, track chair management
Emails — Automated email templates, notifications, bulk messaging, reviewer reminders
Payments — Stripe integration, registration types, discount codes, invoicing
Schedules — Visual schedule builder, multi-track sessions, room management
Exports — CSV exports, PDF abstract book generation, conference program PDFs

External Services

Google reCAPTCHA

SimplyConf optionally supports Google reCAPTCHA v3 to protect the frontend login and registration forms against automated abuse. This feature is disabled by default and is only activated when a site administrator explicitly enters their reCAPTCHA site key and secret key in the event settings.

When reCAPTCHA is enabled, the following data is sent to Google’s servers during a login or registration attempt:

The reCAPTCHA response token generated by the visitor’s browser.
The visitor’s IP address (sent as remoteip to assist Google’s scoring).
The plugin’s reCAPTCHA secret key (sent server-side only, never exposed to the browser).

No data is sent to Google unless reCAPTCHA has been explicitly enabled by the site administrator.

Service: Google reCAPTCHA (provided by Google LLC)
Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms
Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
API endpoint called: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify

Source Code

The full, human-readable source code for SimplyConf is included in the plugin package itself.

SimplyConf is built using React and webpack. The compiled files in the dist/ directory are generated from source files located in the src/ directory. The complete human-readable source code — including all React components, Redux state, and build configuration — ships inside the plugin under src/, webpack.config.js, and package.json.

Third-party libraries bundled in dist/ include Redux Toolkit, React, React-DOM, and Ant Design, all of which are open-source packages available on npm.

To reproduce the compiled dist/ files from source:

Ensure Node.js (v18+) and npm are installed.
From the plugin root directory, run:

npm install
npm run build:skip-lint

The npm run build:skip-lint command runs webpack in production mode, which minifies output and sets process.env.NODE_ENV = "production" to strip all development-only code paths.