The submission portal is where papers get rejected by a form: missing anonymization, wrong file format, supplements in the wrong slot. None of it is about your research, but all of it can kill a submission.
- The free checklists cover the same ground as paid ones: it is a checklist, not a moat - Compare on venue coverage, export for the coauthor who skips steps, and reminders - A checklist asks if you did things; a formatting checker verifies you did them; run both before a flagship - Most submission failures are logistics, not science - The embarrassing stuff is what the portal punishes: anonymization, page limits, reference format
VenueFit is free, and the formatting service runs the final human-checked pass, so the portal has nothing to complain about.