Checkout these, not sure how they match up with awwwards and csssdesignawards.

webbyawards.com

csswinner.com

onepagelove.com

Agree with you about Awwwards. They were good before they got over commercialized (bought by WIX template maker?). Up went the costs... $55 submission fee, $550 conference fee to get your award (plus travel costs), $165 for basic directory listing, $20K to be a sponsor (conflict of interest?). Too expensive for me and sooo many traffic bots it got hard to tell if there was any real traffic.

Right now cssdesignawards seem more independent and transparent but yeah.. the ratio of elite sites vs average sites can be like awwwards because everybody submits their sites to them. Cssdesignawards have kept their submission fees low over the years and pretty sure they are the only award to send actual real trophies out with no cost (you might want to verify that).

Others suggested the following as non-commercial awards... webbyawards, onepagelove, FWA, csswinner, webawards and uplabs. I don’t really visit webbys but I would say they are definitely commercial. They’ve been around forever and have a big following. Good for sites about famous people IMO.

Onepagelove is a fav of mine so definitely give them a go for single page sites. By far the best in that category. FWA is great for experimental sites, games etc.… I do suspect it was taken over by Awwwards/WIX last year though. Kinda obvious with the fwwaawawarddd thing - an award for winning an award on awwwwards and fwa on the same day?? Seems like a monpoly move to try and push out the indpendents.

Csswinner hahaha... should be called cssloser! Slogan is “A unique platform…” yet everyone knows it continually copies other awards and unfairly drags down the reputation of the whole Indian design and dev industry.

Never heard of webawards and don’t use uplabs so can’t comment on them. In the end it depends what you are after. There are pros and cons for all. Here’s how I weigh it up:

Commercialized awards.

Pros:

1. You get prizes (cssdesignawards, awwwards, webbys).
2. Income allows them to grow and keep improving the experience and rewards.
3. High amount of quality sites submitted (awwwards, cssdesignawards).
4. You can be a judge (webbys, awwwards, cssdesignawards & fwa).
5. Full-time staff to handle issues and help out (awwwards, cssdesignawards, webbys).
6. Brand “power” to help deter plagiarists and competitors giving you bad comments.
7. Shitloads of traffic (webbys, cssdesignawards, awwwards/wix (watch out for bots)

Cons:

1. Lower ratio of elite sites vs average sites as you mentioned.
2. Corruption. Money corrupts. If they cash out to a corporation and only care about making money then the platform could also be used by corporations to ensure their "assets" win all the major awards. Could be using spyware to steal ideas and fuck with non-corporation owned agencies, freelancers etc.
3. Monopoly. If they get too big and corporate owned then they are likely to start their own agencies, blogs, tools etc to kill independents like Wallmart or Amazon. Support independents!!!

Free awards.

Pros:

1. Free

Cons:

1. Low traffic & exposure.
2. Here today, gone tomorrow.
3. Low consistency (because they probably also work a 9-5 job).
4. No brand “power” to help if your work is stolen and competitors are making untrue negative comments.
5. Clunky old sites because they can't afford to update regularly, low security etc.

Hope that helps!

I don't think this has much to do with awards but when I need to turn to UX/UI I usually go to site.uplabs.com I see some people promoting their website/work over there.

Here are a few:

webaward.org — Longest running(17 years) annual website award competition dedicated to naming the best Web sites in 96 industries.

cssdesignawards.com — International web design and development awards that honor and showcases creative work on the web. They give out daily, monthly and yearly awards are presented for outstanding creativity and technical proficiency.

thefwa.com — They showcase the most progressive and forward thinking projects, created by individuals; agencies; and brands.

FWA gives out awards to Websites, Apps, VR projects and other creative works that push the boundaries

csswinner.com — Global platform awarding and showcasing the best websites and promoting innovative web designers, developers and agencies.

Hi, you can also submit the website on topcssgallery.com, which is a CSS Web Design Portfolio website. The submission is free and every day a website announced as a Site of the day and get featured at the home page of Topcssgallery and its social media sites.