A lot of hackathons have a corporate sponsor so you have to use their api to win the prizes. That kind of sucks. The best hackathons have no such constraints.
I've participated in many and been an organizer for several hackathons, including one with AngelHack.
This part about the best hackathons having no constraints is pretty baseless.
Every hackathon needs someone to pay for food / drinks / space / ideally prizes. Unless candidates cover this themselves (roughly Startup Weekend style), there will be sponsors. And sponsors do these events for marketing and exposure and sometimes feedback on their API. They will always want you to try their tech.
If there is a prize that requires using sponsor tech, it's almost always a smaller side prize vs. the main prize(s) for the event.
I think the best solutions build a sponsor's tech into another idea instead of being built around that tech itself.
This part about the best hackathons having no constraints is pretty baseless.
Every hackathon needs someone to pay for food / drinks / space / ideally prizes. Unless candidates cover this themselves (roughly Startup Weekend style), there will be sponsors. And sponsors do these events for marketing and exposure and sometimes feedback on their API. They will always want you to try their tech.
If there is a prize that requires using sponsor tech, it's almost always a smaller side prize vs. the main prize(s) for the event.
I think the best solutions build a sponsor's tech into another idea instead of being built around that tech itself.