The best public participation platforms

We have been discussing many times what public participation is and why it is important. Now you might ask yourself the next question – How ? 

Public participation looks different everywhere. Sometimes you need quick feedback to guide a decision. Sometimes you are running a full consultation over several months. And sometimes the goal is bigger than a single project and you want an ongoing space where people can stay involved, hear what is happening, and contribute regularly.

Before jumping into the specific tools and strategies though,  we want you to understand that only investing into one platform will not guarantee you successful public engagement. Every online platform that is out there, fulfils different needs in municipalities and organizations and often it is beneficial to use them together to achieve the best outcomes of projects and community improvement efforts.

Now, let’s get started. We will introduce you to all the tools and describe them and their features.

WeSolve

Of course our own solution can’t be missed in this list. We believe that we are the best at what we do and that you can benefit from it. We believe to be BETTER TOGETHER!

WeSolve is a good choice if you want participation to feel less like a one time survey and more like an ongoing conversation. It supports different ways for people to get involved, such as sharing ideas, responding to surveys and polls, joining challenges, and following updates in one place. For the team running engagement, it keeps activities organised and makes it easier to manage inputs across initiatives without losing the thread.

It is especially useful when you want to build long term involvement, keep communities active between projects, or support multiple groups working in the same environment while still keeping things clear and manageable.

Bang the table

EngagementHQ is often chosen by public organisations that run a lot of formal consultations. It provides a broad set of tools you can use depending on the project, including surveys, discussion spaces, Q and A, idea collection, and map based feedback where people can comment on specific locations.

If your engagement work is mostly project based and you want a reliable toolkit with familiar consultation formats, this is one of the more established options.

OpenGov

OpenGov is not only a participation platform. It is a wider public sector software suite that includes budgeting and performance tools, procurement, permitting and licensing, and transparency reporting. It becomes relevant to engagement when you want to connect participation with publishing clear public information, reporting progress, or linking input to operational workflows.

This is usually the best fit when your organisation is also looking for broader systems to support government operations, and engagement is one part of that bigger picture.

Civocracy

Civocracy leans into participation as collective problem solving. It typically combines project communication with tools for discussion, surveys, ideation, and in many cases participatory budgeting. It is a good match when the topic benefits from conversation and reflection rather than only collecting responses through forms.

It can also be a fit if you want support beyond the platform itself, since the offering is often positioned with services around engagement design and facilitation.

It’s your turn : with all these platforms at hand it can be easy setting up your public participation processes. What are you waiting for ?