Software guide · County commission & county offices
Options to compare: Online Candidate, NationBuilder. Compare the tasks you need, the complete price and the terms before choosing.
The cost case · County commission & county offices
Start with the bill and one costly workflow. The comparison is straightforward: recurring software costs you can actually remove, minus the hosting, AI, integrations and upkeep a replacement needs. Time saved is a separate gain, and only becomes margin when the business can use it.
Current software · researched prices
County commission & county offices software runs $29 to $160 a month across the 2 vendors that publish prices. A website-related price point in the research is $29 a month; check whether it is a plan rate or a separate fee.
Published starting prices are not a like-for-like quote. Confirm the plans, seats, add-ons, payment fees and setup your workflow requires.
A focused tool · under your control
One time: map the rules, build, test edge cases, move only the data needed and train the people who use it.
Each month: affordable hosting, coding-AI usage, any database or integrations, backups and maintenance. Price these for the actual application; a $0 or low hosting tier is not the total cost.
You control: the code repository, domain, data and service accounts. Someone on your side owns updates, access, recovery and support.
The exact replacement cost depends on scope and usage. Bring your invoice and one frustrating task; we’ll map what can stay, what could be owned and the costs to verify.
Get a free 30-minute cost and workflow reviewBuild the public site and staff request workspace, then document publishing, approval workflows and status updates. Define public-record and retention obligations in the scope.
Ask for a sample export. Check relationships, attachments and history, not just row counts.
These terms appear in the same research category. Check your specific workflow before treating products as interchangeable.
County commission & county offices software runs $29 to $160 a month across the 2 vendors that publish prices. A website-related price point in the research is $29 a month; check whether it is a plan rate or a separate fee.
Where the money goes
A county campaign pays for three things: a website, a contact list and a way to take donations. Online Candidate sells the site at $29 a month or as a $449 or $699 one-time package. NationBuilder bills by contacts, then adds $9 a month per extra website, $10 for text messaging and $49 for ActionButton Plus.
Keep your donation processor, whether that's ActBlue, Anedot or something else; nobody should rebuild the money rail mid-race. If you actually work your list in NationBuilder's CRM, that's worth keeping too.
Ask providers to demonstrate this workflow using your edge cases. Check which plan includes each step, what costs extra and how your records can be exported.
3 vendors sell to county commission & county offices
| Vendor | Plans (per month) | Website | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| NationBuilderCharges by contacts (people) in the database - the bill grows with the size of the voter file you load, not with the site |
| $34/mo | 2026-09-21 |
| Online CandidateCharges by flat fee per campaign, or flat monthly |
| $29/mo | 2026-09-21 |
| PoliEngine | Not verified | — | — |
Prices are what each vendor publishes on its own pricing page, on the date shown. "Quote only" means the vendor doesn't publish prices. "Not verified" means we couldn't read a price off the vendor's own page, so we don't print one.
Questions owners ask
Published prices start at $29 a month for Online Candidate's month-to-month builder. Its one-time packages are $449 and $699. NationBuilder starts at $34 a month for 500 to 5,000 contacts and moves to $160 for up to 10,000.
NationBuilder bills by the number of contacts in your database, not by the site. Starter covers 500 to 5,000 contacts at $34 a month; Pro is $160 a month for up to 10,000. Importing a county voter file can push you past the Starter limit in one step.
The pricing page doesn't say. The $449 package includes custom design, free domain registration and the first 12 months, but the renewal price after that isn't published. Ask for it in writing before you sign.
Related businesses
Bring one workflow or software bill to a free 30-minute conversation. We’ll map what a coding AI and affordable hosting might cover, and what ownership would require.
Practical guidance, not a promise of a cheap or maintenance-free replacement.