Go Vocal as an alternative to PublicInput? Compare the platforms

With heightened community expectations and the rising importance of community engagement in legislation, choosing the right community engagement platform is crucial. 

Your engagement platform should reflect the unique needs and priorities of your community. Whether you want to streamline processes, increase participation rates, or foster collaboration, Go Vocal is here to help.

Let’s explore how Go Vocal compares to PublicInput and why we believe our community engagement platform will make all the difference for your government agency.

PublicInput vs. Go Vocal: main differences

Transactional vs. broad, deep engagement

PublicInput provides a solid starting point for governments' journey into digital engagement. Their platform combines entry-level engagement and communication tools across several modules, including Engage, Meetings, Contact, and CRM. This suite offers basic functionality to reach and gather input from residents through methods like surveys, web pages, emails, texts, voicemails, and meeting facilitation.

At Go Vocal, we’ve chosen a different path. Rather than being a “jack of all trades”, we’ve focused on building a comprehensive engagement platform that empowers meaningful participation at scale. Our approach is to understand and meet the growing needs of local governments and their communities.

Many communities find that over-reliance on surveys leads to diminishing participation, for instance. That’s why Go Vocal offers advanced tools for deeper engagement, such as Voting and Prioritization, a built-in Participatory Budgeting tool, and Document Annotation features, ensuring residents are heard and actively involved in shaping outcomes.

Functional basics vs. thoughtfully designed for UX and elevated engagement

PublicInput provides tools to help local governments manage engagement projects, offering features like data sharing and reporting dashboards. These tools are designed to help teams access insights efficiently and streamline some aspects of their workflows. However, during our research, engagement teams have reported the need to rely on external tools for advanced reporting, task management, and other critical functions.

Besides facilitating data access and analysis, Go Vocal also ensures that every team — regardless of size or complexity — can manage and collaborate on projects efficiently.

Here’s why our platform stands out:

• Tailored for teams of all sizes: Go Vocal offers role-based access and permissions, ensuring every team member — from small local teams to multi-department city staff — has the tools they need while maintaining control and security.
• Enhanced design and customization options: Projects can be tailored with custom layouts, branding, and features, allowing government agencies to align their engagement efforts with their identity and goals.
• User-centric back-end UX: Intuitive design makes navigation and setup simple, reducing onboarding time and allowing teams to focus on what matters most — community engagement.

Tech support vs. a partner in participation

Although PublicInput and Go Vocal both make engagement more efficient, you’ll still sometimes get stuck.

At such moments, it is helpful to be able to count on support. And that is slightly different for both companies.

What truly sets Go Vocal apart is our commitment to being more than just a platform — we’re your partner in building a sustainable, long-term engagement strategy and culture of engagement. Our support model includes:

• A dedicated Government Success Manager who brings expertise in digital democracies and participatory practices.
• Access to a global network of participation practitioners for shared learning.
• Thought leadership resources and practical tools like ebooks, guides, and webinars.
• Responsive tech support with average response times of just 1-3 business hours.

Which types of organizations are PublicInput and Go Vocal best suited for?

PublicInput is an excellent option for local governments new to community engagement or aiming to integrate basic participation with communication strategies. Their platform emphasizes beginner-friendly techniques, such as surveys, websites, and meeting facilitation, making it perfect for those exploring engagement for the first time.

Go Vocal, on the other hand, caters to communities that are already connecting with their residents or looking to initiate engagement with the goal of elevating their efforts. Offering tools that cover the entire IAP2 spectrum — from Inform to Empower — and ensure smooth project management, Go Vocal supports both straightforward projects and complex, multi-year initiatives that can help develop transformative policies and foster lasting cultures of engagement.

Features of PublicInput and Go Vocal: a deeper look

Engage

While PublicInput’s platform offers entry-level engagement and communications tools, Go Vocal is a more robust engagement toolbox. Especially as you progress on your engagement journey, your needs evolve beyond surveys and information and, instead, benefit from broader and deeper engagement methods.

Manage

Effective project management involves more than enhancing communication and data sharing; it focuses on equipping your team with essential tools for seamless collaboration, managing intricate workflows, and responding to community feedback. 

PublicInput is dedicated to dismantling data-sharing barriers, enabling teams to access insights more efficiently for better decision-making. This focus on making data accessible and applicable is essential for fostering collaboration within organizations and enhancing the effectiveness of engagement efforts. 

At Go Vocal, we also want to offer a solution for practitioners experiencing difficulties collaborating in engagement projects, particularly in the pre-analysis phase. Understanding the significance of smooth teamwork and efficient processes for successful outcomes, we have invested in comprehensive features project management tools that facilitate collaboration, task management, and accountability among team members:

• Custom roles and permissions: Assign specific roles to team members, ensuring the right people can access the right tools and data.
• Task assignment: Easily delegate tasks to colleagues, such as following up on feedback, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
• Internal commenting: Collaborate directly within the platform by adding internal comments to feedback.

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Decide

PublicInput provides a variety of reporting and analytic tools designed to help teams interpret community feedback. Their GPT Comment Analysis Tool simplifies the sorting and tagging of resident responses with just a few clicks, making it easier to understand feedback. 

Additionally, their built-in dashboards offer a clear data overview, while Equity Mapping enables users to import custom GIS layers for analysis and equitable decision-making.

At Go Vocal, we also focus on making data analysis user-friendly and impactful. Similar to PublicInput, we provide built-in dashboards and a robust AI analysis tool, Sensemaking, that efficiently sorts and tags feedback based on sentiment, themes, or any other categorization of your choice. 

However, we further enhance this experience with automatic summaries of community input with our Sensemaking feature and the capability to ask specific questions, allowing teams to explore insights more thoroughly and uncover actionable recommendations.

To encourage transparency and closing the feedback loop, Go Vocal offers a custom report builder that simplifies insight sharing. Reports can be effortlessly shared within your organization or published directly to the project page with a single click — keeping participants informed and engaged.

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Is Go Vocal a good alternative to PublicInput?

While PublicInput offers a good platform and unique features, we believe Go Vocal is a more sustainable option and the most comprehensive and user-friendly tool out there.

Our pricing ensures that you’re not paying for enterprise-level features you won’t use, nor will you outgrow the platform. 

Ready to see if Go Vocal fits your needs? Schedule a free call with one of our product experts for a personalized walkthrough.

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