Compare Political Campaign (CRM) Systems There are several options for political campaign systems. So which one is best? How do they stack up? What is the pricing difference? Here are some answers.

Compare Main Feature Areas
Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Email Broadcast
Full CRM
Online Fundraising
360 ° Fundraising Mgmt
Advocacy Pages/Forms
Social Profile Integration
Website AddOn AddOn
FEC Compliance
bu vs ngp bu vs nb bu vs bsd


Compare Key Characterstics
Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Easy to Use
Excellent Customer Support
Democrats/Progressives Only
Affordable at all levels
Allows monthly terms
bu vs ngp bu vs nb bu vs bsd


Compare Pricing Select your database size to compare pricing for your org: 100 1000 2500 5K 10K 25K 50K 100K 250K
100 records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $25 $150 $29 $1150+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $300 $1800 $348 $16,300
1K records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $50 $150 $29 $1150+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $600 $1800 $348 $16,300
2500 records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $100 $250 $219 $1150+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $1200 $3,000 $2,628 $16,300
5K records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $150 $500 $239 $1150+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $1,800 $6,000 $2,868 $16,300
10K records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $200 $600 $299 $1150+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $2,400 $7,200 $3,588 $16,300
25K records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $300 $700 $439 $1150+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $3,600 $8,400 $5,268 $16,300
50K records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $425 $800 $699 $1150+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $5,100 $9,600 $8,388 $16,300
100K records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $600 $900 $1000+ $1550+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $7,200 $12,000+ $12,000+ $21,100
250K records Blue Utopia NGP-VAN NationBuilder BSD Tools
Monthly Fee $725 $1500+ $1500+ $4200+
Setup Fee $0 $0 $0 $2,500
Total Year 1 Cost $8,700 $18,000+ $15,000+ $52,900


How is BlueUtopia different from...
  • How is Blue Utopia different from NGP

    On the CRM side, the biggest differences are pricing and ease-of-use. BlueUtopia is affordable and easy-to-use. NGP is neither. On the voter data side, BlueUtopia does not offer voter file or field tools.

    Click here for a more complete comparison of Blue Utopia Vs. NGP-VAN

  • How is Blue Utopia different from NationBuilder?

    NationBuilder serves Republicans, has partnerships with Republican national organizations, and integrates their platform to the national Republic database. Blue Utopia serves Democrats and Progressives only. That's our mission and we will never stray from helping our audience. Additionally, NationBuilder does not go very deep into the donor-management functions such managing fundraising calltime, tracking offline pledges and contributions. If you need a common report like Lapsed Donors, which inherently requires a view of online and offline donations, you just don't get that with NationBuilder like you do with Blue Utopia. The same goes for traditional tools like FEC compliance. If you have NationBuilder and need FEC compliance, you'll need an entirely separate system, which is likely to cause you hundreds of more dollars per month. With Blue Utopia, it's just a simple add-on - easy, inexpensive, and fully integrated.

    Click here for more details on Blue Utopia Vs NationBuilder

  • How is Blue Utopia different from Blue State Digital?

    In 2010, Blue State Digital was acquired by WPP Digital, leaving behind BSD Tools. BSD is a great toolset but very cost-prohibitive for small and medium size organizations. Like so many others, their focus is online advocacy so if you need a donor-management system, you'll need an entirely different system in addition to BSD.

    Click here for a more complete comparison of Blue Utopia Vs. Blue State Digital

  • How is Blue Utopia different from ActionKit?

    ActionKits solution is entirely focused on online advocacy. They do not offer back-office tools for activities like candidate fundraising or compliance. Starting at over 2K per month, ActionKit targets very large organizations with considerable budgets and a solid technical team to customize and manage the technology.

  • How is Blue Utopia different from Salsa Labs?

    Salsa is very much like ActionKit. Their focus is online organizing tools like emails, petitions, etc. Their tools are very powerful but they can also be very difficult to use without a deep familiarity with them. Their platform is designed to be very extensible with apps that plug in but again, this approach targets a customer with deep customization needs and a considerable staff or budget to make the tools work. Blue Utopia is much more of a subscribe-and-go system, with nearly or no integration requirements or technical expertise.

  • How is Blue Utopia different from WordPress?

    WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System) only. It is only good for managing your website content. Blue Utopia's platform includes an integrated website but it is just one small piece of the system. WordPress is very popular and powerful website system. For organizations that need the power and flexibility of thousands, if not millions, of templates, plug-ins, and widgets, then we recommend WordPress. Our system even integrates to WordPress.



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