Public Consultation Software

What it is

What map-based consultation software does differently

Public consultation software is the tool a council, a planning authority, a transport agency or a developer uses to publish a proposal, collect responses and account for them in a report. The established products grew out of the document: you upload the consultation paper, add a questionnaire, open a window, close it, and export a spreadsheet of answers. That shape fits a policy consultation. It fits a spatial scheme badly, because the thing people want to talk about is a place, and the questionnaire has no idea where it is.

An online public consultation platform built on a map starts from the drawing. You upload the scheme as a layer: the new route, the site boundary, the junctions, the trees to be removed. Each feature carries its own questions. Residents open the link, find the part of the plan that affects them, and respond right there: support or object, say why, add a photo. They can also mark places the plan missed, as a point, a line or an outlined area. Every response arrives with coordinates and the feature it refers to, so the analysis is a map and a count, not a reading exercise.

Council consultation software has to produce a defensible record. Mapsurvey exports every response, including the geometry, as GeoJSON, CSV, Excel, GeoPackage, Shapefile or KML, so the GIS team and the report author work from one file. Individual free-text responses stay in the export; the public results page shows aggregated counts and maps only, with small groups masked, so a consultation can be transparent without publishing anyone's words. The survey can be versioned, so a second round after a design change keeps the first round's data intact.

Mapsurvey is open source (AGPLv3). The hosted service runs in the United States; a council that needs its respondents' data on its own servers runs the same Docker stack in-house at no licence cost. Pricing is published on this page. There is no per-consultation fee, so a planning department can run every consultation of the year on one workspace.

How a consultation runs

From proposal to evidence in four steps

1 · BUILD

Put the proposal on the map

Upload the scheme as GeoJSON from QGIS or ArcGIS, give each feature a title, a description and a photo, and attach the questions consultees should answer about it. Add open map questions for the places the plan missed.

Mapsurvey layer editor: ten Copenhagen cycling bridges with categories, photos and descriptions

2 · COLLECT

Open the consultation

Share one link, a QR code on the site notice, or an embed on the council website. Consultees tap a feature, read the proposal card and answer, with no app and no account. Questions can be offered in 75 languages.

A respondent opens a bridge card with a photo, reactions from others and a thumbs up or down question

3 · ANALYZE

Read the responses as a map

See support and objection per feature, filter by answer, switch to a heat map of the free-draw responses, and open any single submission. Remove test entries before the count is final.

Mapsurvey Responses map: routes, unsafe spots and bridges across Copenhagen

4 · SHARE

Write the report, close the loop

Export the full dataset for the consultation statement and the GIS, then publish an aggregated results page so residents can see what was said and what changed.

Public results page with the response count, a link to take the survey, and charts

Why teams choose it

Consultation that produces evidence, not just comments

Comments on the proposal itself

Consultees respond on the feature in question: this crossing, this stretch of road, this site boundary. No more guessing which 'the junction' a comment meant.

Draw, not just drop

Points for places, lines for routes and desire lines, polygons for areas. Each with its own follow-up questions.

Report-ready output

Every response as GeoJSON, CSV, Excel, GeoPackage, Shapefile or KML, with one row per placed feature and the sub-question answers alongside.

Transparent by default

A public results page shows aggregated maps and counts, masks small groups, and never publishes an individual free-text answer.

Defensible and auditable

Open source (AGPLv3), versioned surveys, exports with timestamps. Self-host when the data must not leave your infrastructure.

Fits any budget

No per-consultation or per-response licensing. Run one consultation or a whole programme on the same free platform.

Compared

Mapsurvey vs Citizen Space and Commonplace

The two platforms a UK council is most likely to already have a quote from. Both are strong consultation suites; the differences are the price, the licence and whether the map is the centre or an add-on.

	Mapsurvey	Citizen Space (Delib)	Commonplace (Zencity)
Free tier for real projects	Yes, unlimited consultations and responses	No	No; four-week trial of basic features
Pricing	Published: free, or one flat workspace price	Quote only; per-instance, per-year licence listed on UK G-Cloud	Quote only; per-licence terms of 12 to 36 months listed on UK G-Cloud
Open source / self-hosting	Yes, AGPLv3, Docker on your servers	No, SaaS only	No, SaaS only
What a respondent can draw	Points, lines and polygons, each with follow-up questions	Pins, lines and polygons (Geospatial add-on)	Pin drop on the Community Heatmap; line or polygon drawing not published
GIS export of responses	GeoJSON, GeoPackage, Shapefile, KML, plus CSV and Excel	GeoJSON and Shapefile	CSV and PDF; GIS formats not published
Respondent account	None needed	Optional, configurable per consultation	Email verification before a contribution is published
Languages	75, included	Not published	Unlimited question translations; count not published
Hosting region	United States (hosted), or self-host anywhere	United Kingdom	United Kingdom (AWS London)
Accessibility statement	No formal conformance audit yet	WCAG 2.2, ISO 27001, text alternative for every map question	WCAG 2.1 AA, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials

Competitor details reflect the vendors' published pages and UK G-Cloud listings as of October 2026 (Citizen Space read in July 2026); verify current specifics with the vendor. 'Not published' means the vendor's public material does not say.

When Citizen Space or Commonplace may fit better

You need a statutory consultation suite with document publishing, response management and a compliance stack your procurement already accepts, and UK data residency on the hosted service is non-negotiable.
You run dozens of non-spatial policy consultations a year and the map is the exception, not the rule.
You are mid-contract and the switching cost outweighs the savings. Mapsurvey can still run the map question of one scheme next to the suite.

Evaluating consultation software? Ask the person who builds this one

Mapsurvey is independent and founder-led. Send the scheme you are consulting on and the question you need answered, and you will get a reply from the developer, usually with a working survey attached.

Email the developer

What teams consult on

Consultations that belong on a map

Local plans and site allocations: comment on each candidate site, propose others.
Active travel and road schemes: support or object per junction, crossing and route segment.
Planning applications and masterplans: reactions to the layout, the access and the open space, feature by feature.
Parks, play and public realm: what to keep, add or remove, pinned to the exact spot.
Flood, drainage and climate adaptation: residents report where water collects and which streets overheat.
Community infrastructure levy and section 106 priorities: where the contributions should land.

Run your first consultation — free How councils use it

Pricing

Free to run a real project. One flat price when you need more.

Not a trial and not a sandbox: the whole collection and analysis product, with no cap on surveys, respondents or team members.

Every question type, including point, line and polygon on the map
Follow-up questions attached to each place a respondent marks
Unlimited surveys, responses and team members
Survey text in 75 languages
Export as GeoJSON, CSV, Excel, GeoPackage, Shapefile or KML
Responses map, filters, heat maps and charts
Self-host the open-source code (AGPLv3) on your own servers

Create a free account

One workspace, any number of users, surveys and responses. No per-project, per-seat or per-response metering, so a consultancy can run every engagement of the year on one line item.

Everything in Free
Public results pages for residents and councillors
Direct support from the developer who builds the product
Read-only access for clients and committees, custom domain and branding, and a choice of hosting region, as they ship

See what Pro includes

Pro is in early access: the workspace price is fixed, the feature list is being finished with the first customers, and existing accounts keep what they have. If a grant or a council budget needs an invoice rather than a card, write to us.

Community engagement platformThe product page: features, hosting, data ownership, price. Citizen engagement platformFor local-government buyers: free plan, price, data ownership, uptime. Civic engagementMethods that work on a map, from neighbourhood plans to safety audits. Participatory budgetingWhere residents want the money spent, pinned to the map. Participatory mapping toolsThe buyer's guide: fifteen tools in five categories, every fact sourced and dated. For local governmentCouncils, cities and agencies running engagement in-house.

From the field

Public consultation projects built with Mapsurvey

Remington residents map their neighborhood plan

Case study Lessons learned

Baltimore, Maryland · Neighborhood planning

Remington residents map their neighborhood plan

Remington, a Baltimore neighborhood of row homes between Johns Hopkins and the Jones Falls, is updating its community plan. Before the planners drew anything, residents marked the map.

146 residents717 places marked3 map questionsEnglish and Spanish

Greater Remington Improvement Association Read the story →

Whitehouse residents pin where the dog bins should go

Case study Lessons learned

Milton Keynes, England · Parish council

Whitehouse residents pin where the dog bins should go

Whitehouse, a new estate on the western edge of Milton Keynes, has outgrown its dog bins. The community council asked residents to drop a pin where a bin was missing. 39 did so in nine days, and the council's next paper recommended six new bins.

39 residents37 locationsAnswered on phones6 new bins

Whitehouse Community Council Read the story →

All stories on this topic →

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is public consultation software?

Software for running a consultation online: publishing a proposal, collecting responses from residents and stakeholders, and turning them into a report. Mapsurvey is the map-based kind: the scheme is shown on a map, people comment on the exact site, route or junction, and every response carries a location you can analyse in GIS.

Is there free council consultation software?

Yes. Mapsurvey's Free plan runs a complete consultation at $0, with no cap on responses, and the open-source code can be hosted by a council's own IT. Pro, at $49 a month or $490 a year per workspace, adds public results pages and direct support. UK statutory platforms are licensed per instance and per year, by quote; the rates sit on G-Cloud rather than on the vendors' own sites.

Can residents comment on a specific location in the proposal?

Respondents can drop points, draw lines (routes), and outline polygons (areas) directly on the map, alongside ordinary survey questions.

How do we show consultees the plans?

Upload the proposal as a reference layer (GeoJSON, from any GIS). Respondents see the scheme on the map and can answer questions about each feature in it, such as a proposed crossing or a new route, or mark their own places alongside it.

How do responses get into the consultation report?

Export every response, including the geometry, as GeoJSON, CSV, Excel, GeoPackage, Shapefile or KML, or publish an aggregated public results page for the record. Individual free-text answers are never published.

Do respondents need to sign up to give feedback?

No. Respondents open a public link and answer on the map — no sign-up or login required. Only survey creators need an account.

Can it be self-hosted for public-sector data rules?

Yes. Mapsurvey ships as a Docker stack you can run on your own infrastructure, so response data stays on servers you control — useful for GDPR and data-residency requirements.