Action Network is a digital organising platform: email, petitions, events and fundraising for progressive organisations, unions and coalitions. Cadrify is a British election system. These two overlap less than anything else on this list, and a good number of organisations run both.
If your work is email, petitions and online actions at scale, Action Network is better at it than Cadrify, cheaper for that job and already used across the British left. Do not move a large mailing list into Cadrify expecting an improvement, because you will not get one.
Action Network is not an electoral field system. It has no British electoral register, and nothing for rounds, the marked register, polling day or nomination paperwork. Cadrify does those.
For most organisations the answer is not one or the other. Cadrify has a two-way Action Network sync in which Action Network stays the source of truth for people, so the list keeps living where it lives and the field operation runs here.
Every row carries a verdict as well as a tick. Where a row says Cadrify does not do something, it does not.
| Capability | Cadrify | Action Network | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| British electoral register | Imports the council register as electors, matched to wards and polling districts by GSS code | Not offered | Action Network holds the people who came to you. It does not hold the electorate. |
| Door-knocking rounds | Rounds cut from a ward boundary and the road network, printed or worked on a phone | Not offered | Action Network organises the people who come to you. Cadrify organises going to them. |
| Leaflet and literature rounds | Delivery rounds with counts, deliverers and a delivery record | Not offered | Physical delivery is outside what Action Network sets out to do. |
| Polling day: telling and knocking up | Telling sheets by polling station, and knock-up lists that shrink as tellers report | Not offered | If there is a ballot paper involved, this is the row that decides it. |
| Nomination paperwork and agent's return | Nomination forms, subscriber checks and PPERA spend categories | Not offered | British electoral compliance is not what Action Network is for. |
| Mass email | Broadcast email to your own lists, 25,000 sends a year included and metered after that | The core of the product, priced per thousand emails | Action Network is the better mailing platform at any volume worth the name. This row is not close. |
| Petitions and online actions | Petitions, forms, surveys, events, sign-ups and donation pages, tied to elector and ward records | Petitions, letters to decision-makers, events, forms and a ladder of engagement | Both do it. Action Network's is deeper and plugs into the wider progressive digital ecosystem. Cadrify's ties a signature to an elector record and a ward, which is what a candidate wants. |
| Many groups sharing one structure | A branch tree, with roles and ward geography inherited down it | The Network plan is designed for federated organisations | Two shapes for the same problem. Action Network federates groups around a shared list. Cadrify inherits permissions and geography down a branch tree. |
| Sync between the two | Two-way. Cadrify pulls people and tags in, keeps them current on a webhook and pushes new public sign-ups back | Open API | You do not have to choose. In Cadrify's integration Action Network stays the source of truth for people. |
| Fundraising | Donation pages, 0.5% on top of Stripe's rate, PPERA fields and gift aid | Fundraising included on the published plans | Both take money. Cadrify's is structured for a British election return and for gift aid. |
| How the price is set | Electorate of the geography your organisation claims. From £150 a year | Email volume, from $15 a month with a monthly minimum | They charge for different things, which is why running both is often cheaper than forcing either to do the other's job. |
| Data residency | EEA. Hosted in Frankfurt | Not confirmed. Ask them where your data would sit | Worth a written answer from any American vendor if you hold British elector data. |
Cadrify's own rows describe what the product does today. The Action Network rows reflect our reading of its public documentation and pricing as of August 2026, and vendors change both. Check anything that would decide your purchase with Action Network directly. Unfamiliar with a term? See the British campaign glossary.
If the right-hand column describes your campaign, Action Network is the better buy.
Cadrify fits the part of the work that happens on a doorstep.
Action Network is better than Cadrify at its own job, and for many organisations it is the more important tool of the two.
Cadrify's figures are our published rate card. The Action Network figures are what that vendor published when we last read it, in its own currency.
One plan. Every feature at every size, unlimited volunteers and unlimited branches. The price follows the electorate of the geography your organisation claims, never the number of records you hold.
Rates are marginal, per 1,000 electors per year. A ward of 5,000 electors is £150 a year. A Leeds ward of 17,000 is £695. A constituency party covering 70,000 is £2,450. Broadcast email, per-address geocoding and AI features are metered separately, each with an allowance most campaigns never reach, and postcode-level geocoding is free. 30 days free. Full pricing
Priced by email volume, with a monthly minimum. In US dollars.
Read from actionnetwork.org/get-started in August 2026. Prices are in US dollars, the monthly figure is a minimum rather than a cap and telecom fees apply on top of mobile messaging. Vendors change pricing, so check the current page before you decide.
These two charge for different things, so adding them together is more use than comparing them. A branch covering a ward of 17,000 electors pays Cadrify £695 a year, whatever it sends. An organisation sending 500,000 emails a year on Action Network's Movement plan pays about $625 at the published rate of $1.25 per 1,000, ahead of the $15 monthly minimum. Running both is the normal answer, and it is usually cheaper than pushing either tool into the other's job. The one place they collide is broadcast email, and there Action Network wins.
Written for the person who has to do it. Do every step while the old account is still live.
A mailing list that already works is worth more where it is. Deliverability is built slowly and lost quickly. Leave it in Action Network.
Add an Action Network API key to a branch in Cadrify. Cadrify pulls people and their tags in, keeps them current when Action Network fires a webhook and pushes new public sign-ups back out.
In Cadrify's integration Action Network is the source of truth for people. Cadrify owns electors, rounds, results at the door and everything on polling day. Write that down before you start, so nobody edits a record in the wrong place.
Request the electoral register from your council and load it into Cadrify as electors, matched to wards and polling districts by GSS code. None of this touches Action Network.
Cadrify's broadcast email exists for a branch mailing its own list. It is not there to replace a platform sending hundreds of thousands of messages a month.
Generate a round from a real ward, print the sheets, knock it, log the results and watch a new sign-up appear in both systems. 30 days, the whole product.
Not for email. It replaces the spreadsheets and the paper around door-knocking, polling day and nominations. Most organisations that use both keep Action Network for the list and use Cadrify for the field.
Yes. Add an Action Network API key to a branch and Cadrify pulls people and their tags in, keeps them current on a webhook and pushes new public sign-ups back out. Action Network stays the source of truth for people.
No. It is a digital organising platform rather than an electoral field system. It has no elector record, polling district or marked register.
They charge for different things. Cadrify's price follows the electorate of the geography you claim, from £150 a year. Action Network's follows how much email you send, from $15 a month. An organisation doing both usually pays both, and that is still cheaper than making one tool do the other's job.
If the work is emailing members and running petitions, Action Network. If you also knock doors, cut rounds and run a turnout operation on a ballot day, add Cadrify and connect the two.
30 days, the whole product. Import your register, generate a round and knock it this week.