Action Network vs DearMEP

Action Network is an online organizing platform for people and groups working on progressive causes. Organizers can create petitions, event RSVPs, surveys, fundraising forms, ticketed event pages, and letter campaigns, then use mass email and mobile texting tools. Email features include testing subject or message variants, templates, automated workflows, drip campaigns, personalization, targeting, and analytics. Event tools cover RSVP management, reminders, self check-in, ticketing, and maps; fundraising pages support recurring giving and donor management. Lists can be downloaded. Integrations include Salesforce sync, Catalist, SpeechifAI, ActBlue, CallHub, Zapier, Make, and n8n. Its REST API can retrieve and post data and sync systems, but access is limited to paying partners. The free plan is available; Movement starts at $15/mo and charges for email usage above its included allowance. Mobile SMS and MMS campaigns are a separate add-on to an email partnership. The platform says it does not provide websites, offline organizing, general CRM work, or FEC compliance.

DearMEP is free, open-source software that helps citizens contact elected representatives in the European Parliament. Users can call once or schedule daily or weekly calls, and can also contact politicians by email or social media. The system chooses a representative from the user's country whom it estimates may be persuadable, using voting behavior and feedback. NGOs and activists can adapt the tool for campaigns and other assemblies, or embed a customizable widget on a campaign website. The widget detects the browser language and also lets visitors choose a language; campaign URLs must be added to the instance's allowed origins. DearMEP offers API documentation for advanced integrations and custom client implementations, and is available as web software, an API, or self-hosted software. A new instance requires an account with 46elks, its calling provider. The project says it minimizes personal-data processing and follows privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default, with GDPR compliance. Its privacy design document says IP addresses are used for geolocation and abuse prevention but are not persisted by the application itself; the document notes that some described functionality may not be implemented.