Political Campaigns

Choosing a Canvassing App for a Local Race: A Checklist

A good canvassing app for a local race does five things well: it gets your walk list onto a map in a sensible order, it works on the street even without signal, it lets volunteers record what happened at each door in seconds, it keeps volunteers from overlapping, and it gives you a record you can use again weeks later. It should also cost something your campaign can afford for the months you actually need it.

Use the checklist below to test any app, including ours. Print it, take it into a free trial, and walk one real turf before you decide. A tool that looks good in a demo can feel very different on a cold Saturday with a volunteer who has never used it.

Not sure you need an app at all? Read paper walk sheets vs a canvassing app first. For door strategy in general, see our political canvassing guide.

1. Your list

• ☐ Can you get your district's voter or contact list into the app, and how long does it take?
• ☐ Does the app show your list on a map, not just as a table?
• ☐ Can you choose which doors go into a walk (for example, only likely voters, or only one neighborhood)?
• ☐ Does the contact limit on the plan you are considering cover your whole district, or at least the part you will walk?
• ☐ Can you add new contacts you meet at the door?
• ☐ Ask: who owns the data you load and collect, and can you take it with you at the end of the race?

2. On the street

• ☐ Does it suggest a walking order through the doors, so volunteers do not double back?
• ☐ Does it work offline, and does it sync reliably when signal returns? Test this by turning on airplane mode during your trial.
• ☐ How many taps does it take to record a door? Aim for a few seconds per door.
• ☐ Is the screen readable outdoors in bright light?
• ☐ Does it drain the battery noticeably over a two-hour shift?
• ☐ Can a volunteer use it with one hand while holding literature?

3. Recording the conversation

• ☐ Does it have door results that match real life: not home, refused, moved, come back later, left literature, and so on?
• ☐ Can you write your own survey questions (support level, top issue, yard sign, volunteer interest)?
• ☐ Can volunteers add free-text notes?
• ☐ Can you mark doors for a return visit and pull them up as a list later?
• ☐ If you are circulating a petition, can you note which doors signed? (The signatures themselves still go on the official form in ink. In Illinois, candidate petitions are signed on paper with a notarized circulator statement, and no app replaces that.)

4. Volunteers

• ☐ Does the price go up with each volunteer, or is the number of canvassers unlimited?
• ☐ How long does it take a new volunteer to get going? Time it at your first shift.
• ☐ Can you split the district into turfs and assign them, so two people never walk the same street?
• ☐ Can a coordinator see progress during the walk?
• ☐ Is there help for volunteers who are nervous about the conversation, such as scripts or practice?
• ☐ Can you remove a volunteer's access when they leave the campaign?

5. Results

• ☐ Can you see, in one place, how many doors are done and what people said?
• ☐ Can you break results down by area to decide where to walk next?
• ☐ Are results available that evening, without anyone typing them in?
• ☐ Will the record still be useful in your final weeks, for example when early voting opens?

6. Cost and commitment

• ☐ What does it cost per month, and is there a lower annual rate? Does your race last long enough for annual billing to make sense?
• ☐ What is the price based on: contacts, volunteers, or features?
• ☐ Which features are only on higher plans, and do you actually need them?
• ☐ Is there a free trial long enough to walk at least two real turfs?
• ☐ Can you cancel after Election Day without a penalty? Ask before you sign up.
• ☐ Are there add-ons that change the real monthly cost?

7. Fit with the rest of your campaign

• ☐ Will you also text supporters or keep a contact database? If so, how do door results reach those tools?
• ☐ Does the app respect consent? Door results are not consent to text. Texting needs a separate, plainly worded and dated opt-in.
• ☐ Who on your team will own setup and support? Name one person.

8. Run a fair trial

• ☐ Load one real turf, not a sample.
• ☐ Walk it yourself first, then hand it to your least tech-comfortable volunteer.
• ☐ Turn off signal for part of the walk and confirm the results sync afterward.
• ☐ Look at the results that evening. Could you plan your next walk from them?
• ☐ Compare the time spent against the same turf on paper.

How Beacon answers the core of this checklist

We make Beacon, so here is what it does, plainly, so you can score it yourself:

• List and map: CSV import of contact or voter lists, with name, address, precinct and party columns mapped automatically; walk lists on a map, with route optimization for a walking order. Beacon also offers data enrichment for contact records.
• On the street: offline mode with sync.
• Recording: door results for contacted, not home, refused, moved, deceased, inaccessible, come back later and left literature, plus a 1 to 5 rating, notes, and survey questions you build yourself, including "signed: yes / no" for petition walks.
• Volunteers: unlimited canvassers on every plan, territory management to split turf and assign each territory to a specific canvasser (and reassign it), organization roles (owner, admin, manager, canvasser), and real-time tracking. Removing a member deactivates their access and keeps their data. Growth and above add live GPS and geofencing. An AI script coach is available as an add-on.
• Results: analytics, per-territory contact and contacted counts, and CSV export of contacts, interactions and survey responses, so your data can leave with you. Several campaigns can run under one organization.
• Cost: priced by contacts. Starter $59 a month ($47 annually) for 2,500; Growth $129 ($103 annually) for 10,000; Pro $149 for 25,000; Business $229 for 50,000; Scale $449 for 100,000; Enterprise $599 for 250,000 or more. Every plan has a 14-day trial.

For the rest of the list, especially how long setup takes and how it feels on your own streets, ask us directly during your trial, the same way you would ask anyone else. Our political campaigns page has more on how campaigns use Beacon, and knowing every door explains why a lasting record matters.

Take the checklist into a trial

Print this page, start a trial, and walk one real turf with it. Start your 14-day Beacon trial.