Compare
UK political monitoring tools, compared honestly.
Frontbench is a UK political monitoring platform: bills, committees, consultations and motions matched to your policy priorities overnight, with a free tier and paid plans from £59/month. Here is how it compares with PolicyMogul, DeHavilland (Helio) and Dods.
Based on each vendor's public positioning and published pricing. Last verified August 2026. Corrections welcome at team@frontbench.io.
| Compared on | Frontbench | PolicyMogul | DeHavilland (Helio) | Dods |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monitoring | ||||
| Bills, debates and committee monitoring | ||||
| Consultation tracking with deadlines | Not advertised | Not advertised | Not advertised | |
| Early Day Motion tracking | ||||
| News and reports in your policy areas | ||||
| Relevance matching to your organisation | Automated | Human-assisted setup | Analyst-curated | Consultant-curated |
| A brief that learns from your feedback | Feedback loop | Not advertised | Not advertised | |
| Devolved parliaments (Holyrood, Senedd) | In development | Scotland and Wales | ||
| Live pre-Hansard transcription | In development | Not advertised | Not advertised | |
| Insight | ||||
| MP and Peer stakeholder database | With voting records | |||
| Per-bill sentiment across all 650 MPs | Topic-level | Topic-level add-on | Not advertised | |
| Bill passage viability forecasts | Not advertised | Not advertised | Not advertised | |
| Stakeholder engagement scoring | Ranking | Not advertised | Not advertised | |
| Risk tracking against your priorities | Not advertised | Not advertised | Not advertised | |
| Strategic briefings on tracked bills | Paid add-on | Paid add-on | ||
| Action | ||||
| Built-in advocacy pipeline | Not advertised | Not advertised | Not advertised | |
| Relationship management | Encrypted notes | |||
| Shared team calendar with owners | Not advertised | Not advertised | Not advertised | |
| KPIs and board-ready reporting | Paid add-on | |||
| Commercial | ||||
| Published pricing | ||||
| Free tier | ||||
| Monthly billing | Not advertised | Not advertised | ||
| Self-serve signup, no sales call | ||||
| Entry price (published) | £0 | From £195/mo | Quote only | Quote only |
Based on each vendor's publicly available positioning and published pricing as of August 2026. “Not advertised” means we could not find the capability in the vendor's public materials. Enterprise services are sold by quotation and may include more than their websites state. Spotted an error? Email team@frontbench.io and we will correct it.
Where Frontbench is the right choice.
You want to know where all 650 MPs stand
Frontbench computes a position on every bill for every MP, so you can see support, opposition and the persuadable middle at a glance. No other competitor advertises it.
You want to know if a bill will actually pass
Every tracked bill carries a passage forecast, so you can put your effort where it changes the outcome.
You want to be running today, not after a sales cycle
Sign up free, and Frontbench drafts your organisation profile from your own website. Your first matched brief arrives instantly. No demo call, no quote, no onboarding meetings.
You want serious monitoring at a sensible price
Free to start, £59/month for a working advocate, £179/month for a team of three. The rest of the market starts in the thousands per year.
You want to act on what you learn
Monitoring, stakeholder intelligence, an advocacy pipeline, relationship notes, a shared calendar and board reporting live in one product, behind one login.
You want a brief that gets sharper
Every priority you add and every item you dismiss teaches Frontbench what belongs in front of you.
Two things to know before you choose.
Devolved coverage is in development
Frontbench monitors Westminster today, and coverage of the devolved parliaments is in development. If Holyrood or the Senedd are essential to your work right now, PolicyMogul covers Scotland and Wales and DeHavilland covers the devolved nations.
Agencies run through Enterprise
Frontbench accounts serve one organisation each. If you manage monitoring for several clients, we build that with you as an Enterprise engagement rather than off the shelf. Get in touch and tell us what you run.
Questions
Frequently asked.
- Is there a free political monitoring tool for the UK?
- Yes. Frontbench's Analyst plan is free for as long as you want it: one policy area, five tracked priorities, and overnight matching of bills, committees, consultations and motions. PolicyMogul also offers a free tier with official updates and a daily summary. The enterprise services (DeHavilland, Dods) are sold by quotation and do not advertise free tiers.
- How much does political monitoring software cost in the UK?
- It ranges from free to five figures a year. Frontbench is free to start, with paid plans at £59/month (Advocate) and £179/month (Coalition, three seats). PolicyMogul publishes plans from £195/month for a single user, with team plans from around £395/month billed annually. DeHavilland and Dods do not publish pricing and sell by annual quotation. One public Find a Tender record from 2025 shows a UK public body paying £41,400 including VAT for a year of Dods' service.
- What is a good PolicyMogul alternative?
- Frontbench is the closest self-serve alternative for Westminster-focused work: free to start, £59/month for a working advocate, with bill passage forecasts, per-bill sentiment across all 650 MPs and stakeholder engagement scoring that PolicyMogul does not advertise. Choose PolicyMogul instead if you need Scottish Parliament or Senedd coverage today. Frontbench's devolved coverage is in development.
- What is a good DeHavilland alternative?
- Frontbench covers Westminster bills, debates, committees, consultations and motions with automated relevance matching, published pricing and a free tier, without a sales call or an annual quote. It also computes things DeHavilland does not advertise, including per-bill positions for all 650 MPs and bill passage forecasts. Sign up free and compare it against your current brief for a week.
- Does Frontbench cover the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd or Stormont?
- Not yet. Frontbench monitors the UK Parliament at Westminster today, and devolved coverage is in development. If you need Scotland or Wales coverage right now, PolicyMogul covers both, and DeHavilland (Helio) covers the devolved nations.
- How is Frontbench different from the enterprise services?
- Three ways. Access: published pricing, a free tier, monthly billing and self-serve signup, where the enterprise services sell by annual quotation. Setup: Frontbench drafts your organisation profile from your own website and matches everything overnight, rather than tuning coverage through analyst meetings. Analysis: it computes things the incumbents do not advertise, including where all 650 MPs stand on a bill, whether that bill is likely to pass, and how engaged each stakeholder is with your priorities.
How this comparison was made. We reviewed each vendor's public website, product pages, published pricing and comparison materials during August 2026. Where a capability did not appear in a vendor's public materials the table says “not advertised” rather than claiming it does not exist. Enterprise services often include more than their websites describe. Prices for other vendors are their own published figures at the time of review, so check their sites for current pricing. If you work for one of these companies and something here is wrong or out of date, email team@frontbench.io and we will correct it.