Feature comparison

RidingDesk vs NationBuilder

Side-by-side, every feature, with screenshots of the actual product. NationBuilder is built for American campaigns. RidingDesk is built for federal, provincial, and municipal campaigns in Canada — and ships the regulator-specific tools they can't.

Where RidingDesk leads

The things NationBuilder can't ship from south of the border

These are Canada-first features that aren't marketing copy on top of a US product — they're built into the data model, the receipts, the exports, and the compliance dashboard.

CRA-compliant tax receipts

ITR 2000–compliant PDFs auto-issued on Stripe success. Year-end batch endpoint. NationBuilder issues US 501(c)(3) receipts — not valid in Canada.

Elections Canada + provincial + municipal batches

Treasurer-ready CSVs that match Form EC 20121 (federal), Elections Ontario Schedule 1, and Ontario municipal Form 4 — with the ≤$100 aggregate footer per MEA s. 88.25(2). UTF-8 BOM so Excel keeps Canadian-French accents intact.

Jurisdiction-aware contribution limits

Federal + ON / QC / BC / AB provincial + ON / QC / BC municipal limits, with statute URLs cited on every jurisdiction. NationBuilder ships US FEC limits only.

Postal code → Canadian electoral riding

Every form, every widget, every advocacy letter resolves a Canadian postal code to the right federal / provincial / municipal boundary. NationBuilder does this for US ZIPs.

EN / FR throughout — UI and content

Dashboard, public site, donor receipts, CSV exports, and per-page CMS translations all bilingual from day one. Per-page Translations panel + ?lang= toggle on every microsite page.

Built-in compliance dashboard

≥80% near-limit donor watchlist, over-limit group, jurisdiction picker, per-tenant override. No third-party add-on, no consultant.

Free Community tier

Up to 500 contacts, all the core CRM tools, no card required. NationBuilder starts paid on day one (USD).

Canadian pricing in CAD

Plans priced for Canadian campaign budgets, billed in CAD, GST/HST handled. No FX exposure, no surprise hikes when the dollar moves.

Legend: Shipped Partial Planned Not in product Click for a screenshot

Websites & public-facing

Tenant microsite on <slug>.ridingdesk.ca

Custom domain mapping (CNAME)

Data model + lookup live; verification UI in progress

Page builder / CMS

Themeable templates (colour, logo, font tokens)

Per-page SEO (slug, meta, OG image)

Sitemap.xml + robots.txt per tenant

Petition pages with signature wall

Endorsement page (structured cards)

Volunteer signup pages (embeddable)

Public events calendar

Suggestion box / contact page

Bilingual EN / FR per-page CMS content

Per-page Translations panel; ?lang= toggle + cookie + campaign default

English-only; manual workarounds for other languages

CRM & data

Free-form tags on voters / donors / volunteers

Saved dynamic segments

Custom fields per campaign

Household grouping (shared address)

Organizations + person↔org relationships

Duplicate match / merge UI

Point-person assignment per supporter

Postal code → Canadian riding lookup

Federal + provincial + municipal boundaries

Federal + provincial + municipal
US ZIP → district only

Communications

Broadcasters (multiple sender identities)

Drip / behaviour-triggered email sequences

A/B testing on subject + body

Deterministic per-recipient variant assignment

Inbound SMS + keyword/shortcode signup

SMS inbox / two-way thread

Peer-to-peer texting

CRTC Do Not Call compliance

US DNC list integration only

Organizing & engagement

Paths — multi-stage engagement ladders

Events: RSVP, capacity, waitlist, tickets

Mobile staff check-in (QR-style codes)

Relational organizing / recruiter chains

Geo-gated advocacy widget (contact your MP / MPP / councillor)

Postal code → riding; pre-written letter editable
US Congress / state legislators only

Fundraising

Donation pages with fundraising thermometer

CRA-compliant tax receipts (ITR 2000)

Auto-issue on Stripe success; year-end batch endpoint

US 501(c)(3) receipts only

Pledges as first-class records (separate from received)

Event ticket tiers via Stripe

Merchandise / thank-you gifts on donation pages

Min-amount + inventory; CRA eligible-amount math respected

Federal receipt-eligible flag per donation

Auto-set from jurisdiction

Membership / off-season

Riding-association / EDA membership management

Plans + member roster + lapsed cron + public /join page

Public join page (Stripe-ready)

Canadian compliance suite

Built around Elections Canada, Elections Ontario, and Ontario municipal regulations.

Form EC 20121 batch report (federal)

Exact column layout: donor + address + eligible amount + receipt number + citizen/PR attestation

Elections Ontario Schedule 1 (provincial)

Contribution class + tax-credit flag columns

Ontario municipal Form 4 (MEA s. 88.25(2))

≤$100 aggregate-row footer

UTF-8 BOM CSV (Excel + Canadian-French accents)

Jurisdiction-aware contribution-limit guardrails

Cycle-aware: calendar-year for federal/provincial, election-period for ON municipal

FED + ON / QC / BC / AB provincial + ON / QC / BC municipal
US FEC limits only

Donor watchlist (≥80% near-limit + over-limit groups)

Source-URL citation to statute on every jurisdiction

Analytics & reporting

Funnel / pipeline reports

Goals with progress bars + on-pace badging

Linear projection vs target

Growth analytics (W-o-W + M-o-M)

Scheduled report email delivery

DAILY / WEEKLY / MONTHLY pinned to 9am ET

Integrations / API

Public REST API

Scoped API keys + capability dashboard

Partial

Webhooks (HMAC-SHA256 signed, retry with backoff)

Zapier integration

OAuth2 authorization-code grant

Bearer + scopes shipped; full auth-code grant on roadmap

SSO (SAML / OIDC) — Enterprise tier

Planned for Enterprise tier

Mobile / field

Installable PWA + offline IndexedDB outbox

Service worker with cache-first static + network-first navs + background-sync replay of canvassing writes

Offline sync indicator + pending-write count

Native iOS / Android app (App Store presence)

Capacitor wrap planned

Distributed organizing (HQ → ridings)

Parent / child tenant model

Self-referential Campaign; HQ never sees identities unless child opts in

Template library + one-click push down

5 kinds: email, sequence, page, path, talking points; idempotent delivery

Child opt-in to roll-up sharing

Partial

Pricing & access

Free Community tier

Up to 500 contacts, no card required
Paid plans from day 1

Canadian pricing in CAD

USD billing

Bilingual EN / FR dashboard UI

Data residency: Canadian region

US hosting

Built in Canada. For Canadian campaigns.

Spin up a free tenant, import voters by postal code, and have CRA-compliant receipts going out before the next campaign launch meeting.