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The FOIAXpress alternative built for cities, not federal agencies.

FOIAXpress (now OPEXUS) is the FOIA platform behind much of the federal government — federal-style approval chains, an AI Assist add-on, and procurement to match. A city clerk's office does not need any of that. CivicRecordsOnline gives you the core workflow — intake, deadlines, redaction, release, audit — for $99 to $499 per month, with the full redaction suite included.

See the product

These CivicRecordsOnline screens show the fictional City of Paldam demo workspace: dashboard, redaction, and day-to-day request work.

CivicRecordsOnline dashboard with request totals, overdue counts, and department workload. — Dashboard and deadlines

Close crop of a City of Paldam personnel record with draft redaction boxes over the fictional employee's personal information. — Built-in redaction tools

Assignment panel showing department and lead clerk fields. — Clerk request workflow

Why clerks switch from FOIAXpress

Price on the page, not after a sales call District, Town, City, and Metro are published at $99, $199, $299, and $499 per month — no quote process.

Buy it on a department P-card Every tier is under $500/mo — inside normal department purchasing-card limits. No RFP, no council item, no annual contract.

Redaction included, not a paid module The privacy scan, Find & Fix Everywhere, manual tools, draft review, exemption tags, and the separate release-copy workflow are in every plan.

Set up in an afternoon, not next quarter Self-service setup for staff, state settings, retention, and the public portal — and the 30-day trial needs no credit card.

Side by side

What you are evaluating	FOIAXpress (OPEXUS)	CivicRecordsOnline
Who it is built for	Federal FOIA offices and large agencies are the platform's public focus.	Small-to-mid city and town records offices.
Pricing	Quote-based — pricing comes through a sales process.	Published. $99 / $199 / $299 / $499 per month.
Seeing the product	Demo scheduled with the vendor.	Six-minute demo video on the site, then a 30-day free trial of the real product. No sales call.
How you buy	Enterprise government software is typically a quoted annual contract — with RFP or council approval where your agency's thresholds require it.	Monthly subscription under $500/mo — inside normal department purchasing-card limits. No RFP, no council item.
Automatic privacy scanning	The AI Assist add-on layers on top of the platform.	Included in every tier — draft redactions for SSNs, phone numbers, addresses, license numbers, and more, reviewed by staff before release.
Redaction approach	Ask how suggestions are generated and what staff must approve.	Predictable pattern matching — the same document gives the same result every time, and your records never train an outside AI model.
Bring your request history	Export your data from FOIAXpress; ask how migration is scoped.	Self-serve CSV importer reads FOIAXpress's export directly — request metadata only; document files are not migrated.
Contract	Terms are set per agency in the quote.	None required. Monthly, cancel anytime.

Document review tools in every plan

Every CivicRecordsOnline plan includes these tools.

Instant Privacy Scan Suggests possible sensitive patterns for staff review. Detection can miss content, especially in poor scans, so staff remain responsible for the release decision.

Find & Fix Everywhere Searches a document for a name, address, or phrase and lets staff apply a redaction across matching instances.

Permanent Safety Lock Publishes a flattened release copy while keeping the source file separate until the agency's configured retention process clears it.

Sensitive Details Check Flags selected sensitive terms and patterns for staff review. The agency decides what applicable law permits or requires it to withhold.

Scanned-paper reading Reads the text out of supported scanned PDFs and images. Scan quality affects results and staff review is still required.

Draft review before anything goes out Redaction suggestions remain drafts until staff review and approve the release copy. Staff can add exemption codes and notes.

Import supported request history

CivicRecordsOnline includes a self-service CSV importer with a FOIAXpress mapping. It can preserve supported request metadata such as dates, statuses, requester contact information, and source IDs when those fields are present in the export.

The importer also includes mappings for NextRequest, GovQA, JustFOIA, and MyGovHub, plus a generic CSV format. It does not migrate historical document files or attachments.

For your IT director and city attorney

CivicRecordsOnline hosts agency workspaces on Microsoft Azure in US regions and uses HTTPS for data in transit. Role-based access limits staff capabilities, and request activity is recorded in the audit log. Redaction suggestions use rules and pattern matching; they are drafts that require staff review.

Agencies should confirm their own security, records, and procurement requirements before subscribing. See the full IT & security overview →

Who CivicRecordsOnline is not built for

We are honest about scope. CivicRecordsOnline is not the right product when your agency needs:

Federal-agency FOIA reporting. If you generate the DOJ Annual FOIA Report or coordinate Inspector General workflows, you need a federal platform — that is FOIAXpress's home turf.
FedRAMP or StateRAMP authorization. CivicRecordsOnline is not currently authorized under either framework.
A CJIS-compliant environment or HIPAA business associate agreement. CivicRecordsOnline does not currently provide either — that scope choice is part of how the price stays under $500/mo.
Video or audio redaction. The current redaction workflow supports documents and images.

Use the same lens against the rest of the market.

Comparison disclosure. CivicRecordsOnline details and standard plan prices were reviewed against the current product on August 8, 2026. Competitor features, packaging, pricing, and contract terms can vary by agency and may change. Confirm current terms directly with OPEXUS.

See the price. Start the trial. Skip the sales call.

Start your free 30-day trial

Free for 30 days · no credit card · plans start at $99 per month