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The JustFOIA alternative with the price on the page and the privacy scan in the box.

JustFOIA hides its pricing behind a demo request and uses AI-enhanced redaction that can shift its results between releases. CivicRecordsOnline publishes every price on the page, opens a same-day .gov trial, and uses a predictable pattern-based engine that gives you the same answer every time — with automatic privacy scanning and bulk find-and-erase included in every plan from $99/mo.

Why clerks switch from JustFOIA

No price until you sit through a demo JustFOIA's only entry point is "Request a demo." You give up an email, a phone call, and an hour before you can compare costs against your budget. CivicRecordsOnline puts the number on the page: $99 to $499 per month.

Predictable redactions, not AI guesses JustFOIA leans on AI-enhanced redaction. Results can drift between releases and are harder to defend in audit. CivicRecordsOnline uses a pattern-based engine that produces the same answer every time and never trains on your records.

Vendor-led setup you may not need JustFOIA emphasizes vendor-led onboarding, training, and ongoing support to walk you through the platform. CivicRecordsOnline is built so a clerk can finish setup in an afternoon and process a real request the same day.

P-card friendly, no annual contract JustFOIA sells on annual contracts that need procurement approval. Every CivicRecordsOnline tier is under $500/mo and stays inside department P-card limits. Cancel anytime; no annual commitment.

Side by side

What you are evaluating	JustFOIA	CivicRecordsOnline
Pricing	Quote-only. Demo required before you see a number.	Published. $99 / $199 / $299 / $499 per month.
How you start	Fill out a demo form. Wait for a sales rep.	.gov email signup. Free 14-day trial the same day.
Approval path	Annual contract. Procurement approval typical.	Department P-card. No annual contract required.
Automatic privacy scanning	"AI-enhanced redaction." Behavior can shift between releases.	Pattern-based engine. Same input, same result, every time. Included in every tier.
Bulk find-and-erase across documents	Inside the vendor-configured redaction workflow.	Included. Type a name once, erase across 500 pages.
Trains AI on your records?	AI-enhanced features depend on machine-learning models.	No. Your records never train an outside AI model.
Document storage	Laserfiche integration available as a separate piece.	Built-in document storage on Microsoft Azure. 100 GB to 5 TB by tier.
Time to first real request	Vendor onboarding, training sessions, scheduled go-live.	Configure intake, deadlines, staff, and portal in an afternoon.
Bring your request history	Vendor migration project. Implementation fee.	Self-serve CSV importer reads JustFOIA's export directly.

What you actually get in every plan

Bundled into every plan from the $99/mo District tier up — no add-on fees, no premium module, no AI upcharge.

Instant Privacy Scan Finds names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, license numbers, credit cards, and more automatically. You review each one before anything is released.

Find & Fix Everywhere Type a name, address, or phrase once and erase it across every page of a 500-page document in one pass.

Permanent Safety Lock When the release copy is published, your redactions are locked permanently. Your original file stays untouched in the audit trail.

Smart Medical Catching Flags complicated health terms, sensitive medical codes, dates of birth in context, and minor names that ordinary search tools miss.

Scanned-paper reading Reads text out of scanned PDFs and images so the privacy scan and bulk erase work on historical paper records too.

Draft review before anything goes out Every automatic redaction is a draft until staff approve it. Add an exemption code, add a note, then publish. Nothing is released silently.

Already on JustFOIA? Bring your history with you.

The CivicRecordsOnline bulk importer recognizes JustFOIA's request-export CSV format directly. Export your request log out of JustFOIA, upload the file from Settings → Bulk Import, and your request history loads with the original dates, statuses, requester contact information, and source IDs preserved. The clerk does it self-serve — no vendor migration project, no professional services engagement, no implementation fee.

The importer also reads exports from NextRequest, GovQA, FOIAXpress, and MyGovHub, plus a generic CSV format if your current system is something else. Note: the importer covers request history metadata. Moving the actual document files and attachments from your old system is on you.

For your IT director and city attorney

The redaction workflow is a deterministic pattern-matching engine, not a generative AI model. Same input, same output, every time — defensible in audit and easy to explain to a judge. Agency records are never sent to train external models. All data is stored on Microsoft Azure in US data centers, encrypted AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, with role-based access control and an immutable audit trail of every action.

CivicRecordsOnline is not in CJIS or HIPAA compliance scope — it focuses on standard municipal records (zoning, permits, council correspondence, public crime statistics, contracts, public works) and passes the savings from skipping that compliance overhead back to the city as the monthly price. See the full IT & security overview →

Who CivicRecordsOnline is not built for

We are honest about scope. CivicRecordsOnline is not the right tool if any of the following describe your office:

You want a vendor to walk you through setup with scheduled training days and ongoing hand-holding, and you have budget for the implementation engagement.
You already use Laserfiche as your document management system and require native integration with it.
You handle CJIS criminal justice records or HIPAA-covered medical records. CivicRecordsOnline is intentionally out of those compliance scopes — that is how we keep the price under $500/mo.

Use the same lens against the rest of the market.

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

Join the waitlist and we will email the day .gov trials open. From $99/mo. P-card friendly. No annual contract required.