Community engagement hubs are a crucial resource for Local Councils. They offer a central forum where community members can provide valuable insights, and Councils can easily track and report on community feedback.
To manage these hubs, many Local Governments use third-party software, like EngagementHQ by Granicus. In this blog, we will examine the limitations of these platforms and present a more efficient and effective alternative: custom-built forms.
The problem: Inefficient community engagement hub software
Off-the-shelf tools are designed for convenience, but they often come with hidden trade-offs:
- High ongoing costs – expensive annual subscriptions.
- Limited design control – especially around accessibility and branding, since visitors are taken off your site.
- Unnecessary complexity – dozens of features your team doesn’t need or use.
The result?
A clunky user experience that makes it harder for residents to engage and requires more work for your internal team to extract simple insights. You’re also paying a premium price for a long list of features that you probably don’t use.
The solution: A custom-built form designed for your audience
What do you really need from your community engagement hub?
If your key measure of success is the number of form submissions or the level of engagement, then developing a custom form is the ideal solution. It’s budget-friendly, user-focused, and fully integrated with your existing website analytics, so you can easily track and report on your engagement KPIs.
A custom-built form on your website can:
- Do exactly what you need it to do - collect and report on submissions without extra clutter and unnecessary functionality.
- Cut costs - a one-off form creation is significantly less expensive than an annual software subscription.
- Boost engagement - simpler interfaces encourage more people to participate.
- Keep users on your site - maintaining accessibility, trust, and brand consistency.
In short, you get the data you need, without paying for the features you don’t.
How we’ve helped Local Councils
At ALYKA, we’ve worked with several Local Councils to make this switch. Each was paying a significant annual subscription fee for third-party software with features they never used. For around half the cost of one annual licence, we built a lightweight, accessible, and easy-to-manage custom form directly within their website.
The simplified process also led to higher engagement, since residents could quickly leave feedback without navigating away from the site.
Improving your customer engagement hub
When it comes to driving community engagement, simple is better.
A thoughtfully built, on-site form can give you the insights you need, without the price tag, complexity, or compromise on user experience.
ALYKA’s team of expert Kentico and WordPress developers can help you build a custom form that’s designed for the needs of your team and your audience. Get in contact today.