Simply Stakeholders vs Tractivity: Which is best for stakeholder engagement?

In this section, we provide a head-to-head comparison of Simply Stakeholders vs Tractivity: the leading Stakeholder Management system. We explore how each software addresses the unique stakeholder management requirements of organisations, including compliance and security, user experience, support, communication management, data analysis, and more.

1.  Track stakeholder complaints and issues

Tractivity provides a comprehensive stakeholder engagement platform designed to meet the accountability, transparency, and reporting standards expected across government, public sector, and regulated industries. Its Enquiry and Commitment Tracking module ensures every agreement, mitigation, action, or regulatory obligation is formally logged, assigned, and monitored through to completion, with set reminders that prevent delays or missed follow‑ups.

A detailed Engagement and Issues Timeline create a permanent, auditable record of every interaction, concern, and decision supporting compliance, FOI responses, scrutiny panels, and internal governance reviews. Tractivity’ s powerful reporting suite enables teams to quickly generate clear, evidence‑based reports for cabinet briefings, public consultations, regulatory submissions, and senior leadership updates, ensuring that complex engagement activity can be communicated with accuracy and confidence.

Simply Stakeholders includes a basic Grievance Management module for logging, categorising, and resolving complaints. However, its audit capabilities are limited when compared with Tractivity. Tractivity is built for public‑sector governance, offering comprehensive, system‑wide activity logging that tracks every engagement, across every topic, project, policy area, and decision‑making process. This level of traceability aligns with the audit, compliance, and transparency standards required in government IT environments

2. Communication & Outreach

When it comes to communication outreach, Tractivity provides a fully integrated, end‑to‑end suite of tools, whereas Simply Stakeholders relies more heavily on external systems and integrations to deliver equivalent functionality.

Tractivity includes native modules for newsletters, event management, and stakeholder communications, all designed to work seamlessly within the platform. Its built‑in newsletter tool allows teams to create, send, and track communications without exporting data or relying on third‑party email systems. The event management module goes further, offering automated RSVP tracking, attendance management, and direct integration with Microsoft Teams, enabling organisations to schedule and manage meetings with internal leaders or community stakeholders in just a few clicks.

Because these capabilities are native to Tractivity, organisations avoid the complexity of APIs, data transfers, and external communication platforms. This not only reduces operational overhead and add‑on costs but also protects data sovereignty, ensuring sensitive stakeholder information always remains securely within the system.

By contrast, Simply Stakeholders offers basic communication tools but typically requires integrations for more advanced outreach such as event workflows, calendar management, or richer communication campaigns. This introduces additional steps, external dependencies, and potential risks around data handling and compliance.

3. Security, permissions and governance

Security is a critical requirement for government bodies and large organisations, and Tractivity delivers enterprise grade protection trusted across the UK and EU public sector. With comprehensive user activity logging, Single Sign On (SSO) and MFA support, and highly granular role based access control (RBAC), Tractivity enables secure collaboration across departments while allowing controlled access for contractors or third party partners without risking accidental data exposure or relying on unvetted external integrations. Its security posture is reinforced through continuous penetration testing, hosting on secure Microsoft Azure data centres, and full alignment with ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certification standards.

Simply Stakeholders meets baseline security expectations through SOC 2 accreditation and standard encryption, but its security model is far less extensive. It lacks the deeper integration options, advanced authentication controls, and fine grained permission structures that government grade systems typically require. Additionally, its reliance on external tools for communication, event workflows, and certain operational functions introduces more touchpoints where data must move between systems, creating additional overhead, potential compliance considerations, and a broader surface area for risk.

In comparison, Tractivity’ s fully integrated architecture keeps sensitive stakeholder data within a single secure environment, offering a level of protection and governance that Simply Stakeholders does not currently match.

4. Platform Accessibility compliance

Tractivity supports organisations across the UK in managing and engaging stakeholders while meeting the compliance and accessibility standards expected in the public sector. Although the platform interface operates in UK English, Tractivity gives Welsh organisations the ability to communicate with stakeholders in both English and Welsh. This ensures full alignment with the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, which require many organisations to provide communications in Welsh and not solely in English. The same multilingual flexibility can also be extended to other languages where needed.

Alongside this, Tractivity provides a fully accessible design that meets WCAG 2.2 Level A standards today, with WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance planned for release in 2026. This ensures that all stakeholder interactions, from surveys to newsletters to event invitations, are delivered in a way that is inclusive and accessible to every user.

The platform is suitable for national, regional and local government bodies, as well as public sector organisations of all sizes across the UK and EU. Tractivity is both GDPR and UK GDPR compliant, simplifying the management of email opt ins, privacy preferences and government aligned stakeholder communications, while keeping all data securely contained within a single system.

Furthermore, all data is securely stored in Microsoft Azure data centres with flexible regional options to ensure compliance with data sovereignty requirements. The software itself holds ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications, underscoring its robust commitment to security and best practices.  

Simply Stakeholders meets basic compliance expectations, offering GDPR aligned data handling, privacy controls and hosting within Microsoft Azure data centres. However, it does not currently support WCAG level accessibility, which is a mandatory requirement for most public sector organisations, nor does it provide built-in multilingual communication capabilities. Both features are standard within Tractivity, making it the more inclusive, future-ready and compliance-aligned choice for organisations with diverse stakeholder groups and statutory communication obligations.

5. AI data privacy and model training

Tractivity takes a security-first approach to AI, offering tools designed to enhance stakeholder engagement workflows without compromising data protection. Its AI Sentiment tool analyses communications in real time, identifying positive, negative or neutral sentiment, while the AI Summarise tool condenses lengthy engagement notes into clear, decision-ready insights that help teams work more efficiently.

Simply Stakeholders also incorporates AI within its platform, including sentiment analysis and AI-generated summaries of engagement records. However, organisations may wish to carry out additional due diligence around data governance. Simply Stakeholders does not publicly clarify whether customer data is used to train its AI models or how sensitive stakeholder information is processed within its AI pipeline. For public sector teams handling personally identifiable information and confidential consultation records, this is an important point to raise directly with their sales or technical team before proceeding.

Tractivity, by contrast, follows a privacy-first model. Customer data is never used to train AI models, ensuring that stakeholder information, engagement records and organisational data remain fully confidential and isolated within each customer environment. This approach gives organisations confidence that their data stays protected, always controlled and compliant.

6. Reporting and deep analysis

Tractivity provides one of the most comprehensive reporting ecosystems available in stakeholder management software. Organisations gain immediate access to a pre-built library of more than 150 reports, covering everything from issue trends and stakeholder sentiment to engagement activity, consultation outcomes and stakeholder mapping. Every report can be exported in all common formats, making it easy to share insights across teams, committees and leadership groups.

Beyond the extensive report library, Tractivity enables organisations to unlock far deeper analysis through its integration with Microsoft Power BI. Clients can access their full raw dataset and design custom dashboards, charts and data tables tailored to their specific reporting needs. Data analysts can work directly within the platform’s environment, giving teams the ability to interrogate any aspect of their engagement activity and generate new insights that go far beyond standard reporting. These dashboards can be shared with colleagues, expanding what is possible in terms of data visibility, strategic planning and evidence-based decision making.

This combination of ready-to-use reporting and advanced analytical capability ensures that organisations can move from data collection to meaningful insight with ease, supporting everything from operational reporting to high-level governance and policy development.

Simply Stakeholders offers a range of standard reports and dashboards that cover core engagement activity. These tools provide useful visibility into interactions, sentiment and stakeholder records, and they support basic export options for sharing information internally.

However, when compared with Tractivity, several important differences become clear. Simply Stakeholders does not offer the same breadth of pre-built reports, nor does it provide the same depth of analytical capability. Its reporting is more limited in scope, and it does not include an equivalent integration that allows organisations to access and analyse their full raw dataset in a tool as powerful as Microsoft Power BI.

This means organisations using Simply Stakeholders may find it harder to produce complex dashboards, cross-departmental insights or detailed analysis required for public sector reporting, consultation evidence or strategic decision making. Tractivity’s combination of an extensive report library, flexible exports and advanced Power BI integration gives it a significant advantage for organisations that rely on robust, data-driven insight.

7. Customer support, onboarding and ongoing development

When comparing Tractivity and Simply Stakeholders in terms of customer support, Tractivity offers far more than software delivery. Every organisation receives a dedicated customer success experience supported by specialists with deep expertise in stakeholder engagement and consultation. The team includes certified practitioners through the UK Consultation Institute, bringing practical knowledge of engagement best practice, regulatory compliance and data governance. This means organisations across government and the private sector benefit from guided, hands-on onboarding, usually completed within a matter of weeks, along with ongoing support that blends technical assistance with strategic advice to help teams adopt Tractivity effectively.

A key advantage for UK and EU organisations is that Tractivity’s entire technical and client support team is based within the UK and EU region. Support is available during your working hours, allowing real-time responses, immediate troubleshooting and rapid implementation of changes. Tractivity also hosts regular events and workshops where clients can meet other users, share experiences and contribute directly to the development of new features.

Customers also have access to an extensive knowledge hub containing past webinars, guidance articles and answers to common questions about Tractivity’s features and functionality.

Simply Stakeholders provides onboarding and customer success support focused on initial setup, and its team serves clients across its target industries. The difference lies in sector-specific depth. Tractivity’s customer success team includes certified practitioners with direct experience advising public bodies and regulated organisations on consultation strategy, UK and EU compliance requirements and data governance. This level of expertise can be particularly valuable for teams navigating complex public sector engagement for the first time.

Another important distinction is location. Simply Stakeholders is primarily based in Australia, with most of its client success and all of its technical team operating in that time zone. For UK and EU organisations, this can result in slower response times and reduced real-time support, as technical actions cannot be implemented immediately in the way Tractivity can deliver.

Tractivity believes that hands-on technical and client support is one of the most critical elements of a successful subscription. If a team is not supported properly and guided through adoption, even the most feature-rich platform will struggle to deliver value. This is where Tractivity consistently stands out.

8. Transparent pricing for subscriptions

When it comes to pricing transparency and overall value, Tractivity stands out clearly from Simply Stakeholders. Tractivity offers a single, all-inclusive subscription priced at just £9,495 (€10,995), which provides access to every module, feature, integration and all future upgrades. There are no hidden extras, no add-on charges and no restrictions on storage, communication volume or the amount of time you spend with your dedicated client success manager, who is based within your UK or EU working time zone. 

Everything your organisation needs for effective stakeholder engagement is included as standard, from surveys and newsletters to event management, webinars and advanced reporting. This approach lets you replace fragmented or siloed communication tools with Tractivity’s fully integrated platform, without worrying about additional licensing or unexpected costs later.

In contrast, Simply Stakeholders does not publish clear pricing. Instead, it states that costs depend on the plan selected, leaving potential customers without a starting point and making it difficult to understand the true investment required. Several core elements, such as a dedicated account manager, API access, basic service SLAs, and quarterly account reviews, are available only on their highest tier. This lack of transparency can create uncertainty early in the buying process, and with their team based primarily in Australia, organisations in the UK and EU will also experience delays in support and implementation.

Beyond pricing clarity, Tractivity is recognised for high user adoption, strong retention and significant time savings. Reports that once took days can now be produced in seconds, allowing teams to focus on meaningful engagement and informed decision-making. The combination of transparent pricing and measurable efficiency gives customers confidence not only in the cost, but in the return on investment from day one

Tractivity: The better choice over Simply Stakeholders

Tractivity stands out as the stronger and more complete stakeholder engagement platform because it delivers everything organisations need in one secure, compliant and fully integrated system. It combines powerful communication tools, an extensive library of more than 150 ready-made reports, advanced analytics through Microsoft Power BI, bilingual communication for Welsh Language Standards and flexible for other languages, WCAG 2.2 accessible design, GDPR and UK GDPR compliance, and a single all-inclusive subscription with no hidden costs. Every feature, from surveys and newsletters to event management, sentiment analysis and stakeholder mapping, is built directly into the platform, ensuring organisations can manage all engagement activity without relying on external tools, add-ons or complex integrations.

In comparison, Simply Stakeholders offers useful core functionality but lacks the depth, breadth and compliance readiness required by many UK and EU public sector organisations. Its reporting is more limited, its pricing is less transparent, it does not currently support WCAG accessibility or built-in multilingual communication, and its support team operates primarily from Australia, reducing real-time assistance for UK and EU clients. 

Tractivity’s UK and EU-based customer success team, certified consultation expertise and hands-on onboarding ensure rapid adoption and long-term value. Together, these strengths make Tractivity a more robust over Simply Stakeholders, it’s a future-ready and dependable choice for organisations that need a comprehensive, compliant and insight-driven stakeholder engagement platform.