Choosing a Software Platform

Before choosing software you need to determine your requirements.  Most Green parties and candidates have the following needs. 

1. A web site.  A couple of pages, a landing page, an about page, an issues page, a contact page, maybe a state maps page, maybe an uncensored news page, maybe a few other pages.  Basically static pages which do not change often.
2. A blog.  An ongoing series of articles.  Each article has its own page.  The list of articles has its own page, with the newest at the top. 
3. Membership.  Members receive emails and can either be paid subscribers, or just free subscribers.  
4. Email tools to send emails out to members. 
5. Nothing else.  It is great to have software which does everything, but then nothing is easy.  If the software only does what is required, and nothing else, then it is quite easy to use. 

I believe that the previous list are the mission critical features.  Here are some other nice features to have. 

1. Multilingual.  At least the web site should support Spanish, ideally any other strong local communities.  The native Americans are very keen to support their own languages. 
2. Instant web sites for candidates and local parties.  Because it is not just the state which needs a website, all the candidates and local parties also need it. In 2020 and early 2021 about 95 candidates did not have a web site.  And the CCC was advising each candidate to have their own bespoke developer.     
3. Curated State news.  Because of the MSM blackout on progressive news, it would be nice to import the news from progressive state media sites, and recommend the best articles. 

So the first thing is to determine your application requirements.  Once that is done, it is much easier to select a software platform.  My analysis of the platforms from this perspective is given below. 

So if you are choosing a new software platform. I have but one request. Do the common sense thing of having at least having one developer on the selection committee. And give them a sizable vote. If none are available, I can help you make these decisions. Even if you have a developer, I am happy to provide a second opinion.