Looking at NextRequest? Read this first.
NextRequest earned a strong reputation as a clean public-records portal, and after its acquisition it now lives inside the CivicPlus suite. It remains a solid records tool. Whether it is the right tool for a small government handling FOIA and open meetings together is a different question. Here is the honest comparison.
Where NextRequest fits today
NextRequest is a public-records request portal: intake, tracking, communication with requesters, and document release. It is sold by CivicPlus[1] as one product in a large municipal suite, with flat agency-wide pricing and no per-seat fees. In the public record, small agencies pay $7,300–$13,300 per year[2] [3], and the City of Los Angeles standardized 40 departments on it for $103,000[4].
For a records-only workflow at a mid-size city, that is a workable tool. The gaps show up at the small-government end: the meetings side of compliance is a separate product with a separate price, and redaction is a review-assist, not a finished capability.
Dekree vs. NextRequest, side by side
| Feature | Dekree | NextRequest (CivicPlus) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing published on the website | ||
| Records-request software, documented price | FOIA from $199/mo ($2,388/yr), Starter tier | $7,300–$13,300/yr for small agencies in public records[2] [3] |
| Redaction | Included: permanent, server-side; clerk approves every release | Flags sensitive content for manual review[5] |
| Unlimited users | ||
| One platform for the whole compliance job | Six products a la carte: FOIA, Open Meetings, Records & Retention, Public Document Portal, Reports, and free Payments; full suite capped at $499/mo (Starter) | Separate CivicPlus products, quoted separately |
| Records retention with Michigan DTMB schedules | Included in the suite: every current DTMB local-government schedule built in | Not in the records-request product |
| Public records portal | Hosted portal, or embed the request form and released records into your own website | Hosted portal |
| Drafts your responses with statute citations | Yes: Dekree drafts, you approve | |
| Michigan statute logic built in | Fee worksheet math per MCL 15.234, business-day deadlines with state holidays, statutory fee caps enforced | General-purpose configuration |
| Implementation fee | None | Varies by deal |
| Get all your data back out | Free, any time, no clawback: full export from Settings, stated up front | Governed by your contract; offboarding and any export fees not published |
Competitor figures are deal-specific public contract prices, not a vendor price list. Configurations differ and may include scope the Dekree number does not cover. Ask every vendor for an itemized, five-year quote.
About redaction, and why we agree with CivicPlus on one thing
CivicPlus has published the argument that automated redaction alone is not enough, and that a person must review what goes out the door[5]. On that point, we agree completely. The difference is what happens after the review. In NextRequest’s model, the software flags content and the clerk does the work. In Dekree, the redaction work is done for the clerk: suggested redactions arrive pre-marked with the exemption citation, and the clerk’s job is to review and approve. When they do, the redaction is permanent and server-side. The text is removed from the released file’s content stream, not drawn over it. Nothing is ever released without a human decision. That is not a compromise between speed and safety; it is both.
The one-clerk reality
The strongest reason small governments outgrow a records-only portal is not the portal. It is everything around it. The clerk who answers FOIA requests is the same person posting meeting notices under the 18-hour rule, assembling packets, writing minutes, and applying retention schedules. Dekree is built around that person: one platform with published a la carte prices (dekree.ai/pricing), FOIA from $199/mo, Open Meetings from $199/mo, and the full suite capped at $499/mo for organizations under 5,000 residents. That suite carries the rest of the job too: records retention on the Michigan DTMB schedules, chaptered and searchable meeting video, online fee payments at no added cost, a public portal you can host or embed in your existing website, and a separate meeting workspace for every board, commission, and authority you run. No implementation fee. The migration, including importing your existing request log, is covered in the switch plan.
Who each one is actually for
An honest read. Different tools fit different organizations, and the right answer depends on your size, budget, and how much of the work you want the software to do.
NextRequest (CivicPlus) tends to fit
- Mid-size and large cities standardizing on the broader CivicPlus suite
- Records-only workflows where meetings are handled elsewhere
- Multi-department request routing at enterprise scale
- Agencies outside Michigan that want a general-purpose records portal
Dekree tends to fit
- Michigan townships, villages, cities, and districts, with published pricing under 25,000 residents
- Counties and larger organizations too: the same statute-native workflow on an org-specific quote
- Clerks who handle FOIA and open meetings as one job
- Multi-board organizations: every commission, ZBA, and authority gets its own meetings, notices, minutes, and FOIA routing
- Organizations that want drafting, permanent redaction, online fee payments, and records retention included
- Boards that want the full price published before the first call
Do not take a comparison table’s word for it. Ours included.
The product is public. Watch it run, do the math on your own numbers, and click through the same screens a clerk uses, before you ever book a call.
Common questions
What does NextRequest cost?
CivicPlus does not publish NextRequest pricing. Public records show small agencies paying $7,300–$13,300 per year for flat agency-wide subscriptions, and the City of Los Angeles paying $103,000 for a 40-department enterprise rollout.
Is NextRequest still its own company?
No. NextRequest was acquired by CivicPlus and is sold as part of the CivicPlus product family, alongside its agenda, codification, and archiving products.
How is Dekree’s redaction different?
CivicPlus describes its approach as flagging sensitive content for manual review. In Dekree, redaction is permanent and server-side: the redacted text is removed from the released file itself, the original is preserved in admin-restricted storage, and a clerk approves every release. Nothing goes out without a human decision.
Does NextRequest handle open meetings?
No, it is a records-request product. Meeting agendas, notices, and minutes are separate CivicPlus products with separate pricing. Dekree sells Open Meetings a la carte on the same platform as FOIA, with the full suite capped at $499/mo for organizations under 5,000 residents.
Can we move our data from NextRequest to Dekree, and out again later?
Both directions. Dekree imports your existing NextRequest request log and document archive during onboarding at no implementation fee, so your FOIA history stays searchable. And if you ever leave Dekree, any administrator can download everything the organization has, requests, meetings, minutes, and every file, from Settings at any time, with no export fee and no clawback. Your data comes in easily and leaves easily. That is a deliberate contrast with the common vendor pattern of making exit slow or costly.
Sources
- [1] CivicPlus: NextRequest public-records software product pages, civicplus.com (accessed July 2026)
- [2] Monroe School District 103, WA: NextRequest at $7,300/yr, Washington Secretary of State records-technology grant awards (2025)
- [3] City of Pasco, WA (~80,000 residents): NextRequest at $13,300, grant-funded; same grant register
- [4] NFOIC, "Portal to Compliance": City of Los Angeles NextRequest enterprise deal, $103,000 for 40 departments (~$2,575/dept/yr), purchased without an RFP
- [5] CivicPlus blog, "Avoiding Redaction Mistakes: Why AI Isn’t Enough": CivicPlus describes its redaction as flagging content for manual review
Competitor pricing reflects publicly available procurement documents and published materials as of the date above. Contract pricing varies by configuration; confirm current figures with each vendor. Dekree pricing is published in full at dekree.ai/pricing.