UK political monitoring tools, compared
Seven tools serve UK public affairs teams: the established monitoring providers (Vuelio, Dods, DeHavilland, PoliMonitor), the newer platforms (PolicyMogul, GovConnex), and Emily, an AI agent rather than a monitoring feed. The clearest structural difference across the market: most providers don’t publish pricing; buying usually starts with a demo or consultation call.
Written by the Emily Politics team, so read our row with that in mind. Every claim about another provider comes from their own public website as of July 2026, with sources linked. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@emilypolitics.com and we’ll correct it.
| Tool | What it is | AI capability | Pricing | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emily Politics | AI public affairs agent: monitoring, stakeholder CRM, briefings and drafting through one conversation | The product is the AI agent (38 tools over the parliamentary record), measured task-by-task on the public Westminster Bench | Published: £69 / £149/month, credit-metered; small-team seats on request | Free daily Westminster read, bill tracker, public search API + MCP server |
| Vuelio | Political monitoring across Westminster, the devolved legislatures and the London Assembly, within a wider PR/comms platform | Human-tailored monitoring service | Not published: consultation/quote | Free trial |
| Dods Political Intelligence | Monitoring curated by policy experts, research/briefings, and the Dods People contacts database | "Curated by policy experts and powered by AI" (their wording) | Not published: book a trial | Trial on request |
| DeHavilland | Political monitoring with curated alerts, in-house analysts, devolved coverage (Cymru/Scotland) and an EU arm | "The most powerful technology and AI tools with in-house knowledge" (their wording) | Not published | Free 2-week trial |
| PolicyMogul | Political monitoring and research platform connecting organisations with parliamentarians | AI features including an assistant connector for subscribers | Published: Starter £395/month billed annually (£495 monthly, 1 user) up to Mogul £795-£995/month, as of 27 August 2026 | Free for parliamentarians and their staff |
| PoliMonitor | Fast, personalised political monitoring updates | Monitoring-led | Not published | Demo on request |
| GovConnex | Monitoring, research and stakeholder management, with UK and devolved coverage | "Analyst" AI for research briefs, sentiment analysis and reports | Not published | Demo on request |
The providers in brief
Vuelio folds political monitoring into a broader PR and communications platform: Westminster, the devolved legislatures and the London Assembly, with consultation-tailored alert setup. A fit when one supplier for media and political monitoring matters.
Dods Political Intelligence is the heritage player (founded in 1832) pairing expert-curated monitoring with research support and the Dods People contacts database, backed by a 20-plus consultant team.
DeHavilland leads with analyst-curated intelligence: in-house policy experts shaping alerts and briefings, dedicated Welsh and Scottish services, an EU operation in Brussels, and (with sister brand Forefront Advisers) a claimed 1,200-plus client base.
PolicyMogul connects the two sides of lobbying: organisations publish policy asks, parliamentarians and staff use it free. For subscribers it has added AI features, including a connector that feeds its monitoring into external AI assistants.
PoliMonitor positions on speed and personalisation of monitoring updates, from a Westminster base.
GovConnex is the modern platform play monitoring, research and stakeholder management with an AI “Analyst” for research briefs and sentiment analysis, and full UK plus devolved coverage.
Emily (that’s us) is an AI public affairs agent rather than a monitoring feed: you ask questions in plain English and she searches the parliamentary record, including the transparency datasets most tools skip (donations, lobbying register, ministerial meetings, contracts, ACOBA), writes the briefing or letter, and runs your stakeholder CRM, with citations back to the official record. Don’t take our word for the quality: Emily is measured in public on the Westminster Bench, task-level pass or fail with the methodology published. Pricing is published (£69 / £149/month; small-team seats on request). Emily is self-serve with a 7-day free trial: start your free trial.
Head-to-head
Weighing Emily against one supplier in particular? Each page below covers what that provider sells, what public buyers pay where Contracts Finder shows it, and an honest list of what they do better than us.
Common questions
How much does political monitoring cost in the UK?
Most providers don't publish prices. Of the seven tools compared here, two publish pricing openly: Emily (£69 / £149 per month, with small-team seats arranged on request) and PolicyMogul, whose price list at policymogul.com/pricing starts at £395 a month billed annually (£495 billed monthly) for one user, rising to £795-£995 a month on its Mogul tier, as published on 27 August 2026. The others sell via demo or consultation. Public contract awards on Contracts Finder suggest institutional monitoring contracts typically annualise to £10,000-£12,000 or more a year. Published per-seat pricing also exists in adjacent markets: EU-focused Policy-Insider.AI advertises prices from €129 per user per month.
Is there a free UK political monitoring tool?
Partially. PolicyMogul is free for parliamentarians and their staff. Emily publishes free public surfaces anyone can use: a daily Westminster read, a live bill tracker, a public search API and a free MCP server for AI assistants. Most commercial providers offer time-limited free trials.
What's the difference between political monitoring and an AI public affairs agent?
Monitoring services send you alerts and digests curated from parliamentary activity; you (or their analysts) turn that into briefings, stakeholder plans and drafts. An AI agent like Emily does the downstream work in the same tool: you ask questions in plain English and it searches the record, writes the briefing or letter, tracks your stakeholder engagement, and cites its sources.
Which tools cover the devolved parliaments?
Several do. Vuelio, DeHavilland (via dedicated Cymru and Scotland services), GovConnex and Emily all state coverage of the devolved legislatures alongside Westminster on their websites, and single-nation specialists serve this need too: Newsdirect (Wales), for example, won the EHRC's Wales political monitoring contract in 2025. Check the specific chamber you need against each provider before buying.
Methodology: competitor descriptions and pricing-transparency statements were checked against each provider’s public website in July 2026; PolicyMogul’s published price list was re-checked on 27 August 2026. “Not published” means we could not find pricing on their public site at that time. It may be available on request. Quoted phrases are the providers’ own wording. This page is maintained by Sinatra AI Ltd, the company behind Emily.
On our own data pages, classifications are counted phrases from the official record, never machine-generated stance or evasion scores about named parliamentarians. The policy is published in full: why we count instead of scoring.