POLYAS
POLYAS provides online and live voting for elections, meetings and organizational decisions.
What POLYAS is
POLYAS provides online and live voting for elections, meetings and organizational decisions. Its Online Voting Manager supports ballot creation, electoral-roll management, election scheduling and real-time turnout viewing. Organizers can run a free test election with up to five test voters before the actual election. Live Voting supports meeting votes and elections with remote participation, showing results after voting closes. Self-service options include custom logos, voter groups, ballot weighting, email reminders and iFrame embedding for Live Voting or CORE 3 online voting. POLYAS says voting data is stored and processed within the European Union. It describes an architecture that separates identifying information from electronic ballots and anonymizes vote counting; the company says CORE 2.5.0 meets Common Criteria protection profile requirements. The free Standard online voting plan covers up to 50 voters with CORE 3 Base, but excludes features and service. Listed paid plans start at €50 once, with voter-count pricing applying. Projects involving more than 20,000 people should contact service.
Good
- Free test election supports up to five test voters
- Turnout can be viewed in real time
- Supports remote participation in Live Voting
- Voting data is stored and processed in the EU
Watch out
- Standard plan excludes features and service
- Paid plans have voter-count pricing
- Projects over 20,000 people require contacting service
Who it suits
POLYAS suits organizations holding online elections or live meeting votes, including those needing remote participation or embedded voting. The free Standard plan is limited to 50 voters and excludes features and service.
Verdict
POLYAS covers both online elections and live meeting votes, with a free test option and a limited free plan. Check voter-count pricing and excluded features before choosing a paid option.
Plans and prices
From POLYAS's own pricing page, checked 15 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (Online Voting) | Free | up to 50 voters · candidate and standard voting |
| Certified (Online Voting) | Priced on request | for elections requiring certification · CORE certified system |
| Live Voting | Priced on request | meeting and event voting · price calculated through project pricing |
| Verifiable (Online Voting) | Priced on request | for security-critical elections · individually verifiable system |
The facts
Each one read from POLYAS's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Automatic counting
- POLYAS automatically counts votes and provides election results after voting ends.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Ballot creation
- Administrators can create candidate, list and other ballot types online and configure vote rules.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Ballot secrecy
- POLYAS separates voter eligibility data from the ballot box and anonymizes the voter before vote submission.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Customization
- Listed self-service features include custom logos, voter groups, ballot weighting, email reminders, and iFrame integration.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Data residency
- POLYAS says voting data is stored and processed within the European Union.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Documentation
- The Help Center contains guides for setup, features, authentication, communication, customization, design, rights management and results.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Election privacy
- POLYAS describes its voting architecture as separating personal identifying information from electronic ballots and anonymizing vote counting.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Election scheduling
- Organizers set the voting period and send personalized invitations when the election starts.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Electoral roll
- Eligible voters can be entered manually or uploaded from an Excel spreadsheet.checked 15 Oct 2026
- External authentication
- Independent documentation reports support for LDAP and single sign-on authentication integrations.checked 15 Oct 2026
- iFrame integration
- Live Voting and CORE 3 elections can be embedded in another website or event portal with a domain restriction.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Integration
- The iFrame feature can embed Live Voting or CORE 3 online voting in a website, event portal, or other system.checked 5 Oct 2026
- ISO certification
- POLYAS GmbH holds ISO/IEC 27001:2017 certification for development, operation and support of online-election platforms, valid through 11 October 2026.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: hosted infrastructure
- Critics cited by Wikipedia object that elections run on company-managed servers instead of infrastructure controlled by organizers.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: maintenance access
- During monthly Online Voting Manager maintenance, administrators cannot log in, edit projects or view or download results, although voting remains available.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: pricing transparency
- Independent reviewers characterize POLYAS pricing as opaque, relatively expensive and prone to higher totals when add-on features are included.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: proprietary software
- POLYAS is proprietary rather than open source, and critics say unavailable source code limits independent auditing.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: sealed elections
- After an election is sealed and paid, its configuration cannot be changed.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: setup time
- The same comparison says configuration can require sales contact and take days rather than minutes.checked 15 Oct 2026
The company
- Company founding
- The company was spun out from Micromata and POLYAS GmbH was created in 2012.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Company history
- POLYAS says its first online election took place in Finland in 1996 and that POLYAS GmbH was created as a corporate spin-off in 2012.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Company size
- LinkedIn lists POLYAS Software für Online-Wahlen as having 11–50 employees.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Founded
- 2012checked 28 Sep 2026
- Headquarters
- LinkedIn lists the headquarters at Marie-Calm-Straße 1-5, Kassel, Germany.checked 15 Oct 2026
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