COMPARED
Loomio is a decision-making tool for cooperatives, nonprofits, boards, unions and distributed teams. Discussions happen in threads, and move towards decisions through polls and proposals: dot votes, ranked choice, consent proposals with agree, disagree, abstain and block. It is open source and made by a worker-owned cooperative in New Zealand.
True Causes comes earlier in the same story. Before a group decides what to do, it has to agree on what the problem is. True Causes lets the whole group map its causes, so that the decisions that follow are aimed at a root rather than a symptom.
| Loomio | True Causes | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | What do we decide? Do we agree to this proposal? | What causes what? Which causes are deepest? |
| What people do | Discuss in threads; vote in polls and proposals | Everyone writes causes alone; the group then judges one pair at a time: does this cause significantly influence that one? |
| What comes out | A recorded decision with its discussion | A map of causes, deepest first, with every disagreement kept on it; then actions judged against the deepest causes, and the plan the room chose, if one won every comparison |
| Decision rule | Chosen per poll: consent, majority, ranked choice and others | A link counts at three quarters of the votes cast; a split is published as disputed |
| Names | Members discuss under their names | Nobody is named inside a room |
| Open source | Yes; can be self-hosted | Hosted, not open source. The results are open: a public room’s map, every claim (JSON) and every judged pair with its vote counts (CSV) can be read and downloaded without an account |
| Voting | Polls and proposals of many kinds; anonymous voting optional; quorum and vote share settings | Every vote is anonymous; a link counts at three quarters of the votes cast, by a panel with a quorum |
| Notifications | In-app and email | Email invitations, and reminders the steward sends to members who have not acted |
| Integrations and API | Slack, Teams, Discord, Matrix and others; an API | An API through which members take part under the same rules; no chat integrations |
| Video | None built in | An optional video call per group (Jitsi), at Clarify and Structure; no accounts, not recorded |
| Moderation | Group admins | An optional AI reading before a card or turn posts; if it reads as an attack on a person, the author alone is told and decides |
For the ongoing business of a member-run organisation: proposals, policies, who does what, decisions people can find again later.
When a decision keeps being made and the problem keeps coming back. Map the causes first, judge actions against the deepest ones, and compare plans made of them. A plan the room chooses is its recommendation; adopting it stays with your usual decision process, Loomio included.
Two of its other kinds of map reach into the work before a decision. Weighing options has the group settle what a good choice must achieve, then scores each option against those criteria. Steps in order works out what must be done before what, for a plan or a roll-out. Neither records a decision; that stays with Loomio, or whichever process the group decides in.
Checked in September 2026. Product names belong to their owners. If anything here about another product is out of date or unfair, write to hello@mg.truecauses.org and we will correct it.
All comparisons · Formats, drawn · Why True Causes · Try it in five minutes