Sacramento, CA California Legislature / 2025–26 Session AI-forward, human-led
RTG vs CapitolTrack

RTG vs CapitolTrack.
Here's the whole picture.

Side by side, cell by cell: what each platform ships today, what comes standard, and what CapitolTrack charges extra for. Everything on the RTG side is in production and road-tested across real California sessions. None of it is a roadmap.

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01 Speed to phone
~ minutes
Live capture during session
CapitolTrack lists “real-time alerts”, but outside live session the result lands in a batch. RTG captures it the moment the vote is called.
02 California-only depth
100 %
Of engineering aimed at CA
CapitolTrack is California-only too, but lighter on the advanced data layers. The cross-referenced CalAccess directory and position-over-time tracking are RTG only.
03 Coalition-native
RTG only
Cross-customer whip counts
No other California tool ships whip counts that span separate organizations. Your trade association, your union partner, your nonprofit ally — one shared count, attributed.

What CapitolTrack leaves out. In RTG it comes standard.

Six things you will not find on the other side of the table, at any price.

The vote, while it is still in play.

Floor votes reach your phone minutes after the roll call, during session, not in the next batch.

Who changed their vote.

Positions over time, and the members who added or switched a vote before the record settled.

Whip counts across organizations.

One shared count between your association, your union partner and your nonprofit ally, attributed.

Gut-and-amend, caught at the version.

When a bill's purpose changes between versions, you know which version and what moved.

Who is lobbying whom.

The CalAccess registry cross-referenced: lobbyists, firms, employers and $5K spenders, refreshed daily.

Reports your clients can open, free.

The reporting portal comes with every workspace. No add-on, no bill caps, every seat gets everything.

§ 01
Side-by-side
Twenty-two rows · seven capability groups

The whole picture, cell by cell.

What is on each platform, what comes standard on every RTG seat, what CapitolTrack charges extra for, and where they do not ship the feature at all.

Scroll horizontally if the table is cut off

Capability Real Time Gov California-deep · real-time CapitolTrack Daily-update incumbent
01 Real-time intelligence
Floor vote alert delivery ✓Within minutes of the vote Live capture during session · SMS, push, email ½Claims “real-time alerts” In practice: batched updates · not live during session
Live Activity / chamber state ✓Live chamber state · on-call bills ×Not offered
Multi-channel notification routing ✓SMS · Push · Email · Calendar Per-user, per-priority configurable ½Alerts available Channels not separately specified on pricing
Mobile companion app ✓The Pulse · iOS + Android ×Web-only
02 AI & search
AI bill & analysis summaries ✓On every long bill + committee analysis Purpose · Support · Opposition · Fiscal Impact ×Not offered
Position-over-time tracking ✓Position Matrix Every snapshot side-by-side · Switched filter ½Current position only No diff view between hearings
03 California-deep data
California-only depth ✓Specialized by design 100% of engineering aimed at California ✓California specialist
Full CalAccess lobbyist registry ✓Bills → orgs → lobbyists → spenders Every filer, daily refresh, fully cross-referenced ×Not offered
Org Directory · full footprint per org ✓Every Support / Oppose / Switched, drillable ×Not offered
04 Team workflow
Workspaces & bill assignments ✓Per-client tags, positions, priorities ½Add'l user $30/mo Per-seat add-on, not native workspaces
Votecards · team whip mode ✓Anticipated-vs-actual scoring Attributed positions · timestamped notes ×Not offered · spreadsheet-and-email
Cross-customer coalition whip counts ✓Only on RTG Separate accounts · one shared count ×Not offered
05 Reporting & output
Branded client report portal ✓Included Auto-publish reports · no extra fee ½Add-on: $67–$125 / mo Per their public pricing page
HTML & PDF reports ✓Included ✓All tiers
06 Where CapitolTrack wins
Campaign finance & contribution tools ½Fundraiser calendar only Events sit on the workspace calendar. No contribution limits, client giving history or candidate lookup. ✓ContributionTrack $169 / mo on top · limit calculator, client giving history, candidate and member campaign lookup
State budget tracking ×Not offered Budget bills track like any other bill, but the budget documents themselves are not indexed. ✓BudgetTrack $199 / yr on top · budget items, funder codes, budget documents and agendas
07 Pricing & trust
Public-facing pricing ✓$100 / $85 / $70 per seat, per month 1–4 · 5–9 · 10+ seats. $85 / $72 / $60 on annual. Unlimited bills on every one of them. Published and self-serve, so you can start without talking to anyone. ½$97 / $139 / $189 per month Priced by bill cap rather than by seat: 50 bills · 100 bills · unlimited with two users. Extra users $30 / mo. Every tier routes to “Contact Sales”.
Unlimited bill tracking ✓Every seat, every plan Bills are never metered ½Top tier only Lite 50 bills · LitePlus 100 · unlimited at $189 / mo for two users. At a single seat, RTG annual is $85 for unlimited bills; CapitolTrack Lite is $97 for fifty.
Everything in one plan ✓No add-ons Every capability on every seat ×Three products, plus add-ons BudgetTrack and ContributionTrack priced separately · publishing reports to your site $67–$125 / mo
Month-to-month option ✓Monthly or annual ×Annual commitment “Price reflects annual commitment” on every tier
14-day trial · no credit card ✓Full product, real data ×Demo-gated
Engineer-led support ✓One Sacramento line (916) 241-3436 · team that ships features ½24/7 customer support Standard support model
§ 02
What changes for your team
Three concrete scenarios
Day-to-day, in practice

Different tools, different workdays.

CapitolTrack is a real option with decades of California legacy behind it. RTG is the option built for live, California advocacy work. Here's what that looks like in your day.

Scenario 01

The 11:14 floor vote

Other tools: Vote called at 11:14am. CapitolTrack lists “real-time alerts” but in practice the result lands in a daily batch, usually next morning. Eighteen hours after your board call ended, the decision was made in a vacuum.

With RTG

RTG: SMS lands at 11:17am. The 1pm board call starts with you walking in knowing the outcome and the breakdown.

Scenario 02

The org that switched sides

Other tools: Statewide Hospitals Coalition flipped from Support to Neutral between hearings. The current position shows; the change between snapshots doesn't. Buried in two PDF analyses you'd have to read cover to cover.

With RTG

RTG: Position Matrix flags it the moment the new analysis drops. You call the GA director before your competitor does.

Scenario 03

The coalition whip count

Other tools: Your trade association, two union partners, and a nonprofit ally each maintain whip counts. Three spreadsheets in three Dropboxes. CapitolTrack does not ship cross-customer coalition mode. Reconciling takes an afternoon.

With RTG

RTG: One shared whip count. Cross-customer coalition mode. Everyone's positions attributed and timestamped. Reconciliation: zero minutes.

§ 03
The next 14 days
Trial-first · engineer-led · decision day at the end

What actually happens, day by day.

The 14-day trial is the migration. You don't commit to anything before you've seen RTG carry real California work alongside your existing tool. Engineer-led from day one — no implementation specialist tier, no third-party consultancy.

Day 0

Kickoff · 60-min call

An RTG engineer walks you through the workspace and confirms what we'll seed into the trial: which bills to import as a sample, what your team looks like, how you currently work. No salesperson, no scripted demo. The person who builds it.

Day 1

Sample bills imported

You export a tracked-bill list from your current tool (the only part you do yourself — typically under an hour). An RTG engineer imports a representative sample with positions, tags, and attributed notes intact. Your trial workspace is ready by end of day.

Days 2–13

Parallel run + workflow alignment

You work in RTG alongside your current tool, on real California bills. Week one includes a live workflow-alignment session covering the day-to-day differences — how Position Matrix replaces flipping between PDFs, how Votecards replaces the shared whip spreadsheet. Same engineer is your contact through the whole trial.

Day 14

Decision day

Three honest options: walk away clean (workspace freezes, your data preserved for 30 days), continue monthly (carry on with what you've imported), or commit to annual (the full portfolio import + 30-day guided onboarding kicks in). No call-with-success-manager dance.

Day 14, two paths

Continue light, or go all in.

Monthly

Continue with what you've imported.

Keep the sample bills you've been working with on the trial. Add more as you go — tracking new bills is a one-click action. Switch to annual any time and unlock the full portfolio import.

  • $100 / user / mo
  • Same product, same features
  • Cancel anytime
Annual Recommended

Engineer imports your full portfolio.

Your full portfolio brought over from your current tool — positions, tags, priorities, attributed notes intact. 30-day guided onboarding window with the same engineer through the whole arc.

  • $85 / user / mo · saves 15%
  • Full portfolio import included
  • Migration help across the first month
§ 04
Built to be left
Lock-in is a competitor's problem
Data portability principles

If we don't earn it, we don't keep it.

The reason switching from a legacy tool feels hard isn't because the work is complex. It's because the incumbents were designed to be sticky. CSV exports buried four menus deep. Position history attached to your account, not your data. Migration tools that don't exist.

We took the opposite stance: RTG is built to be left. Not because we want you to. Because a tool that can't be left is a tool you stop trusting.

  1. 01
    Full CSV export — engineer-run on request Tracked bills, positions, history, team data, attributed notes — everything you put in, you can take out. Self-serve export is on the roadmap; until then, an engineer runs it for you within a business day.
  2. 02
    30-day data preservation Cancel anytime — your workspace freezes immediately, but your data sticks around for 30 days in case you change your mind.
  3. 03
    Month-to-month available No annual lock-in required. Annual saves 15%, but month-to-month is a real option, not a hidden one.
  4. 04
    Scale seats up or down without losing data Drop your seat count anytime. Your tracked bills, positions, and AI history all stay intact — we don't paywall the data you already entered.
§ 05
Switcher questions
The ones we hear from teams switching tools

The questions switchers actually ask.

Not theoretical concerns — real ones, from real conversations with teams moving off CapitolTrack or spreadsheet-and-email workflows.

No, as long as your current tool lets you export it. An RTG engineer handles the import for you: you hand us the export from your current tool, we land it in RTG. Positions, tags, priorities, attributed notes all come over.

What doesn't come over cleanly: deeply customized tag taxonomies that don't have a 1:1 equivalent in RTG. We resolve those during Day 3 (workflow alignment) so nothing gets lost in translation.

What we have today: every California bill from 2019 onwards — every position, every committee analysis, every vote — loaded, indexed, and queryable from day one.

Pre-2019? Not in RTG yet — but it's on the roadmap. Backfilling California's earlier sessions is on our list, and every RTG customer can see the roadmap from inside the product. If pre-2019 history is critical to your work today, mention it on the kickoff call — customer demand is what moves priorities.

Strongly recommended. The 14-day trial overlaps with your existing contract on purpose. Most switchers run parallel for 2–3 weeks, then cancel their old tool once they're confident RTG carries the daily workflow.

The entire trial period is the parallel-run window by design — we don't ask you to commit until day 14, and even then "continue monthly" is an honest option.

CapitolTrack is the California legacy — reliable bill tracking, daily updates, established support. Light on AI, no mobile app, no live vote capture during session, no cross-referenced lobbyist directory or coalition tools. Right if you want the established CA-only incumbent.

RTG is built for live California advocacy work. Vote capture within minutes during session, full CalAccess directory (cross-referenced), position-over-time tracking, and cross-customer coalition whip counts that don't exist elsewhere. Right if California is your primary focus and live timing matters.

It's real. We've seen it. The most common pattern: one or two on the team push the switch, others are sceptical until they see Day 3 of the migration. The training session covers exactly the differences from their current daily workflow — not generic feature demos.

For teams of 5+, we offer a second training session at the two-week mark to address the specific friction points the team has actually hit in practice, rather than theoretical ones.

Start anyway. The trial runs alongside your current contract, an RTG engineer builds your workspace while it runs, and your team is working in RTG before the old contract ends. Nothing is paid twice: your first RTG invoice lands when you say so, and where a contract end date is close, we set billing to start after it.

The migration is ours to do, not yours. You hand over the export, we land it, and the switch happens on a day you pick. The full switching page walks through it step by step.

There isn't one. No credit card to start, the full product unlocked for 14 days, cancel anytime, and RTG is built to be left — every exportable field comes with you if you go.

RTG is road-tested. Not a demo, not a pre-release, not a preview of something still being built: three-plus years of live California sessions, on real deadlines, in the hands of teams doing the actual work. It's built by engineers from Cirkadia, a studio that has shipped production software for 30 years. Every headline capability on this site is in production, not in development, and where something of ours is still being built we say so and put it on the roadmap where you can watch it move. We would rather be judged on what runs today than on what's promised for next year.

What we trade on: shipping speed, modern UX, and a feature set built directly from Capitol client conversations — months of development, not years. The same lean team you'd talk to about a bug today is the team that shipped the feature you used yesterday.

Try RTG free for 14 days.

No credit card. Real California bills. Real votes. Full RTG, unlocked, for two weeks.

Start free trial → Book a walkthrough
One phone line (916) 241-3436 · Sacramento
60-min walkthrough With the engineers who built it
Customer-referred Most new customers come from another customer.