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CleanSpot vs FixMyStreet

These are not the same kind of product. FixMyStreet is a routing service: it works out which council owns a problem and sends the report there. CleanSpot does that automatically, and then does everything that happens next. Claims about FixMyStreet below are sourced and dated.

Last updated: 2026-08-29

The short version

  • CleanSpot routes reports to the right council automatically, from the coordinates: no postcode, no council picker, accurate down to the parish.
  • FixMyStreet stops when the report is sent. Its own FAQ states that updates posted on a report "are not forwarded to the council".
  • CleanSpot treats the report as the start: volunteers, crews, scheduled cleanup events, before-and-after proof, and a recurrence history when a site is dumped on again.
  • CleanSpot is a social network, connections, direct messages, groups, comments, mentions, because a cleanup is organised by people who need to reach each other.
  • FixMyStreet.com covers the UK. Of the seven sites on its open-source platform, none is in Portugal.

Routing: coordinates, not postcodes

FixMyStreet asks for a UK postcode and identifies the responsible body from it. That is useful, and it is the core of the product.

CleanSpot never asks. The moment a report is created, its coordinates are resolved against imported administrative polygons in PostGIS, and the report is tagged with the municipality, and the sub-municipal unit, the freguesia or ward, that actually contains that point. It then appears in that authority inbox with no routing decision by the reporter at all.

That is more accurate than the phone can manage alone. Handset reverse-geocoders drift near boundaries: ours corrects for the case where the device reported "Lisboa" for a point that is actually in Loures. A report filed 40 metres inside a neighbouring council goes to the neighbouring council, which is the one that has to clear it.

What happens after the report: the category gap

This is the real difference, and it is not a matter of degree.

The FixMyStreet FAQ is explicit that report updates "are not forwarded to the council" and are "intended as a place for residents to discuss local problems". There is no facility for organising a cleanup and no gamification.

On CleanSpot the report opens a lifecycle. Anyone can volunteer to clean a spot. Several people can clean it together as a crew and all of them get credit. Cleanups close with before-and-after photos and a server-rendered keepsake card. If the site is dumped on again, reopening it attaches the new evidence to the same location rather than starting a fresh complaint, which is what builds the recurrence history that actually changes a decision about bins, collection frequency or signage.

The social layer

Cleanups are organised by people, and people need to reach each other. CleanSpot ships the whole apparatus rather than pointing at Facebook.

  • Connections and direct messages: with replies, reactions, unsend, and message requests from people you are not connected to
  • Groups with their own feed, posts, announcements and challenges, and a spatial identity so nearby groups are discoverable
  • Cleanup events with RSVPs, invites, private events by join code, and a wrap-up recording waste collected and attendance
  • Comments with @mentions on reports, events and group content
  • Group chats attached to events, so a crew coordinates in the app rather than in a WhatsApp thread nobody can find later

AI that does work, not demos

  • Photograph the problem and vision AI suggests the title, description, severity and, for civic issues, the category. You edit what you get, and a persistent undo restores your own text.
  • Any report can be read in the viewer own language. "See translation" renders title and description in the reader language, cached server-side so the second reader pays nothing. A Greek report becomes legible to a Portuguese neighbour.
  • Duplicate detection at submission: report something already pinned within 15 metres and the app offers to add your photo to the existing report rather than fragmenting the evidence.

Built for the person actually standing there

  • The citizen app is in 30 languages, kept in step with each release
  • In-app turn-by-turn directions to a spot, plus handoff to Apple Maps, Google Maps or Waze
  • An offline queue: report with no signal and it submits when connectivity returns, including before you have an account
  • Photo GPS cross-checking, so a picture taken on site does not get filed at your kitchen table
  • EcoPoints on a server-authoritative ledger, six ranks, badges and leaderboards scoped by area and time window. That is the reason people come back rather than report once

For the municipality

Both have a paid council product. SocietyWorks publishes FixMyStreet Pro pricing openly, which is unusual in this market and worth crediting: Essential £15,000/year, Advanced £30,000, Premium £46,000, Premium Plus £56,000, with tailored bands for district councils from £5,000–£7,000 and £20/month for town and parish councils.

The CleanSpot dashboard covers triage across your whole territory, assignment to internal employees or external contractors, a kanban board and a map, analytics computed in your own timezone, and configurable email reports with cadences from five-minute alerts to monthly summaries. Permissions are capability-based rather than three fixed job titles, and access is scoped to your boundary.

The structural difference is what arrives. Because the citizen app is free, public and useful on its own, reports typically already exist in a territory before the council is a customer, so there is no adoption campaign to fund before the data starts.

Where FixMyStreet is stronger

One thing, and it is real: FixMyStreet forwards a report to the responsible UK council whether or not that council pays for anything. CleanSpot reaches a municipal inbox when that municipality subscribes; without one, a report is a public, photographed, located record and a call to neighbours rather than something a council is obliged to receive.

If your only goal is a statutory report to a UK authority, that matters. If you want the problem visible, the evidence accumulating and people able to act on it, that is the gap CleanSpot exists to fill.

Sources

Is FixMyStreet available in Portugal?

Not as of 28 August 2026. mySociety lists seven active sites on the FixMyStreet platform: Croatia, Kosovo, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and Australia. The code is open source so a Portuguese deployment is possible, but none is running. CleanSpot works in Portugal today.

Do I have to know which council is responsible?

Not on CleanSpot. The report is matched to the municipality and parish containing its coordinates automatically, using administrative polygons rather than a postcode lookup.

Are both free for citizens?

Yes. FixMyStreet is free to report with. CleanSpot is free for citizens permanently, with no ads and nothing to buy in the app.

Can I organise a cleanup on FixMyStreet?

No. Its FAQ describes report updates as a place for residents to discuss problems, and they are not forwarded to the council. CleanSpot has scheduled events with RSVPs, crews, group chats and a wrap-up recording what was collected.