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Belenios
What it is
Belenios is a free, verifiable online voting system for elections and referendums, including scientific-council and sports-association elections. Votes are encrypted so individual choices remain private, subject to the election’s decryption-key setup. Voters can check that their ballots appear in a public ballot box, and anyone can verify that results correspond to those ballots. The hosted web platform supports standard candidate selection and preferential methods including Condorcet, Single Transferable Vote, and Majority Judgment. Weighted votes are available for standard elections. Voters can authenticate with public accounts, Google login, or CAS. The hosted service allows up to 2,500 voters per election and is provided as is, without a guarantee or hotline. Elections cannot be edited after starting: voters and their email addresses cannot be changed. Belenios is also free AGPLv3 software for self-hosting. It supports ranked-choice ballots, anonymous ballots, SSO authentication, and an audit trail.
For and against
For
- Free hosted platform and AGPLv3 software
- Encrypted ballots with public verification
- Supports preferential voting methods
- Anonymous ballots and audit trail
- Self-hosting source code available
Against
- Hosted elections limited to 2,500 voters
- Election voters cannot be changed after start
- Lost trustee key cancels tally
- No hotline support
The verdict
Belenios provides verifiable online elections with several voting methods and authentication choices. Setup constraints, trustee-key responsibility, and the hosted voter limit should be considered before an election begins.
Who it suits
Belenios suits organizations running web elections that need verifiable, anonymous ballots and ranked or preferential voting. It can be self-hosted or used through the hosted platform.
Plans and prices
Belenios hosted platform
up to 2500 voters per election · service provided as is, with no guarantee
Read 8 Oct 2026 · vote.belenios.org
On the record
- Authentication
- The hosted platform supports public accounts, Google login, and CAS authentication.vote.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Election setup limit
- Voters cannot be added and their email addresses cannot be changed after an election starts; the stated remedy is to start the election again.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- High-stakes suitability
- The FAQ says Belenios does not protect against stronger coercion where voters may be forced to disclose credentials or passwords, and describes high-stakes online voting security as an unresolved challenge.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Hosted service limit
- The hosted platform allows up to 2500 voters per election; the site suggests institutional hosting for elections above that limit.vote.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Maintainers
- The free online platform is maintained by Véronique Cortier and Pierrick Gaudry, and the about page says software development moved to a startup independent of the research teams starting in 2025.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Privacy data
- The GDPR page says Belenios processes language and session cookies, email addresses used for voting material and confirmation, encrypted ballots, and connection information and vote dates.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Belenios is a verifiable online voting system for elections and referendums, including elections for scientific councils and sports associations.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Self-hosting
- Belenios is free software licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, and its source code can be downloaded to run a voting server.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Support
- The platform is provided as is, has no hotline, and directs users to its FAQ and discussion mailing list for questions.vote.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Trustee security
- The setup guide recommends trustee-managed shared decryption keys; if a trustee key is lost, the election cannot be tallied and is canceled.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Verifiability
- Voters can check that their ballots appear in the public ballot box, and anyone can verify that the result corresponds to the ballots.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Voting methods
- The hosted platform supports standard candidate selection and preferential elections using Condorcet, Single Transferable Vote, and Majority Judgment.vote.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Voting privacy
- The system encrypts votes so that no one can learn an individual voter's vote, subject to the election's decryption-key setup.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
- Weighted votes
- Weighted votes are supported for standard elections only.vote.belenios.org · read 8 Oct 2026
