"You can export your data" is one sentence standing in for five promises: what's included, in what format, through what interface, with whose name attached, and how fast. Most vendors mean the first clause and let you assume the rest.
Checked 22 August 2026, against Canny.io's own export tooling and the EU Data Act's published export requirement, both cited below.
This page is one part of a larger guide. For the whole subject in one place, see what feedback tools actually cost.
What is "you can export your data" actually promising?
Strictly, that a button or an API exists. That is all. It does not promise the file is complete, that the format is reusable, that reaching it takes an afternoon rather than an engineer, that names survive the trip, or that it happens on a timeline you can rely on. A vendor can say it in good faith and still leave every one of those five questions unanswered, because the sentence was built to close a sales objection, not to answer them.
Export what: posts, or the whole conversation?
The most common gap is scope. A feature request is rarely just a title; it is a title plus every comment, vote, status change and reply that accumulated under it, often over years. An export carrying only the title is not a smaller copy of that record. It is a different, much thinner record wearing the same file extension.
Canny.io is the export we have opened, and it is the archetype of this exact gap: its CSV export carries post data only, no comments. Getting comments out requires calling Canny.io's own JSON API instead of clicking the export button, a materially different task for a non-technical owner. Canny.io's own public board carries open, unshipped requests for "Export Board Data" and "Export users", so the gap is on the record rather than hidden. Read your export file before you need it walks through testing this against your own account in ten minutes. We have not opened every vendor's file. Test your own.
In what format: structured data, or something that only looks like it?
A CSV of rendered text and a CSV of structured data can look identical in a spreadsheet and behave differently the moment you move them anywhere else. Structured data carries a consistent set of fields, in a form another system could import: a post ID, a status, a timestamp in one format throughout. Rendered text is prose dumped into columns, statuses spelled out as sentences and dates written however the page happened to show them, none of which a script can reliably parse back out.
A PDF is not an export at all, in the sense that matters here. It is a snapshot for reading, not data for reuse, and a vendor that hands you one has answered a different question to the one you asked.
Through what: a button, or an API you'd need to write code against?
This decides whether an export is something a non-technical owner can do, or something that needs an engineer. A settings-page button is available to anyone who can log in; an API needing a token, a script and an understanding of pagination is unreachable in practice to most people running a support programme. Canny.io again: the button gets you posts, the API gets you comments. Ask which of your data sits behind which door.
Including who said it?
Author identity is the detail that most easily disappears on the way out, because it matters less to the vendor's export logic than the content of the post itself. Without it, a vote is a number with nobody behind it, and a comment is a sentence nobody can be shown to have written. Ask whether it survives the export, not just whether the export exists.
How fast, and can they refuse?
Here you are relying on something other than a vendor's goodwill, though on less than the popular version of this suggests. The EU Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025, and it caps the switch away from a data processing service at 30 calendar days. That month starts after a notice period the contract may set at up to two months, and at least another 30 calendar days have to follow it for retrieving whatever is left. No vendor in this category mentions any of that in its own marketing or documentation. The EU Data Act gives you three windows, not one deadline sets out all three and how to put them to a vendor. We are not lawyers and neither page is legal advice; whether a feature request board is a data processing service in the Act's sense is a judgement we are not qualified to make, and nothing stops you asking a vendor what periods its own contract states.
the mandatory maximum transitional period of 30 calendar days, to be initiated after the maximum notice period referred to in point (d)
Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, Article 25(2)(a)
| Question | What a bad answer looks like |
|---|---|
| Export what? | A file of post titles, with comments left out or held behind a separate API |
| In what format? | A PDF, or a CSV of prose rather than consistent, reusable fields |
| Through what? | An API only, with no button a non-technical owner could use |
| Including who said it? | Author identity dropped, anonymised, or not carried across |
| How fast, and can they refuse? | No notice period and no transitional period they can point to in writing |
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What should you actually ask before you sign up?
You cannot test an export you do not yet have an account to produce, so the questions move earlier, into the sales conversation. Ask, in writing, whether the export includes comments as well as posts, whether it is structured data or rendered text, whether it needs an API call or a plain button, and what notice period and transitional period their contract sets out. A vendor with a complete export answers in one message; a vendor without one goes quiet or names the missing part, and either answer is useful before you have paid anything.
Already a customer somewhere? Read your export file before you need it is the version of this test you can run today, on the account you already have.
Where does this leave Docket?
Docket does not have an export button, because there is nothing separate to export. Every bug report, feature request and comment is a Markdown file, committed to your own repository, from the day it is submitted. There is no second copy in a database that you would need to ask a vendor to hand over, in a format they chose, on a timeline they set. git clone gives you the whole thing, on any day, answering all five questions at once by making the underlying question not apply.
That is not a claim that Docket does more than a tool built purely for exporting; it is narrower software, on purpose. It is a claim about where the data physically lives, and the honest answer is that it never had to leave.
Frequently asked questions
What does "you can export your data" actually promise?
That a button or an API exists to produce a file. It does not promise the file is complete, that the format is reusable, that reaching it needs no engineering time, that author identity survives, or that it arrives within any deadline. Each is a separate question worth asking directly.
Does Canny.io's export include comments?
No. Canny.io's CSV export contains post data only. Comments require a separate call to its JSON API rather than the export button. Canny.io's own public board carries open, unshipped requests from customers asking for full board and user data export.
What does the EU Data Act require from an export?
Not an export within 30 days of asking, which is the usual misreading. Since 12 September 2025 it has required a switching contract to set out three periods in sequence: a notice period of up to two months, then a transitional period of at most 30 calendar days for the port itself, then a retrieval window of at least 30 calendar days. Whether a feature request board is a data processing service in the Act's sense is a judgement we are not qualified to make. This is not legal advice; ask a lawyer.
How do I check this before I've even signed up?
Ask, in writing: does the export include comments as well as posts, is it structured data rather than rendered text or a PDF, does it need an API call or a plain button, and what notice period and transitional period does the contract set out. A precise question gets a precise answer.
Does Docket need its own export feature?
No. Every post, bug report and comment in Docket is a Markdown file committed to your own repository from the start, so there is no separate database copy to request on a schedule. git clone gives you everything, comments included, on any day.