Donorbox is one of the most widely used online giving tools for small and mid-sized nonprofits, because it is quick to set up and its Standard plan has no subscription. The trade-off is a platform fee on every gift, and as organisations grow, three questions usually start a search for alternatives: can we stop paying a percentage on each donation, do we need a proper donor CRM rather than a forms tool, and would a larger platform raise more online?
This page answers those questions with each vendor’s published pricing, read on 18 September 2026. It separates the alternatives into giving tools that sit alongside your CRM and full platforms that replace it, puts the same $100 gift through each one, and explains what leaving Donorbox involves. If the reason you are looking is that you cannot see which donors need attention, a switch may not be the fix: Gratefully works from Donorbox exports on a free plan and can show you that first.
How we put this together. Prices and fees come from each vendor’s pricing page and help centre on 18 September 2026, read from India and shown as published. The per-gift figures are our arithmetic on those rates for a $100 card gift where your organisation absorbs the fees. We have not run campaigns on these platforms. Where a vendor publishes no price, we say so.
What Donorbox costs today
Donorbox’s pricing page lists three plans:
- Standard, free: 2.95% platform fee on donation forms, fundraising pages, crowdfunding and organisation peer-to-peer; 3.95% on event tickets, memberships and supporter peer-to-peer. Five team logins.
- Pro, $150 a month: 1.75% and 2%, ten logins, with a yearly discount the page does not quantify.
- Premium, on request: 1.6% and 2%, thirty logins, and free migration of recurring donors.
These are Donorbox’s own fees. You also pay Stripe or PayPal, which Donorbox lists at 2.2% + 30¢ for Stripe cards at the US registered nonprofit rate and 1.99% + 49¢ for PayPal. Add-ons are priced separately in its help centre: Mailchimp $8 a month, QuickBooks $50, Salesforce NPSP $50, Little Green Light $50, employer gift matching $40, and text-to-give from $19. Donorbox CRM is a separate product with no published price. Several ranking pages still quote older Donorbox fees and a $139 Pro plan; the figures above are the ones on its page today. Our Donorbox pricing guide has the full detail.
The same $100 gift on each platform
| Platform | Type | You receive from a $100 card gift | Subscription |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donorbox Standard | Giving tool | $94.55 | None |
| Zeffy | Giving tool | $100.00 (donors asked for an optional contribution) | None |
| Givebutter, tips on | Giving tool with free CRM | $100.00 (donors offered a tip) | None; Plus from $29 a month |
| Givebutter, tips off | Giving tool with free CRM | $93.80 | None |
| Fundraise Up | Giving tool | Not published | Performance-based, by demo |
| Funraise, Free plan | Giving tool and CRM | $91.50 | None under $1 million a year |
| Raisely | Giving and peer-to-peer | Free with donor tips, or a 4% flat fee plus processing | Pro US$119 a month |
| Keela | Donor CRM | $97.50 | From $164 a month billed annually |
| Little Green Light | Donor CRM | $97.50 | From $45 a month |
| Bloomerang Fundraising | CRM and giving platform | $95.75 | Giving Platform from $242 a month |
Keela, Little Green Light and the Donorbox rows assume Stripe’s nonprofit rate of 2.2% + 30¢, which you apply for. Funraise’s figure uses its published 5% platform fee and 2.9% + 60¢ processing. Bloomerang’s uses its published 3.95% + $0.30 card rate for Bloomerang Fundraising forms. On every platform, donors can usually choose to cover fees, which lifts what you receive and moves the cost to them.
Giving tools that sit alongside your CRM
1. Givebutter: free, if donors can tip
Givebutter charges “0% platform fees across all campaign types when tips are enabled”, and covers processing too under what it calls the Givebutter Guarantee. With tips off, “a flat 3% platform fee applies” plus 2.9% + 30¢ on cards. It includes a free CRM with unlimited contacts and users, auctions, events, peer-to-peer and text-to-donate. Givebutter Plus, from $29 a month billed annually for 250 contacts, adds workflows, texting, custom reports and QuickBooks. Two caveats: accounts created before 9 September 2025 stay on Legacy pricing, and payouts are withdrawn manually rather than paid automatically. Donorbox is on Givebutter’s list of platforms you can migrate recurring donors from. Our Donorbox vs Givebutter comparison works through every setting.
2. Zeffy: no fees to the nonprofit at all
Zeffy’s pricing page says “Our price is $0” and that it “covers all transaction & credit card fees”. It is funded by asking donors for an optional contribution at checkout, and says that on average two in three donors contribute, which is a vendor claim. Donations, ticketing and memberships are free, and Zeffy’s donor management page describes a donor database with no paid contact tier, citing a ceiling of 1,000,000 contacts and 600,000 emails a month. For a small organisation whose main goal is to stop losing a percentage of every gift, it is the most direct swap. The cost, as with Givebutter’s tips, is borne by donors who choose to contribute.
3. Fundraise Up: for larger online programmes
Fundraise Up advertises “Performance-based pricing. Zero risk.” and “No contracts. No platform fees. No hidden fees.”, but publishes no fee figure; you request a demo. It claims 82% of donors cover processing fees, a vendor figure. It is aimed at organisations with meaningful online revenue that want optimised checkout and recurring upgrades rather than a free tool. Our Fundraise Up vs Donorbox comparison covers the detail, and Fundraise Up pricing tracks what it has disclosed.
4. Raisely: strong on peer-to-peer
Raisely says fundraising “is free, supported by optional tips from donors”, with a flat-fee option of 4% of transactions instead. Its Pro plan is US$119 a month or US$714 a year. The processing rate on its page, from 1.4% + 30¢, is labelled the Australian nonprofit Stripe rate, so US organisations should expect Stripe’s US rates. Raisely is part of the Velora group alongside Keela and Aplos, and is best known for branded peer-to-peer and campaign sites.
5. Funraise: free under $1 million, with a CRM
Funraise describes itself as “a free, fee-based, fundraising and donor management platform for organizations raising under $1 million annually”. The Free plan carries a 5% platform fee plus 2.9% + 60¢ processing through Funraise Payments; Premium, quoted on request, lowers the platform fee to 0% to 3%. It says about 90% of donors cover fees, a vendor claim. On an uncovered $100 gift it is the most expensive option in our table, so it suits organisations that want forms and a donor database together and expect most donors to cover fees.
Full platforms that replace Donorbox and your CRM
6. Keela: CRM with no platform fee
Keela starts at $164 a month billed annually, or $190 monthly, for up to 1,000 contacts, rising to $438 a month for up to 10,000. Every plan includes unlimited donation forms, email marketing, memberships and automatic receipts, and Keela says it uses Stripe and PayPal at 2.2% + 30 cents and “does NOT take anything on top of these fees”. It raised its prices in late August 2026. Our Keela review and Keela alternatives have more.
7. Little Green Light: the lowest-cost donor database
Little Green Light costs $45 a month for up to 2,500 records and $135 for up to 50,000, with unlimited users, no contract and a 30-day free trial. Its forms take donations, event registrations and memberships, with online giving at “starting at 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction paid to the payment processor (no fee to LGL)”. For a small organisation on Donorbox Standard raising $20,000 a year online, the saving on platform fees alone, about $590 at 2.95%, more than pays for LGL’s entry tier. That is our arithmetic. Donorbox also sells a Little Green Light integration at $50 a month if you want to keep both. See our Little Green Light review.
8. Bloomerang: CRM and giving from one vendor
Bloomerang’s Giving Platform starts at $242 a month billed annually and combines its CRM with Bloomerang Fundraising: donation forms, events, text giving and donor apps. Qgiv is now Bloomerang Fundraising, and Kindful is a Bloomerang product. Card gifts through Bloomerang Fundraising cost 3.95% + $0.30, per a help article dated 20 July 2026, and its terms default to a two-year agreement. It suits organisations that want one vendor for giving and donor management with guided onboarding. Our Bloomerang review and Bloomerang vs Little Green Light go further.
Also worth knowing
GoFundMe Pro, formerly Classy, offers “custom pricing, combining an annual upfront subscription with a transaction fee per donation” with no published figures; see our Classy pricing guide. Neon CRM starts at $99 a month on revenue-based pricing and includes giving forms through Neon Pay, whose rates are not on its public pricing page. DonorPerfect starts at $99 a month on its own site.
Which alternative fits your reason for leaving
- “We want to stop paying a percentage.” Zeffy or Givebutter with tips on. Both shift the cost to donors who choose to contribute.
- “We need a real donor CRM.” Little Green Light on a budget, Keela for built-in email and memberships, Bloomerang for a single vendor with guided onboarding.
- “We raise a lot online and want to raise more.” Fundraise Up, or stay and move to Donorbox Pro. Pro’s lower fees pay for its $150 monthly price at about $150,000 a year in form gifts, by our calculation.
- “We run peer-to-peer and events.” Raisely for branded peer-to-peer, Givebutter for events and auctions.
What a year of fees looks like
Per-gift differences look small until you multiply them. Here is what an organisation raising $50,000 a year online, in 500 card gifts of $100, would pay in fees and subscriptions on each option if it absorbed every fee. This is our arithmetic on the published rates above, using annual billing where a vendor offers it:
| Platform | Fees on $50,000 | Subscription a year | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donorbox Standard | $2,725 | $0 | $2,725 |
| Donorbox Pro | $2,125 | $1,800 | $3,925 |
| Givebutter, tips off | $3,100 | $0 | $3,100 |
| Funraise, Free plan | $4,250 | $0 | $4,250 |
| Little Green Light, up to 2,500 records | $1,250 | $540 | $1,790 |
| Keela, up to 1,000 contacts | $1,250 | $1,968 | $3,218 |
| Bloomerang Giving Platform, entry band | $2,125 | $2,904 | $5,029 |
Zeffy and Givebutter with tips on cost the organisation nothing in this table, because donors who choose to contribute or tip carry the cost. The CRM rows include a donor database that Donorbox Standard does not, so they are not like for like: the question is whether you would otherwise pay for a CRM separately. For an organisation that would otherwise pay for a donor database on top of Donorbox, Little Green Light is the cheapest paid route in the table, because its forms charge only the processor’s rate and its entry tier costs $540 a year. At larger list sizes its subscription rises, to $900 a year for up to 10,000 records, so rerun the sum with your own numbers.
How to leave Donorbox without losing monthly donors
Donorbox is easier to leave than most giving platforms for one reason: donations run through your own Stripe or PayPal account. Its help centre says the funds are never held by Donorbox, so the donor card records sit in an account you control.
- Export everything: donors, donations, recurring plans and campaign data.
- Move recurring donors through Stripe. Givebutter’s migration guide, for example, has you copy customers from your Stripe account to its account, and says its part is free. Other platforms have their own process; ask each one, and ask whether they charge.
- Know the PayPal limit. Donorbox’s help centre says PayPal subscriptions created through PayPal Classic cannot be migrated, while PayPal Express billing agreements can. PayPal recurring donors may need to sign up again.
- Stop the old plans. Givebutter warns that imported plans are not cancelled on the old platform automatically. Cancel them in Donorbox once the new ones are live, or donors are charged twice.
- Check the new platform’s fee rules for imported gifts. On Givebutter, migrated plans assume you cover 2.9% + 30¢ and sit outside its fee guarantee until you edit each one with tips on.
Our nonprofit CRM migration guide and failed recurring gifts guide cover the rest.
If the real problem is donor insight
Many organisations start looking at alternatives because Donorbox shows gifts well but does not tell them which donors are drifting away or ready to give more. A new giving platform will not change that. Gratefully is a donor intelligence layer: it has no Donorbox connector, so you bring your Donorbox donor and gift exports in through its CSV import with smart field mapping. It builds one deduplicated view of each donor, ranks who needs attention with a reason for each, and drafts outreach from each donor’s history for you to review. It is not a CRM or a giving tool.
Gratefully’s pricing page, read on 18 September 2026, has a Free plan, and new accounts start with a 14-day trial of its Advanced plan with no card required, then move to Free. Paid plans start at $79 a month billed yearly. See our Gratefully review.
Disclosure: Zilwaris, the consultancy run by AI Tools Bakery’s founder, does paid advisory work for Gratefully. Gratefully did not pay for this placement, and it is assessed on the same criteria as everything else on this site.
Where the facts on this page come from
- Donorbox: pricing page and help centre articles on costs and fees (updated 16 April 2026), payouts, recurring migration and PayPal migration, read 18 September 2026.
- Givebutter, Zeffy, Fundraise Up, Raisely, Funraise, Keela, Little Green Light, Bloomerang, GoFundMe Pro and DonorPerfect pricing pages, read 18 September 2026; Bloomerang’s payment processing article dated 20 July 2026; Givebutter’s Standard pricing and recurring migration articles.
- Gratefully: product and pricing pages, read 18 September 2026.
The bottom line
Donorbox’s free plan keeps $94.55 of every $100 form gift after its 2.95% fee and Stripe’s nonprofit rate. Zeffy and Givebutter keep the full $100 for you by asking donors to contribute. Keela and Little Green Light add a proper donor CRM at the processor’s rate with a monthly subscription, and Bloomerang bundles both with support at a higher price. Fundraise Up and Raisely suit larger or peer-to-peer programmes. Pick on why you are leaving, add up last year’s fees before you decide, and move recurring donors through Stripe with the old plans cancelled only after the new ones are live.
Written by
FazFaz is the founder of AIToolsBakery. Some tools here are tested hands on. Others are assessed from vendor documentation and pricing verified on the live page, and every review says which one it is. Sponsors can buy a position in a guide. They cannot buy the score, the criticism, or silence about a better option.
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