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The central question here isn’t really “which fundraising platform has better features” — it’s a more fundamental one: do you want to pay nothing upfront and have donors optionally tip the platform, or do you want transparent, tiered pricing with fees you control and see clearly? That single difference shapes almost every trade-off below.
The Core Difference
Zeffy positions itself as “the only 100% free fundraising platform for nonprofits” — no subscription fees, no platform fees on donations. Instead, Zeffy makes money through an optional tip donors can leave at checkout. If donors don’t tip, Zeffy still processes your donations at no cost to you or your organization. Donorbox, by contrast, charges a 2.95% Donorbox fee on donations (plus whatever your payment processor charges), runs a Standard plan at no monthly cost, and offers paid plans for additional capabilities.
Neither model is inherently better — they represent genuinely different philosophies about who bears the cost of the software.
Pricing
| Zeffy | Donorbox | |
|---|---|---|
| Free / Entry tier | No subscription fees, no platform fees — donor tip-supported | Standard Plan: Free (no monthly fee) |
| Mid tier | — | Pro Plan: $150/month, billed monthly |
| Top tier | — | Premium Plan: contact sales for pricing |
| Transaction fee | None charged by Zeffy | 2.95% Donorbox fee + payment processor fee |
| Text-to-donate (if applicable) | — | See vendor site |
| P2P campaign fee | — | 2.95% main campaign; 3.95% supporter campaigns |
| Pricing page | None published (no /pricing page exists) | Publicly listed at donorbox.org/pricing |
A few things worth noting on pricing transparency:
Zeffy publishes no pricing page at all — the site’s entire framing is “100% free,” supported by donor tips. That’s an honest and consistent message, but it means you can’t inspect a fee schedule before signing up. Donorbox, on the other hand, publishes its Standard and Pro plan prices openly. The Premium plan requires contacting their sales team.
For Donorbox’s Standard plan, it’s worth reading the fine print: “No contracts. No monthly fees” applies to the plan fee itself, but the 2.95% Donorbox fee still applies to every donation processed. Depending on your donation volume, that percentage can add up faster than a flat monthly subscription.
Features: What Each Platform Does
Zeffy
Zeffy’s feature set — captured from its homepage — covers:
- Donation forms: one-time and recurring gifts, zero fees collected
- Event ticketing: customizable ticket types, attendee data collection, e-ticket issuance and door scanning, ticket bundles, online and in-person sales
- Auctions: item listings with images and descriptions, participant tracking, outbid notifications, automatic payment collection
- Peer-to-peer / fundraising pages: supporter-customizable pages, leaderboards, donation thermometers for real-time progress tracking
- Membership: customizable tiers with prices and renewal options, automatic membership card issuance, member email engagement
- Donor management: giving history tracking, supporter list segmentation, personalized communications
- Store / merchandise: product listings, custom options (size, color), inventory limits, discount codes
- Payments: all major payment methods accepted
The positioning is explicitly “all-in-one” — one platform handling donations, events, auctions, memberships, and peer-to-peer without charging fees on any of them.
No recurring complaints stood out in the reviews we scanned for Zeffy — worth noting neutrally, not as a verdict.
Donorbox
Donorbox’s captured features include:
- Donation forms: embeddable, easy-to-customize, copy-and-paste onto your site
- QuickDonate™ Donor Portal: lets donors save payment info and donate again in one click
- Donation pages: goal meter, donor wall, photo and video storytelling, campaign updates via post and email, subscriber option (without donating)
- Recurring donations: donor subscription management
- Donor management tools
- Donorbox Live™ Kiosk: a digital donation box for in-person giving
- Tap to Donate capability
- Text-to-donate: a multi-step SMS donation flow (separate pricing applies)
- Donation buttons: embeddable, Facebook-compatible, preset donation amounts, digital wallet support
- Peer-to-peer: supporter-personalized pages, social sharing optimization, invite tools
- Membership: unlimited customizable tiers, monthly and annual options
- Crypto and stock donations: accepted on donation forms
- Multi-currency / multi-language: 52+ currencies, 15 languages
- Integrations: Raiser’s Edge NXT, Salesforce, Stripe, PayPal listed as named integrations
- Event ticketing (positioned as simplifying tax work)
Some users report friction around onboarding and setup, invoicing and payments, and general ease of use — worth factoring in if your team is small or tech-light.
How the Feature Sets Differ
Both platforms cover the core nonprofit fundraising toolkit: donation forms, recurring giving, peer-to-peer, memberships, and event ticketing. A few notable differences visible in the captured data:
- Crypto and stock donations appear in Donorbox’s captured features; they do not appear in Zeffy’s.
- Multi-currency and multi-language support (52+ currencies, 15 languages) is explicitly captured for Donorbox; Zeffy’s positioning is explicitly North America-focused (“Trusted by 100,000+ nonprofit organizations across North America”).
- Named CRM integrations (Salesforce, Raiser’s Edge NXT) appear in Donorbox’s data; no equivalent integrations are captured for Zeffy.
- Zeffy’s auction module — with outbid notifications and automatic payment collection — is captured in its feature set; no auction feature is captured for Donorbox.
- Zeffy’s merchandise/store functionality (product listings, inventory, discount codes) is captured; this does not appear in Donorbox’s captured features.
- Donorbox Live™ Kiosk and Tap to Donate are captured for Donorbox; no equivalent is captured for Zeffy.
- Text-to-donate is a distinct Donorbox feature with its own pricing tier; not captured for Zeffy.
The Fee Question, Honestly
This is the comparison most nonprofits are actually trying to make, so it deserves a plain-language framing:
Zeffy’s model: You pay $0 in platform fees. Donors see an optional tip prompt for Zeffy at checkout. If your donors reliably tip, Zeffy is genuinely free. If they don’t, Zeffy still processes at $0 to you — the company absorbs it and relies on tip volume across its base. The risk isn’t financial to you directly; it’s whether the tip prompt affects donor experience or completion rates.
Donorbox’s model: The Standard plan has no monthly fee, but every donation carries a 2.95% Donorbox fee plus your payment processor’s fee. You see the fee schedule clearly before signing up, and notably, Donorbox offers a “donor covers fees” option — allowing donors to voluntarily add the fee on top of their intended gift, which can result in you receiving close to the full donation amount. The Pro plan at $150/month and a quote-based Premium plan exist for organizations needing additional capabilities.
Choose Zeffy If…
- You want zero fees charged by the platform on donations and don’t want a subscription cost
- You’re a North American nonprofit and the geographic focus fits your operations
- You run auctions or sell merchandise alongside fundraising campaigns, since these modules are captured in Zeffy’s feature set
- Your donor base is comfortable with a tip-to-support-the-platform prompt at checkout
- You want an all-in-one tool and prefer not to navigate a tiered pricing structure
Choose Donorbox If…
- You want fully transparent, published pricing you can evaluate before committing
- You raise funds in multiple currencies or languages (52+ currencies, 15 languages captured)
- You accept or plan to accept crypto or stock donations
- You rely on or need Salesforce or Raiser’s Edge NXT integration
- You want in-person giving hardware (the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk) or text-to-donate as a channel
- You’re comfortable with a percentage-based fee model (or using the donor-covers-fees option) in exchange for predictable, documented pricing
All facts in this article are drawn from Zeffy’s and Donorbox’s captured feature and pricing data as of July 2026. Zeffy publishes no pricing page; Donorbox’s current plan pricing is at donorbox.org/pricing.