Organizations leave Donorbox when the 2.95% platform fee on every gift outgrows a subscription, or when they need volunteers and member records that forms cannot hold. Stay on Donorbox if embeddable donation forms and recurring giving are all you need.
Ordered by how well each one fits the organizations that usually outgrow Donorbox.
Memberships, volunteers and donations on one member record, priced flat
Communal is built for organizations with members: membership types with automated renewals, family memberships, wallet cards, volunteer shifts and donation forms with automatic tax receipts.
Check first: There is no free plan, so a charity taking a few hundred dollars a month in gifts will pay less on Donorbox.
Free forms, memberships and ticketing with no fee at all
Zeffy charges the nonprofit nothing and funds itself with an optional donor contribution at checkout, covering memberships with auto-renewal, free digital membership cards, ticketing, raffles and QuickBooks sync.
Check first: Donors see a tip ask on every checkout, volunteer signups are a workaround through event forms, and it is US and Canada only.
Free fundraising with events, auctions and a CRM
Givebutter gives you unlimited contacts, donation forms, campaign pages, events and auctions on a free plan funded by donor tips.
Check first: Memberships are recurring payment forms with tags, not tiers and renewals, and there is no volunteer management.
Membership database plus website builder for clubs and associations
Wild Apricot includes membership levels, automated renewals, events, email, a website builder and a member app at every tier, with a 60-day trial.
Check first: Priced by total contacts, a 20% subscription surcharge for using your own payment gateway, and no volunteer or facility tools.
A full nonprofit CRM with unlimited records
Neon CRM offers unlimited records, users and forms, and adds memberships, events and volunteers on the Impact tier.
Check first: Entry tier is fundraising-only, processing is 2.99% + $0.30, and there is no free trial.
Donor CRM with email automation and CRA and IRS receipting
Keela covers donor management, unlimited email, automatic receipts compliant with both CRA and IRS, and membership and volunteer tracking in every plan, with no platform transaction fee.
Check first: Events rely on an Eventbrite integration, volunteer management is forms and tags, and per-contact pricing climbs with list size.
Donor database with unlimited users and no platform fee on gifts
Little Green Light gives you gift tracking, acknowledgments and mailings with unlimited users, no platform fee on donations and a 30-day free trial with no card.
Check first: Memberships are a field with manual renewal queries, and events are attendee tracking rather than public registration.
| Feature | Communal | Donorbox | Zeffy | Wild Apricot | Neon CRM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Membership management | IncludedTiers, custom fields, segments | Included | Included | Included | Add-onImpact tier and up |
| Automated renewals | IncludedReminders and auto-renew | IncludedRecurring | Included | Included | Included |
| Digital membership cards (Apple / Google Wallet) | IncludedIncluded in every plan | Not offered | Included | Partial | Not listed |
| Event registration & ticketing | Add-onPrograms & events, +$50/mo | Included | Included | Included | Add-onImpact tier and up |
| Program & class registration | Add-onWaitlists, capacity, attendance, rosters | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| Facility booking & rentals | Add-onFrom +$50/mo; approvals, invoices, agreements, iCal | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered |
| Volunteer shifts & hour tracking | IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts | Not offered | Partial | Not offered | Add-onImpact tier and up |
| Donations & fundraising | IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Automatic tax receipts | IncludedAutomatic | Included | Included | PartialDonation receipts | Included |
| Member self-service portal | Included | Partial | Partial | IncludedMember app | Included |
| Email campaigns | IncludedCampaigns and segments | Partial | Partial | Included | Included |
| Website builder | Not offeredWorks beside your site | Not offered | Not offered | Included | Not offered |
| Public API | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server | Partial | Partial | Included | Included |
| Detail | Communal | Donorbox | Zeffy | Wild Apricot | Neon CRM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $75/mo | $0 + 2.95% per donation | $0 (donor tips) | From $66/mo | From $99/mo |
| Pricing model | Flat, by member band (to 250 members at the floor) | Platform % of donations; Pro $150/mo | Free; funded by optional donor tips | Per contact, tiered | Tiered subscription; unlimited records |
| Contract | No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time | Monthly or yearly billing; no long-term contract on Standard | none | Month-to-month available;Detailsoptional 1-year and 2-year prepay discounts; no cancellation fees | annual (typical); not confirmed on vendor page |
| Payment fees | Card-processing application fee set in your agreement, often 2%; no monthly minimums | Platform fee 2.95% / 1.75% / 1.6% by plan (3.95% / 2% / 2% for events and memberships) plus processor fees: Stripe 2.2% + 30¢ cards and wallets, ACH 0.8% capped…DetailsPlatform fee 2.95% / 1.75% / 1.6% by plan (3.95% / 2% / 2% for events and memberships) plus processor fees: Stripe 2.2% + 30¢ cards and wallets, ACH 0.8% capped at $5; PayPal 1.99% + 49¢ (non-AMEX). Donors can be asked to cover fees. | 0% platform fee and 0% processing fee to the nonprofit;DetailsZeffy covers Stripe costs from optional donor tips | No per-transaction fee from WildApricot itself when using the integrated Personify Payments processor (processor rates not published on the pricing page).DetailsUsing a third-party gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net) triggers a Payment System Servicing Fee described in the help center as 20% of the subscription plan price, applied to US/Canada accounts; vendor pricing page calls this 'an additional fee'. | Neon Pay: 2.99% + $0.30 per card transaction, 1% + $1 per ACH/e-check, +1% for American Express; donor-covered fees option available |
| Free trial | Free trial, no credit card | Free Standard plan; no separate trial advertised for Pro | Free plan (entire product is free) | 60-day free trial, no credit card required; no permanently free plan | No free trial or free plan; demo only |
Donorbox Standard has no monthly fee but takes 2.95% of each donation and 3.95% of each membership payment or event ticket, before Stripe processing. Pro drops those rates but costs $150/mo, so high-volume organizations pay both.
Connecting Donorbox to anything it does not integrate with natively requires Pro at $150/mo or Premium by quote. Standard users cannot automate around the product.
Donorbox has no volunteer module: no opportunities, shifts, hour tracking or volunteer-specific pricing. Organizations that rely on volunteers keep a separate sign-up tool and reconcile people by hand.
Membership payments recur, but there are no digital member cards, no facility booking, no family memberships and the CRM is lighter than dedicated membership systems. Clubs and associations find the member record too thin once they pass a few hundred people.
Communal is $75/mo to 250 members and scales by member band, with a card-processing application fee set in your agreement (often around 2%), weekly deposits to your own Stripe Connect account and a donor-covers-fees option. Donorbox Standard takes 2.95% of donations and 3.95% of memberships and events before processing.
Volunteer opportunities, recurring shifts, role-restricted shifts, clock in and out hour tracking and volunteer discounts applied automatically on programs are part of the base subscription. Donorbox has no volunteer module.
Membership types with fixed-date or anniversary renewals, automated reminders before and after expiry, family memberships with dependents, resident vs non-resident pricing by address and Apple and Google Wallet cards are in every Communal plan. Donorbox memberships are recurring payments without cards, families or booking.
Communal includes a versioned public REST API with scoped keys, Zapier webhooks and an MCP server at no extra cost. Donorbox reserves API and Zapier access for Pro at $150/mo.
Stay on Donorbox if you are a fundraising-led nonprofit whose main need is a fast, embeddable donation form and recurring giving, your volume is modest, and you do not manage members, volunteers or facilities. The Standard plan costs nothing until money comes in, which is hard to beat for a young charity. Move when the percentage on memberships and events starts to look like a salary line, or when people need records that a form cannot hold.
Communal keeps volunteer opportunities, shifts, hour tracking and attendance on the same record as memberships and donations, and volunteers get their discount on programs automatically. Keela tracks volunteers through forms and tags, and Neon CRM adds volunteers on its Impact tier.
Communal for clubs, leagues and community associations that want renewals, family memberships, wallet cards and optional programs and facilities. Wild Apricot if you also want the vendor to host your website, or Zeffy if you want memberships for free and can accept the tip prompt.
Communal issues automatic numbered tax receipts with a CRA template, bills in CAD and supports pre-authorized debit and Interac. Keela is the other Canadian-built choice, with CRA receipting and email automation, and Zeffy is free and available in Canada.
Little Green Light if you want a donor database with no platform fee, or Zeffy if you want free forms and ticketing. Neon CRM once you need workflows and unlimited records.
Donorbox exports donors, transactions and recurring plans as CSV; the move is mostly mapping, which we do for you at no charge.
Export donors, donation history, membership and event records and custom form fields from Donorbox; we map them to members, donations, custom profile fields and audiences in Communal and run a dry-run import.
Set up membership types, donation forms and volunteer opportunities in Communal, then import with historical memberships and receipts so renewal dates and year-end totals stay correct.
Swap the Donorbox embeds on your website for Communal portal links and donation forms, invite recurring donors and members to set up their plan in the portal, and send members their wallet cards.
The Big Apple Knitters Guild moved 400 members off PayPal and spreadsheets onto Communal for memberships and payments. Read the case study.
How the hall gets booked, how program pricing works, how you chase renewals. No canned tour. We walk Communal through your real process so you can see the fit before you decide.
No canned tour · No sales script
For organizations with members and volunteers, Communal: memberships, volunteers and donations on one record at $75/mo with no platform percentage. For a free donation and membership tool, Zeffy. For a membership database with a website builder, Wild Apricot from $66/mo. For a full donor CRM, Neon CRM from $99/mo or Keela from $134/mo annual.
Donorbox Standard is $0/mo with a 2.95% platform fee on donations and 3.95% on event tickets and memberships, plus Stripe processing at 2.2% + 30¢ (ACH 0.8% capped at $5). Pro is $150/mo with 1.75% core and 2% on events and memberships. Premium is quoted, at 1.6% and 2%. Text-to-Give is $19/mo and the Live kiosk is $80/mo for the first device.
Yes. Communal is a flat subscription from $75/mo with no platform percentage; you pay only the card-processing rate in your agreement. Little Green Light ($45/mo) and Keela ($134/mo annual) charge no platform fee either. Zeffy charges 0% to the nonprofit and asks donors for an optional tip instead. See Communal pricing for the member bands.
No. Donorbox covers donation forms, recurring giving, memberships, events, text-to-give and kiosks, but has no volunteer opportunities, shifts or hour tracking. Communal includes volunteer management at $75/mo; Neon CRM adds it on the Impact tier; Keela offers volunteer forms and tagging.
Yes, and the scoped migration is free. We import donors, donation history, membership and event records and custom fields from your Donorbox export, map them to Communal with a dry run you can review, and keep renewal dates and receipt history intact. Recurring donors set up their plan in the Communal portal.
Not natively. Communal offers CSV and XLSX exports with GL code fields, a public REST API and Zapier webhooks on every plan, so you can push data to those tools, but there is no built-in sync. If a native Salesforce or QuickBooks connection is essential, Donorbox Pro or Neon CRM is the better fit.