Zeffy Alternative
Looking for a Zeffy alternative? Communal goes beyond donations with memberships, facility rentals, and volunteer management built for community organizations.
Key Differences of Zeffy vs Communal
All-In-One vs. Point Solutions
Zeffy focuses on zero-fee donations and tickets. Communal goes further with memberships, facilities, volunteers, programs, and donor CRM in one platform.
Member-Centric
Manage memberships with auto-renewals, digital cards, member pricing, and resident rules directly connected to events and facilities.
Programs & Facilities Included
Run programs with waitlists and book facilities with agreements, deposits, and invoicing—capabilities beyond a donation-first tool.
Zeffy Pros & Cons
Zeffy Strengths
- Free platform (no fees for donors)
- Simple donation forms
- Good for small nonprofits starting out
- Easy to set up quickly
- Integrates with many platforms
Zeffy Limitations
- No membership management
- No facility booking
- No volunteer management
- Limited CRM compared to full solutions
- Optional donor tips can be confusing
Why Communal
Beyond zero-fee donations
Zeffy shines for donations and basic ticketing. Communal delivers a complete operational platform designed for member-based community organizations.
- Memberships with digital cards
- Programs with waitlists
- Facilities with agreements & deposits
- Volunteer scheduling & discounts
- Donor CRM and receipting
Purpose-built for community orgs
We work directly with community associations and nonprofits to prioritize features that reduce admin time and increase community impact.
- Volunteer-friendly UI
- Resident-based pricing rules
- Unified data across modules
- No per-admin fees
- Fast member self-serve
Detailed Feature Comparison
| Feature | Communal | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| Membership Features | ||
| Membership types and tiers | ? | |
| Auto-renewals & reminders | ? | |
| Digital membership cards | ? | |
| Member portal | ? | |
| Donor Management | ||
| Online donations (optional tips) | ||
| Automatic tax receipting | ||
| Event ticketing | ||
| Fundraising campaigns | ||
| Event Management | ||
| Program registrations & waitlists | ? | |
| Member pricing rules | ? | |
| Custom registration forms | ? | |
| Volunteer signups at checkout | ? | |
| Facility Management | ||
| Booking calendars | ? | |
| Agreements & deposits | ? | |
| Instant or approved rentals | ? | |
| Member-only access & pricing | ? | |
| Other Features | ||
| Unlimited admins | ||
| Role-based access | ||
| All-in-one pricing (no modules) | ||
See How Communal Works for Your Organization
Get a personalized walkthrough of the features that matter most to you. We'll answer your questions and help you understand if Communal is the right fit.
Most demos are scheduled within 24 hours
Powering 500+ community organizations
We love hearing from our customers and are proud to have helped 500+ organizations drive more impact and grow their communities.
We are finally able to communicate with our members, run booking software and a program payment platform all in one application. The cost to our Community is very reasonable and the team is fantastic to work with.
My experience with the software and the team has been overwhelmingly positive. We switched from another provider and the difference was night-and-day!
Revenue from membership sales and renewals increased, and we save a significant amount of staff time and paperwork. The customer service is outstanding and the team at Communal continues to add helpful features.
Frequently asked questions
Zeffy is excellent for organizations focused solely on donations. However, if you need memberships, facility bookings, volunteer coordination, or program registration, you'll need additional tools alongside Zeffy. Communal provides all of these in one integrated platform, eliminating the need to manage multiple systems and reducing overall complexity and cost.
Absolutely. Communal includes full donor management with online donation forms, automatic tax receipting, recurring donations, and fundraising campaigns. While we don't offer zero-fee processing like Zeffy, our transparent pricing includes all features without hidden costs.
Communal goes far beyond donations with comprehensive membership management, facility booking, volunteer scheduling, and program registration. These features work together seamlessly—for example, members automatically get special pricing on events and facility rentals.
With Communal, members get a dedicated portal where they can manage their membership, register for programs, book facilities, sign up for volunteer shifts, and make donations—all in one place. Zeffy focuses on the donation experience. Communal creates a complete community engagement experience with digital membership cards for Apple and Google Wallet.
Yes, our team provides full migration support to transfer your donor records, donation history, and contact information from Zeffy to Communal. We'll help you set up your donor CRM so you maintain complete visibility into giving history and can continue building relationships with your supporters.
If your organization has grown beyond just accepting donations and now needs to manage memberships, programs, facilities, or volunteers, Communal is an ideal next step. Many organizations start with Zeffy and move to Communal when they need a more comprehensive operational platform. We make the transition smooth with dedicated onboarding support.
Your data is stored in a secure database that is not accessible to anyone. Users' credit card information is not stored on our platform. We utilize Stripe to process payments, learn more about how they store their data here.
You can! Our team is happy to help migrate data from an excel spreadsheet or an existing platform you utilize today. Contact us for more questions.
Communal directly deposits into your bank account. We do not hold any funds on our platform.
Yes, Communal is fully PCI-DSS compliant as we partner with Stripe as our payment processor. Stripe has been audited by an independent PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and is certified as a PCI Level 1 Service Provider. Communal does not have access to see or store any credit card data as all transactions are sent directly to Stripe.