Givebutter is a fundraising platform: donation forms, campaign pages, auctions, ticketing and a CRM with unlimited contacts, free at its core because donors are prompted to tip.
Eventbrite is a ticketing marketplace that charges a per-ticket fee on paid tickets, and what you buy is discovery, reaching people who are not on your list. Pick Givebutter for a nonprofit gala or auction; pick Eventbrite for public events. Member organizations that need dues, renewals, programs or facility booking need a third option, since neither tool does those.
Ticketing marketplace with free events and per-ticket fees on paid ones.
Free fundraising platform with events and CRM, funded by donor tips.
Communal is listed as a third column because organizations comparing these two usually need the same things it was built for: memberships, programs and facilities in one database at a flat price.
| Feature | Eventbrite | Givebutter | Communal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Membership management | Not offered | Partial | IncludedTiers, custom fields, segments |
| Automated renewals | Not offered | PartialRecurring payments | IncludedReminders and auto-renew |
| Digital membership cards (Apple / Google Wallet) | Not offered | Not offered | IncludedIncluded in every plan |
| Event registration & ticketing | Included | Included | Add-onPrograms & events, +$50/mo |
| Program & class registration | PartialTicketed events only | Not listed | Add-onWaitlists, capacity, attendance, rosters |
| Facility booking & rentals | Not offered | Not offered | Add-onFrom +$50/mo; approvals, invoices, agreements, iCal |
| Volunteer shifts & hour tracking | Not offered | Not offered | IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts |
| Donations & fundraising | Partial | Included | IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option |
| Automatic tax receipts | Not offered | Included | IncludedAutomatic |
| Member self-service portal | Not offered | Not offered | Included |
| Email campaigns | Add-onEventbrite Pro | Included | IncludedCampaigns and segments |
| Website builder | Partial | Not offered | Not offeredWorks beside your site |
| Public API | Included | Included | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server |
| Detail | Eventbrite | Givebutter | Communal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket | Free; Plus from $29/mo | $75/mo |
| Pricing model | Per ticket; free events free | Free core (donor tips) + Plus per contact | Flat, by member band (to 250 members at the floor) |
| Contract | No contract; pay per ticket. Optional monthly Pro subscription. | Month-to-month or annual for Plus; free plan has no contract | No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time |
| Payment fees | Service fee 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket;Detailspayment processing 2.9% per order; free events have no platform or processing charges. | With donor tips enabled (default): 0% platform fee and Givebutter covers processing fees (Givebutter says 92% of donors cover fees).DetailsWith tips disabled: 3% platform fee plus processing of 2.9% + 30¢ (cards) or 1.9% + 30¢ (ACH); nonprofits can ask donors to cover fees. | Card-processing application fee set in your agreement, often 2%; no monthly minimums |
| Free trial | Free plan (free events are free; no fee until you sell paid tickets) | Free plan (no trial needed); Plus is a paid upgrade | Free trial, no credit card |
Pick Givebutter if you are a nonprofit running a gala, auction, run or ticketed fundraiser and you want ticketing, donations, receipts and a donor CRM in one free tool, and you are comfortable with a tip prompt at checkout. Pick Eventbrite if your event is public-facing and you want marketplace discovery to sell tickets beyond your own list, or if your events are free, in which case Eventbrite costs nothing. Pick neither as your main system if you are a member organization: both stop at events and donations.
Disclosure: Communal is our product. We cover it at the end for that member-organization case.
Run the math on your real event. At $25 a ticket, Eventbrite costs about $3.44 per ticket (3.7% + $1.79 service fee, plus 2.9% processing), so 200 tickets cost about $688 whether the buyer or you pay it. Givebutter with tips on costs you $0 on the same 200 tickets; with tips off it costs about $1.78 a ticket (3% platform plus 2.9% + $0.30), about $356, and you can still ask buyers to cover it. The trade is the tip prompt: if your board will not put an optional third-party ask in front of attendees, Givebutter's tips-off rate is still about half of Eventbrite's on a $25 ticket.
| If you are... | Lean towards |
|---|---|
| A nonprofit running a gala, auction or peer-to-peer fundraiser | Givebutter |
| A small charity that wants tickets, donations and receipts with no software bill | Givebutter |
| An organization selling public tickets to people outside your list | Eventbrite |
| A group running only free events | Eventbrite (free) or Givebutter (free) |
| A large association running multi-day conferences | Neither; look at Cvent |
| A member organization with dues, programs, facilities or volunteers | Neither; see below |
If your events are member events (registration nights, clinics, camps, tournaments) rather than public fundraisers, neither of these tools knows who your members are. Communal ties event and program registration to the member record: member, public and volunteer price tiers, waitlists with automatic backfill, attendance sheets, custom questions and waivers, for +$50/mo on top of $75/mo to 250 members. Donations with automatic numbered CRA and US tax receipts, volunteer shifts with hour tracking and POS software are included, and there is no per-ticket platform fee, only card processing. No contract, 30-day trial, free migration. It has no marketplace, no auctions and no peer-to-peer pages, which is why a public fundraiser still belongs on one of the two above.
Short answers, with the numbers where they exist.
Eventbrite: service fee of 3.7% ($0.93) + $1.79, plus 2.9% processing ($0.73), about $3.44 per ticket, or roughly 13.8%. Pass it to the buyer and they pay about $28.44; absorb it and you net about $21.56. Givebutter with donor tips on (the default): $0 to your organization, you keep the full $25 and the buyer sees an optional tip. With tips off: 3% platform ($0.75) plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing ($1.03), about $1.78, so you net about $23.22.
Yes. The free plan includes event ticketing, fundraising pages, auctions, donation forms, a CRM with unlimited contacts, marketing tools and payment processing, funded by an optional tip that Givebutter says 92% of donors cover. Givebutter Plus, from $29/mo for up to 250 contacts, adds workflows, texting, an advanced email editor, custom reports and QuickBooks Online sync.
Free events are free with no attendee cap. Paid tickets carry 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket plus 2.9% processing per order. Eventbrite Pro, the email marketing and promotion add-on, starts at $15/mo and nonprofits can apply for up to 50% off Pro; the per-ticket fees themselves are not discounted on the pricing page.
Givebutter. It has auctions, peer-to-peer pages, text-to-donate, donation forms and tax receipts in the same product as ticketing. Eventbrite has a donation ticket type but no auctions and no year-end or consolidated tax receipts, so receipting has to happen somewhere else.
Both are paid fundraising CRMs rather than free ticketing tools. Bloomerang CRM starts at $125/mo billed annually with event registration, QR check-in and table management, and Bloomerang Volunteer from $119/mo. If you need donor retention tooling and can pay a subscription, that tier is worth a look; for a free event page, Givebutter; for public discovery, Eventbrite.
Cvent is enterprise event management for multi-day conferences, sold on quote-only annual contracts with per-registrant fees and no free trial. It is the wrong size for most nonprofit fundraising events and does not handle memberships, dues or volunteers either.