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Plain-English guide · for small nonprofits
Bloomerang alternatives, honestly compared
Updated September 2026
Bloomerang is a good product, and for a lot of organizations the honest answer is to stay. This is for the ones where the price curve or the shape no longer fits. One disclosure up front: we make Ember, one of the options below.
The main Bloomerang alternatives for small nonprofits are Little Green Light (from $45 a month), Givebutter and Zeffy (free, funded by donor tips), CiviCRM (free, but it needs technical help), Neon One (from $99 a month) and Ember (free under a $50K budget).
Bloomerang bills on contacts, with unlimited users. That is the right way round for a growing team and the wrong way round for a growing list. If your contact count is climbing faster than your budget, that is the reason to look, and it is a real one.
What Bloomerang is genuinely good at
Donor retention. It built the brand on that idea, publishes the research, and the product is organized around it. If retention analytics are why you bought it and you use them, no alternative here does that better, and switching would cost you the thing you came for.
Worth knowing for context: Bloomerang has taken private equity investment twice, from JMI Equity in 2020 and Warburg Pincus in February 2024, and has acquired Kindful, InitLive and Qgiv along the way. That is not a criticism, it funds the roadmap. It is a fair thing to ask them about directly if you are small: whether organizations your size are still the ones the product is being built for.
What Bloomerang costs
Bloomerang publishes starting prices, billed annually, and prices every plan on the number of contacts you keep. It does not publish the tiers above those starting prices, so the only way to know your number is to ask for a quote with your real contact count.
| Bloomerang plan | Starts at |
|---|---|
| CRM (donor management) | $125/mo |
| Fundraising (forms, events, peer-to-peer; sold only with the CRM) | $40/mo |
| Volunteer | $119/mo |
| The Giving Platform (all of the above) | $242/mo |
For a sense of how a contact curve climbs, Little Green Light, which also prices on records, publishes all of its tiers: $45 a month up to 2,500 records, $75 up to 10,000 and $135 up to 50,000.
Before you switch anything
Export your data first
Contacts, gift history, notes, communications. Do it while everything works and you are calm, not mid-migration.
Do the contact-tier math
Contact-priced tools bill on your list, not your budget. Get your real contact count and price every option against it before comparing features.
Check your renewal date
Migrations take longer than planned. Start well before renewal, not the week of it.
The alternatives
| Tool | Entry price | Bill grows with | Honest fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloomerang | $125/mo donor database; $242/mo full platform | Contacts | The donor retention specialist, now a full giving suite. Unlimited users. Private equity owned. |
| Little Green Light | $45/mo to 2,500 records | Records only | Donor management done simply, since 2007. Unlimited users, no contracts. |
| CiviCRM | Free; hosted from $15/mo | Hosting and help | Powerful and free, but it needs someone technical or a paid implementer. |
| Zeffy | $0 | Nothing; funded by donor tips | Fundraising and donor tracking only. Your donors are asked to tip Zeffy at checkout. |
| Givebutter | $0; Plus from $29/mo | Contacts, on Plus | Fundraising with a free donor database and unlimited contacts. Donors are asked to tip; turn tips off and it charges a 3% platform fee. |
| Neon One | $99/mo | Org revenue | Broad suite, mid-size orientation. Backed by FTV Capital since 2018. |
| Ember (that's us) | $0 under $50K budget; $29/mo billed yearly to $100K | Your annual budget band, never contacts | Donors, volunteers, programs, grants, board and compliance in one place. Newest tool here, built for the smallest orgs. |
How to choose between them
If donor management is the whole job and you want it calm and cheap, Little Green Light is hard to beat. If retention analytics are the reason you are here, that is Bloomerang's home turf and staying may be right. If you have technical help and no budget, CiviCRM does the most for nothing. If you only need donation forms, Zeffy is free, with the donor tip prompt as the tradeoff. Givebutter is free on the same terms and adds a donor database with unlimited contacts.
Ember's pitch is different: one place for the whole operation, priced by your budget so a growing list never raises your bill. We are also the newest tool on this list. If a decade of track record is what you need, that is Little Green Light, not us.
Prices and company facts were read from each vendor's own pages on the date shown above and change often. Nothing here is legal, tax or purchasing advice. Check the vendor's current pricing page before you decide, and read your own contract before you switch.
Where Ember fitsEmber
Simple tools built only for nonprofits, priced by your annual budget, never by contacts or seats. Free under a $50K budget, every app and unlimited users on every tier.
Sources: Acquisition dates from Bloomerang's own company page and press releases: Bloomerang, About Us; Bloomerang acquires Qgiv, 10 January 2024; Bloomerang secures strategic investment from Warburg Pincus, February 2024. Prices read from each vendor's own pricing page (Bloomerang, Little Green Light, Givebutter, Zeffy, Neon One, CiviCRM Spark) on 24 September 2026. Pricing changes often; check the vendor's page before deciding.