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Plain-English guide · for small nonprofits
Givebutter alternatives, honestly compared
Updated September 2026
Givebutter gives away more fundraising tools than almost anyone, and for plenty of small nonprofits the honest answer is to keep using it. This is for the ones where the tip prompt, the Plus price or the shape of the tool no longer fits. One disclosure up front: we make Ember, one of the options below.
The main Givebutter alternatives for small nonprofits are Zeffy (free, funded by donor tips), Little Green Light (from $45 a month, donor management only), CiviCRM (free, but it needs technical help), Neon One (from $99 a month), Bloomerang (from $125 a month) and, if you need more than fundraising, Ember (free under a $50K budget; it does not process donations).
Givebutter is free when donors are offered an optional tip at checkout. Turn tips off and it charges a 3% platform fee plus card processing. Its paid tier, Givebutter Plus, is priced on your contact count.
What Givebutter is genuinely good at
Breadth for the price. The free tier covers donation forms, fundraising pages, events and ticketing, auctions, peer-to-peer campaigns and a donor database with unlimited contacts and unlimited users. For a small team running campaigns and events, that is a lot of tool for nothing.
How Givebutter is priced
| Setup | What you pay |
|---|---|
| Tips on (the default) | 0% platform fee and 0% processing to the nonprofit; donors are asked for an optional tip |
| Tips off | 3% platform fee, plus 2.9% + 30¢ per card gift or 1.9% + 30¢ per bank (ACH) gift |
| Givebutter Plus | $29 a month up to 250 contacts, $79 up to 1,000, $129 up to 2,500, rising with your list |
The three reasons people look elsewhere
The first is the tip prompt. Like Zeffy, the free model depends on your donors being asked for a tip in your donation flow. Many organizations are fine with that. Some, especially those with major donors or a board that watches the giving experience, would rather pay than have donors asked.
The second is the contact curve on Plus. The free database never charges for contacts, but the automation, texting and reporting in Plus are priced on your list, so the bill for those features climbs as event guests and one-time donors pile up.
The third is scope. Givebutter is built around raising money. If your harder problems are volunteer schedules, program results, grant deadlines or board records, check whether it covers them before assuming it does.
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.
Price every option on your real numbers
Record count, contact count, annual revenue, seats. Different tools bill on different things, so a headline price tells you almost nothing until you put your own figures in.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Green Light | $45/mo to 2,500 records | Record count, in $15 steps | Donor management done simply. Unlimited users, no contracts, founder-owned since 2007. |
| Bloomerang | $125/mo donor database; $242/mo full platform | Contacts | The donor retention specialist. Unlimited users. Private equity owned. |
| Neon One | $99/mo (Neon CRM) | Your organization's revenue | Broad suite, mid-size orientation. Prices on revenue, not records. Backed by FTV Capital since 2018. |
| Aplos (Velora) | $79/mo, 2 users | Tier, extra users, and revenue | Fund accounting first, with fundraising added later. Now sold beside Raisely and Keela. |
| DonorPerfect | From $99/mo | Tier, and a custom quote | Long-established and deep. A published starting price and three tiers, but the real number comes from a sales conversation. |
| 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 contributions | Fundraising and donor tracking only. Your donors get asked to add a contribution 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. |
| 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. |
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 shopping, that is Bloomerang's home turf. If your books are the problem and fundraising is secondary, Aplos is built that way round. If you have technical help and no budget, CiviCRM does the most for nothing. If you only need donation forms, Zeffy costs nothing, with the donor contribution 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 name on this list. If a decade of track record is what you need, that is Little Green Light or DonorPerfect, 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: Prices read from each vendor's own pricing page on 24 September 2026: Little Green Light, Neon One, Bloomerang, Givebutter, CiviCRM Spark, Aplos, DonorPerfect, Zeffy. Pricing changes often; check the vendor's page before you decide.