Givebutter vs. Zeffy: Are They Really Free?

Choosing the right fundraising platform can be a challenge—especially when every dollar you save can go right back into your programs, your staff, or your community.

If you’ve looked into platforms like Zeffy or Givebutter, you’re not alone. They’re both great tools, and they’ve grown in popularity thanks to a bold promise: fundraising software at no cost to your nonprofit organization.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through:

• The pros and cons of Zeffy vs. Givebutter
• A comparison of real pricing models for donation platforms
• Core guidance on the future of giving and how these tools fit in, and
• Introduce you to a third option that might be a better fit for your nonprofit’s goals (especially if you’re focused on growing recurring donations and donor retention over time).

You know firsthand that every dollar matters.

And while it’s your job to multiply and streamline your fundraising efforts and make every donor’s experience secure and easy, fundraising solutions that operate on a tip model can have some hidden long-term costs. (If you know, you know.)

Here’s the fine print.👇

These free platforms often rely on donor tips to cover their expenses—and while that might sound like a win-win, it can quickly create donor confusion, frustration, and even lost long-term revenue.

✋ Important note: There are no affiliate links in this article. We weren’t paid to review these platforms. While we do share how 4aGoodCause stacks up (yes, that’s our platform), this guide aims to help you make the best, most informed decision for your mission.

Zeffy vs. Givebutter: Pros and cons

Although I created the 4aGoodCause fundraising platform — and therefore, naturally have some bias — overall, both Zeffy and Givebutter are well-designed fundraising tools that offer some great features.

Their approach is to offer low-barrier ways to raise funds online and skip a monthly software cost.

Here’s a closer look at how they compare, with more notes below.

✅ Shared strengths of Zeffy and Givebutter

Here’s what the tools have in common:

• Free platform fees for nonprofits (paid for by donor tips)
• Peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding campaigns, and online donation forms
• In-person and event ticketing options
• Customizable donation pages and branding tools for online giving
• Accept standard digital payments like PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, and Apple Pay

🌟 Unique features

When thinking through Zeffy vs. Givebutter specifically, each platform has a few features that it uniquely offers.

• Zeffy covers all processing fees (including credit card fees) via donor tip collection
• Zeffy offers raffles and lotteries
• Zeffy promotes itself as a truly zero-fee platform, since it covers payment processing costs
• Givebutter has a more robust CRM and donor management tools compared to Zeffy
• Givebutter offers email marketing integrations, text-to-donate, and team-based campaign pages

⭐️ You don’t need to work harder to raise more. The average monthly donor gives $756 per year with the 4aGoodCause platform. Learn how 4aGoodCause helps you build a loyal base of recurring donors who are passionate about your cause.

❌ Missing or limiting functionality

While they both offer features that can help get online giving off the ground, there are a few cons to consider.

• Zeffy lacks advanced segmentation, customizable tax receipts, and deep membership management tools.
• Givebutter charges for “Plus” features (or advanced features, like automation and enhanced analytics).
• Both platforms retain all donor tips for themselves—they don’t go to your nonprofit.
• Neither platform is built to prioritize or nurture monthly giving programs in the same way 4aGoodCause does.

💡 Alternative option: 4aGoodCause (4aGC)

Might I suggest another option?

My team and I built 4aGoodCause to prioritize a few crucial things:

• Ease of use for non-technical teams
• Pricing transparency
• Personal, free and easily accessible customer support
• Starting and growing a successful monthly giving program

4aGC offers all the essentials of modern nonprofit fundraising software—enhanced with smarter tools and personal support to help you grow monthly giving with ease.

You’ve likely already heard the buzz: It’s paramount for your nonprofit to have a monthly giving program.

Not only is it an essential component of nonprofit fundraising strategy, but it also delivers impressive results.

North American nonprofits generated 2.4X more revenue through recurring givers than single gift donors in 2023.

In fact, the average monthly donor gives $756 per year with the 4aGoodCause platform. And while the 2025 M+R Benchmarks Study mentions the average recurring monthly donation for nonprofits is $24, we’ve found that the 4aGoodCause’s monthly giving average is $63 per month.

While Zeffy and Givebutter offer some smart features, 4aGC makes it easier to raise more while doing less. That way, you can put your saved time and energy back into your mission.

Here’s what real users think about Zeffy vs. Givebutter

If you check out software review sites, overall, these platforms have good reviews and solid feedback for the software teams about things that need improvement.

As of the date of this article:

• Zeffy clocks in at 4.9 out of 5 stars on G2 and 4.8 out of 5 stars on Capterra
• GiveButter has 4.7 out of 5 stars on G2 and 4.8 out of 5 on Capterra

But a few online reviews and discussions stick out about one of the top pain points of this type of pricing model: the donor tip function.

One anonymous but verified user states in their G2 review, “Any time anyone makes a donation or buys a ticket on Zeffy, the form automatically adds on a donation to Zeffy, and it is not immediately apparent that the user can choose to reduce or omit the donation. This seems sneaky and like a hidden fee.”

And Carrie B. via Capterra notes “Our event is $400 per registration, so the form defaulting to add another $40+ is very misleading and possibly upsetting to our registrants.“

Regarding Givebutter, Miranda T. shares the following about the experience of her donors: “I cannot customize certain items such as removing tips and donations from events…. we have had a few donors who didn’t notice and thought that we had taken extra money for a donation without their permission. Also, there are still so many screens. I would like a one-click donation experience to be available.

And Jackson W. on Capterra adds that “While the pricing is free, there is a cost for premium features. The contact limit for these features seems a little low.”

💡 Ready to make fundraising easier? Imagine stress-free fundraising with reliable monthly gifts. Discover how 4aGoodCause makes it simple to get started with our Monthly Giving Toolkit.

The real cost of “no cost” tools

Okay, let’s talk numbers.

If one of the biggest frustrations for these free fundraising platforms is the financial loss or confusion caused by donor tips, what is the real cost?

Is the tip feature worth it?

I would say, in some cases, yes — a tip-based “free” platform could be a good choice for some nonprofits. But more on that below.

Stick with me, because we’re about to do a little bit of math together.

Zeffy and Givebutter are often marketed as free fundraising software, but they rely heavily on donor tips—sometimes as high as 22% per transaction—to fund their operations.

That may not cost you anything upfront as far as software fees go, but it does impact your donors and your revenue generated.

Essentially, the “no cost” software platforms are earning additional tips that are already in your donor’s budget. Tips that could be going to fuel your mission.

Below, I prepared a full cost analysis to compare these two types of typical donation scenarios.

Zeffy vs. Givebutter pricing

The pricing comparison below assumes both platforms get ⅔ of donors to check the box to give a tip. Zeffy reports that ⅔ of their donors do that.

Zeffy’s pricing explained

According to Zeffy, “around 60% of donors give an additional voluntary contribution. And, when they do give, they give an average of 4%.”

However, you’re unable to customize the percentages offered for tipping with Zeffy.

Zeffy’s system sets them for you, and they automatically adjust different tipping percentages based on payment types and processing fees. (Alternatively, with 4aGC, the optional donor tips are limited to a 4% maximum, and all donor tips go to your organization—not ours.)

There are no separate payment processing fees for Zeffy, as they are covered by the donor tips that the platform collects.

Givebutter’s pricing explained

Givebutter reports that tipping is optional, with donors covering the platform costs and processing fees 88-95% of the time, depending on if you have tips enabled or not.

If you turn off tipping, you’ll pay a platform fee based on overall donations received—1% to 5% depending on the donation type.

There are additional monthly costs on top of that for advanced features based on the number of contacts in your CRM.

Overall, pricing gets a little confusing with Givebutter. If you do turn off optional tips, you then pay a percentage fee of transactions in addition to your payment processing fees.

Alternative: 4aGoodCause’s pricing explained

The 4aGoodCause (4aGC) platform starts every new client at $99 per month (paid annually) for the first year. Tap here for additional 4aGC pricing info.

That’s the initial software cost. And all advanced features are included.

There are also payment processing costs, but we’ll work with you to find the lowest-cost options that work best for your nonprofit… whether that’s our own payment processing feature or a payment processor you already work with.

Plus, when optional donor tips are enabled on the 4aGC platform, your organization gets all the donor tips.

100% of all tips received through the 4aGC platform go to your nonprofit with no additional fees deducted by 4aGC.

Platform cost analysis

Now that we’ve laid down the groundwork, here’s how you can think about these two pricing models compared.

Donor-tip-based platform model

• Pricing metric: No fees for nonprofits + donor tips OR donor tips + payment provider fees + transaction percentage + flat software fee for advanced features
• Who keeps the tips? The platform keeps all tips
• Donor tip amounts: Tips depend on the donation amount and platform (Suggested tip for small donations is 17–22%, Suggested tip for large donations is 11–15%.)
• Long-term outcome: No upfront cost if donor tips are enabled, but disabling tips leads to unclear or higher long-term costs, risk of donor fatigue, and lost tip revenue.

4aGoodCause model

• Pricing structure: Flat software fee + payment provider fees + 4% optional donor tip (all features included)
• Who keeps the donor tips? You, the nonprofit
• Donor tip amounts: Modest, clear 4% tip (optional)
• Long-term outcome: Predictable, transparent monthly cost with no platform transaction fees, advanced features, potential extra tip revenue, and lower long-term expenses.

With the above in mind, we’ll do some simplified calculations to compare the total effective costs for a donor-tip-based pricing model.

🚨 Important note: Detailing out the full cost analysis and calculations involved required space worthy of a separate article. You can see that resource and examine our math transparently and in complete detail here.

Let’s say you run the Bruce Wayne Bat Sanctuary.

(This is, by far, our team’s favorite fictional nonprofit to use as an example).

In this cost analysis scenario, for simplicity’s sake, let’s say the Bruce Wayne Bat Sanctuary collects the following donations during the month of April:

• 175 small donations at $50 each, totaling $8,750
• 5 large donations at $250 each, totaling $1,250

A total of $10,000 in donations were received that month for our fictional example.

Here’s how the math would shake out for each software pricing model for a total of $10,000 in monthly donations.

[Take a look at the full detailed cost analysis here.]

What does all this mean?

Based on my analysis, which you can get in full here, it means that 12.75% of your total donations are going to fund the software and payment processing fees when you go with a “no cost” fundraising platform.

With 4aGoodCause, only 1.78% of your total donations are going to your overall software and payment processing costs.

That is a huge difference.

But what if tips are lower?

• Even if you drop the average tip for small donations to 10% for a donor-tip model, that’s still about 6-7% of your total donations going to fees.
• And if you drop that percentage further, to the average 4% of total donations that Zeffy reports, that’s still 4%.

Those tips were generosity that already existed in your donor’s budget… generosity they intended to benefit a cause they care about.

The generosity going to tip-based platforms could be going to your nonprofit.

If you have a monthly giving program—and I highly suggest you do, this becomes an even bigger revenue loss for your organization or source of confusion for your donors.

📚 Learn more: Check out why you should have a monthly giving program.

Should your nonprofit go with a “no cost” platform?

Overall, the “no cost” or free fundraising software platforms can have higher costs long-term.

However, there are a couple of cases where these types of platforms can be a good choice:

• Brand-new or small nonprofits: If you have a smaller organization that doesn’t plan on growing, this could be a good option. For nonprofits just starting out or raising less than $1000 monthly, donor-tip-based platforms with no upfront costs ensures zero risk, allowing you to test fundraising campaigns without committing to any fees.
• One-off or seasonal fundraisers: For the occasional campaign, like a holiday drive, the absence of monthly fees is a bonus for short-term efforts.

💡What if you could do big asks less often? There is a way! It’s called recurring monthly giving, and it generates 2.4X more revenue on average than one-time gifts. This Monthly Giving Toolkit simplifies the whole program. Learn more.

Zeffy vs. Givebutter vs. 4aGoodCause: What makes sense for you?

I’ve been supporting nonprofits for over 25 years, and truly, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

Here’s a quick roundup, based on my experience:

While the donor-tip based models work well for seasonal or one-off fundraising campaigns like an events-only approach, 4aGoodCause supports long-term fundraising success through:

• Transparent pricing structure (flat, clear monthly fees)
• Optional donor tips that go to your organization—not us
• Access to customizable donation forms and recurring giving tools
• Features that help build donor relationships and increase retention
• Monthly Giving Toolkit that helps you start and grow a successful recurring giving program

You don’t need to work harder to raise more. 4aGoodCause makes it easy.

Here at 4aGoodCause, we believe in keeping things simple, human, and generous.

Our platform is built specifically for nonprofit organizations like yours—teams that want to raise funds without chasing workarounds, absorbing hidden fees, or risking donor engagement in the process.

If your nonprofit is ready to:

• Launch or grow a monthly giving program
• Keep more of every donation amount you receive
• Offer a seamless, user-friendly donor experience
• Access real people for customer support and strategy advice

…we’d love to show you how our platform can help.

⭐️ Get a no-pressure walkthrough of 4aGoodCause. (Book a demo here.) We’ll show you how to launch a beautiful, branded donation form, track donor information, and increase recurring revenue for your organization.

Final note:

We support any platform that helps good causes succeed. Zeffy and Givebutter have earned their place in the nonprofit tech world—and for many teams, they’re a great starting point.

But if you want more from your platform—predictable pricing, donor-first design, and real tools to build lasting donor relationships—we’re here to help.