Compare the pricing and features between Donately, Donorbox, and MemberDrive. Which is the best online fundraising platform?
Introduction
Donately and Donorbox and MemberDrive are online fundraising platforms that allow organizations to receive donations for their projects.
Each focuses on organizations and non-profits over individual fundraising (for which GoFundMe is still the leader).
Pricing
Note: all online fundraising platforms charge a standard 2.9% + $0.30 base fee for processing credit card payments (2.2% if that organization is a verified charity via Stripe), so the pricing here is anything in addition to that standard fee.
Donately: 2% - 4% + additional monthly charges based on plan chosen
Donorbox: 1.5% + additional monthly charges based on features used
MemberDrive: 1%
Donately has multiple plans:
Donately Free Plan has $0 monthly fee but charges a hefty 4% platform fee (which means almost 7% of your donors' contributions would not go to your organization).
Donately Starter Plan has $19 monthly fee plus 3.5% platform fee (still hefty)
Donately Team Plan has $69 monthly fee plus 2% platform fee
Both Donately and Donorbox charge additional monthly fees, depending on plan and features used, with Donately taking a large platform fee compared with MemberDrive.
Result: MemberDrive comes out ahead, with Donately charging 100% to 400% more than MemberDrive, plus a monthly fee for most of their plans, and Donorbox charging 50% more, even if you use none of Donorbox's premium features.
Best For
Donately: Nonprofits who want to use a well-known platform and don't mind paying 2x to 4x over lower-priced options
Donorbox: Nonprofits who plan to spend time using integrations and extra features and are willing to receive a smaller percentage of their donors' donations
MemberDrive: Nonprofits of all sizes who want the lowest fees to maximize their donors' contributions
Notable Features
Donately: Integrations, CRM
Donorbox: Gift Matching Management (Premium only, extra $$), Advanced Form Customization (Premium only, extra $$), Embeddable donation forms
MemberDrive: Leaderboard gamification, Pledges, Member Content Updates, Embeddable donation forms
Result: Donately features a CRM that organizations will find helpful, but at a cost of higher price.
Donorbox has more bells and whistles if you both 1) plan to use those features and 2) are willing to pay extra money for them.
MemberDrive comes out of the box with all the features you need, at no extra charge.
Reviews and Ratings
One reviewer indicated that Donorbox was hard to navigate and that she received limited support since she did not pay extra for the Premium version. Other reviewers like how fast they got up and running with Donorbox.
Some users find Donately's admin screens and CRM confusing. But people find Donately's donation form clean and good looking, though they are disappointed with the lack of customization.
One user review of MemberDrive said: "We are using MemberDrive as our pledge and payment processing platform for a capital campaign to raise funds for a new church building.
The end user experience for our donors is seamless. For us as the organization, the backend is feature-rich and easy to use, allowing us to use it as our donor-management platform.
The website as a whole is impressively well thought out and well executed and we are very happy with it. I highly recommend it."
Overall Value
Donately believes they can charge a premium price for their features, but Donorbox and MemberDrive both offer competitive offerings and charge much lower fees, allowing you to keep more of your donors' contributions.
Donorbox and Donately both offer many features but at an additonal cost, including monthly fees. An organization should look at the features and ask whether they need those and will take the time to use them.
MemberDrive is a smaller company, charges the lowest fees (just 1% with no monthly charge), and offers a one-on-one concierge onboarding to help you get started or to migrate over from your current donation platform.
Sign up for our newsletter to receive product updates and service announcements. We never send promotions or share our list with anyone outside our company.