Comparison
DonorFinch vs Zeffy
Zeffy's pitch is simple and real: the nonprofit pays nothing. The money comes from your donors, who see a pre-selected contribution to Zeffy added to their gift and have to find the option to remove it. DonorFinch takes the opposite position: a small, visible 1.5% fee to the organization, and a checkout page that asks your donors for exactly one thing — a gift to you.
The same gift
$100 on DonorFinch and on Zeffy
Card gift at Stripe's nonprofit rate, donor not covering fees.
DonorFinch
$96.00
you receive from a $100 card gift
1.5% + Stripe 2.2% + 30¢
What the donor is asked: “Add $4.15 to cover processing fees” — optional, goes to the fees so you net $100.00.
Zeffy
$100.00
you receive from a $100 card gift
Donor asked to add a tip to the platform
What the donor is asked: A pre-selected contribution to Zeffy on every checkout. The organization cannot turn it off.
Where Zeffy is the better choice
- Truly $0 to the organization, including card processing. If the board's only question is the line item, Zeffy wins it.
- Events, raffles, auctions, memberships, an online store, peer-to-peer and email, all free.
- Donors who decline the contribution still give at no cost to you.
Where DonorFinch is different
- Your donors are never asked to tip a software company. On DonorFinch the only optional add-on is covering your processing fees, and that money goes to the fees, not to us.
- Funds settle into your own Stripe account. Zeffy processes payments itself and pays you out; with DonorFinch the money never passes through us.
- Deposit-level QuickBooks Online sync: each Stripe payout posts as one deposit, split by fund, fees broken out, matching your bank feed.
- Numbered receipts, refunds that void and reissue, year-end statements verified against the ledger, and an audit log.
- Transparent, predictable cost: 1.5% of online gifts. Nothing else.
Our honest recommendation
Pick Zeffy if a $0 line item matters more than how your donors are asked, and you want events, raffles and a store in the same tool. Pick DonorFinch if you would rather pay a small fee yourself than have your supporters asked for a contribution to a third party, and if you want the books to reconcile without retyping.
Side by side
Price, fees, and what’s included
| DonorFinch | Zeffy | |
|---|---|---|
| Software price | $0/month. One plan, everything included. | $0/month and 0% fees to the nonprofit. |
| Platform fee on gifts | 1.5% | 0% |
| Card processing | Stripe, from your own account: 2.2% + 30¢ nonprofit rate; ACH 0.8% max $5. | Absorbed by Zeffy; funded by contributions donors are asked to add at checkout. |
| What donors are asked at checkout | Only to cover your processing fees, optionally. Never a tip to DonorFinch. | A pre-selected contribution to Zeffy on every checkout. The organization cannot turn it off. |
| Money settles in your own Stripe account | Yes — always. | No — Zeffy processes and pays out to you. |
| QuickBooks Online | Included. One deposit per payout, split by fund, fees broken out. | Export-based; no native QuickBooks Online deposit sync published. |
| Donor CRM, receipts, year-end statements | Included. | Included. |
| Events, auctions, peer-to-peer, email marketing | No. DonorFinch does the form, the database and the books. | Yes, included. |
Competitor figures are from each vendor's public pricing page as of October 2026 (Donorbox, Zeffy, Givebutter). They may have changed; check before deciding. Product names are trademarks of their owners, who are not affiliated with DonorFinch.
Questions
Common questions
- Is Zeffy really free?
- To the nonprofit, yes: Zeffy publishes $0 platform and $0 processing fees. It is funded by contributions donors are asked to add to their gift at checkout, pre-selected by default, which the organization cannot disable. Whether that counts as “free” is for you and your donors to decide.
- What does a $100 gift cost on DonorFinch?
- If the donor covers fees (the default), they pay $104.15 and you receive $100.00 — $2.59 goes to Stripe and $1.56 to DonorFinch. If they don't, you receive $96.00. Either way nothing is asked of the donor on our behalf.
- Can I use both?
- Some organizations run events on Zeffy and the main donation form and donor database on DonorFinch. Gifts from anywhere can be recorded or imported into DonorFinch so your donor records and year-end statements stay complete.
Also compare DonorFinch with Donorbox and Givebutter, or see the full comparison.
Try the form and the fee for yourself
Create a free account, connect Stripe, and take a test gift. There is nothing to cancel if it isn't for you.
No monthly fee. No contract. Cancel any time.