BetterWorld vs PaddleUp

BetterWorld is web-based fundraising software for nonprofits and other community-serving organizations. Its tools include standard donations, donation forms, auctions, events and ticketing, giveaways and raffles, peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding, paddle raises, impact giving, a-thons, and donor management. Plans include all fundraising tools, unlimited campaigns, and unlimited teammates. A donor system organizes donations, interactions, and insights; checkout supports cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers online or at events. BetterWorld lists more than 5,000 integrations, including native connections to Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, HubSpot, Salesforce, DonorPerfect, and Blackbaud, plus Zapier integrations such as Mailchimp and Google Sheets. The platform states that it is PCI-compliant, uses bank-level encryption, and does not sell donor data. A free plan is available. Partner costs $1,550 a year and Keystone costs $5,950 a year, both billed annually. Standard payment processing fees of 1.5%-2.9% + $0.30 apply; donors can choose to cover them.

PaddleUp provides event and fundraising software for schools and nonprofits, covering jog-a-thons, galas, auctions, and online sales. Campaign dashboards bring fundraising goals, settings, and related activities together. The platform supports live, silent, and online auctions, with mobile bidding; staff can use its iOS app to set up and monitor events in person. Ticketing covers registration and attendee check-in, and seating links tables and guests to the ticket roster. Bid sheet tools include printable sheets with QR anchors, photo uploads, and AI-assisted read-back against registered bidders. Stripe processes card and ACH payments, and the staff app can pair with Stripe Terminal Bluetooth readers for on-site sales. Organizations can use API keys and webhooks, with staff MCP tools for custom workflows and AI-assisted operations. The maker says sensitive attendee and bidder contact fields are encrypted with AES-256-GCM and per-organization keys managed through AWS KMS in production; service traffic uses TLS. Stripe handles card numbers and records payouts and refunds. There is no monthly platform subscription; Stripe processing fees apply, and AI tokens are pay-as-you-go.