Charitable vs GiveCause

Charitable is a self-hosted WordPress plugin for donation campaigns and fundraising. A visual drag-and-drop builder provides live preview for campaign creation, while campaign pages, recurring gifts, automated receipts and donor records support ongoing fundraising. The free Charitable Lite plan costs nothing and includes unlimited campaigns and donations. It accepts Stripe, Square, PayPal and offline donations; Pro adds ten more payment gateways. Recurring donations begin with Plus, and peer-to-peer fundraising begins with Pro. Donor management includes profiles, giving history, notes, and adding, editing or deleting donation records. Charitable says it integrates with 5,000+ email marketing, CRM and payment platforms and keeps data within the customer’s WordPress website rather than storing sensitive information. Paid plans start with Basic at $69 a year, billed yearly. Paid plans include ticket support; free users use the WordPress.org forum. The plugin requires WordPress 5.9 or later and PHP 7.4 or later.

GiveCause is a fundraising platform for nonprofits to collect donations online and in person. Its no-code builder makes customizable donation pages and forms from templates, images, video, logos, and colors. Organizations can manage recurring gifts and donor records, offer membership tiers and benefits, and run events with ticket sales and real-time tracking. Other options include sweepstakes with automated winner selection and an online merchandise storefront. A payments CRM stores donor interaction history and supports supporter communications; administrators can assign team roles and control feature access, with campaign analytics available through a dashboard. GiveCause says its API can provide a branded native giving experience without redirecting donors, and its mobile app can turn a smartphone into a card terminal. The free platform has no platform, monthly, setup, or per-user fees. Successful transactions incur a 2.9% + 29 cents processing fee, and bank transfer fees vary by amount. It runs on Android, iOS, and web, and offers an API.