Anedot vs Donately Comparison 2026
Anedot charges no monthly fee at all and takes its cut from the transaction: 3.3 percent plus 30 cents for a registered 501(c)(3), 4.0 percent plus 30 cents for everyone else. Donately's free plan charges a flat 2 percent platform fee on top of standard card processing, and a $99-a-month plan lowers that fee further, though the page does not say by how much. The choice turns on volume. Anedot never charges for a quiet month, and Donately's monthly plan only pays for itself once donations are large enough to make 2 percent real money.
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Anedot | Donately | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | Usage-based | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
Anedot
Donation pages with no monthly fee at all
Anedot charges nothing to run donation pages, event pages and lead forms, and takes its cut from the processing rate instead, which makes it one of the few options where a quiet month costs nothing. Team members, pages and transactions are all uncapped. Registered charities pay a lower rate than everybody else, and both rates are published rather than quoted. Nothing here is a donor database, so an organisation wanting segmentation and reporting will end up paying for that separately.
Our note
Push donors towards ACH if your average gift is large, because 0.3 percent against 3.3 percent is the biggest saving available here and most platforms do not offer the choice. Compare the standard 4.0 percent rate carefully if you are not a registered charity, since that is above what several subscription platforms charge once their monthly fee is spread over real volume.
Donately
Donation forms with the fee written down
Donately puts donation forms and recurring giving on a site you already have, and states its own cut on the pricing page rather than after signup. Every plan carries every feature, so what the money buys is a lower fee rather than more product. It argues openly against the platforms that call themselves free and then take a fifth through donor-paid fees.
Why people weigh these two
- Donately instead of Anedot
- Donately does donation forms with the fee written down, free tier included, with paid plans from $99.
- Anedot instead of Donately
- Anedot offers donation pages with no monthly fee at all, a leaner swap when flat plans cost more than the gift volume justifies.
Which one should you pick
Choose Anedot if donations arrive unevenly or the organisation is a registered charity. There is no subscription to carry through a quiet month, and the charity rate of 3.3 percent plus 30 cents already covers processing, while Donately's flat 2 percent still has Stripe or PayPal's 2.2 to 2.9 percent added on top of it.
Choose Donately if the organisation is already raising steadily and wants the donation form embedded on its own Webflow, Squarespace or WordPress site rather than hosted elsewhere. Prepaying $5,000 removes the platform fee entirely for up to $1 million raised. Below about $60,000 raised a year, Donately's own numbers say its free plan beats the $99 monthly one anyway.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper, Anedot or Donately?
- For a registered charity, Anedot usually is: 3.3 percent plus 30 cents, with nothing else added. Donately's free plan charges 2 percent, but Stripe or PayPal's own 2.2 to 2.9 percent plus 30 cents comes on top of that, which brings the real cost close to or above Anedot's rate.
- Does Donately ever charge no platform fee?
- Yes, if the organisation prepays $5,000, which removes the platform fee entirely for up to $1 million raised. Short of that, the free plan carries a 2 percent fee, and the $99-a-month plan lowers it further, though the page does not state to what.
- Can Donately's donation form live on my own website?
- Yes, that is the point of it. Embeds are available for Webflow, Squarespace and WordPress, so the form sits on a page you control. Every plan carries every feature, including this one, so paying more only buys a lower fee, not extra product.
- Is either platform free to start?
- Both have a free tier. Anedot has no subscription at any size and charges only the per-transaction rate. Donately's free plan adds a flat 2 percent platform fee plus standard card processing, which the $99 monthly plan or the $5,000 prepay option can reduce or remove.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.