Crowdfundr vs Zeffy Comparison 2026
Crowdfundr charges creators a published 5 percent platform fee to run reward and donation campaigns. Zeffy charges nothing at all, not even payment processing, and covers those costs itself out of the tips it asks donors for at checkout. The catch is eligibility. Zeffy's signup asks you to be a registered nonprofit, which most individual creators running a Crowdfundr campaign are not.
Crowdfunding built to leave creators the money
Fundraising with no platform or processing fee
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
- Zeffy takes no share of what you earn. Crowdfundr takes 5%.
Side by side
Crowdfundr | Zeffy | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | Free |
| Pricing model | Free | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export |
Crowdfundr
Crowdfunding built to leave creators the money
Crowdfundr runs reward and donation campaigns with the platform fee presented as optional to the supporter rather than deducted from the creator, and the company publishes what that works out to in practice. Campaigns are free to start and there is no all-or-nothing rule forcing a goal. The comparison table on its own pricing page names Kickstarter and BackerKit and states their fees beside its own. Discovery is thin, so bring your own audience.
Our note
Compare this against Kickstarter on the assumption that nobody covers your fees, and then treat anything supporters do cover as upside. The absence of an all-or-nothing rule is the bigger practical difference for a creator funding a project that can ship at a smaller scale.
Zeffy
Fundraising with no platform or processing fee
Zeffy takes nothing from a donation, and covers card processing itself out of the optional tips donors leave at checkout. Donations, ticketed events, raffles, auctions, memberships and a donor database are all in the same account. It is built for nonprofits, and the sign-up asks you to be one.
Why people weigh these two
- Zeffy instead of Crowdfundr
- Zeffy goes further than optional fees: no platform or processing fee at all, in a fundraising-first shape.
- Crowdfundr instead of Zeffy
- Crowdfundr is built to leave creators the money too, free to start, a campaign tool rather than the ongoing donor database Zeffy keeps.
Which one should you pick
Pick Zeffy if you qualify as a registered nonprofit, since nothing here beats an actual 0 percent on both the platform fee and payment processing. The only cost is a social one: your donors see a tip prompt at checkout, and that prompt is the entire business model.
Pick Crowdfundr if you are a creator rather than a registered nonprofit, or if you want reward tiers tied to pledge levels rather than a donation form. Its 5 percent fee is real money next to Zeffy's zero. But Zeffy's signup is not open to you without nonprofit status.
Common questions
- Is Zeffy actually free, or is there a hidden fee?
- It states no platform fee and no processing fee, and covers card costs itself from the optional tip a donor sees at checkout. Crowdfundr, by contrast, charges a published 5 percent platform fee plus payment processing, which is the honest number to plan around.
- Can any creator sign up for Zeffy?
- No. Its signup asks you to be a registered nonprofit. Crowdfundr has no such requirement and is open to any creator running a reward or donation campaign.
- Does Crowdfundr have reward tiers like a product crowdfunding site?
- Yes, perks attached to pledge levels the way a backer expects from a creator's campaign. Zeffy is built around donation forms, ticketed events, raffles and memberships instead, without that reward-tier structure.
- What is the actual cost difference between the two?
- Zeffy takes 0 percent of a donation, platform fee and processing both. Crowdfundr's honest planning number is 5 percent platform fee plus 2.9 percent and 30 cents in processing, real money on a donation that Zeffy would not touch.
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.