Donately vs Mightycause Comparison 2026
Donately charges a 2 percent platform fee on top of a separate 2.2 to 2.9 percent card processing charge, so a free donation costs more than double Mightycause's all-in rate. Mightycause never charges a monthly fee and caps its combined platform and processing cost at 1.99 percent plus 49 cents, covering both in one number. The trade is that Mightycause operates as a donor advised fund, handling 501(c)(3) paperwork itself, while Donately embeds a form on your own site and asks nothing about charity status.
Donation forms with the fee written down
Nonprofit fundraising with no monthly bill
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Donately | Mightycause | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $99 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
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.
Our note
The arithmetic is straightforward: below about $60,000 raised a year the free plan is cheaper, and above it the monthly plan starts winning. Ask what the $99 plan's fee actually is before you sign, because the page never says.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
Mightycause
Nonprofit fundraising with no monthly bill
Mightycause gives a nonprofit donation pages, peer-to-peer fundraising and event tools without a subscription, and it operates as a donor advised fund, which is what lets it handle receipting and the 501(c)(3) paperwork on the organisation's behalf. The company states an overall ceiling on what a donation costs rather than splitting platform and processing. There are no donor tip prompts. Anybody outside the United States is in the wrong place.
Why people weigh these two
- Mightycause instead of Donately
- Mightycause covers nonprofit fundraising with no monthly bill, free to start, where Donately charges $99 a month in exchange for a lower fee.
- Donately instead of Mightycause
- Donately states its fee on the page rather than folding it into an overall cost, useful for a board that wants the pricing spelled out plainly.
Which one should you pick
Pick Donately if the donation form needs to live on your own Webflow, Squarespace or WordPress page rather than somewhere else, or if the campaign is not a registered nonprofit, since Donately checks for neither. Paying $99 a month lowers the fee further, though the new rate is not published, and prepaying $5,000 removes the platform cut entirely for up to $1 million raised.
Pick Mightycause for a small or mid-size United States nonprofit that wants the lowest total cost per donation and no donor tip prompt. Its combined rate never exceeds 1.99 percent plus 49 cents, well under Donately's stacked 2 percent plus 2.2 to 2.9 percent processing. Anybody outside the United States, or raising money as an individual, is outside what it is built for.
Common questions
- Which one actually costs less per donation?
- Mightycause, once processing is counted. Its combined platform and processing rate never exceeds 1.99 percent plus 49 cents. Donately's 2 percent platform fee sits on top of a separate 2.2 to 2.9 percent card charge, so the real total on Donately's free plan runs higher than Mightycause's ceiling.
- Does Mightycause charge a monthly fee like Donately's $99 plan?
- No. Mightycause has no plan ladder at all: it prices itself only as a percentage of what comes in. Donately's $99 a month tier lowers its platform fee to an unstated number, which only helps once the volume justifies a subscription.
- What does Mightycause do that Donately does not?
- It operates as a donor advised fund, which means it handles 501(c)(3) paperwork and receipting on the nonprofit's behalf. Donately leaves compliance to the organisation and instead offers an embeddable form for your own site, recurring donation tracking and a Zapier connection to 5,000 other tools.
- Is either one open to somebody outside the United States?
- Not Mightycause. It is explicit that anybody outside the United States is not who it is built for. Donately does not mention a location restriction, so it is the safer one to check for an international campaign.
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.