Donorbox vs Fundraise Up Comparison 2026
Donorbox prices in tiers: free at 2.95 to 3.95 percent, or $150 a month for Pro, which drops the rate to 1.75 to 2 percent and adds the API. Fundraise Up skips tiers entirely and charges a flat 4 percent of every donation, no subscription, with the API and every integration already included. The real question is whether a plain embeddable form is enough, or whether the checkout itself needs to be built to raise more, since that is Fundraise Up's actual pitch.
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Donorbox | Fundraise Up | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $150 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
Donorbox
Donation pages and recurring giving
Donorbox is built for nonprofits and reads that way, which is exactly right for a creator running a fundraiser or a cause and wrong for one collecting tips. Recurring donations, an embeddable form and donor records are the substance. Its free plan charges a higher percentage on each gift than the paid one.
Our note
Pro costs $150 a month and saves roughly 1.5 percent per donation, so it pays for itself somewhere around $10,000 a month in giving. Below that the free plan is the cheaper one, whatever the fee percentage looks like.
Fundraise Up
A donation checkout tuned to raise more
Fundraise Up replaces a donation form with a checkout tuned to raise the amount given: suggested upgrades, a monthly nudge, wallets and a currency the donor recognises. It charges four percent of what comes in and sells no plans at all. The company's own figure is that most donors elect to cover that cost, which is the argument for a percentage over a subscription.
Our note
Why people weigh these two
- Fundraise Up instead of Donorbox
- Fundraise Up narrows the job to a donation checkout tuned to raise more, free to start with no monthly plan.
- Donorbox instead of Fundraise Up
- Donorbox is the closest swap, donation pages and recurring giving with a free tier, though its paid plan runs $150 a month where Fundraise Up only takes a percentage.
Which one should you pick
Pick Donorbox if a plain, embeddable donation form is enough and the fee needs to stay low without a subscription. Its free plan's 2.95 to 3.95 percent already beats Fundraise Up's flat 4 percent, and Pro at $150 a month brings the rate down to 1.75 to 2 percent plus the API, crypto donations and receipt whitelabeling.
Pick Fundraise Up if the current donation page is a plain form and converting more of its visitors matters more than shaving the fee. Its 4 percent covers everything with no plan to upgrade into and no contract, and the company states most donors choose to cover that cost themselves at checkout, so it rarely comes out of what the nonprofit keeps.
Common questions
- Which one charges a smaller fee?
- Donorbox, on paper. Its free plan charges 2.95 to 3.95 percent against Fundraise Up's flat 4 percent, and Pro at $150 a month lowers that further to 1.75 to 2 percent. Fundraise Up's counter-argument is that its checkout is built to raise more per donor, not just to charge less.
- Do I need a paid plan to get an API on either one?
- On Donorbox, yes: the API sits behind the $150 a month Pro plan. Fundraise Up includes its REST API on the single 4 percent rate, with no separate plan to buy.
- Does Fundraise Up have a free plan like Donorbox does?
- No. There is no plan ladder at all, just one flat 4 percent of donations with no subscription and no contract. Donorbox's Standard plan is free and charges 2.95 to 3.95 percent instead, which is the closer comparison to make.
- Who actually pays Fundraise Up's 4 percent fee?
- Usually the donor. Fundraise Up states that most donors choose to cover the cost themselves at checkout, the same option Donorbox offers on its own forms. Neither guarantees full coverage on every gift, so some of the fee can still land on the organisation.
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.