Fundraise Up vs Kindest Comparison 2026
Fundraise Up charges a flat 4 percent of every donation from day one, in exchange for a checkout tuned to raise more per gift. Kindest charges 5 percent on its free plan, waived entirely on the first $50,000 a new nonprofit raises in its first year, or 3.75 percent on a $1,800-a-year paid plan. A brand-new nonprofit inside that waiver pays nothing on Kindest and 4 percent on Fundraise Up; past it, the two-tier math depends on annual volume.
A donation checkout tuned to raise more
Donation pages that start without a subscription
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
- Fundraise Up takes 4% of what you earn against Kindest's 5%.
Side by side
Fundraise Up | Kindest | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | Not listed |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Usage-based | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
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
Four percent on top of processing is more than a plain Stripe form costs, and the case for it is that the checkout raises more than it takes. Ask for the figures on comparable organisations before assuming that holds for your audience.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
Kindest
Donation pages that start without a subscription
Kindest gives a nonprofit donation forms, recurring giving and donor records on a free plan that takes a percentage instead of a monthly fee, and waives even that on the first fifty thousand dollars of a first year. The paid tier lowers the percentage and adds text campaigns and scheduled time with a person. Forms default to asking the donor to cover fees. Everything here assumes a registered charity rather than an individual.
Why people weigh these two
- Kindest instead of Fundraise Up
- Kindest offers donation pages that start without a subscription, the same no-monthly-bill posture.
- Fundraise Up instead of Kindest
- Fundraise Up focuses entirely on the checkout moment itself, tuned to raise more per donor, and stays free to start the same way Kindest does.
Which one should you pick
Pick Fundraise Up if you want one flat rate that never changes: 4 percent of every donation, no subscription, and a checkout engineered with suggested amounts and a recurring-giving nudge to raise more per gift. It works for creators raising money from a cause as well as registered nonprofits, and it does not ask you to be one.
Pick Kindest if you are a new United States nonprofit still finding its feet: the free plan waives its 5 percent fee entirely on the first $50,000 raised in a first year, beating Fundraise Up's 4 percent outright during that window. Past the waiver, the free plan's 5 percent costs more than Fundraise Up's 4 percent, and the $1,800-a-year paid plan at 3.75 percent only pulls ahead once annual donations pass roughly $720,000.
Common questions
- Which charges less once Kindest's waiver runs out?
- Fundraise Up, on the free-plan comparison: its flat 4 percent beats Kindest's free-plan rate of 5 percent at any volume. Kindest's paid plan drops to 3.75 percent for $1,800 a year, which only costs less than Fundraise Up's 4 percent once annual donations pass roughly $720,000, the point where the lower percentage outweighs the flat fee.
- What is Kindest's $50,000 waiver?
- New nonprofits pay no platform fee on the first $50,000 raised in their first year on the free plan, only card processing at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents. Fundraise Up has no equivalent waiver; its 4 percent applies from the first dollar.
- Does Fundraise Up require you to be a registered nonprofit?
- No. Its listing describes it as serving non-profits and creators raising money from a cause rather than selling access. Kindest's pricing and features assume a registered charity throughout.
- Are processing fees included in either headline rate?
- No, both add card processing on top. Fundraise Up adds Stripe or PayPal fees to its 4 percent. Kindest adds 2.9 percent plus 30 cents to either its 5 percent free-plan fee or its 3.75 percent paid rate, and its forms default to asking donors to cover that part.
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.