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GiveSmart vs Givebutter: Which is a better fit?

Updated on February 9th, 2025
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Summary
Key features rated by users
Features selected based on 4,555 reviews from Fundraising users.
% Fit
Not enough reviews
Feature ratings
Credit Card Processing
4.0
Electronic Payments
4.5
Payment Processing
4.0
Donor Management
4.0
Contribution Tracking
4.5
% Fit
High performer
Feature ratings
Credit Card Processing
4.8
Electronic Payments
4.7
Payment Processing
4.7
Donor Management
4.5
Contribution Tracking
4.6
User satisfaction
4.5
User reviews207
Ease of use
4.4
Functionality
4.2
Value for money
4.3
Customer support
4.6
4.8
User reviews838
Ease of use
4.7
Functionality
4.5
Value for money
4.8
Customer support
4.8
Price starts from
Yearly subscription
Free version
Free trial
--
Not provided by vendor
Free version
Free trial
Best for

Nonprofits, Schools, Universities, Hospitals, 501(c)3

Small and medium-sized nonprofits love Givebutter, including charities, service organizations, faith-based, schools, universities, sports teams, companies and hopefully your group too!

User reviews
pros & cons
1 / 4
View Reviews
1 / 4
View Reviews
Video reviews
Kierstin W
Donor Relations and Events Director
2.0

Kierstin: My name is Kierstin. I am the donor relations and event director. And I give GiveSmart a two-star review. And for more reviews, you can check out the link below. So before GiveSmart, we were using 501 Auctions. And we were looking for something that would give our guests the ability to bid on their phones. So we wanted to go away from pen and paper and have more user functionality during the event on the phones for guests. So we chose GiveSmart because you could upload all of the auction items through your computer and guests could view them from their phones and we no longer had to have pen and paper bid sheets. In addition to that, they had a lot of other event management functionality that I really liked. Some of that was that you could set up a text-to-donate number, which is a six-digit number that they could text during the event itself. You could set up individual fundraising pages per campaign or per event. And they had great attending management so I could track the different audiences when they were coming in, communicate with them directly. All of these reasons made GiveSmart a great choice. GiveSmart was fairly easy to onboard with. I didn't have a whole lot of issues getting set up. The dashboard itself was really easy to navigate and it was fine. So for someone looking to purchase GiveSmart, I would recommend that it's good for really simple fundraising events. And if you have needs like peer-to-peer fundraising and auction and text-to-donate, it's great for that. They really encourage you to use all of the functionality. So I would be very upfront with your needs and your timeline. In the beginning of the planning process, we had a situation where they were trying to push a lot of functionality on us really late in the planning process, causing more stress, trying to set up phone calls and meetings I didn't need. The auction features were okay. We actually ended up not using it at all. I think we went back to pen and paper that year because when I actually got into the platform I saw that it was not what I was expecting. It wasn't presentable to a guest at our really nice event. So again, it's great for a really simple fundraising event if it's like for a kids-focused nonprofit or something, but for a more upscale event that needs a little bit more build-out, probably not your best option. We had a lot of seemingly simple functionality that had to be built out on the fly. And so going back and forth with their customer support team wasn't very fun.

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Melanie M
CEO
4.0

Melanie: Hi, I'm Melanie. I am one of the founders of Hearts for Honduras, and I would give Givebutter a four star rating. We used PayPal previously before using Givebutter, and what we found is it just really the cost of the fees was one of the big factors for us to look to change because we were going to get charged for every transaction. And so that was a big factor for us in finding something that passed on the fees, but a reasonable fee at that. Givebutter really is a platform that really supports nonprofits and does not charge us anything. So everything they do, we get to have a complete, basically a landing page where our participants can set up fundraising pages, we can fundraise for our upcoming trips, and also for our nonprofit in general. So just their overall support of nonprofits was a huge factor in being able to establish that, especially when you don't have very little budget to work with. So there is a little bit of a learning curve with Givebutter and just terms of playing around, how to set up your platform and set up your landing page. But once you get into the rhythm of it, it's pretty easy and it's easy to show others as well how to use. So that was a big... That's been kind of nice being able to teach our participants how to set up their own fundraising pages, but just a little bit of a learning curve when you're first starting off. So I would say that there's a lot of options out there. We did a lot of extensive research, compared the different platforms. Givebutter is right around the same in terms of the fees that they do charge for the processing of payments and fundraising dollars. They're relatively in that same ballpark of most. They're a little bit less. So that was a big factor. But really the big factor was the fact that there's no cost passed on to us to use the platform. So they raised their money completely through donations that donors make. So that was a huge factor for us in making that decision.

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User interface
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GiveSmart

22/46
  • Access Controls/Permissions
  • Accounting Integration
  • ACH Payment Processing
  • Alumni Management
  • API
  • Campaign Analytics
  • CRM
  • Customizable Fields
  • Customizable Forms
  • Customizable Reports
  • Dashboard
  • Data Import/Export
  • Donor Discovery
  • Forms Management
  • For Nonprofits
  • Gift Matching Management
  • Goal Setting/Tracking
  • Grant Management
  • Interaction Tracking
  • Online Forms
  • Receipt Management
  • Recurring Giving
  • Third-Party Integrations
  • Volunteer Management
  • Alerts/Notifications
  • Auction Management
  • Campaign Management
  • Contact Management
  • Contribution Tracking
  • Credit Card Processing
  • Customizable Branding
  • Donor Management
  • Electronic Payments
  • Email Marketing
  • Email Reminders
  • Event Management
  • Event Scheduling
  • Membership Management
  • Mobile Access
  • Mobile Giving
  • Payment Processing
  • Pledge Management
  • Registration Management
  • Reporting & Statistics
  • Social Media Integration
  • Website Management
See All features
Hide Fundraising Software Features -

Givebutter

Top Features
42/46
Show Fundraising Software Features +
GiveSmart
Deployment
  • Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based
  • Desktop - Mac
  • Desktop - Windows
  • Desktop - Linux
  • Desktop - Chromebook
  • On-Premise - Windows
  • On-Premise - Linux
  • Mobile - Android
  • Mobile - iPhone
  • Mobile - iPad
Support
  • Email/Help Desk
  • FAQs/Forum
  • Knowledge Base
  • Phone Support
  • 24/7 (Live rep)
  • Chat
Training
  • In Person
  • Live Online
  • Webinars
  • Documentation
  • Videos
Givebutter
Deployment
  • Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based
  • Desktop - Mac
  • Desktop - Windows
  • Desktop - Linux
  • Desktop - Chromebook
  • On-Premise - Windows
  • On-Premise - Linux
  • Mobile - Android
  • Mobile - iPhone
  • Mobile - iPad
Support
  • Email/Help Desk
  • FAQs/Forum
  • Knowledge Base
  • Phone Support
  • 24/7 (Live rep)
  • Chat
Training
  • In Person
  • Live Online
  • Webinars
  • Documentation
  • Videos
GiveSmart
  • By Community Brands
  • Located in United States
  • Founded in 2017
Givebutter
  • By Givebutter
  • Located in United States
  • Founded in 2016
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