--- title: "Beacon Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra" description: "With the help of Capterra, learn about Beacon Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Nonprofit CRM products and more." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/190441/Beacon/" page_type: "product" language: "en" --- # Beacon Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons Last updated on July 20, 2026 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[FAQs](#faqs)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Integrations](#integrations)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews) Beacon ## What is Beacon? Beacon is the modern CRM for charities. We're a platform that's easy to use, and is flexible enough to handle any kind of data you're looking to store. There's nothing to install, and definitely no developers required! ## What is Beacon used for? [Nonprofit CRM](https://www.capterra.com/nonprofit-crm-software/)[Fundraising](https://www.capterra.com/fundraising-software/)[Donation Management](https://www.capterra.com/donation-management-software/) Top alternative Featured Overall rating Based on 32 user reviews Reviews sentiment Positive 100% Neutral 0% Negative 0% Starting price £30 Flat Rate, Per Month Free trial available Free version not included Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Do you work for Beacon?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=https://www.beaconcrm.org&name=Beacon) ## Compare with a popular alternative Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status. ### Beacon 4.9 (32) VS. [4.5 (1,464)](https://www.capterra.com/p/2698/DonorPerfect-Fundraising-Software/reviews/) Starting Price £30 Flat Rate, Per Month Starting Price $119 Other, Per Month Free Trial Free Version Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version Ease Of Use 4.8 (32) Ease Of Use 4.3 (1,463) Value For Money 5.0 (30) Value For Money 4.5 (1,199) Customer Service 5.0 (31) Customer Service 4.8 (1,362) ## Beacon alternatives [4.3 (620)](https://www.capterra.com/p/102088/NeonCRM/reviews/) Starting price $99.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 89% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars Highest Rated [4.7 (1,287)](https://www.capterra.com/p/131207/Bloomerang/reviews/) Starting price $125.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 97% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [4.6 (937)](https://www.capterra.com/p/111128/Bonterra-Guided-Fundraising/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 92% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [4.6 (414)](https://www.capterra.com/p/97513/DonorSnap/reviews/) Starting price $50.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 94% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/190441/Beacon/alternatives/) ## FAQs about Beacon Overview ### Which roles and teams benefit most from Beacon? Beacon is most used by fundraising teams, charity administrators, and nonprofit leaders who need to manage donor relationships, campaigns, and supporter communications in one place. Operations, finance, and IT teams benefit from streamlined data management, reporting, and system oversight, while executives use it to monitor performance and guide fundraising strategy. Answer based on 32 reviews Overview ### What company size and specific industries is Beacon built for? Beacon is designed for charities of all sizes, from small organizations to large nonprofits, and is built for the nonprofit and charity sector. It suits groups that want a modern, flexible database to manage data and support mission-driven work without requiring a specific industry beyond charitable organizations. Features and Usability ### What are the key features of Beacon? Beacon offers nonprofit fundraising and donor management features including CRM, donation tracking, recurring giving, pledge management, and contribution tracking. It also includes campaign planning, email marketing, event management, membership management, volunteer management, reporting and analytics, payment processing, online giving, and website integration. Pricing ### How much does it cost and what fees or limitations are included? Beacon starts at £30 per month for the Starter plan, which includes 3 users, 10 read-only users, and 500 to 2,000 contacts. The Standard plan is £104 per month and the Premium plan is £230 per month. A free trial is available, and reviewers call the pricing structure good value. Answer based on 4 reviews Integrations ### Which third-party tools and platforms does Beacon integrate with? Beacon integrates with 10 third-party tools, including Mailchimp, JustGiving from Blackbaud, Xero, Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless, Gmail, SendGrid, Zapier, and Google Analytics 360. These integrations cover email, fundraising, payments, accounting, and reporting, with reviewer-confirmed mentions for Mailchimp, JustGiving from Blackbaud, and Xero. Answer based on 14 reviews Getting Started and Support ### What training and onboarding options does Beacon offer? Beacon provides in person training, live online sessions, webinars, documentation, and videos to help teams get started. In person and live online formats support guided instruction, webinars cover scheduled group learning, documentation offers written reference material, and videos provide self-paced viewing. Answer based on 2 reviews Getting Started and Support ### What customer support options does Beacon offer, and how do users rate the experience? Beacon offers email/help desk, FAQ/forum, a knowledge base, phone support, and chat. Users describe support as friendly, accessible, and highly responsive, with chat often answering within minutes. Reviews also note hands-on help with setup, training, customization, and troubleshooting, though some mention early duplicate-record issues and feature gaps. Answer based on 13 reviews Features and Usability ### Is Beacon easy to use for everyday nonprofit work? Beacon feels easy to learn for everyday nonprofit work, with an intuitive layout, flexible setup, and helpful support. Charity teams, small organizations, and staff with limited IT confidence often find data entry, membership management, and communications simpler, though reporting and some payment integrations can take more effort. Answer based on 12 reviews Features and Usability ### How good is Beacon's user interface? Beacon offers a clean, clear interface that makes navigation simple for different staff skill levels. Nonprofits and charity teams often like the customizable screens, pleasant layout, and easy-to-follow views, though some users want more consistency in save actions, a better undo option, and less complexity in reporting tools. Answer based on 11 reviews ## Features AI summary Based on 1,387 Nonprofit CRM reviews Capterra data shows that buyers of nonprofit CRM software rank the following features as their top priorities: - **Donation Tracking** (**75%** of reviewers rated this feature as critical) - **Donor Management** (**70%**) - **Credit Card Processing** (**65%**) Beacon supports all three of the features reviewers value most: **Donation Tracking**, **Donor Management**, and **Credit Card Processing**. Together, these capabilities help nonprofits record gifts accurately, maintain stronger donor relationships, and process payments efficiently, allowing teams to manage fundraising activity with better visibility and support ongoing giving. Donation Tracking 5.0 (3) 100.00% of 3 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Track and view detailed financial donation history made by contacts and members Contact Management 5.0 (4) 100.00% of 4 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Manage, organize, and store contact information Fundraising Management 4.7 (3) 66.67% of 3 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Activities related to raising money for a specific cause Contribution Tracking 4.8 (4) 75.00% of 4 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important View donor contribution history, track how much money have been raised over time and measure progress Donor Management 5.0 (3) 100.00% of 3 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Track and maintain donor relationships throughout various stages/activities including contact information and previous outreach Membership Management 5.0 (3) 0.00% of 3 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Database of members to track personal information of individuals and families Beacon 46 features ### All Features - Access Controls/Permissions: Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems - Accounting Integration: Integrate with a third-party accounting system - ACH Payment Processing: Accept electronic bank-to-bank transfers using a network called the Automated Clearing House (ACH) - Alumni Management: Tools that help educational institutions or fundraising organizations connect with alumni - API: Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases - Auction Management: Allows businesses to create and manage auctions. - Campaign Management: Create a collection of marketing actions to complete specific goals and plan and analyze campaign results - Campaign Planning: Plan and strategize marketing campaigns - Committee Management: Manage a group of members established for coordinating plans, programs, or other initiatives - Contact Database: Centralized database of stakeholders and their contact information such as names, address, phone number etc. - Contact Management: Manage, organize, and store contact information - Contribution Tracking: View donor contribution history, track how much money have been raised over time and measure progress - Credit Card Processing: Accept and process credit card transactions - CRM: Built-in customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities or integration with a third-party CRM system - Customizable Fields: Customize data fields to support various needs and use cases - Customizable Forms: Customize contracts and forms to collect specific information - Dashboard: Assembly of graphs and charts for visualizing and tracking statistics/metrics - Data Import/Export: Import and export data to and from software applications - Donation Tracking: Track and view detailed financial donation history made by contacts and members - Donor Management: Track and maintain donor relationships throughout various stages/activities including contact information and previous outreach - Electronic Payments: Electronically collect payments for goods or services - Email Marketing: Create and send email blasts/campaigns - Email Templates: Pre-made examples and templates for emails - Event Management: Schedule and manage the logistics of activities and other gatherings - Event Ticketing: Manage tickets for specific events - For Nonprofits: Software specialized for non-profit organizations - Forms Management: Store, manage and track all forms in a centralized location - Fundraising Management: Activities related to raising money for a specific cause - Gift Matching Management: Ability to match gifts through the system - Grant Management: Monitor application statuses, proposals and award funds - Membership Management: Database of members to track personal information of individuals and families - Mobile Giving: Ability to make a donation from a mobile device/app - Online Forms: Create new forms and/or use ready-made online form templates - Online Giving: Outlet for members and visitors to submit donations electronically - Payment Processing: Accept, record, and reconcile financial transactions - Pledge Management: Track commitments to donate in the future - Real-Time Notifications: Notifications that are delivered to users as soon as an event occurs - Receipt Management: Upload, track, and submit receipts in a central database - Recurring Giving: Manage and track recurring gifts - Reminders: Timed notification for any upcoming task, deadline, appointment, or activity - Reporting & Statistics: Collection, analysis, and representation of numerical data and generation of reports to understand various patterns - Reporting/Analytics: View and track pertinent metrics to find patterns and gain insights from data - Third-Party Integrations: Set up connections to third-party platforms to improve business processes - Volunteer Management: Manage volunteer information and direct volunteer resources - Web Forms: Web form that allows users to enter data that is sent and processed for different reasons - Website Integration: Seamlessly integrates with 3rd party websites --- Get Advice We can help you find the software with the features you need. Features 4.7 (32) 4.7 Based on 32 reviews ## Pricing Value for money 5.0 (30) Free Trial [View pricing plan details](https://www.capterra.com/p/190441/Beacon/pricing/) Starter £30.00 Flat Rate,Per Month It includes: - 3 Users and 10 Read-Only Users - 500 - 2000 Contacts Standard £104.00 Flat Rate,Per Month It includes: - 10 Users and Unlimited Read-Only Users - 2500 - 50000 Contacts Premium £230.00 Flat Rate,Per Month It includes: - 10000 - 100000 Contacts - 30 Users and Unlimited Read-Only Users Value for money 5.0 (30) 5.0 Based on 30 reviews ## Integrations [ PayPal](https://www.capterra.com/p/207944/PayPal/)[ Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/)[ Gmail](https://www.capterra.com/p/202338/Gmail/)[ Google Analytics 360](https://www.capterra.com/p/177042/Google-Analytics/)[ Stripe](https://www.capterra.com/p/123889/Stripe/)[ Xero](https://www.capterra.com/p/120109/Xero/)[ Zapier](https://www.capterra.com/p/130182/Zapier/)[ Meta for Business](https://www.capterra.com/p/213257/Facebook/) Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation Get a personalized software list aligned to your business needs with guidance from our expert advisors. Our team has helped 1 million+ businesses like yours find options that fit their needs. ## Support, customer service and training options Customer Service 5.0 (31) Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos Deployment - Web - Android - iPhone/iPad Typical users - Freelancers - Small businesses - Mid size businesses - Enterprises Customer Service 5.0 (31) 5.0 Based on 31 reviews ## User reviews Overall rating 4.9 Based on 32 reviews Filter by rating 5(28) 4(4) 3(0) 2(0) 1(0) Mentioned topic Sorted by most recent DW Dianne W. Volunteer Operations Manager Philanthropy ### "I am totally in love with Beacon " 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 November 3, 2022 Excellent experience. Greatly adding to our efficiency as we automate more processes. Pros Easy to use once basics are grasped and is backed up by brilliant customer service. So many features, so versatile, so easy to customise. The more I find out about it, the more efficient we are able to make our business processes Cons It would just be lovely to have forms that allowed donations to be made to different fundraisers for the same event. Then we could do away with third party giving platforms and their fees, the need for double checking etc and just deal with Beacon Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. HR Hannah R. Community Fundraiser Non-Profit Organization Management ### "Easy, yet effective interface and 5 star customer service!" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 April 13, 2022 Beacon has been revolutionary for our small charity. It has helped us reach more people easily and more effectively. It has also been a solid platform to track and trace our performance all in the same place rather than switching between programmes like we were doing before. It has saved staff time, has boosted our campaigns resulting in increased donations, and has continued to deliver excellent customer service since the day we switched. I'm so grateful I am able to use this product and I will continue to recommend this to others asking for high-quality CRM platforms. Pros The most impactful feature has been the extremely high quality of customer service within the entire Beacon team! Unlike other CRM's, this software is very easy to learn so when I had a problem it was always a very specific issue and, due to my background not being IT, sometimes I didn't know how to even ask what I was looking for. Each and every time I was supported by the Beacon team and found a solution to the problem. Cons I genuinely have no cons about Beacon. When I had a problem, there was always a solution and when I made suggestions to the team they listened and improved the product to suit our charity's needs. Switched from [Blackbaud eTapestry](https://www.capterra.com/p/29170/eTapestry/) Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Andre P. Marketing & Fundraising Manager Non-Profit Organization Management ### "The best non-profit CRM, period." 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 April 8, 2022 Pros Super easy to use, brilliant features, easy reporting, great pricing structure, incredible support team. Cons There are only a few integrations and no open API, although I know this will change in the future. Reasons for choosing Beacon Much nicer interface and easier to use Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MK Mark K. Consultant Information Technology and Services ### "Very flexible , easy to use and with very good support" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 February 18, 2022 We were looking for a simple to use, inexpensive package that would manage all our contacts, donations, grant applications, event ticketing, and campaigns. Beacon has almost everything we want 'out of the box' with the advantage of being so easy to add fields or modify existing ones. The support is also very good - extremely responsive. We have uploaded our core contacts data, integrated with Mailchimp and added grant application management with no need for any paid support from Beacon. We have yet to tackle integration with donations (including GiftAid and payment processing) which is the next major phase. Pros Very easy to add your own objects and fields or customise existing objects and fields. Intuitive user interface and great support when needed. Out of the box it comes with all the features you need for a small charity. Built in integrations to Mailchimp and Xero and others Cons No 'undo' facility. Especially a problem when doing a build data upload when you can fairly easily make an error in the dedup settings (say) and create/overwrite existing data. I'd like to be able to test the upload before committing it. When updating a record, sometimes it happens immediately on entering a new field value, sometimes you have a confirm / save button. More consistency in this area would be good. The charts are fairly basic, perhaps an interface to a external charting package would be good. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. JK Joanna K. Project Officer Non-Profit Organization Management ### "An efficient CRM system which is easy to navigate." 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 January 14, 2022 This system is far more user friendly than our last system and saves a lot of time when entering data. Pros I like the ease in which the product can be navigated. Cons There are times when names are entered into the system with slightly different spellings and the system doesn't always pick up a common denominator to merge them Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. TB Tom B. Chief Officer Non-Profit Organization Management ### "Driving our charity forwrad" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 October 20, 2021 It's truly helping us drive our membership growth, improve our volunteer management and fundraising activities. The free read only licences are also improving transparency and reporting whilst reducing the time we spend writing and analysing reports Pros It's helping us drive our charity forward at pace, by being simple to use with great back up we spending our time managing things that matter not our software. Also the team at Beacon have a great understanding of our sector, and continually look to add value. Genuinely a business that sees opportunities not problems. Cons None - The few we highlight get solved quickly Reasons for choosing Beacon Beacon was one of the few packages/companies that truly understood and catered for the needs of small-medium sized charities. And they where one of the few presenting who seemed to really enjoy what they did . Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RD Ruth D. Finance Officer Civic & Social Organization ### "Thanks Beacon!" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 October 19, 2021 One of the best things is that you are always talking with people who really understand the system and seem to genuinely love their product! Beacon are a pleasure to work with and we would definitely recommend them. Pros We are a small charity (ten part time staff) and started using Beacon 6 months ago. It's been a really good experience! We don't have a lot of inhouse IT support and were a bit nervous about moving to a new system. The staff at Beacon were really helpful. They took the time to understand what we needed and helped us to make decisions about what would work best for us. The set up process took a few weeks and went really smoothly. The database is easy to use and the webchat support responds in a couple of minutes if you need help. It does everything we need it to do and has saved us a lot of data entry time by integrating with JustGiving and our website. They are also frequently adding new functions, so even if it doesn't do quite what you want now it may do soon. Cons No major cons for us so far. It is easy for users to batch update and change large amounts of data so it's important that users are careful with these features! Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. JE Jane E. Fundraising Manager Fund-Raising ### "Beacon CRM" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 July 12, 2021 We have the ability now to record a lot more donor information. We can now tag our donors to learn more about their journey and what interests they have. We could not manage without it now, I really don't know how we coped before Beacon it has just made life much easier and accessible. Pros We started using Beacon nearly 12 months ago and it has been a complete game changer for our medium sized charity. It can do so much that our previous CRM could never have done. It is very intuative and easy to navigate which is a real positive, it is like one of the team! It works out much cheaper than other CRMs we looked at because we have a small team of users. We can take payments through an embedded form on our website which is then recorded directly into Beacon, something we had to do manually previously saving so much time and resource. Event ticketing is a new feature which is also really useful. The Beacon support is so good, they are always on hand to answer queries and help with any problems. Cons Beacon does not have an auto address fill function so our analytics for demographic are not very precise. However if you need something that Beacon does not currently provide then just ask their support team. This particular problem will be short lived as Beacon are now working on an automated system for inputting addresses so this should be up and running very soon. We have also had some teething problems with duplicate records but I believe this would be a problem for every CRM and after a bit of training and input from the support team this is much improved over time. Reasons for choosing Beacon We looked at 3 CRMS and Donorfy and Beacon were our favourites for similar reasons. We chose Beacon because of cost and projections over the next 5 years with donorfy would be a lot more expensive. Also heard a lot of good things about Beacon from users in our field of work. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MC Megan C. Finance and Resources Manager Non-Profit Organization Management ### "Beacon for a small charity" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 June 17, 2021 Pros Beacon was easy to implement and to bring in data from our legacy server based CRM. It has been an excellent cloud based alternative as a CRM database for our donor and supporter data, as well as allowing us to offer simpler online donation and purchase options, and simplifying Gift Aid. Helpful, and very quick to respond, customer service. Good pricing options for part time staff. Cons No downsides so far, software does all that is needed. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. WA Wendy A. UK Operations Director Non-Profit Organization Management ### "Easy to set up and use" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 May 17, 2021 Time saving in entering and processing donations. Pros It is easy to set up, to integrate with our website and to us. Cons Intregration with Woo Commerce could be good but I understand Beacon are working on this whereas the other CRM we looked at were not. Reasons for choosing Beacon More user-friendly and has Paypal integration which the other CRM did not. Plus consistently scores highest in every category of Fundraising Magazine's annual CRM survey. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. [View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/190441/Beacon/reviews/) ## Top-rated software of 2026 ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox. Popular comparisons [DonorPerfect vs Beacon](https://www.capterra.com/compare/2698-190441/DonorPerfect-Fundraising-Software-vs-Beacon)