Nonprofits · alternatives
Alternatives to CharityEngine
22 nonprofits tools sit alongside CharityEngine in this directory. Below is what separates each from CharityEngine on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 22
- With a free tier
- 4
- Cheaper to start
- -
- CharityEngine starts at
- On request
Why people look past CharityEngine
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the CharityEngine entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is no free tier
The record for CharityEngine carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 4 of the 22 alternatives below can be used without paying.
There is only one tier
CharityEngine publishes a single plan, CharityEngine at On request. There is no smaller tier to drop to if the fit is wrong or the budget moves.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Donor relationship management for nonprofits
- Publishes an entry price of $40/month, where CharityEngine does not.
- Sold on a subscription model rather than quote.
- 4 tiers to CharityEngine's 1.
Cloud-based CRM for nonprofits
- Sold on a subscription model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to CharityEngine's 1.
CRM designed for faith-based and mission-driven organizations
- Sold on a subscription model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to CharityEngine's 1.
Fundraising software given free to nonprofits, funded by its founders rather than by fees
- Can be used without paying; CharityEngine cannot.
- Sold on a Free to nonprofits, card processing charged by the processor model rather than quote.
Low-cost grant search across federal, state and private funders, with a paid consultant marketplace alongside
- Can be used without paying; CharityEngine cannot.
- Publishes an entry price of $9/month, where CharityEngine does not.
- Sold on a Per user per month model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to CharityEngine's 1.
Open-source association management system for nonprofits
- Can be used without paying; CharityEngine cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, with paid hosting available model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to CharityEngine's 1.
Every CharityEngine alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CharityEngine (this page) | On request | Quote | 1 | |
| BloomerangA simpler donor CRM with published pricing if you do not need in-house processing or direct mail depth | $40/month | Subscription | 4 | vs CharityEngine |
| NeonCRMSimilar mid-market positioning with clearer published tiers | On request | Subscription | 2 | vs CharityEngine |
| VirtuousIf personalised donor journeys and responsive fundraising matter more than merchant economics | On request | Subscription | 2 | vs CharityEngine |
| Give Lively | Free | Free to nonprofits, card processing charged by the processor | 1 | vs CharityEngine |
| OpenGrants | Free, then $9/month | Per user per month | 2 | vs CharityEngine |
| Tendenci | Free | Open source, with paid hosting available | 2 | vs CharityEngine |
| CiviCRM | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs CharityEngine |
| CommCare | $100/month | Per month by mobile user count | 4 | vs CharityEngine |
| Foundant Technologies | On request | Quote | 3 | vs CharityEngine |
| Instrumentl | $299/month | Per organisation per month by seat band | 4 | vs CharityEngine |
| Fluxx | On request | Quote | 2 | vs CharityEngine |
| Sumac | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CharityEngine |
| Bonterra | On request | Quote | 3 | vs CharityEngine |
| Blackbaud Grantmaking | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CharityEngine |
| SmartSimple Cloud | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CharityEngine |
| Submittable | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CharityEngine |
| GrantStation | $199/year | Per organisation per year | 2 | vs CharityEngine |
| Keela | On request | Per month by contact count | 1 | vs CharityEngine |
| MemberClicks | On request | Quote | 2 | vs CharityEngine |
| Fundraise Up | On request | Percentage of each donation | 1 | vs CharityEngine |
| Candid | $219/month | Per user per month by tier | 3 | vs CharityEngine |
| Glue Up | On request | Quote | 3 | vs CharityEngine |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the CharityEngine badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (4)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- Give Lively , Free
- OpenGrants , Free, then $9/month
- Tendenci , Free
- CiviCRM , Free
What you would be giving up
CharityEngine is most often brought in for a nonprofit processing high recurring gift volume that wants card updater and dunning built into the crm rather than bought separately, replacing a stack of a crm, an email tool and a separate donation gateway with one contract and one reconciliation, a direct mail heavy organisation that needs offline gift entry and mail file segmentation as first-class features, not add-ons, an organisation whose finance team wants a single settlement file that already reconciles to donor records. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If CharityEngine is broadly right and the question is cost, the CharityEngine pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Nonprofits category lists everything the directory holds, and best nonprofits tools ranks them.
CharityEngine runs on web. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about CharityEngine alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to CharityEngine?
- 22 other nonprofits tools are listed in this directory, led by Bloomerang, NeonCRM, Virtuous, Give Lively. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to CharityEngine?
- 4 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Give Lively, OpenGrants, Tendenci, CiviCRM.
- Why do people look for an alternative to CharityEngine?
- On the figures on record, 2 things stand out: there is no free tier; there is only one tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from CharityEngine?
- CharityEngine is most often brought in for a nonprofit processing high recurring gift volume that wants card updater and dunning built into the crm rather than bought separately, replacing a stack of a crm, an email tool and a separate donation gateway with one contract and one reconciliation, a direct mail heavy organisation that needs offline gift entry and mail file segmentation as first-class features, not add-ons, an organisation whose finance team wants a single settlement file that already reconciles to donor records. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to CharityEngine?
- None of the nonprofits tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these CharityEngine alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Nonprofits, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare CharityEngine against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against CharityEngine covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every nonprofits tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Nonprofits category, 22 tools beside CharityEngine. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.