Nonprofits · alternatives
Alternatives to CommCare
22 nonprofits tools sit alongside CommCare in this directory. Below is what separates each from CommCare 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
- 2
- CommCare starts at
- $100/month
Why people look past CommCare
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the CommCare entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is no free tier
The record for CommCare carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 4 of the 22 alternatives below can be used without paying.
Cost climbs steeply across the tiers
CommCare publishes 4 tiers, from $100/month up to $4000/month. Teams that outgrow the entry plan can find the next rung a large step, the CommCare pricing page breaks each one down.
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.
Research data capture licensed free to non-profits, and not licensable at all to companies
- Sold on a quote model rather than Per month by mobile user count.
- 1 tier to CommCare's 4.
Field operations management for installing, inspecting and maintaining physical work
- Starts $61 a month cheaper, at $39/month.
- Sold on a subscription model rather than Per month by mobile user count.
- 3 tiers to CommCare's 4.
Form-centric field data collection that writes straight into an ArcGIS organisation
- Sold on a Per user per year by ArcGIS user type model rather than Per month by mobile user count.
- 3 tiers to CommCare's 4.
Fundraising software given free to nonprofits, funded by its founders rather than by fees
- Can be used without paying; CommCare cannot.
- Sold on a Free to nonprofits, card processing charged by the processor model rather than Per month by mobile user count.
- 1 tier to CommCare's 4.
Low-cost grant search across federal, state and private funders, with a paid consultant marketplace alongside
- Can be used without paying; CommCare cannot.
- Starts $91 a month cheaper, at $9/month.
- Sold on a Per user per month model rather than Per month by mobile user count.
- 2 tiers to CommCare's 4.
Open-source association management system for nonprofits
- Can be used without paying; CommCare cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, with paid hosting available model rather than Per month by mobile user count.
- 2 tiers to CommCare's 4.
Every CommCare 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CommCare (this page) | $100/month | Per month by mobile user count | 4 | |
| REDCapFree for member institutions and better suited to clinical research data capture than to frontline case management | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CommCare |
| FulcrumIf you need general field data collection with published pricing and no case model | $39/month | Subscription | 3 | vs CommCare |
| ArcGIS Survey123If the data must land in an existing ArcGIS estate and location is the organising principle | On request | Per user per year by ArcGIS user type | 3 | vs CommCare |
| Give Lively | Free | Free to nonprofits, card processing charged by the processor | 1 | vs CommCare |
| OpenGrants | Free, then $9/month | Per user per month | 2 | vs CommCare |
| Tendenci | Free | Open source, with paid hosting available | 2 | vs CommCare |
| CiviCRM | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs CommCare |
| Foundant Technologies | On request | Quote | 3 | vs CommCare |
| CharityEngine | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CommCare |
| Instrumentl | $299/month | Per organisation per month by seat band | 4 | vs CommCare |
| Fluxx | On request | Quote | 2 | vs CommCare |
| Sumac | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CommCare |
| Bonterra | On request | Quote | 3 | vs CommCare |
| Blackbaud Grantmaking | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CommCare |
| SmartSimple Cloud | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CommCare |
| Submittable | On request | Quote | 1 | vs CommCare |
| GrantStation | $199/year | Per organisation per year | 2 | vs CommCare |
| Keela | On request | Per month by contact count | 1 | vs CommCare |
| MemberClicks | On request | Quote | 2 | vs CommCare |
| Fundraise Up | On request | Percentage of each donation | 1 | vs CommCare |
| Candid | $219/month | Per user per month by tier | 3 | vs CommCare |
| Glue Up | On request | Quote | 3 | vs CommCare |
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 CommCare 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
Cheaper than CommCare (2)
Entry price under CommCare's $100/month. The record does not say what unit that price is charged in, so confirm per-seat versus flat rate before comparing budgets.
- Fulcrum , $39/month
- OpenGrants , Free, then $9/month
What you would be giving up
CommCare is most often brought in for a community health worker programme where each worker must see their own assigned households, what is overdue and what happened last visit, which a survey tool cannot represent, a ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasons, an ngo running the same intervention in four countries that needs one application, several languages and consolidated reporting, a research team collecting longitudinal data on the same participants over years, where linking visits to a case rather than a submission is the whole requirement. 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 CommCare is broadly right and the question is cost, the CommCare 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.
CommCare runs on android, 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 CommCare alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to CommCare?
- 22 other nonprofits tools are listed in this directory, led by REDCap, Fulcrum, ArcGIS Survey123, 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 CommCare?
- 4 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Give Lively, OpenGrants, Tendenci, CiviCRM.
- Is there a cheaper alternative to CommCare?
- Yes. 2 of the alternatives below start under CommCare's $100/month: Fulcrum at $39/month, OpenGrants at Free, then $9/month.
- Why do people look for an alternative to CommCare?
- On the figures on record, 2 things stand out: there is no free tier; cost climbs steeply across the tiers. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from CommCare?
- CommCare is most often brought in for a community health worker programme where each worker must see their own assigned households, what is overdue and what happened last visit, which a survey tool cannot represent, a ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasons, an ngo running the same intervention in four countries that needs one application, several languages and consolidated reporting, a research team collecting longitudinal data on the same participants over years, where linking visits to a case rather than a submission is the whole requirement. 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 CommCare?
- 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 CommCare 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 CommCare against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against CommCare 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 CommCare. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.