Softwr

Nonprofits · head to head

CharityEngine vs GiveWP

CharityEngine logo

CharityEngine

Nonprofits

Nonprofit CRM with its own in-house payment processing rather than a third-party gateway

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
GiveWP logo

GiveWP

Nonprofits

WordPress donation plugin for nonprofits

From
$199/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: CharityEngine payment processing rates are negotiated and never published, so the total cost cannot be compared to a licence-only CRM without getting a quote and modelling your own volume in basis points.; GiveWP recurring donations and fee recovery only available in Pro and Elite tiers; Essentials tier ($199/year) limited to one-time donations
  • They diverge on capability: CharityEngine covers In-house payment processing, GiveWP covers Donation forms.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CharityEngine and GiveWP actually diverge.

Attributes where CharityEngine and GiveWP differ
AttributeCharityEngineGiveWP
Starting priceOn request$199/year
Pricing modelquotesubscription
PlatformsWebWordPress plugin (self-hosted on WordPress sites)
FoundedUnknown2012

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Nonprofits).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in CharityEngine

  • In-house payment processing
  • Recurring giving recovery
  • Direct mail segmentation
  • Peer-to-peer and events
  • Advocacy and membership
  • Marketing automation

Only in GiveWP

  • Donation forms
  • Recurring donations
  • Donor management
  • Fundraising campaigns
  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Mailchimp
  • Zapier

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

CharityEngine

  • A nonprofit processing high recurring gift volume that wants card updater and dunning built into the CRM rather than bought separatelynot GiveWP
  • Replacing a stack of a CRM, an email tool and a separate donation gateway with one contract and one reconciliationnot GiveWP
  • A direct mail heavy organisation that needs offline gift entry and mail file segmentation as first-class features, not add-onsnot GiveWP
  • An organisation whose finance team wants a single settlement file that already reconciles to donor recordsnot GiveWP

GiveWP

  • WordPress-hosted nonprofits managing donors with self-hosted data (no third-party donor database)not CharityEngine
  • Organisations needing text-to-give and multi-gateway payment processing (Stripe, PayPal, Square, Apple Pay, Google Pay)not CharityEngine

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

CharityEngine

  • Payment processing rates are negotiated and never published, so the total cost cannot be compared to a licence-only CRM without getting a quote and modelling your own volume in basis points.
  • Because the vendor is both the software provider and the merchant processor, switching CRM also means re-papering merchant services and re-tokenising every recurring donor, which is a far larger project than a normal migration.
  • Subscription pricing is quote-only and reported entry points come from third parties rather than the vendor, so small organisations often discover the floor is well above what they budgeted.
  • The interface is dense and configuration-heavy, and organisations without a dedicated database administrator tend to use a fraction of what they pay for.
  • Implementation and data migration are billed on top of the subscription and are commonly the largest first-year line item, which is easy to miss when comparing monthly figures.

GiveWP

  • Recurring donations and fee recovery only available in Pro and Elite tiers; Essentials tier ($199/year) limited to one-time donations
  • Email marketing integrations (Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Salesforce) require Pro tier or higher
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising only available in Elite tier ($599/year); not in lower tiers

Pricing, plan by plan

CharityEngine

On request
  • CharityEngine$undefined/year
    • Donor CRM and gift processing
    • In-house payment processing at a negotiated rate
    • Email, SMS and direct mail tools

GiveWP

$199/year
  • Essentials$199/year
    • Everything needed to start fundraising on your own site
    • Unlimited donation forms
    • Donor database
  • Pro$399/year
    • All Essentials features
    • Recurring donations
    • Fee recovery options
  • Elite$599/year
    • All Pro features
    • Peer-to-peer fundraising
    • Funds and designations

Which should you pick?

Choose CharityEngine if

  • You need in-house payment processing.
  • You also want recurring giving recovery.
CharityEngine review

Choose GiveWP if

  • You need donation forms.
  • You work on WordPress plugin (self-hosted on WordPress sites).
  • You also want recurring donations.
GiveWP review

Questions people ask

Is CharityEngine or GiveWP better?
Neither clearly leads. CharityEngine starts at On request and GiveWP at $199/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CharityEngine or GiveWP?
CharityEngine starts at On request and GiveWP at $199/year.
Does CharityEngine or GiveWP run on more platforms?
CharityEngine runs on Web. GiveWP runs on WordPress plugin (self-hosted on WordPress sites).
What is CharityEngine best used for?
CharityEngine is most often used 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. Of those, a nonprofit processing high recurring gift volume that wants card updater and dunning built into the crm rather than bought separately and replacing a stack of a crm, an email tool and a separate donation gateway with one contract and one reconciliation are not what GiveWP is typically brought in for.
What can CharityEngine do that GiveWP cannot?
CharityEngine covers In-house payment processing, Recurring giving recovery, Direct mail segmentation, Peer-to-peer and events. GiveWP covers Donation forms, Recurring donations, Donor management, Fundraising campaigns.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CharityEngine: Does CharityEngine publish pricing?

No. Both the subscription and the payment processing rate are quoted. Third-party sites report a starter tier around 550 US dollars a month, but the vendor does not confirm this.

GiveWP: How much does GiveWP cost?

GiveWP pricing starts at $199 per year for the Essentials plan, $399 per year for Pro, and $599 per year for Elite. There are no per-transaction donation processing fees on any tier.

Source
CharityEngine: Is the payment processing optional?

In practice no. The processing is the product. Using an external gateway removes most of what distinguishes CharityEngine from cheaper CRMs.

GiveWP: Does GiveWP charge transaction fees on donations?

No, GiveWP charges no platform fees or per-donation transaction fees. Organizations only pay the standard payment processor fees (Stripe, PayPal, Square, etc.).

Source
CharityEngine: Is there a nonprofit discount?

Every customer is a nonprofit, so there is no separate discount; pricing is tiered by contact count and gift volume instead.

GiveWP: Do I own my donor data with GiveWP?

Yes, with GiveWP you retain complete data ownership of your donor relationships and donation history. There is no vendor lock-in.

Source
CharityEngine: How long is the contract?

Annual terms are standard, and multi-year commitments are used to buy down the rate.

Share

Related pages

More on CharityEngine

More on GiveWP

Keep looking

Other head to heads