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Nonprofits · head to head

CharityEngine vs Salesforce for Nonprofits

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
Salesforce for Nonprofits logo

Salesforce for Nonprofits

Nonprofits

Enterprise CRM for nonprofit organizations

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Salesforce for Nonprofits has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • 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.; Salesforce for Nonprofits the Power of Us free grant covers only 10 Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud or Sales/Service Cloud licences; every licence beyond that is paid
  • They diverge on capability: CharityEngine covers In-house payment processing, Salesforce for Nonprofits covers Donor management.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CharityEngine and Salesforce for Nonprofits actually diverge.

Attributes where CharityEngine and Salesforce for Nonprofits differ
AttributeCharityEngineSalesforce for Nonprofits
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotesubscription
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, IOS, Android
FoundedUnknown1999

Identical on both: 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 Salesforce for Nonprofits

  • Donor management
  • Campaign tracking
  • Volunteer management
  • Program tracking
  • Advanced reporting
  • Stripe
  • Google Analytics
  • Slack

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 Salesforce for Nonprofits
  • Replacing a stack of a CRM, an email tool and a separate donation gateway with one contract and one reconciliationnot Salesforce for Nonprofits
  • A direct mail heavy organisation that needs offline gift entry and mail file segmentation as first-class features, not add-onsnot Salesforce for Nonprofits
  • An organisation whose finance team wants a single settlement file that already reconciles to donor recordsnot Salesforce for Nonprofits

Salesforce for Nonprofits

  • Nonprofit constituent CRM covering fundraising, programs, outcomes and volunteersnot CharityEngine
  • Consolidating donor, grant and program data on the Salesforce platformnot 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.

Salesforce for Nonprofits

  • The Power of Us free grant covers only 10 Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud or Sales/Service Cloud licences; every licence beyond that is paid
  • Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise is $60 per user per month billed annually and Nonprofit Cloud Unlimited is $100 per user per month billed annually
  • The free licences require passing Salesforce eligibility criteria for the Power of Us program
  • Most Salesforce products are sold on annual contracts
  • Some products must scale together when you add or upgrade, which requires going through an Account Executive

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

Salesforce for Nonprofits

Free
  • Nonprofit CloudFree
    • Donor management
    • Campaign tracking
    • Volunteer management
  • Professional$150/month
    • Advanced reporting
    • API integrations
    • Customization

Which should you pick?

Choose CharityEngine if

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

Choose Salesforce for Nonprofits if

  • You need donor management.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, IOS, Android.
  • You also want campaign tracking.
Salesforce for Nonprofits review

Questions people ask

Is CharityEngine or Salesforce for Nonprofits better?
Neither clearly leads. CharityEngine starts at On request and Salesforce for Nonprofits at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CharityEngine or Salesforce for Nonprofits?
Salesforce for Nonprofits has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for CharityEngine and Free for Salesforce for Nonprofits.
Does CharityEngine or Salesforce for Nonprofits run on more platforms?
CharityEngine runs on Web. Salesforce for Nonprofits runs on Web, IOS, Android.
Can I use Salesforce for Nonprofits for free?
Yes. Salesforce for Nonprofits has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. CharityEngine starts at On request.
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 Salesforce for Nonprofits is typically brought in for.
What can CharityEngine do that Salesforce for Nonprofits cannot?
CharityEngine covers In-house payment processing, Recurring giving recovery, Direct mail segmentation, Peer-to-peer and events. Salesforce for Nonprofits covers Donor management, Campaign tracking, Volunteer management, Program tracking.

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.

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.

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.

CharityEngine: How long is the contract?

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

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