Softwr

Nonprofits · head to head

CiviCRM vs Fundraise Up

CiviCRM logo

CiviCRM

Nonprofits

Open source constituent relationship management for nonprofits, with no per contact or per donation fee

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Fundraise Up logo

Fundraise Up

Nonprofits

Donation checkout layer that replaces the giving form on an existing nonprofit website

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only CiviCRM has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: CiviCRM nobody maintains it for you, so security patches and major version upgrades are your operational responsibility and organisations that skip them end up stranded on an old release.; Fundraise Up the fee is a percentage of donations, so cost rises exactly as the product succeeds, and a single large gift routed through the checkout carries the same rate as a twenty pound one unless the agreement caps it.
  • They diverge on capability: CiviCRM covers Contribution and pledge tracking, Fundraise Up covers Embedded donation checkout.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CiviCRM and Fundraise Up actually diverge.

Attributes where CiviCRM and Fundraise Up differ
AttributeCiviCRMFundraise Up
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePercentage of each donation
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Self-hostedWeb

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 CiviCRM

  • Contribution and pledge tracking
  • Membership management
  • Events and registration
  • Case management
  • CMS integration
  • Extension framework

Only in Fundraise Up

  • Embedded donation checkout
  • Digital wallet payments
  • Recurring gift upgrade prompts
  • Multi currency and multi language
  • Donor covered fees
  • CRM sync

What people use each for

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

CiviCRM

  • A membership organisation with a large contact file that refuses to pay a per contact meternot Fundraise Up
  • An advocacy group needing to hold constituent data on infrastructure it controlsnot Fundraise Up
  • A charity already running Drupal or WordPress that wants CRM inside the same stacknot Fundraise Up
  • An organisation with unusual data requirements that no hosted product will build for itnot Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up

  • A charity with a working CRM and website that wants to raise online conversion without replatformingnot CiviCRM
  • An international organisation needing donors to give in local currency and languagenot CiviCRM
  • A campaign pushing one time givers into monthly recurring support at the point of donationnot CiviCRM
  • A digital team that can measure conversion before and after and justify a percentage fee with datanot CiviCRM

Where each one falls short

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

CiviCRM

  • Nobody maintains it for you, so security patches and major version upgrades are your operational responsibility and organisations that skip them end up stranded on an old release.
  • The interface and configuration model are dated compared with hosted competitors, and staff turnover is expensive when the next fundraiser has to be trained on it from scratch.
  • Extension quality is inconsistent, so a payment processor or integration that works on one version can break on the next with no vendor obligation to fix it.
  • Total cost of ownership is genuinely low only at scale, and a five person charity often pays more to a partner for setup and support than a hosted product would have charged outright.
  • Implementation partners hold the practical knowledge of your configuration, so switching partners can be as disruptive as switching products despite the software being free.

Fundraise Up

  • The fee is a percentage of donations, so cost rises exactly as the product succeeds, and a single large gift routed through the checkout carries the same rate as a twenty pound one unless the agreement caps it.
  • It is a checkout, not a CRM, so it is always an additional cost on top of a donor database rather than a replacement for one.
  • Donor covered fee opt in rates vary widely by audience, so an organisation with an older or offline leaning donor base absorbs more of the fee than the sales model assumes.
  • Design control is limited to what the embedded component exposes, so brand teams that want full control over the giving experience will hit boundaries.
  • Live recurring gift authorisations are held in the platform, which makes leaving considerably harder than adopting, because migrating active mandates risks lapsing donors.

Pricing, plan by plan

CiviCRM

Free
  • CiviCRMFree
    • No licence fee, no per contact charge and no percentage of donations
    • Costs are hosting, implementation partner time and upgrade work
    • Paid hosting and support available from partners at their own rates

Fundraise Up

On request
  • Fundraise Up$undefined/year
    • Platform fee taken as a percentage of every donation processed
    • Card processing billed separately on top of the platform fee
    • Optional donor covered fee prompt shifts the cost to the giver rather than removing it

Which should you pick?

Choose CiviCRM if

  • You need contribution and pledge tracking.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, Self-hosted.
  • You also want membership management.
CiviCRM review

Choose Fundraise Up if

  • You need embedded donation checkout.
  • You also want digital wallet payments.
Fundraise Up review

Questions people ask

Is CiviCRM or Fundraise Up better?
Neither clearly leads. CiviCRM starts at Free and Fundraise Up at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CiviCRM or Fundraise Up?
CiviCRM has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for CiviCRM and On request for Fundraise Up.
Does CiviCRM or Fundraise Up run on more platforms?
CiviCRM runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted. Fundraise Up runs on Web.
Can I use CiviCRM for free?
Yes. CiviCRM has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Fundraise Up starts at On request.
What is CiviCRM best used for?
CiviCRM is most often used for a membership organisation with a large contact file that refuses to pay a per contact meter, an advocacy group needing to hold constituent data on infrastructure it controls, a charity already running drupal or wordpress that wants crm inside the same stack, an organisation with unusual data requirements that no hosted product will build for it. Of those, a membership organisation with a large contact file that refuses to pay a per contact meter and an advocacy group needing to hold constituent data on infrastructure it controls are not what Fundraise Up is typically brought in for.
What can CiviCRM do that Fundraise Up cannot?
CiviCRM covers Contribution and pledge tracking, Membership management, Events and registration, Case management. Fundraise Up covers Embedded donation checkout, Digital wallet payments, Recurring gift upgrade prompts, Multi currency and multi language.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CiviCRM: Is CiviCRM really free?

The software is, with no licence, per contact or per donation charge. Hosting, implementation and support are real costs and are where the budget goes.

Fundraise Up: Is Fundraise Up a CRM?

No. It is a donation checkout that syncs into a CRM you already run, so budget for both.

CiviCRM: Do we need a developer?

You need technical capacity, either in house or a retained partner. Treating it as a hosted product without support is the common failure mode.

Fundraise Up: How does it charge?

A percentage of each donation, plus separately billed card processing. There is no flat licence that insulates you from volume.

CiviCRM: Where does it win against commercial CRMs?

At scale. A large contact file or high donation volume that would cost tens of thousands a year in metered fees costs nothing in licence here.

Fundraise Up: Does the donor covered fee option remove the cost?

It shifts it. When donors opt in they pay the platform and processing fee; when they do not, the charity does.

CiviCRM: Can it be hosted for us?

Yes, several partners offer managed CiviCRM hosting, which removes the upgrade burden and reintroduces a monthly fee.

Fundraise Up: What happens to recurring donors if we leave?

Active recurring authorisations sit with the platform and its processor, and migrating them is the part of an exit most organisations underestimate.

Share

Related pages

More on CiviCRM

More on Fundraise Up

Keep looking

Other head to heads