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Nonprofits · head to head

CommCare vs Sumac

CommCare logo

CommCare

Nonprofits

Offline-first case management and mobile data collection for frontline health and development programmes

From
$100/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sumac logo

Sumac

Nonprofits

Modular nonprofit CRM that pairs donor management with client case management

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: CommCare pricing is by included mobile user bands with a hard step between them, so a programme at 260 mobile users pays the Pro band plus per-user overage or jumps to Advanced, and neither option matches its actual size.; Sumac pricing is not published at all, so a small organisation cannot compare Sumac against per contact priced competitors without committing to a sales process.
  • They diverge on capability: CommCare covers Case management, Sumac covers Donor and gift management.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CommCare and Sumac actually diverge.

Attributes where CommCare and Sumac differ
AttributeCommCareSumac
Starting price$100/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer month by mobile user countquote
PlatformsAndroid, WebWeb, Windows

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 CommCare

  • Case management
  • Offline-first mobile app
  • App builder
  • Multi-language support
  • Two-way SMS
  • Report builder
  • API access
  • BI integration

Only in Sumac

  • Donor and gift management
  • Case management module
  • Memberships and volunteers
  • Grant management
  • Role based permissions
  • Custom fields and forms

What people use each for

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

CommCare

  • 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 representnot Sumac
  • A ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasonsnot Sumac
  • An NGO running the same intervention in four countries that needs one application, several languages and consolidated reportingnot Sumac
  • 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 requirementnot Sumac

Sumac

  • A social service agency that must record client cases and donor gifts without buying two systemsnot CommCare
  • A charity that wants only donor and grant modules and refuses to pay for an events suite it will not usenot CommCare
  • A Canadian organisation wanting local support hours and receipting conventionsnot CommCare
  • An agency replacing a legacy Access or FileMaker database with something supportednot CommCare

Where each one falls short

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

CommCare

  • Pricing is by included mobile user bands with a hard step between them, so a programme at 260 mobile users pays the Pro band plus per-user overage or jumps to Advanced, and neither option matches its actual size.
  • The subscription is the small number; application design, device procurement, worker training and supervision dominate the real cost, and grant budgets that fund only the licence stall at deployment.
  • Grant funding cycles and subscription renewals rarely align, so programmes routinely face a year-four cliff where the software is embedded in a workflow and the money that paid for it has ended.
  • It is Android-only on the device side, which is usually right for the target markets but blocks iOS-issued staff and makes the platform a poor fit for programmes in higher-income settings.
  • The open source option is real but effectively theoretical: self-hosting CommCare HQ requires substantial engineering, so the licence being free does not translate into an escape from the subscription.

Sumac

  • Pricing is not published at all, so a small organisation cannot compare Sumac against per contact priced competitors without committing to a sales process.
  • The interface reflects the product's age, and staff arriving from consumer grade software find navigation and data entry slower than in newer CRMs.
  • Holding client case notes and donor records in one database makes permission design a compliance obligation, and a misconfigured role can expose confidential client material to fundraising staff.
  • The integration catalogue is small, so payment, email and accounting connections outside the listed few mean manual export or paid custom work.
  • Modular licensing means the price rises in visible steps as programmes expand, and organisations frequently discover the module they need most was not in the original quote.

Pricing, plan by plan

CommCare

$100/month
  • Standard$100/month
    • 50 mobile users included
    • $2 per additional mobile user per month
    • Unlimited free web users
  • Pro$500/month
    • 250 mobile users included
    • Case sharing and child cases
    • Web report builder
  • Advanced$1000/month
    • 500 mobile users included
    • Power BI and Tableau integration
    • Web applications
  • Enterprise$4000/month
    • Custom mobile user count
    • Single sign-on
    • Named account management

Sumac

On request
  • Sumac$undefined/year
    • Quoted by module selection and organisation size
    • Case management is a separately licensed module
    • Implementation and data migration quoted separately

Which should you pick?

Choose CommCare if

  • You need case management.
  • You work on Android, Web.
  • You also want offline-first mobile app.
CommCare review

Choose Sumac if

  • You need donor and gift management.
  • You work on Web, Windows.
  • You also want case management module.
Sumac review

Questions people ask

Is CommCare or Sumac better?
Neither clearly leads. CommCare starts at $100/month and Sumac at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CommCare or Sumac?
CommCare starts at $100/month and Sumac at On request.
Does CommCare or Sumac run on more platforms?
CommCare runs on Android, Web. Sumac runs on Web, Windows.
What is CommCare best used for?
CommCare is most often used 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. Of those, 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 and a ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasons are not what Sumac is typically brought in for.
What can CommCare do that Sumac cannot?
CommCare covers Case management, Offline-first mobile app, App builder, Multi-language support. Sumac covers Donor and gift management, Case management module, Memberships and volunteers, Grant management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CommCare: How much does CommCare cost?

Standard is $100 a month for 50 mobile users, Pro $500 for 250, Advanced $1,000 for 500 and Enterprise from $4,000. Extra mobile users are $2 each per month; web users are unlimited and free.

Sumac: Is Sumac the same product as Societ?

The vendor has been moving its products under the Societ brand, so you may see both names for the same platform during a sales cycle.

CommCare: Is CommCare open source?

Yes, CommCare HQ is open source, but self-hosting requires serious engineering capacity. Nearly all users take the hosted service.

Sumac: Can it handle client case management?

Yes, that is its clearest differentiator among donor CRMs. It is a licensed module, not part of the base product.

CommCare: Where is our data stored?

You choose United States, European Union or India hosting, which is what makes it acceptable to ministries with data residency rules.

Sumac: Is pricing published?

No. It is quoted by module and organisation size, which makes like for like comparison harder than with published per contact products.

CommCare: Who funds CommCare?

Dimagi is a for-profit B Corporation funded by customer subscriptions and services. Individual deployments are usually funded by donors such as USAID successors, the Gates Foundation or national health budgets.

Sumac: Does it work for US charities?

Yes, though the vendor is Canadian and its receipting and support conventions are strongest for Canadian organisations.

CommCare: Does it do case management or just forms?

Case management. Workers hold a caseload of individuals or households and see history and due actions, which is the main reason to choose it over a form tool.

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