Is Keela or Sumac better?

Neither clearly leads. Keela starts at On request and Sumac at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Keela or Sumac?

Keela starts at On request and Sumac at On request.

Does Keela or Sumac run on more platforms?

Keela runs on Web. Sumac runs on Web, Windows.

What is Keela best used for?

Keela is most often used for a canadian registered charity that must issue cra compliant receipts without building templates itself, a development team of two to five people replacing spreadsheets and a mailing tool, an organisation already running aplos fund accounting that wants gifts to post through automatically, a bilingual charity sending french and english donor communications from one contact list. Of those, a canadian registered charity that must issue cra compliant receipts without building templates itself and a development team of two to five people replacing spreadsheets and a mailing tool are not what Sumac is typically brought in for.

What can Keela do that Sumac cannot?

Keela covers Donor records and segmentation, CRA and IRS receipting, Donation forms and pages, Email and automation. Sumac covers Donor and gift management, Case management module, Memberships and volunteers, Grant management.

Nonprofits · head to head

Keela vs Sumac

Keela

Nonprofits

Nonprofit CRM and fundraising platform with Canadian tax receipting built in

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

Sumac

Nonprofits

Modular nonprofit CRM that pairs donor management with client case management

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Keela pricing scales with contact count, so a charity that keeps twenty years of lapsed donors pays every month for records it never contacts, and the only fix is deleting history it may need for reporting.; 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: Keela covers Donor records and segmentation, Sumac covers Donor and gift management.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Keela and Sumac actually diverge.

Attributes where Keela and Sumac differ
Attribute	Keela	Sumac
Pricing model	Per month by contact count	quote
Platforms	Web	Web, Windows

Identical on both: starting price (On request), 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 Keela

Donor records and segmentation
CRA and IRS receipting
Donation forms and pages
Email and automation
Grant and pledge tracking
Reporting dashboards

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.

Keela

A Canadian registered charity that must issue CRA compliant receipts without building templates itselfnot Sumac
A development team of two to five people replacing spreadsheets and a mailing toolnot Sumac
An organisation already running Aplos fund accounting that wants gifts to post through automaticallynot Sumac
A bilingual charity sending French and English donor communications from one contact listnot Sumac

Sumac

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

Where each one falls short

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

Keela

Pricing scales with contact count, so a charity that keeps twenty years of lapsed donors pays every month for records it never contacts, and the only fix is deleting history it may need for reporting.
The email marketing tools are adequate for donor appeals but weaker than a dedicated platform, so organisations with heavy newsletter programmes end up paying for a second tool and syncing lists.
Custom reporting is limited to the fields and filters Keela exposes, so questions the product did not anticipate require exporting to a spreadsheet.
The integration list is short next to Salesforce or Blackbaud, so a charity running an unusual event, membership or advocacy tool will be moving data by CSV.
Since the 2023 Aplos acquisition the roadmap serves a combined accounting and fundraising suite, so investment favours the accounting join rather than standalone CRM depth.

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

Keela

On request

Keela$undefined/month
- Published tiers priced by number of contacts held, not by user seat
- Higher tiers unlock automation, custom fields and additional reporting
- Card processing is charged separately by the payment processor

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 Keela if

You need donor records and segmentation.
You also want cra and irs receipting.

Keela 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 Keela or Sumac better?: Neither clearly leads. Keela starts at On request and Sumac at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Keela or Sumac?: Keela starts at On request and Sumac at On request.
Does Keela or Sumac run on more platforms?: Keela runs on Web. Sumac runs on Web, Windows.
What is Keela best used for?: Keela is most often used for a canadian registered charity that must issue cra compliant receipts without building templates itself, a development team of two to five people replacing spreadsheets and a mailing tool, an organisation already running aplos fund accounting that wants gifts to post through automatically, a bilingual charity sending french and english donor communications from one contact list. Of those, a canadian registered charity that must issue cra compliant receipts without building templates itself and a development team of two to five people replacing spreadsheets and a mailing tool are not what Sumac is typically brought in for.
What can Keela do that Sumac cannot?: Keela covers Donor records and segmentation, CRA and IRS receipting, Donation forms and pages, Email and automation. Sumac covers Donor and gift management, Case management module, Memberships and volunteers, Grant management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Keela: Does Keela issue CRA compliant tax receipts?

Yes, receipt numbering, required wording and batch issuance are built in, which is the main reason Canadian charities choose it over US products.

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.

Keela: Who owns Keela?

Aplos Software, a US fund accounting vendor, acquired it in 2023. Keela is still sold as its own product but shares a roadmap with Aplos.

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.

Keela: Is pricing per user?

No, it is by contact count. Adding staff does not raise the bill, growing the mailing list does.

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.

Keela: Can it replace a fund accounting system?

No. It records income and pledges but does not do fund accounting, so you still need Aplos, QuickBooks or an equivalent.

Sumac: Does it work for US charities?

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

Keela vs Sumac

Keela

Sumac

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Keela

Only in Sumac

What people use each for

Keela

Sumac

Where each one falls short

Keela

Sumac

Pricing, plan by plan

Keela

Sumac

Which should you pick?

Choose Keela if

Choose Sumac if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Keela

More on Sumac

Keep looking

Other head to heads