Givebear vs Zeffy. Kiosks, fees and funds, side by side.

Compare Zeffy with Givebear for donation pages, events, donor records, fee models, receipts, and kiosk-enabled fundraising. See the side-by-side comparison, where Zeffy still fits, and how to migrate to Givebear without breaking donation links.

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Side by side.

Capability	Givebear	Zeffy
True 0% Platform Fee	No	Yes
Hardware Donation Kiosks	Yes	No
Faith-Specific Workflows	Yes	No
Donation Portals	Yes	No
Recurring Gifts Management	Yes	Yes

When Zeffy is the better fit

Zeffy fits nonprofits that mainly need online donation and event pages and want to pay nothing per gift, with optional donor tips covering the cost.

Run your own numbers

The kiosk cost calculator and the platform fee calculator work from your device count and giving volume.

After the gift. Where each one lands.

Zeffy homepage promoting an all-in-one fundraising platform with zero fees, with donation form mockups — Zeffy's public homepage, captured August 2026, leading with its zero-fee positioning and online donation forms. View the public source

Givebear transactions: each gift with its donor, fund, amount and source, kiosk or web — The Givebear ledger: kiosk and online gifts in one list, each with its donor and fund.

The full comparison.

Last updated June 2026

Zeffy charges nonprofits nothing, with no platform fee and no processing fee, and is funded by optional donor tips. Givebear charges a flat platform fee per gift, so it cannot match that. What it adds is in-person giving: an unattended lobby kiosk bought once, plus donation portals and fund routing for faith communities. Zeffy's in-person option is a phone tap-to-pay app someone has to hold. For online-only fundraising, Zeffy costs less.

Key takeaways

Zeffy's own figures: 60% of donors tip, averaging 4% (June 2023), and two out of three donors tip (May 2026).
Compare staff time, hardware, receipts, and reporting along with the platform fee.
Zeffy and Givebear both handle recurring gift management.

Who this is for: Nonprofits evaluating low-cost or free fundraising tools; Development directors and finance leads who answer to a board for every restricted gift and every receipt, weighing Zeffy against Givebear

Zeffy is free nonprofit fundraising software. In the comparison below, Zeffy has the edge on true 0% platform fee, and Givebear includes faith-specific workflows and donation portals, which Zeffy does not.

Where Zeffy is the better choice

Zeffy offers true 0% platform fee, and Givebear does not. If staff use that every week, leaving Zeffy means replacing it with another tool or going without.

Where Givebear is different

Givebear fits teams that also take gifts in person: an unattended kiosk in the building, fund routing for faith and community funds, and donor records and receipts that cover kiosk and online gifts together.

Compared with Zeffy, Givebear's kiosk for a lobby or event entrance is a 21.5-inch touchscreen with a built-in Stripe card reader, sold once at $999 to $1,099 (wall mount or battery floor stand) with no per-kiosk software subscription.

What to test before you decide

Score both platforms on total operating cost, including platform fees, donation kiosk availability, event and campaign reporting, donor receipt workflows, and fit for churches, mosques, and community organizations. Use your last year-end appeal as the test case: set up the same funds and receipt wording in a free Givebear account and check whether it produces the report your board asked for from Zeffy.

How do you switch from Zeffy to Givebear?

Compare the full cost of staff time, hardware, receipts, events, and reporting before deciding only on platform fee positioning.

Givebear imports contacts and past gifts from a CSV, so the Zeffy export is the first step. Create your funds in Givebear before importing the Zeffy file, since fund names in it do not create funds on their own. Saved cards move only if Zeffy and Stripe support a transfer; otherwise recurring donors restart their gift on your new page, so announce the change a few weeks ahead.

Before cutover, list every place a donor can reach Zeffy: website buttons, email footers, printed QR codes, and event pages. Repoint the ones you control; a printed code that sends donors to Zeffy keeps working only as long as Zeffy keeps that page up.

When does a free form still leave the lobby empty?

Zeffy is $0 to the nonprofit: no platform fee and no processing fee, funded by optional donor tips. For an organization that only needs an online donation form, that can be the right call, and Givebear does not pretend otherwise. The difference shows up in the building. Zeffy's in-person giving is a phone tap-to-pay app, so someone has to stand there holding a phone for a gift to happen. It cannot sit on a wall by the door during Jummah, run unattended after a Sunday service, or wait on a gala table while volunteers are busy elsewhere.

Givebear's in-person giving is a dedicated kiosk with a built-in card reader, bought once at $999 to $1,099 with no per-device subscription, plus fund routing, emailed receipts, and a donor record for every gift. If your giving happens where your community gathers, an unattended kiosk is the thing a free phone app cannot replace. The Givebear plan itself is a flat platform fee from 1.9% to 5.9% depending on plan (one rate online, at kiosks, and on memberships), plus Stripe card processing at cost, with no setup fee and no monthly minimum.

Practical use cases

Choose Givebear if you need hardware donation kiosks, which Zeffy does not offer.
Choose Givebear if you need faith-specific workflows, which Zeffy does not offer.
Stay with Zeffy if your team depends on true 0% platform fee.
Keep Zeffy for online giving and add a Givebear kiosk for walk-up gifts, then decide after a season of both.

Common questions

Does Zeffy support donation kiosks?

No. Zeffy does not sell a donation kiosk, so walk-up gifts need a separate device and usually land in a separate report. Compared with Zeffy, Givebear's kiosk for a lobby or event entrance is a 21.5-inch touchscreen with a built-in Stripe card reader, sold once at $999 to $1,099 (wall mount or battery floor stand) with no per-kiosk software subscription.

What is the best Zeffy alternative?

It depends on what Zeffy is not doing for you. If you need a walk-up donation kiosk, faith-specific workflows, or donation portals, which Zeffy lacks, Givebear has those in the same account as online giving. If your team relies on true 0% platform fee, pick an alternative that also has it, or keep Zeffy for that job.

Can I import my donors from Zeffy?

Yes. Export contacts and gift history from Zeffy as a CSV and import both into Givebear. Recurring gifts are separate: saved payment methods transfer only when Zeffy and Stripe support it, so check that before you set a cutover date.

What does switching from Zeffy to Givebear cost?

Givebear charges a flat platform fee from 1.9% to 5.9% depending on plan (one rate online, at kiosks, and on memberships), plus Stripe card processing at cost, with no setup fee and no monthly minimum. To compare with Zeffy, run last year's gifts through both fee schedules and add any per-device or add-on fees each side charges; a Givebear kiosk is optional and only needed for walk-up giving.

Givebear covers donation portal, donation kiosks, campaign pages, event registration, automated receipts, donor records.

See Givebear next to Zeffy.

Book a 30-minute walkthrough. Bring what you run on Zeffy today and we will show the same setup in Givebear: funds, kiosk, receipts and reports.

Your funds, set up the way your treasurer reports them
Where a kiosk would go, and what it costs
The reports your board will actually see

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