Best fundraising apps for UK charities in 2026: fees, Gift Aid and stack consolidation compared

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There are roughly a dozen fundraising apps a small UK charity will seriously consider in 2026, and the choice usually comes down to one question the marketing pages bury: how much of every £10,000 raised actually reaches the cause?

On most platforms marketed as 'free', a UK charity still loses roughly £190 to £280 per £10,000 raised in card processing and Gift Aid claim fees. On the market leader, there is also a suggested donor tip prompt of around 17% at checkout that most donors do not realise is optional. On one platform, the answer is £10,000. That gap is the whole point of this comparison, and it is what the table below shows before any opinions get in the way.

A note on the term itself: 'fundraising app' is used loosely in search. Most of the products ranked below are web platforms you use in a browser, not phone apps. Zeffy is a free fundraising platform; its native phone app is Tap to Pay, which turns an iPhone or Android into a card reader for in-person giving at events, fetes and door collections. We flag the difference for every product on the list so you know exactly what you are downloading.

Before the comparison: Gift Aid in one paragraph. Gift Aid is the UK's central donation-tax mechanism. When a UK taxpayer completes a Gift Aid declaration, your charity reclaims 25p from HMRC for every £1 donated. A £100 gift becomes £125 to the charity at no extra cost to the donor. Your charity must be HMRC-recognised (a separate step from registering with the Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI) to make the claim. Some platforms charge a 5% fee on the Gift Aid value reclaimed, which quietly reduces the uplift you worked for. The table below shows where that fee applies.

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In this article:

• Quick comparison: fundraising app fees at a glance

• Best fundraising apps for UK charities, ranked

• Does Zeffy have a fundraising app?

• Feature comparison: what each UK fundraising app includes

• Which fundraising app integrates with your existing tools?

• How to choose the right fundraising app for your UK charity

• Stack consolidation: what charities save by switching

• How we evaluated these fundraising apps

• Frequently asked questions

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Quick comparison: fundraising app fees at a glance

The most useful column is the rightmost one: total cost on £10,000 raised. We modelled each row at an average gift of £50 (200 donations on £10,000), used each platform's published rates for UK registered charities, and added the entry-tier monthly fee annualised against that £10,000. Where a figure is not publicly published, the cell says so plainly.

A note on Gift Aid claim fees: where a platform charges 5% on the Gift Aid value reclaimed, that fee reduces the effective 25p-per-£1 uplift. For a £10,000 campaign where 60% of donors complete a Gift Aid declaration, the Gift Aid value is £2,500 and a 5% claim fee costs the charity £125. We include that cost in the total where it applies. (Charity Tax Group is the independent technical reference for Gift Aid arithmetic.)

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Sources: Zeffy vs JustGiving (fees verified 2026-06-19); Zeffy vs Enthuse (fees verified 2026-06-19); Zeffy vs Crowdfunder (fees verified 2026-06-19); Zeffy vs GoFundMe (fees verified 2026-06-19); Zeffy vs Wonderful (fees verified 2026-06-19); Zeffy vs Ticket Tailor (fees verified 2026-06-19); Zeffy vs Eventbrite (fees verified 2026-06-19). Writer note: all vendor pricing pages should be re-verified at publish time; UK fees drift and stale figures have previously triggered complaints.

For a small UK charity: the fee column decides this. A 'no platform fee' headline still routes 1.9% to 2.9% + processing through a third-party processor on most apps here, and that cost comes out of the charity's share. Gift Aid claim fees on top shrink the uplift further. £0 on every line is the only column that means £10,000 raised lands as £10,000 in the account.

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Best fundraising apps for UK charities, ranked

One ranked list, ordered on the two questions a volunteer-led team actually asks: how much of £10,000 raised reaches the cause, and can I run the whole stack (donation forms, events, peer-to-peer, recurring giving, in-person card payments) from one login?

A small UK charity running a £15 fete ticket, an autumn appeal donate page, a Christmas raffle and a sponsored 5K is currently paying Ticket Tailor + JustGiving + Crowdfunder + a CRM subscription across three or four logins. Zeffy consolidates that stack, free, with Gift Aid handling built in.

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1. Zeffy

Zeffy is the only free fundraising platform where £100 raised stays £100 for the cause, online and in person. No platform fee, no transaction fee, no card fee. Ever. 100,000+ charities and not-for-profits and over £2 billion raised worldwide.

• Customisable donation forms, one-time and recurring

• Event ticketing with e-tickets and door check-in

• Silent auctions with bid tracking and outbid notifications

• Peer-to-peer campaigns with individual and team pages, leaderboards and social sharing

• Raffles and lotteries where legally permitted (see the decision framework below for UK small society lottery rules)

• Built-in free supporter database: tags, smart filters, saved segments, donor history and automated acknowledgements

• Online shop for branded merchandise

• Tap to Pay for in-person card payments from an iPhone or Android, no terminal hardware

• Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout

• Gift Aid handling built in

Pricing: £0. No platform fee, no transaction fee, no card fee. At checkout, donors are invited to add a voluntary contribution to Zeffy. Whether they leave one or not, your charity is charged nothing. That is the core difference from every other product on this list.

Worth noting for UK charities: Zeffy handles Gift Aid natively, so donors can complete a Gift Aid declaration during checkout and your charity keeps more of every gift. For in-person giving at fetes and events, Tap to Pay turns a phone into a card reader with no terminal to hire or return. As one UK village hall fundraiser put it: 'people are not carrying around cash like they used to' and having a card option at the door is now the baseline expectation.

Right fit when: a registered charity (or eligible not-for-profit) wants one login for online donations, events, auctions, peer-to-peer, recurring giving and in-person card payments without giving up a percentage of every gift.

Note on Tap to Pay availability: Zeffy's Tap to Pay is available on iPhone and Android. UK charities should confirm current UK availability at zeffy.com at sign-up time.

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2. JustGiving

JustGiving is the household-name UK donation platform. Brand recognition with cold donors is real. But the platform's suggested donor tip of around 17% at checkout is the single most-criticised pricing pattern in UK fundraising press, cited repeatedly on Money Saving Expert and in charity forums. Card processing is 1.9% + 20p per donation; Gift Aid processing carries a 5% fee on the value reclaimed, which reduces the effective 25p-per-£1 uplift.

• Donation pages and peer-to-peer sponsorship pages

• iOS and Android campaign-management app (not an in-person card reader)

• Strong infrastructure for mass-participation sponsored events

• No built-in ticketing, no auction tool, no free supporter CRM

Right fit when: your charity needs maximum brand recognition with cold donors or is sending fundraisers to mass-participation events outside the official London Marathon / Great Run channels (where Enthuse is mandatory).

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3. Enthuse

Enthuse positions itself as branded fundraising: your charity's brand at the front, not the platform's. It is also the mandatory platform for TCS London Marathon (London Marathon Events) and the Great Run series under an exclusive contract to 2034. If your charity has those event places, Enthuse is not optional. Outside those flagship events, the subscription model (£29.99 + VAT/month) and 5% Gift Aid claim fee weaken the value proposition.

• Branded fundraising and event registration pages

• iOS and Android fundraising app

• 1.9% + 30p per donation; 3.5% + 75p per event ticket

• 5% on Gift Aid value reclaimed

• Optional subscription £29.99 + VAT/month

Right fit when: your charity has TCS London Marathon or Great Run places. Outside those events, the fees and subscription cost bear close scrutiny.

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4. CAF Donate (Charities Aid Foundation)

CAF Donate is built by a registered charity and trusted by 8,000+ small-to-mid UK charities. No monthly subscription. Staggered fees by donation type (Direct Debit, card). Trust-first positioning: trustees recognise the CAF name. Reporting is more basic than commercial alternatives.

• Embedded donate buttons and Direct Debit giving

• Low fees; no monthly subscription

• No ticketing, no auctions, no peer-to-peer stack

• Basic reporting

Right fit when: your charity wants a trusted embedded donate button and Direct Debit giving with low fees and no subscription.

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5. Wonderful.org

Wonderful.org uses Open Banking (account-to-account Pay by Bank) to achieve genuinely £0 fees: no platform fee, no Gift Aid claim fee, no card fee on Pay by Bank donations. The trade is that the Pay by Bank journey requires donors to authenticate with their bank app, which converts well with younger donors and less well with donors who find the flow unfamiliar.

• 0% platform fee, 0% Gift Aid fee, 0% card fee on Pay by Bank

• Card transactions carry processing only

• Narrow platform reach compared to JustGiving

• No ticketing, no auctions, no peer-to-peer stack

Right fit when: your charity raises primarily online from a digitally-confident donor base and wants genuinely zero-fee giving.

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6. Crowdfunder UK

The UK's largest crowdfunding platform. The 0% platform fee for charities is the headline; card processing still applies. The real reason to choose Crowdfunder is match funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, local authorities and other funders that effectively doubles or trebles your campaign total. Less useful for steady-state donate buttons or regular giving.

• Time-bound campaigns with a clear funding target

• 0% platform fee for charities

• Match-funding partnerships can significantly boost your total

• No ticketing, no auctions, no supporter database

Right fit when: your charity is running a time-bound project campaign and wants to access match funding that is not available elsewhere.

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7. GoFundMe UK

GoFundMe is primarily built for individual and personal causes. Registered UK charities pay 1.9% + 20p per donation (personal fundraisers pay 2.9% + 25p); Gift Aid is passed through free. The branding mismatch (donors see a GoFundMe page, not your charity's page) can reduce trust with cold donors.

• Campaign pages with a large consumer audience

• iOS and Android app for campaign management (not an in-person card reader)

• No built-in ticketing, no auctions, no supporter database

• Suggested donor tip at checkout

Right fit when: a one-off campaign needs maximum public reach and your charity can absorb roughly £230 in processing fees per £10,000 raised (excluding the optional donor tip).

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8. PayPal Giving Fund / PayPal donate button

Trusted checkout and near-universal donor familiarity. Registered UK charities benefit from a reduced rate via the PayPal Giving Fund. The PayPal donate button is a payment tool, not a fundraising platform: no Gift Aid automation, no ticketing, no memberships, no donor management. Useful as a supplementary giving channel.

Right fit when: your charity wants a trusted supplementary checkout button and already manages its fundraising stack elsewhere.

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9. GivenGain

International not-for-profit fundraising platform with a growing UK footprint; UK launch 2022. Subscription-free. Free automated Gift Aid. Donor tip optional. Partners with Swimathon, British Heart Foundation and Dame Kelly Holmes Trust in the UK. Less brand recognition than JustGiving means cold donors may need more reassurance.

• Subscription-free; free automated Gift Aid

• Peer-to-peer champion pages

• Lower UK brand recognition than JustGiving

Right fit when: your charity wants a subscription-free peer-to-peer alternative with free Gift Aid handling and is comfortable building its own donor reach.

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10. TotalGiving

TotalGiving pledges 100% of donations to the charity with no platform commission, funded by voluntary donor contributions. A genuine free-donation promise, but a smaller feature set than an integrated stack. No ticketing, memberships, auctions or peer-to-peer built in.

Right fit when: your charity needs free donation pages only and is comfortable managing other fundraising tools separately.

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11. Localgiving

Built specifically for small local UK charities and community groups. Annual membership bundles donate pages with training, support and access to match-funding and grant campaigns. The membership fee is the central cost contrast vs Zeffy's free login.

Right fit when: your organisation values the training and community-support wrapper and is comfortable paying the membership fee in exchange for it.

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12. Ticket Tailor (ticketing only)

UK-founded, B Corp certified. The Eventbrite alternative most cited by UK event organisers. Flat per-ticket fee (£0.22 to £0.60 pay-as-you-go + Stripe 1.5% + 20p), 50% charity discount on tickets under £5. Free events up to 2,000 tickets/year are free. No platform fee percentage means it outperforms Eventbrite sharply on higher-value tickets. No donation forms, no peer-to-peer, no Gift Aid.

Right fit when: your charity runs paid events and wants clear, flat per-ticket pricing without a percentage. Note: Ticket Tailor is ticketing only; you will still need a separate tool for donate pages and Gift Aid.

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13. Eventbrite UK (ticketing only)

Globally dominant event platform. Useful for discovery traffic on public-facing fundraisers. Paid events require a Flex plan (£7.99/event) or Pro plan (from £19/month), and carry roughly 6.95% + £0.59 per ticket plus payment processing. On a £10 community fete ticket that fee eats a significant portion of the margin. Most small charities running fetes, awards nights and community events find the cost hard to justify.

Right fit when: your event genuinely needs discovery traffic from Eventbrite's audience and your ticket price is high enough to absorb the per-ticket cost.

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A note on fundraising when you are not yet a registered charity

Unincorporated associations, Community Interest Companies (CICs), PTAs and community groups often find that most platform 'charity rates' require registration with the Charity Commission (England and Wales: income above £5,000), OSCR (Scotland: all organisations regardless of size) or CCNI (Northern Ireland). Without that registration, Gift Aid does not apply and many preferential fee tiers are unavailable. Zeffy's current UK eligibility policy for non-registered organisations should be confirmed directly at sign-up. If your group is considering registration, the Charity Commission's guidance is the starting point.

Right fit by use case

• Events and ticketing: Zeffy at £0 with door check-in, Gift Aid and Tap to Pay at the door. Ticket Tailor for flat per-ticket pricing on ticketing only. Eventbrite if discovery traffic justifies the cost.

• Peer-to-peer and sponsored events: Zeffy at £0 with team pages and leaderboards. Enthuse if you have TCS London Marathon or Great Run places (mandatory to 2034). GivenGain if you want a subscription-free alternative with free automated Gift Aid.

• Recurring giving: Zeffy at £0. CAF Donate if the CAF brand adds trustworthiness with your donor base. GivenGain if you want subscription-free with Gift Aid.

• Small or community charities: Zeffy (sign up, build a form, accept gifts online and in person, all at £0). Localgiving if the training and community wrapper justifies the membership fee.

• Mid-size and growing charities (£250k to £1m+): Zeffy for the free consolidated stack. CAF Donate or Enthuse for specific use cases. Beacon or Donorfy (UK-built, fundraising-first CRMs) when a dedicated supporter database becomes the system of record.

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Does Zeffy have a fundraising app?

Yes. Zeffy ships a native app called Tap to Pay, available on iPhone and Android. To be precise: Zeffy itself is a free fundraising platform you use in a browser, and Tap to Pay is the downloadable phone app that pairs with the same free Zeffy account to accept in-person card payments. Your phone is the card reader. No terminal hardware, no per-swipe fee, no monthly device charge.

This matters for UK charities because cash is dying at community events. As one UK village hall fundraiser noted: 'people are not carrying around cash like they used to, and they have no credit card transaction mechanisms.' Tap to Pay closes that gap from a phone you already own.

To get started: create a free account at zeffy.com/en-gb/register, build a donation form or event page (most teams have one live in under thirty minutes), then download the Tap to Pay app from the App Store or Google Play to take cards in person at events, galas or the door. The whole stack is £0 to the charity.

Note: UK availability of Tap to Pay should be confirmed at sign-up. Zeffy's in-person giving features continue to expand for UK charities.

For a small charity: if you have been using a separate card reader at a gift shop or fete table and re-entering totals afterwards, Tap to Pay is the feature that collapses that workflow back into the same login as your online forms and donation pages.

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Feature comparison: what each UK fundraising app includes

The column that gets the most fudged on competitor pages is 'native mobile app'. A Zapier integration is not a native app. A campaign-management app that does not accept card payments at the door is not an in-person fundraising app. Below, 'Tap to Pay' means a real phone-native card reader; everything else is labelled honestly. Gift Aid handling is listed as a dedicated column because it is the central mechanism for UK charity giving.

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For a small charity: the Gift Aid column is the one to scrutinise. A 5% claim fee on the Gift Aid value reclaimed reduces the 25p-per-£1 uplift for every gift. Native declaration handling at checkout removes the manual admin of collecting paper declarations afterwards.

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Which fundraising app integrates with your existing tools?

The integration question has two layers: does the app push donor and gift data into the supporter database you use (Beacon, Donorfy, Salesforce), and does it push gifts into accounting (Xero, QuickBooks) and email (Mailchimp)? For most fundraising apps in 2026, the honest answer for most of these is 'via Zapier or a paid add-on', not native.

The UK-specific integration to flag first is GoCardless. Direct Debit accounts for around 31% of all UK charity donations; it is the dominant regular-giving mechanism. Most UK fundraising platforms integrate GoCardless under the hood. Confirm your platform's GoCardless integration before you commit if regular giving is your primary channel.

For supporter databases, Beacon (rated number one in the UK Fundraising Magazine CRM survey six years running) and Donorfy (lower entry cost, broad integration ecosystem) are the modern UK defaults for fundraising-led small and mid-size charities. Salesforce NPSP (via the Power of Us Programme's 10 free licences) is available but requires technical capacity most small charities do not have.

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Zeffy's QuickBooks integration auto-categorises payouts by campaign or fund so donations land in the right account without manual cleanup. For Xero, Beacon, Donorfy, Salesforce and Mailchimp, the path on Zeffy is Zapier, which works for most workflows but is worth testing before you commit if a specific automation is mission-critical.

For a small charity: the integrations table over-promises across the board. For most volunteer-led teams the right plan is to pick one tool that covers donation forms, events, recurring giving and in-person giving on its own, and use Zapier or a CSV export for the rest. Adding a paid CRM and a paid email tool to a paid fundraising platform is exactly the three-login operational pattern charities are trying to escape.

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How to choose the right fundraising app for your UK charity

The decision framework is simpler than the marketing pages make it. Work through these questions in order and the right choice reveals itself.

Are you a registered charity? England and Wales: registered with the Charity Commission (income above £5,000; CIOs register regardless of income). Scotland: registered with OSCR (all charities, regardless of size). Northern Ireland: registered with CCNI. If yes, you have access to charity-rate pricing and Gift Aid. If not (unincorporated association, CIC, PTA, community group): most platform 'charity rates' require Charity Commission / OSCR / CCNI registration, and Gift Aid does not apply to unregistered groups. See the note above in the rankings section for more detail.

What is your annual income? Under £100k: prioritise zero or near-zero fees and a fast self-serve setup (Zeffy, Wonderful.org for online-only). £100k to £500k: one tool that covers donation forms, events, peer-to-peer and recurring giving (Zeffy, CAF Donate, GivenGain). £500k to £1m+: consider pairing a fundraising platform with a dedicated CRM (Beacon or Donorfy) as the system of record. NCVO publishes annual benchmarks for UK charity income bands.

Do you accept in-person card payments? If yes, you need real Tap to Pay or a terminal. Zeffy's Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android is the cost-free in-person option here. GoodBox provides dedicated contactless donation hardware (see Zeffy vs GoodBox for the comparison). SumUp and Zettle provide point-of-sale card readers for fetes and door collections.

Do you run a raffle or lottery? Most charity raffles are 'small society lotteries' under the Gambling Act 2005. Register with your local licensing authority (£40 initial registration, £20 annual renewal). Single-draw cap: £20,000 in ticket sales. Annual aggregate cap: £250,000. At least 20% of proceeds must go to your good cause. Maximum single prize: £25,000. Gift Aid does not apply to raffle ticket purchases. (Gambling Commission guidance is the authoritative source.) Incidental lotteries at an event (tickets sold and draw held entirely at the event) need no registration.

Do you have TCS London Marathon or Great Run places? If yes, Enthuse is the mandatory platform to 2034 under the exclusive event-partner contract. If no, your options are fully open.

Do you rely on Direct Debit for regular giving? GoCardless integration matters for around 31% of UK charity donations. Confirm your chosen platform's GoCardless compatibility before committing.

Is your team volunteer-led with no IT staff? Prioritise self-serve sign-up and published pricing. Skip demo-gated sales cycles where pricing is not publicly available.

For a small charity: the two questions that actually decide this are the fee arithmetic and the login count. If the same tool covers donation forms, events, recurring giving and door payments at £0, you are done.

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Stack consolidation: what charities save by switching

Most small UK charities currently run three to five tools: a donation platform, an event-ticketing platform, a crowdfunding platform and a CRM, each with its own login, fee structure and data export. The consolidation saving is not just the fee arithmetic; it is the volunteer hours spent reconciling four spreadsheets after every campaign.

A charity currently paying Ticket Tailor (flat per-ticket fee + Stripe processing), JustGiving (card processing + 5% Gift Aid claim fee + the suggested tip), Crowdfunder (card processing) and a CRM subscription can move that stack to a single free Zeffy login, with Gift Aid handling, door-payment capability and a built-in supporter database included. Every pound saved on platform fees and subscription costs goes back to the cause.

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How we evaluated these fundraising apps

This comparison assessed UK fundraising platforms against the questions a small UK charity's Head of Fundraising actually asks, not the feature lists vendors write for their own pages. We assessed six criteria.

1. Effective fee on £10,000 raised (online and in person). Truly zero cost means no platform fee AND no processing fee passed to the charity, AND no Gift Aid claim fee. Products that absorb all three pass the bar; products that waive only the platform fee while still routing 1.9% to 2.9% + 20p to a processor, or charging 5% on the Gift Aid value reclaimed, do not.

2. Gift Aid handling. Gift Aid is the central UK donation-tax mechanism. Platforms that handle declarations natively at checkout, submit claims to HMRC on behalf of charities and charge nothing for doing so score highest. Platforms that charge a percentage of the Gift Aid value reclaimed score lowest. Where Gift Aid is not processed by the platform at all (e.g. ticketing-only tools), that is stated plainly.

3. True native phone app vs Zapier wrapper. A real phone-native Tap to Pay (no terminal hardware) is fundamentally different from a campaign-management app that cannot accept card payments at the door. We flagged the difference in the feature table.

4. All-in-one feature set in one login. Donation forms, event ticketing, peer-to-peer, recurring giving and a free supporter database in a single account. Requiring three separate subscriptions to cover what one platform should provide is a fail for a volunteer-led team.

5. Setup time for a no-tech, volunteer-led team. Self-serve sign-up that goes live in under thirty minutes passes. Demo-gated enterprise sales cycles do not, for this audience.

6. Regulatory fit for UK fundraising. Compliance with the Fundraising Regulator Code of Fundraising Practice (current version effective 1 November 2025, including new Section 9 on online platforms), small society lottery rules under the Gambling Act 2005, and UK GDPR / ICO requirements for donor data processing.

Where a platform's pricing was not publicly available at our June 2026 review, the comparison table says so directly rather than estimating. Where a figure comes from a vendor pricing page, the table cites it. Where a figure was not verifiable to a working primary source, we omitted it.

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Frequently asked questions

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