Zeffy review

Zeffy ranks first because it is the only option here where the donor CRM and payment processing both cost nothing. The company says it is funded entirely by optional tips that donors can add at checkout, and that on average 2 of 3 donors leave one. Every donation, ticket and registration creates a contact with the gift attached, so a small nonprofit gets a donor database without setting one up. Each record shows lifetime giving, gift count, last gift and a timeline of emails, tickets and notes. Staff can group contacts into households and companies, save filters as auto-updating lists such as lapsed donors, log offline checks and in-kind gifts, and resend or download tax receipts. Email to a saved list is built in. The trade-off is depth: there is no wealth screening or major gift pipeline of the kind found in paid donor databases, and history is most complete when gifts come through Zeffy's own forms.

Who it is for

Small nonprofits that want donor records, receipts and payment processing at no cost at all.

Price

Free; Zeffy covers card and transaction fees and is funded by optional donor tips.

Our price is $0 100% free, always. Every feature is 100% free.
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 10, 2026.

Key features

• Donations, tickets, memberships and shop orders create contacts with the gift on the record
• Households and companies with giving rolled up into one view
• Auto-updating lists filtered by giving history, campaign, amount or custom property
• Offline cash, check and in-kind gifts with auto-generated tax receipts
• Built-in email to saved lists, plus a public API and webhooks

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: No subscription, per-contact or per-user fees, and Zeffy covers card fees
• Strength: Unlimited contacts with duplicate merging and CSV, Excel or Mailchimp imports
• Strength: Lifetime giving, gift count and last gift shown on one screen
• Weakness: Donors see an optional tip request for Zeffy at the payment step
• Weakness: Donor history fills in best when gifts run through Zeffy's own forms
• Weakness: Fewer advanced fundraising tools, such as wealth screening, than paid donor databases

Key facts

• Price: $0, every feature included
• Processing fees: Covered by Zeffy
• Contacts: Unlimited
• Email sending: 30,000 a day from your own domain, 5,000 without
• Scale: 100,000 organizations (vendor figure)

Where it ranks

Zeffy is No. 1 in our Best Free Nonprofit CRM verdict and No. 2 in Best Fundraising Software.