Top 7 GoFundMe alternatives you should use instead

GoFundMe may be the world’s largest social fundraising platform for individuals, teams, and nonprofits—but that doesn’t mean it’s the right option when you need to raise money.

The platform has plenty of draws, like name recognition, no platform fees, and quick campaign setup. But you can’t write off the drawbacks—there's no event functionality, donation forms are lackluster, and it's missing donor management tools.

We've round up seven popular crowdfunding platforms you should consider using instead of GoFundMe, including: 

1. Givebutter: Best for interactive fundraising

2. Kickstarter: Best for creative projects

3. Fundly: Best for personalized pages

4. Indiegogo: Best for entrepreneurs

5. Bonfire: Best for T-shirt fundraising

6. Classy: Best for bigger budgets

7. Patreon: Best for memberships

So, how do these GoFundMe alternatives stack up? Keep reading to learn more about each platform's fees, features, and what it's best for.

Explore top 7 alternatives to GoFundMe

Let's dive into the top seven fundraising sites like GoFundMe. Check them out to see if any of these contenders line up with your fundraising needs.

1. Givebutter: One place to raise funds, host events, & engage supporters

💰 Price: All of Givebutter's features are free to use thanks to optional tips from donors. No platform fees, paid subscriptions, or pricing tiers here. A whopping 95% of Givebutter donors choose to cover the standard payment processor fee (2.9% + 30 cents per transaction), ensuring that you get every cent of their gift. In fact, the average Givebutter campaign keeps 99.5% of what they raise.

✅ Best for: Nonprofits, schools, faith-based groups, sports teams, businesses, and individuals who want to raise money for good causes, host events and auctions, engage supporters in real-time, and track their progress with quality, user-friendly tools.

👉 Our take: Givebutter is a free, end-to-end online fundraising platform with 160+ features and integrations, including fully customizable fundraising pages, embeddable donation forms, events, auctions, livestreaming, recurring giving, and payment options that include cash, check, credit and debit card, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and even text-to-donate—just to name a few. 😉

Add on its robust donor management (CRM) tools, and Givebutter feels less like an alternative and more like an upgrade.

See a side-by-side comparison of Givebutter and GoFundMe → 

2. Kickstarter: Fast-track fundraising for creative projects

💰 Price: All of Kickstarter’s fees add up to 8% + 20 cents per transaction, some of the highest for a crowdfunding platform.

✅ Best for: Fundraising for a concrete creative work or experience like video, published works, food, games, tech gadgets, and other artistic endeavors. Nonprofits and other groups can use Kickstarter, but only to produce a new and shareable project, not for general fundraising for charity, personal needs, or advocacy efforts.

👉 Our take: Kickstarter puts users on the fast track to their fundraising goal. Creators build a campaign page that brings their concept to life, set a funding target, and offer their supporters (called “backers”) meaningful rewards for their contributions. After your idea is screened and approved, backers pay with a credit card and follow progress on your project page, online or via the mobile app.

It's important to note that a Kickstarter campaign is all or nothing. You must raise (or exceed) your fundraising goal, or you walk away without any money. While this might be an inspiring goal for some users, it could be a dealbreaker for an individual or nonprofit in need of critical project revenue.

3. Fundly: Simple fundraising pages for your personal cause

💰 Price: Fundly’s costs actually edge out Kickstarter's, at roughly 8% + 30 cents per transaction between the platform fee and transaction fee.

✅ Best for: Fundly gives anyone the ability to put together personalized fundraising pages. Causes can range from personal medical bills, creative projects, and political projects to annual fundraising pushes for clubs and sports teams.

👉 Our take: These high costs aren’t necessarily reflected in the product. Fundly’s donation pages are plain and transactional, and there’s no mobile app available in the App Store or Google Play Store. That said, you can easily add some color with photos, videos, and an engaging description of your cause. Once your page is created, you get access to basic email sending features and social network sharing to promote your campaign.

Fundly lets you keep all the money you raise regardless of your goal status, so this could offer some cost savings. Incentivize giving with special contribution levels and a built-in merchandise creator.

4. Indiegogo: A more flexible Kickstarter experience

💰 Price: With Indiegogo, you’ll ultimately end up paying a high 8% + 30 cents per transaction fee that’s on par with Kickstarter and Fundly.

✅ Best for: Creative projects, for-profit and nonprofit fundraising, product campaigns, and more.

👉 Our take: Indiegogo was launched in 2007 as one of the first crowdfunding websites and it’s still providing a flexible way to raise funds. The platform also offers campaign success tools, like pre-launch support, ongoing promotion programs, and distribution help. With a hybrid of the keep-it-all campaign and the all-or-nothing campaign, you get to control your experience. And where most fundraising sites only take credit cards, Indiegogo takes credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. That addition automatically widens your audience of potential backers.

There are some restrictions to keep in mind: Indiegogo cannot be used for personal causes, such as medical expenses, travel, and disaster relief.

5. Bonfire: Custom merch for your cause

💰 Price: Free to create an account. On top of your product sales, you can enable fundraising, but there’s an 8% per-transaction fee for these tips and donations. Fees for verified nonprofits are lowered to 3.5%.

✅ Best for: Groups looking to raise money by designing and selling custom T-shirts or setting up a full online merchandise store.

👉 Our take: Odds are that you’ve participated in or contributed to a T-shirt fundraising campaign. They’re super easy and cost-effective, leaving supporters with a tangible token of gratitude (and hopefully a cool design to show off). Bonfire saw the classic T-shirt campaign and designed an entire crowdfunding site around it. All profits go directly to the seller, while Bonfire handles product distribution after the campaign ends.

Although it’s user-friendly, Bonfire lacks in-house email, social media, or SMS text promotional tools and, critically, doesn’t provide you with donor information. Bonfire doesn’t facilitate individual donor receipts either, so users miss out on an important opportunity to thank each supporter.

6. Classy: A fundraising hub for high-volume organizations

💰 Price: Classy’s pricing is a guessing game. To get a quote or demo the platform, you’ll have to fill out a form and wait to speak with a representative. Some third-party sites estimate Classy’s membership fees to start at $499 per month before credit card processing fees. That makes it a costly GoFundMe alternative.

✅ Best for: Nonprofits and social groups with bigger budgets to spend on fundraising software.

👉 Our take: Classy is a robust fundraising tool. From professional, immersive, and highly customizable campaign pages to ticketed events and to peer-to-peer fundraising and reporting, this site covers the bases for most users. Users can easily populate different sections and blocks with compelling images and stories. Donors can make credit card payments and the platform supports more than 130 currencies.

Classy lacks a few small touches, like Google Maps or an Add to Calendar button. Another noticeable oversight is that users can’t embed their donation form on their website.

‍Discover the best free Classy alternatives →

7. Patreon: A space for super fans and monthly giving

💰 Price: Patreon's platform fee can run between 5-12% of your monthly income on the site. Standard payment processing fees are 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction (for payments over $3) or 5% + 10 cents per transaction (for payments under $3), and then there is a payout fee of 25 cents or 1% per transfer to your bank account.

✅ Best for: Fans and supporters (known as “patrons”) willing to pledge a monthly amount to their favorite creators.

👉 Our take: Patreon proves that fandom is a powerful force for raising money. Although it’s best known for YouTube and podcast creators monetizing their content, this online fundraising site is open to nonprofits, too. In fact, it’s a convenient way to increase the number of recurring donors a nonprofit can rely on. Set up monthly membership tiers, with different pledges for various levels of access to content and other perks. For the most part, it’s a win-win. Creators produce the content they care about, and supporters can take pride in supporting a good cause while getting an inside look.

Patreon's fee structure isn’t quite as inviting. You can accept credit cards and PayPal, but per your plan, Patreon takes a sizable cut of your monthly earnings on top of the credit card and payout fees.

How GoFundMe alternatives stack up

Done correctly, a crowdfunding campaign can draw hundreds and thousands of supporters. No matter the cause, the potential to make a big impact is huge—and it all starts with the right platform.

The sites like GoFundMe listed here might get you part of the way. But only Givebutter provides the free toolset you need for long-term fundraising success. It takes less than 5 minutes to sign up for a free Givebutter account and see why Givebutter is the #1-rated fundraising platform.

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Methodology

Our editorial team sources comparison metrics directly from sites like G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, BBB, InHerSight, Comparably, Glassdoor, and more. Data gathered on September 2022.

This web page is not endorsed by, affiliated with, maintained, authorized, or sponsored by GoFundMe, Inc. All company names, product names, trademarks and other images featured or appearing herein are the property of their respective trademark owners. Updated September 2022.