Both are free to your organisation. The difference is who gets asked to pay for it — and whether it is your donor.
Zeffy charges nonprofits nothing and funds itself by adding a contribution prompt to your checkout. Your donor gives $100, and at the point of payment is asked to add an amount for the platform — often with a percentage pre-selected. Many donors pay it without registering that it isn’t going to your cause.
AxeFee is free and unlimited for nonprofits with no donor prompt at all. It is funded by paying customers on the business plan and, optionally, by local sponsors who pay to appear on your checkout and receipt pages — from which your organisation keeps half.
Neither model is free in absolute terms; software costs money to run. The question is whether the cost is presented to your donor at the moment they are giving.
Beyond the funding model.
No tip prompt, no pre-selected contribution, no second ask after the gift.
Zelle is a first-class payment method, not an afterthought — including automatic matching of incoming payments to the right donor.
Event ticketing with door check-in, memberships and dues, bookings, invoices, a store, and volunteer coordination in the same account.
Donors can route a gift through their employer’s matching programme, and the matched total is tracked as what you will actually receive.
Local businesses can sponsor your campaign and you keep 50% — revenue that comes from a business rather than the person already giving.
IRS-compliant acknowledgements sent automatically, including quid-pro-quo disclosure when a benefit was provided.
Being straight about it: Zeffy is a mature, well-built fundraising platform with a large user base, and if your donors are comfortable with the tip prompt then it costs your organisation nothing and works well.
AxeFee is the better fit if you object to the donor prompt on principle, if you also need ticketing, dues, bookings or invoicing rather than donations alone, or if a meaningful share of your supporters already pays you by Zelle.
One hard requirement: automatic matching needs your organisation’s Zelle registered to an email address, not a phone number.
Yes — unlimited transactions, no percentage, no monthly fee. You need to be a registered nonprofit; submit your EIN and you also get a verified badge on your checkout pages.
From businesses on the $29/month plan, and from local sponsors — half of which goes to the organisation hosting the campaign.
Yes, through your own Stripe account, so card processing is between you and Stripe with nothing added by us.
Yes — import from CSV, and you can email that list from inside AxeFee without a separate mailing subscription.
No percentage fees, ever. Free for 25 payments a month, $29/month flat above that — and free with unlimited payments for nonprofits.