With tips switched on, Givebutter costs your organization nothing: each donor is asked for an optional tip to Givebutter, and Givebutter covers any processing fee the donor declines. Donor Merchant is also free and asks donors for no tip, but you pay Stripe's or PayPal's processing fee unless the donor chooses to cover it. So on the numbers alone, Givebutter with tips on delivers more of each gift to you. The cost moves to your donors, through the tip.
Every Givebutter figure below comes from Givebutter's pricing page, help center and demo donation form, checked on October 13, 2026. Prices change, so verify with Givebutter before you decide. We make Donor Merchant, so keep that in mind as you read.
How do Givebutter's tips and fees work?
Givebutter lets you choose, campaign by campaign, between two pricing options. As published October 2026:
| Tips on | Tips off | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 0% | 3% (accounts created since September 9, 2025) |
| Processing fee | 2.9% + 30¢ for cards and wallets, 1.9% + 30¢ for ACH (verified nonprofits only), shown to the donor as optional | Same rates; you choose whether donors must cover them, may cover them, or never see them |
| If the donor covers nothing | Givebutter covers the processing fee, so you receive the full gift | Platform and processing fees come out of the gift |
| What the donor sees | A tip to Givebutter, which they can change or remove | No tip |
Givebutter calls the tips-on promise the Givebutter Guarantee: "Your nonprofit keeps 100% of the funds you raise." Givebutter says tips "are sent to Givebutter directly and never come out of the amount donated to your organization."
Some details are easy to miss:
- The default tip is not documented. Givebutter's help pages do not say what tip is preselected. On the demo form Givebutter links from its help center, the tip was preset at 15% of the gift, with 12%, 10% and Other also offered, and covering the processing fee was already selected. A $100 gift left on those defaults came to $118.30. Givebutter's own help example uses a 10% tip. Check your own campaign's checkout before you launch.
- Recurring gifts repeat the tip. Givebutter says fees or tips a donor covers on the first gift are included with every later charge. Donors can change them in the donor portal.
- The Guarantee has exclusions. It does not apply to payment methods that do not support tips (such as DAFpay and card reader payments), recurring plans that began before September 9, 2025, or imported recurring plans until they are updated after import.
- Older accounts may differ. Accounts created before September 9, 2025 stay on Legacy pricing unless they switch. With tips off, Legacy charges 1% on forms, 3% on pages and 5% on events.
- Givebutter Plus is optional. It starts at $29 a month billed yearly ($348) or $33.80 billed monthly, for up to 250 contacts, and rises with contact count. It adds automated workflows, task management, reports, texting, video messages, QuickBooks Online sync and priority phone support. Fees are the same as on the free plan.
Whose payment account is it?
Givebutter's. Givebutter is the merchant, so you do not need your own Stripe or PayPal account; it sets up a Stripe Express account inside Givebutter for your payouts. Givebutter processes the payment and pays out to your bank, with no payout fees and direct deposit in 2 to 3 business days. Card statements show "GB*" plus your account name, and PayPal and Venmo charges show "GIVEBUTTER." Its guide for bringing recurring donors in has you copy their payment data into Givebutter's own Stripe account.
With Donor Merchant the accounts are yours. You open Stripe and/or PayPal, pay their fees, and the money settles straight into your account.
How much do you keep from a $100 gift and a $50 monthly donor?
| One $100 gift | Donor pays | You receive | Givebutter receives as a tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donor Merchant, donor does not cover the fee | $100.00 | $96.80 | - |
| Donor Merchant, donor covers the fee | $103.30 | $100.00 | - |
| Givebutter tips on, donor removes tip and fee | $100.00 | $100.00 | $0.00 |
| Givebutter tips on, demo defaults left in place | $118.30 | $100.00 | $15.00 |
| Givebutter tips off, donor does not cover fees | $100.00 | $93.80 | - |
| Givebutter tips off, fees required | $106.30 | $100.00 | - |
| $50 a month for 12 months | Donor pays | You receive | Givebutter receives as tips |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donor Merchant, donor does not cover the fee | $600.00 | $579.00 | - |
| Donor Merchant, donor covers the fee ($51.80 a month) | $621.60 | $600.00 | - |
| Givebutter tips on, donor removes tip and fee | $600.00 | $600.00 | $0.00 |
| Givebutter tips on, demo defaults ($59.30 a month) | $711.60 | $600.00 | $90.00 |
| Givebutter tips off, donor does not cover fees | $600.00 | $561.00 | - |
The $106.30 figure is Givebutter's own worked example. With tips on, you receive the full gift in every case, which Donor Merchant matches only when the donor covers the fee. What differs is what the donor is asked to pay and who receives the extra.
How do the features compare?
| Donor Merchant | Givebutter | |
|---|---|---|
| Software cost | $0 | $0; Givebutter Plus from $29/month |
| Platform fee | None | 0% with tips on; 3% with tips off |
| Donor tip | None | Optional, when tips are on |
| Payment account | Your own Stripe and PayPal | Givebutter's |
| Where it runs | Your WordPress site only | Hosted pages, plus widgets for WordPress and other site builders |
| Recurring frequencies | Weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, quarterly, yearly | Monthly, quarterly, yearly |
| Donor self-service | Emailed sign-in link; history, receipts, statements; Stripe recurring donors update a card or cancel; PayPal recurring donors cancel in their PayPal account or reply to a receipt email | One-time code by email; history and PDF receipts; change amount or frequency, update card, pause, cancel |
| Year-end statements | Annual statement per donor | End-of-year summaries, emailed as PDFs or downloaded |
| Export | CSV of donations and donors | CSV of transactions, contacts and recurring plans, sent as an emailed link that lasts 72 hours |
| Peer-to-peer, events, auctions | No | Yes |
| Text-to-donate | No | Yes |
| CRM and email | Donor records, Mailchimp, outgoing webhooks | Free CRM with unlimited contacts and email blasts |
| Support | Free community support; paid plans $29 or $149/month | 24/7 live chat and email, free |
Givebutter pricing and features as published on givebutter.com and its help center, October 2026. Verify with Givebutter.
What does Givebutter do that a WordPress plugin does not?
- No website or payment account to manage. Givebutter hosts the pages and handles processing and payouts.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising, events, ticketing and auctions, all in the free plan.
- Text-to-donate and a mobile app for in-person payments and event check-in.
- A free CRM with unlimited contacts, plus email to supporters.
- More ways to pay, including Venmo, Cash App Pay and DAF donations.
- Round-the-clock support at no charge.
- No processing cost to you while tips are on, even when the donor declines both the tip and the fee.
Where does Donor Merchant differ?
- Donors are not asked for a tip. If you would rather every extra dollar a donor offers go to your cause, or you serve donors who would find a preset tip confusing, this matters.
- The accounts and records are yours. Payments settle in your own Stripe or PayPal account under your own name, and donor records stay in your WordPress database.
- Weekly and every-2-weeks giving are available. Givebutter's help center lists monthly, quarterly and yearly.
- Recurring gifts stay in your accounts. Stripe and PayPal keep charging them if you ever change software, though the new tool may not record them.
The limits are real. Donor Merchant runs only on WordPress, and someone has to keep the site updated. You need your own Stripe and/or PayPal account and you pay their processing fees unless donors cover them. Only Stripe recurring donors can update a card or cancel in the donor portal today. There is no peer-to-peer fundraising, text-to-give, event ticketing or matching-gift company lookup.
Who should pick which?
Pick Givebutter if you do not have a WordPress site or do not want to run one, if you hold events, auctions or peer-to-peer campaigns, or if you want a free CRM and support included. If your donors are comfortable with a tip prompt, Givebutter costs your organization the least of any option here.
Pick Donor Merchant if you already run a WordPress site, most giving comes through a donation form and recurring gifts, and you want payments in your own accounts, a checkout with no tip, or weekly and biweekly giving.
How do you move from Givebutter to Donor Merchant?
Your history moves. Your active recurring plans do not, and no plugin can move them.
- Export from Givebutter. Transactions, contacts and recurring plans each have an Export button. The download link arrives by email and works for 72 hours.
- Import the history. Donor Merchant's importer takes the transactions file as a general CSV: it suggests a column mapping, you confirm it, and the preview writes nothing. Check that the amount column you map is the gift itself, not a total that includes fees or tips. Imported gifts never send emails. See switching without losing donor history.
- Plan for recurring donors. Their cards are stored in Givebutter's processor account. Givebutter's help center describes moving recurring donors in, not out, so ask Givebutter's support what they can do, and plan to ask each recurring donor to start again on your new form. Cancel the old plan only after the new one has charged.
The full sequence, with a re-subscribe email you can adapt, is in how to leave a donation platform and keep your donors.
Want to compare checkouts? Download Donor Merchant, connect Stripe in test mode, and try a gift on each.
Sources
- Givebutter pricing (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: Standard pricing explained (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: Legacy pricing explained (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: Tips, fees, and our commitment to 100% transparency (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: How tips help keep Givebutter free (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: The Givebutter Guarantee (read October 2026)
- Givebutter demo donation form (checked October 13, 2026)
- Givebutter: How to enable and manage recurring plans (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: How to use your donor portal (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: How to edit and manage your recurring donation (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: How to send end-of-year giving summaries (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: How Givebutter payments appear on donor statements (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: How to migrate recurring plans (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: Exporting transaction details (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: Exporting contact details (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: Exporting recurring plan details (read October 2026)
- Givebutter: Payment processing for nonprofits (read October 2026)
- Stripe pricing (read October 2026)
- Stripe: Fee discount for nonprofit organizations (read October 2026)