TidyHQ vs Cheddar Up
Last reviewed August 2026
Cheddar Up is a collection page. Somebody needs $35 from 22 parents by Friday, and Cheddar Up gets that done in about four minutes with no account required from the payers. It is very good at that. What it is not is a membership database — there is no renewal date, no financial-member status, no committee minutes, no income reporting across your whole club, and payouts require a US checking account. For a class trip or a team dinner, use Cheddar Up. For running an organisation, that is a different tool.
Where TidyHQ wins
Continuity. Cheddar Up collections are one-off events; TidyHQ keeps a record that carries year to year — who is financial, when they joined, what they have paid, when their renewal falls due, and an automated reminder when it does. Financial reporting across every income source, with Xero sync coming soon. Governance: agendas, minutes with action items, committee tasks, 25 GB of document storage. Email and SMS to your member list segmented by status. Event ticketing where financial members automatically get member pricing. And it pays out wherever you bank, not only to a US checking account.
Where Cheddar Up wins
Cheddar Up is excellent at the job it was designed for. Payers don't need an account, the page takes minutes to build, and the default setting passes the transaction fee to the payer so the collection costs the organiser nothing. Forms, sign-up sheets and item inventory sit in the same page as the payment, which is genuinely useful for a team fundraiser or a school collection. For one-off group money collection in the United States, it is a clean tool and TidyHQ isn't trying to be it.
Best for
Clubs and associations where money arrives on a schedule rather than one-off — subscriptions, renewals, event tickets and shop sales — and where the committee also needs finances, minutes and member records in one place.
Feature comparison
Available outside the United States
TidyHQ
AU, NZ, UK, US and moreCheddar Up
US checking account required for payoutsMembership management & renewals
TidyHQ
Tiers, auto-renewals, familyCheddar Up
Subscription cost
TidyHQ
$890 AUD/year flat (free plan available)Cheddar Up
Free plan; Pro $15 USD/mo; Team $35 USD/moCard fee
TidyHQ
1% + 20c + Stripe (1.75% + 30c AU)Cheddar Up
3.95% + 95c free plan; 3.59% + 59c on Pro/TeamOne-off group collections
TidyHQ
Via events, shop or invoicesCheddar Up
(excellent)Recurring subscriptions with renewal dates
TidyHQ
Automated remindersCheddar Up
Recurring payments, no membership recordFinancial reporting by income category
TidyHQ
Subs, events, shop, grants, donationsCheddar Up
Per-collection reportingAccounting integration (Xero)
TidyHQ
Coming soonCheddar Up
Meeting minutes & governance
TidyHQ
Agendas, minutes, action itemsCheddar Up
Task management
TidyHQ
Assigned to committee rolesCheddar Up
Document storage
TidyHQ
25 GBCheddar Up
Forms, waivers & sign-up sheets
TidyHQ
Custom fields on memberships and eventsCheddar Up
Waivers and eSignatures on ProEvent ticketing with member pricing
TidyHQ
Members see their priceCheddar Up
Ticketing on Team plan; no member pricingAdmin seats
TidyHQ
Unlimited on all plansCheddar Up
Unlimited managers on Team planEmail & SMS communications
TidyHQ
email; SMS available AU/NZ/UK (credit packs)Cheddar Up
Collection messages onlyFree tier
TidyHQ
Free forever, unlimited contactsCheddar Up
Free Forever (5 items per page)*Approximate conversion: 1 AUD ≈ 0.65 USD ≈ 0.50 GBP. Actual rates may vary.
Key differences
A collection ends. A membership doesn't
Cheddar Up gives you a page, some payments and a spreadsheet. Next season you build a new page and the history stays behind. TidyHQ keeps one record per member across every year — joined date, tier, payment history, renewal date — so your registrar isn't reconstructing last season from bank statements.
The fee is small, but somebody pays it
Cheddar Up's free plan charges 3.95% + 95c per card transaction, dropping to 3.59% + 59c on Pro at $15 USD/month. On a $25 payment that is 7.8% on the free plan. By default the payer covers it, which works for a one-off collection and grates when it lands on every member every renewal. TidyHQ charges 1% + 20c on top of Stripe.
The committee work has to live somewhere
Minutes, action items carried between meetings, committee tasks by role, the constitution someone always needs before an AGM. Cheddar Up doesn't attempt any of it. TidyHQ includes agendas, minutes, role-based tasks and 25 GB of document storage.
It has to pay out where you bank
Cheddar Up requires a US checking account to withdraw funds. If your club banks in Australia, New Zealand or the UK, that decides it regardless of features. TidyHQ pays out through Stripe in AUD, NZD, GBP and USD.
What Cheddar Up does well
Cheddar Up is excellent at the job it was designed for. Payers don't need an account, the page takes minutes to build, and the default setting passes the transaction fee to the payer so the collection costs the organiser nothing. Forms, sign-up sheets and item inventory sit in the same page as the payment, which is genuinely useful for a team fundraiser or a school collection. For one-off group money collection in the United States, it is a clean tool and TidyHQ isn't trying to be it.
We think honest comparisons build more trust than pretending competitors don’t exist. Try both and see which one your committee actually uses.
Ongoing development
We have shipped every month since 2008.
The software you pick now is a bet on where it will be in three years, and no feature table tells you that. We have been building TidyHQ for eighteen years, across more than 30,000 commits. The public record is dated and checkable: 15 new features and 52 updates since November 2025 alone, the most recent on 24 July 2026.
Some of what landed
We have not tried to summarise Cheddar Up’s release history here, because we do not have reliable data on it and would rather not guess. Go and look for their changelog too. If a vendor cannot show you what they shipped last quarter, that is worth knowing before you sign anything.
Is TidyHQ right for you?
TidyHQ is the better choice if…
- You need membership records and renewal tracking, not one-off collections
- Your club banks outside the United States
- You need financial reporting across every income source, not per collection
- You need governance — meeting minutes, committee tasks, document storage
- You want your whole committee working from the same member database
Cheddar Up might be better if…
- •You collect one-off group payments and don't need a member record
- •You want payers to pay without creating an account
- •You are a US-based group and your money collection is genuinely ad hoc
- •You need sign-up sheets and item inventory attached directly to a payment page
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about using Cheddar Up vs TidyHQ for membership organisations.
Not in any lasting sense. Cheddar Up collects payments through a page and supports recurring payments, but there is no membership record — no tier, no joined date, no renewal date, no financial-member status, and no automated renewal reminders. TidyHQ handles all of that, plus digital membership cards on Pro and member-only event pricing.
The Free Forever plan costs nothing and charges 3.95% + 95c per card transaction, with a cap of 5 items per page. Pro is $15 USD/month and drops the card fee to 3.59% + 59c, adding unlimited items, waivers, eSignatures and eCheck at 1.59%. Team is $35 USD/month and adds ticketing, unlimited managers and a branded group site. TidyHQ Pro is $890 AUD/year flat with a 1% + 20c service fee.
Cheddar Up requires a US checking account for payouts, so organisations banking in Australia, New Zealand or the UK cannot withdraw funds. TidyHQ is Australian-built and pays out through Stripe in AUD, NZD, GBP and USD.
No. Cheddar Up is a payment collection product — there are no agendas, minutes, action items, committee tasks or document storage. TidyHQ includes all of them on every paid plan, with 25 GB of storage for constitutions, policies and AGM records.
A US-based club can. Some use Cheddar Up for a one-off collection with no account friction for payers, and TidyHQ for memberships, subs, finances and governance. There is no direct integration, so the collection total comes into TidyHQ as a categorised income entry rather than syncing automatically.
For one-off group collections in the US, Givebutter and Zeffy both do it with lower fees than Cheddar Up's free plan. If the blocker is the US checking account requirement, Zeffy and RallyUp operate in Australia and the UK, and TidyHQ pays out through Stripe in AUD, NZD, GBP and USD. If what you actually need is a record that persists — renewal dates, financial-member status, subs collection — no collection tool covers that, and TidyHQ is the comparison to make.
Sources
Claims in this comparison are based on publicly available information. Verify current pricing and features directly with each provider.
- 1Cheddar Up pricing— Free, Pro, Team and Partner plans with card and eCheck fee rates
- 2Cheddar Up fees explained— Fee worked examples and who pays them by default
- 3Cheddar Up transferring funds— US checking account requirement for withdrawals
Related comparisons
Other Fundraising Platforms alternatives we’ve written about.