TidyHQ vs Givebutter
Last reviewed August 2026
Givebutter is a fundraising platform. TidyHQ is a club management platform. Givebutter runs donation pages, campaigns and fundraising events extremely well, and the headline price is genuinely hard to argue with — 0% platform fee when donor tipping is on. But it doesn't manage memberships or renewals, doesn't record committee minutes, and — the part that decides it for most readers of this page — it only pays out to US bank accounts. If your organisation banks in Australia, New Zealand or the UK, Givebutter isn't available to you at all.
Where TidyHQ wins
Everything that happens between fundraisers. Membership records with tiers, renewal dates, payment history and automated reminders. Financial reporting across every income source — subs, gate takings, events, the shop — with Xero sync coming soon. Governance: agendas, minutes with action items, committee tasks by role, 25 GB of document storage. Email and SMS to your member list, segmented by membership status. Event ticketing where financial members see their price automatically. Unlimited admin seats so the whole committee can log in. And it works wherever you bank.
Where Givebutter wins
Givebutter is very good at the thing it is for. Donation pages, peer-to-peer campaigns, fundraising events with ticketing, and a donor CRM that costs nothing to run when donors cover the tip — and Givebutter reports that most of them do. The campaign pages look sharp without design work, and the free tier has no contact limit. If you are a US nonprofit whose main job is raising money from donors, TidyHQ is not trying to replace that.
Best for
Clubs and associations that need to run the organisation, not just the appeal — memberships, subs, finances, committee governance and member communications in one place. Especially clubs outside the United States, where Givebutter cannot pay out at all.
Feature comparison
Available to AU / NZ / UK organisations
TidyHQ
Givebutter
✗ US and Puerto Rico onlyMembership management & renewals
TidyHQ
Tiers, auto-renewals, familyGivebutter
Donation & fundraising campaign pages
TidyHQ
Categorised donation income onlyGivebutter
(excellent)Peer-to-peer fundraising
TidyHQ
Givebutter
Platform fee
TidyHQ
1% + 20c (+ Stripe)Givebutter
0% with donor tipping; 3% withoutSubscription cost
TidyHQ
$890 AUD/year flat (free plan available)Givebutter
Free; Plus add-on $29–$129 USD/month by contact countEvent ticketing with member pricing
TidyHQ
Members see their priceGivebutter
Ticketing, but no membership databaseMeeting minutes & governance
TidyHQ
Agendas, minutes, action itemsGivebutter
Task management
TidyHQ
Assigned to committee rolesGivebutter
Plus plan onlyAccounting integration
TidyHQ
Xero coming soonGivebutter
QuickBooks (Plus plan only)Document storage
TidyHQ
25 GBGivebutter
Plus plan onlyEmail & SMS communications
TidyHQ
email; SMS available AU/NZ/UK (credit packs)Givebutter
Email included; texting on PlusAdmin seats
TidyHQ
Unlimited on all plansGivebutter
UnlimitedFree tier
TidyHQ
Free forever, unlimited contactsGivebutter
Free, no contact limitAPI access
TidyHQ
Givebutter
*Approximate conversion: 1 AUD ≈ 0.65 USD ≈ 0.50 GBP. Actual rates may vary.
Key differences
It has to work where your club banks
Givebutter pays out to US bank accounts, and the organisation has to be located in the United States or Puerto Rico. For an Australian, New Zealand or UK club, that ends the comparison before features come into it. TidyHQ was built in Australia and pays out through Stripe in AUD, NZD, GBP and USD.
A donor is not a member
Givebutter tracks people who gave you money. TidyHQ tracks who is financial, what tier they are on, when they joined, what they have paid, and when their renewal falls due — then chases the renewal for you. Those are different jobs, and only one of them stops your secretary sending reminder texts on a Sunday.
The committee work happens somewhere
Your club holds an AGM, takes minutes, carries action items between meetings, and keeps a constitution someone has to find. Givebutter has none of that. TidyHQ has agendas, minutes with assigned actions, role-based committee tasks and 25 GB of document storage.
Free, but your donors are asked to pay for it
Givebutter's 0% platform fee is real — it is funded by an optional tip added at checkout. If tipping is off, the platform fee is 3% plus 2.9% + $0.30 processing. That is a fair trade for a donation appeal to strangers. It reads differently when the person at checkout is a member renewing their subs for the fourth year running.
What Givebutter does well
Givebutter is very good at the thing it is for. Donation pages, peer-to-peer campaigns, fundraising events with ticketing, and a donor CRM that costs nothing to run when donors cover the tip — and Givebutter reports that most of them do. The campaign pages look sharp without design work, and the free tier has no contact limit. If you are a US nonprofit whose main job is raising money from donors, TidyHQ is not trying to replace that.
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 Givebutter’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…
- Your organisation banks in Australia, New Zealand or the UK — Givebutter cannot pay you at all
- You need membership records, renewal tracking and subs collection, not just donations
- You need governance — meeting minutes, committee tasks, document storage
- You want one system of record for members, finances, events and meetings
Givebutter might be better if…
- •You are a US-based nonprofit and donation fundraising is your main activity
- •You run peer-to-peer campaigns and want polished public campaign pages
- •Your supporters are donors rather than dues-paying members
- •You want fundraising software with no subscription and no contact limit
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about using Givebutter vs TidyHQ for membership organisations.
No. Givebutter supports direct deposits to US bank accounts only, and the organisation must be located in the United States or Puerto Rico. Australian, New Zealand and UK clubs cannot receive funds through it. TidyHQ is Australian-built and pays out through Stripe in AUD, NZD, GBP and USD.
No. Givebutter is fundraising software with a donor CRM. It has no membership tiers, no renewal dates, no automated renewal reminders and no financial-member status. TidyHQ handles all of that, plus subs collection, digital membership cards on Pro, and member-only event pricing.
The fundraising tools are free with a 0% platform fee, funded by an optional tip donors are prompted to add at checkout. If you turn tipping off, Givebutter charges a 3% platform fee plus 2.9% + $0.30 card processing. Givebutter Plus — automations, texting, custom reports, QuickBooks sync — is a paid add-on priced by contact count, from $29 USD/month for up to 250 contacts to $129 USD/month for 2,500.
A US-based club can, and some do — Givebutter for the annual appeal, TidyHQ for memberships, subs, finances and governance. There is no direct integration, so donation totals come across as a categorised income entry rather than syncing automatically. Outside the US the question does not arise, because Givebutter cannot pay out there.
No. Givebutter has task management on its paid Plus plan, but no agendas, no minutes, no action items and no governance document storage. TidyHQ includes agendas, minutes with action items, role-based committee tasks and 25 GB of document storage on every paid plan.
It depends what stopped you. If you want the same donation-first model, Zeffy is genuinely free and covers processing fees itself, and Donorbox is the more established donation product. If the blocker is that Givebutter only pays out to US bank accounts, then Zeffy, Donorbox and RallyUp all operate in Australia and the UK. And if what you actually need is membership records, subs collection and committee governance rather than a donation appeal, that is a different category of software — TidyHQ.
Sources
Claims in this comparison are based on publicly available information. Verify current pricing and features directly with each provider.
- 1Givebutter pricing— Platform fee with and without tipping, processing rates, and Givebutter Plus tiers
- 2Givebutter payout requirements— Confirms US bank accounts and US/Puerto Rico organisation location only
- 3TidyHQ pricing— Published flat pricing for comparison
Related comparisons
Other Fundraising Platforms alternatives we’ve written about.