TidyHQ vs Zeffy
Last reviewed August 2026
Zeffy is the hardest platform on this list to argue with on price — it is free, and it means it, covering processing fees itself. It also does more than most fundraising tools: donations, ticketing, raffles, auctions, memberships with tiers and renewals, and a donor CRM. Two things decide it. Zeffy is funded by asking the person at checkout to add a voluntary contribution, every time. And you have to qualify — a registered charity or not-for-profit with an ABN in Australia, or the equivalent in the US, Canada, UK or Ireland. TidyHQ wins on governance, club finances, Xero (coming soon), and not putting a tip prompt in front of your members.
Where TidyHQ wins
The committee half of running an organisation. Agendas, minutes with action items, committee tasks by role and 25 GB of document storage — Zeffy has none of it. Financial reporting built for a club treasurer: income categorised by source across subs, gate, bar, events, grants and sponsorship, with Xero sync coming soon rather than a Zapier hop to QuickBooks. A member checkout with no tip prompt attached to it. Eligibility that doesn't depend on your charity status — social clubs, sporting clubs and unincorporated groups can all use TidyHQ. And Australian support in Australian hours.
Where Zeffy wins
Zeffy is genuinely free and the model is not a trick — Zeffy absorbs the processing fees, funded by voluntary contributions from donors and buyers. For a registered charity whose main activity is raising money, that is very hard to beat, and the feature set is broader than the price suggests: donations, event ticketing, raffles and lotteries, auctions, an online store, peer-to-peer, membership tiers with renewal reminders and membership cards, plus a donor CRM and email. If cost is the binding constraint and you qualify, Zeffy deserves the look.
Best for
Clubs and associations that need governance and treasurer-grade financial reporting alongside memberships — and organisations that don't qualify as registered charities, or don't want a tip prompt shown to members at renewal.
Feature comparison
Eligibility
TidyHQ
Any club, association or groupZeffy
Registered charity or NFP only (US, CA, UK, IE, AU)Subscription cost
TidyHQ
$890 AUD/year flat (free plan available)Zeffy
$0 — funded by voluntary contributions at checkoutPlatform & processing fees
TidyHQ
1% + 20c + StripeZeffy
0% — Zeffy covers processingTip prompt shown to your members
TidyHQ
✗ NeverZeffy
On every transactionMembership management & renewals
TidyHQ
Tiers, auto-renewals, familyZeffy
Tiers with renewal remindersDonation & fundraising campaigns
TidyHQ
Categorised donation income onlyZeffy
Donations, P2P, raffles, auctionsMeeting minutes & governance
TidyHQ
Agendas, minutes, action itemsZeffy
Task management
TidyHQ
Assigned to committee rolesZeffy
Document storage
TidyHQ
25 GBZeffy
Accounting integration (Xero)
TidyHQ
Coming soonZeffy
✗ (QuickBooks via Zapier)Financial reporting by income category
TidyHQ
Subs, events, shop, grants, donationsZeffy
Campaign and fund levelEvent ticketing with member pricing
TidyHQ
Members see their priceZeffy
TicketingDigital membership cards
TidyHQ
Pro — Apple + Google Wallet, auto-updatingZeffy
Email & SMS communications
TidyHQ
email; SMS available AU/NZ/UK (credit packs)Zeffy
Email onlyWebsite builder
TidyHQ
Flexible with widget drop-insZeffy
API access
TidyHQ
Zeffy
*Approximate conversion: 1 AUD ≈ 0.65 USD ≈ 0.50 GBP. Actual rates may vary.
Key differences
Your members don't get asked for a tip
Zeffy is free because every checkout invites the payer to add a voluntary contribution to Zeffy. For a donation appeal that is reasonable. For a parent paying their kid's registration fee in February, it is one more thing to explain at the committee meeting. TidyHQ charges the club, not the member.
You don't have to be a charity
Zeffy requires registered charity or not-for-profit status — in Australia, ACNC registration or an ABN as a not-for-profit. Plenty of sporting clubs, social clubs and community groups sit outside that, or would rather not attach their fundraising stack to their charity registration. TidyHQ has no eligibility test.
Governance Zeffy doesn't attempt
Agendas, minutes with action items carried between meetings, committee tasks assigned to roles, and 25 GB of storage for constitutions, policies and AGM records. Zeffy is a fundraising and donor product — the committee work happens somewhere else, usually in a shared drive and someone's inbox.
Books your treasurer can hand to an accountant
TidyHQ categorises income by source — subs, events, shop, gate, grants, sponsorship, donations — and Xero sync is coming soon. Zeffy reports by campaign and fund and reaches QuickBooks through Zapier. If your treasurer produces a set of accounts for an AGM each year, that difference shows up in April.
What Zeffy does well
Zeffy is genuinely free and the model is not a trick — Zeffy absorbs the processing fees, funded by voluntary contributions from donors and buyers. For a registered charity whose main activity is raising money, that is very hard to beat, and the feature set is broader than the price suggests: donations, event ticketing, raffles and lotteries, auctions, an online store, peer-to-peer, membership tiers with renewal reminders and membership cards, plus a donor CRM and email. If cost is the binding constraint and you qualify, Zeffy deserves the look.
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 Zeffy’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 governance — meeting minutes, committee tasks, document storage
- You don't qualify as a registered charity or would rather not depend on that status
- You don't want a tip prompt in front of members paying their subs
- You need Xero (coming soon) rather than a Zapier connection to QuickBooks
- You want treasurer-grade reporting across every income source, not just campaigns
Zeffy might be better if…
- •You are a registered charity and cost is the binding constraint
- •Donation fundraising, raffles and auctions are your main activity
- •You are comfortable with your supporters being asked to cover the platform
- •You don't need meeting minutes, committee tasks or document storage
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about using Zeffy vs TidyHQ for membership organisations.
Yes, and the model is straightforward: Zeffy covers payment processing fees itself and funds the platform through voluntary contributions that donors and buyers are invited to add at checkout. Your organisation is not billed. The trade-off is that every person paying you sees a contribution prompt — including members renewing their subscription.
Zeffy is available to nonprofits and registered charities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. Australian organisations sign up with an ABN, either as an ACNC-registered charity or as another type of not-for-profit. Organisations that don't fit those categories can't use it. TidyHQ has no eligibility requirement — any club, association or community group can sign up.
Yes. Zeffy has membership forms with customisable tiers, pricing, automatic renewal reminders and membership cards, and member records sit in its CRM. It is a real membership feature, not a donation form with a label on it. What it doesn't include is the rest of running a club — meeting minutes, committee tasks, document storage, or income reporting across subs, gate takings and the bar.
No. Zeffy connects to QuickBooks through Zapier and offers a public API, but there is no Xero integration. TidyHQ's Xero integration is coming soon and is two-way. For most Australian and New Zealand treasurers, that is the accounting package in use.
You can. A common split is TidyHQ as the system of record for members, subs, finances and governance, with Zeffy running a specific appeal or a charity auction where the zero-fee model matters most. There is no direct integration, so the fundraiser result comes into TidyHQ as a categorised income entry.
If you were turned away on eligibility — Zeffy requires registered charity or not-for-profit status — then RallyUp and Donorbox have broader criteria, and TidyHQ has none at all. If the tip prompt at checkout is the problem, TidyHQ charges the club rather than the member. If you want a comparable free donation platform and you are US-based, Givebutter runs the same optional-tip model. For auctions and raffles specifically, RallyUp is stronger than any of them.
Sources
Claims in this comparison are based on publicly available information. Verify current pricing and features directly with each provider.
- 1Zeffy pricing and fee model— Zero-fee model funded by voluntary contributions at checkout
- 2Zeffy supported countries— US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia
- 3Zeffy eligibility criteria— Registered charity or not-for-profit requirement, ABN for Australian organisations
- 4Zeffy memberships— Membership tiers, renewals and membership cards
Related comparisons
Other Fundraising Platforms alternatives we’ve written about.