Most UK charities that take donations online send their donors somewhere else to give. Our census of 73,687 charity websites found that 38.1% of those engaging with donations send donors to an external platform, and JustGiving alone accounts for 42.7% of them. So what do the alternatives actually cost, and what do you get for the money?
We’ve compared eight options, including the most common platforms, on the three things that matter most to a charity: what you pay each year, where your donor ends up, and what happens to your Gift Aid. One of them is Tinwell, the WordPress donation plugin we build. We’ve tried to be fair, and that means saying plainly where it isn’t the cheapest.
The short version
- The cheapest options on fees alone are JustGiving’s Giving Checkout and Enthuse’s Donations plan. Giving Checkout relies on donors tipping the platform; Enthuse swaps processing fees for a monthly subscription. Both charge 5% on Gift Aid if they claim it for you.
- The most expensive at higher volumes are percentage-based platforms: CAF Donate (4% per card gift) and Donorbox (2.95% platform fee plus card processing).
- If you raise £60,000 a year online, the annual cost ranges from about £375 to £3,070, depending on the route you choose.
- The real choice isn’t just price. It’s whether donors give on your website or someone else’s, and who holds the data afterwards.
Who UK charities use today
In August 2026 we crawled every charity website on the three UK registers. Of the 34,843 sites that engage with donations online, 13,270 (38.1%) send donors to an external platform. Here’s how that off-site traffic splits:
| Platform | Share of charities sending donors off-site | Sites |
|---|---|---|
| JustGiving | 42.7% | 5,671 |
| CAF | 13.5% | 1,795 |
| Enthuse | 6.1% | 812 |
| PayPal Giving Fund | 5.8% | 764 |
| Donorbox | 4.8% | 633 |
| Beacon | 4.3% | 575 |
| Localgiving | 4.3% | 575 |
| GoFundMe | 4.2% | 552 |
The top three platforms between them serve 62.4% of charities that send donors elsewhere. WordPress sites are no exception: 40.6% of donation-engaged WordPress charity sites send donors to a third party, while only 8.7% use a donation plugin.
What each option costs over a year
Fee pages are hard to compare, because each platform charges in a different way: a subscription, a percentage, a fixed fee per gift, a cut of Gift Aid, or some mix of all four. So we’ve modelled a whole year at three fundraising levels, using each provider’s published UK pricing as of October 2026.
| Option | £20,000 raised | £60,000 raised | £150,000 raised |
|---|---|---|---|
| JustGiving Giving Checkout | £125 | £375 | £938 |
| Enthuse (Donations plan) | £701 | £951 | £1,513 |
| Tinwell + Stripe | £732 | £1,599 | £3,549 |
| Localgiving (Fundraiser tier) | £693 | £1,720 | £4,030 |
| GiveWP Elite + Stripe | £973 | £1,840 | £3,790 |
| CAF Donate | £800 | £2,400 | £6,000 |
| JustGiving Grow | £1,267 | £2,677 | £5,849 |
| Donorbox Standard + Stripe | £1,023 | £3,070 | £7,675 |
A few things stand out.
- The cheapest options don’t charge you for card processing. Giving Checkout and Enthuse’s Donations plan both absorb it. With Giving Checkout the cost doesn’t vanish, though: donors are invited to add a contribution for the platform, so some of their generosity goes to the provider rather than your cause. Enthuse covers it through the monthly subscription instead.
- Percentages hurt as you grow. CAF Donate’s 4% and Donorbox’s 2.95% platform fee scale with every pound raised. At £150,000 a year, that’s £6,000 for CAF, and £7,675 for Donorbox once Stripe processing is added.
- Gift Aid fees are easy to miss. A 5% cut of Gift Aid sounds small. On £18,750 of Gift Aid, it’s £937.50 a year.
- Card mix matters. Stripe charges 1.5% + 20p on standard UK cards but 2.8% + 20p on premium UK cards, so the Stripe-based figures above are a best case.
Want to run your own numbers? The fee calculator on tinwell.org lets you move the slider and compare against each platform.
Fees aren’t the whole story
The cheapest route isn’t always the best value. Where your donor gives, and who holds their details afterwards, shapes everything from conversion to your next appeal.
| Option | Where the donor gives | Gift Aid | Donor asked to tip the platform? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tinwell | A form on your own website | Captured on your form; you export a CSV for HMRC, no fee | No |
| GiveWP | A form on your own website | Elite plan only | No (donors can cover fees) |
| JustGiving Grow | JustGiving’s site | JustGiving can claim for you, 5% of Gift Aid | Yes |
| JustGiving Giving Checkout | A JustGiving checkout link | JustGiving can claim for you, 5% of Gift Aid | Yes |
| Enthuse | A branded page on Enthuse | 5% of Gift Aid | Optional, depends on plan |
| CAF Donate | A CAF-hosted page | No separate fee listed | Not that we found |
| Donorbox | A Donorbox form, embeddable on your site | HMRC integration on the Pro plan and above | No (donors can cover fees) |
| Localgiving | Localgiving’s site | Not stated on its fees page | Yes, on gifts under £200 |
We’ve written before about why donors drop off when they leave your website, and about when off-site platforms are still the right call. In short, every redirect is a chance for a donor to hesitate, and every gift taken on someone else’s site means their details start life in someone else’s database.
The options, one by one
JustGiving
The UK’s best-known platform, and for good reason: donors recognise it, and it’s excellent for peer-to-peer fundraising and events. JustGiving’s pricing has two plans: the free Start plan and the Grow plan (£15 a month if you raise up to £15,000 including Gift Aid, £39 a month above that, both plus VAT). Standard donations on either plan carry 1.9% + 30p per UK gift. Both plans also include Giving Checkout, which charges no platform or processing fee at all, because donors are asked to add a voluntary contribution and JustGiving covers the rest. If you use JustGiving’s Gift Aid service, it keeps 5% of the Gift Aid (you can opt out).
Best for: events, challenges and supporters fundraising on your behalf.
Tinwell
Tinwell costs £249 plus VAT a year per website, with no per-gift fee and no feature tiers. Donations go straight into your own Stripe account (and GoCardless for Direct Debit), so it’s not in the payment path at all. Gift Aid declarations are captured on your form and exported as a CSV for HMRC’s Charities Online, with no fee on your Gift Aid. Donor records sit in your own WordPress database, and donations can sync to Beacon, Donorfy or Raisely.
Best for: UK charities on WordPress that want to keep donors on the organisation’s website, own their data and see which appeals work.
Enthuse
Enthuse’s Donations plan costs £39.99 a month plus VAT, with no platform fee and no payment provider fee (non-UK cards may carry an extra 1% foreign card fee). Gift Aid carries a 5% fee. On fees alone, it’s one of the cheapest options once you raise more than about £20,000 a year. Other Enthuse plans charge 1.9% + 30p processing instead.
Best for: charities that want a predictable monthly cost and a hosted, branded page.
CAF Donate
No subscription, but CAF Donate’s fee schedule takes 4% of every card or PayPal gift (3.5% if you bank with CAF Bank). Direct Debit costs £1 per paperless confirmation, plus 2% of the gross gift including Gift Aid. Simple to understand, but expensive as you grow.
Best for: small charities that already bank with CAF.
Donorbox
Donorbox forms can be embedded on your own site, which is a real plus. But the free Standard plan takes a 2.95% platform fee on top of card processing, and HMRC Gift Aid integration only comes with the Pro plan (US$150 a month) and above.
Best for: charities that want an embeddable form quickly and raise modest sums.
Localgiving
Built for small local charities and community groups. Localgiving’s Fundraiser tier costs £150 a year plus VAT, with processing at 1.9% + 20p on UK cards. Donors are asked for a tip on gifts under £200, and gifts over £200 carry a 5% fee. It’s competitive for small charities and gets pricier as you grow.
Best for: small community groups that value its match-funding campaigns and local profile.
GiveWP
A long-established WordPress donation plugin, so donors stay on your site. GiveWP’s plans run from US$199 to US$599 a year. Recurring donations and GoCardless start on the Pro plan, and Gift Aid needs the top Elite plan. It’s a capable, flexible tool, though built for a global market rather than UK charities specifically.
Best for: WordPress charities with a developer on hand who want a mature, extensible plugin.
So which should you choose?
It depends less on the fee table than on how you fundraise. A rough guide:
- You run events, challenges or supporter fundraising. Keep JustGiving or Enthuse for those. Nothing else matches their reach for peer-to-peer.
- You’re small, raise occasionally and have no website capacity. Giving Checkout or Localgiving will cost you least, as long as you’re comfortable with donors being asked to tip.
- You’re on WordPress and your own appeals matter. Bring the donate button home. Tinwell or GiveWP keep donors on your site and data in your database. Tinwell bundles Gift Aid, GoCardless and UK CRM sync in one licence; GiveWP is more extensible but needs its top plan for Gift Aid.
- You raise more than £50,000 a year online. Avoid percentage-based fees. They’re the single biggest cost at this level.
Many charities end up using two routes: a platform for events and supporter fundraising, and their own form for appeals and regular giving. That’s a sensible split, not a compromise.
Questions charities ask
Is JustGiving free for charities?
Partly. The Start plan has no subscription, and Giving Checkout charges no processing fee. Standard donations still carry 1.9% + 30p for card processing, JustGiving keeps 5% of any Gift Aid it claims for you, and donors are asked to add a contribution to the platform.
What’s the cheapest way for a UK charity to take donations online?
On fees paid by the charity, tip-funded options such as JustGiving’s Giving Checkout are cheapest. If you want donors to give on your own site, without being asked to tip a platform, a fixed-price WordPress plugin with your own Stripe account came out cheapest at every level we modelled.
Can we use JustGiving and our own donation form together?
Yes, and many charities should. Use the platform for events and supporter fundraising, and your own form for appeals and regular giving.
Does Tinwell take a fee on each donation?
No. You pay £249 plus VAT a year per website. Stripe and GoCardless charge their own processing fees, which go to them, not to us.
How did you work out the annual costs?
We used each provider’s published UK pricing as of October 2026, a £30 average one-off gift on standard UK cards, and half of donation value Gift Aided. Subscriptions include VAT. Your own figures will differ with card mix, Direct Debit, international donors and plan choice, so check each provider’s current pricing before deciding.
Try it for yourself
If you’re on WordPress and want to see what on-site giving looks like, the interactive demo lets you make a test donation and watch it land in the dashboard. Or put your own numbers into the fee calculator.
Gift Aid is where a lot of charities quietly lose money. Our guide to capturing Gift Aid on online donations covers what a valid declaration needs and how to claim it without paying a platform to do it.
