PayBee vs Donorbox (2026): Features, Fees & the Best Fit for Your Fundraiser

The interesting thing about Donorbox and PayBee is that they exist to solve different problems for nonprofits. Donorbox is one of the most popular platforms out there in terms of recurring donations and accessible online donation forms. Alternatively, PayBee is purpose-built for events such as galas and auctions, offering the software nonprofits need to succeed.

PayBee is there for everything from live and silent auctions to livestreaming and ticketing, and all for a flat fee of 2%. Donorbox also has a free tier with reasonable processing fees, but which platform you need depends on your organisation. For galas and auctions, PayBee is the perfect match, but a focus on recurring online donations would be suited to Donorbox instead. 

Or, you could go the way of so many organisations and utilise both when planning events. Whatever you choose, we’re here to offer you an honest and transparent look at what these two platforms offer and how they might benefit you. 

A Quick PayBee vs Donorbox Comparison

As of September 2026, all information in this table is accurate and has been verified through both PayBee and Donorbox. The same goes for all information pertaining to Donorbox and PayBee throughout this article.

Capterra ratings can be found here:

• PayBee
• Donorbox 

G2 ratings can be found here:

• PayBee
• Donorbox

What is PayBee?

PayBee is an all-in-one fundraising platform that was designed to help nonprofits run galas, events, and auctions effortlessly. It has a lot of focus on live, online, and hybrid events, working with organisations to deliver silent auctions that are memorable and help raise as much money as possible. It’s packed with features to help events run seamlessly and successfully. 

What is Donorbox?

Donorbox is an online fundraising platform for nonprofits that puts most of its focus on recurring giving to help organisations keep a steady source of funds flowing. They use customisable donation forms, which are very popular with their customers, and it makes them a hit with schools and other charities, especially because of their wide range of integrations. 

How Do the Fees and Pricing Compare?

As of September 2026, the pricing shown here is accurate, including any fees. The numbers have come directly from the PayBee website and the Donorbox website and have been verified as accurate. The pricing is quite different between the two platforms, and this table offers a quick breakdown of what to expect from each of them. 

The main thing to remember with Donorbox is that you have add-ons as well, which can incur additional costs for your nonprofit. For example, the live kiosk service is an additional $80 per month and the text-to-give feature costs $19 per month on top of your other fees. This is quite a lot when compared to PayBee, which offers a flat platform fee of 2% for both its tiers. 

In addition to the processing fees changing based on which Donorbox features you are using, there are also different payment processing fees that need to be considered. Currently, these fees are displayed as follows on the Donorbox website: 

• Stripe 2.2% + $0.30
• ACH 0.8% ($5 cap per transaction)
• Other $0.80 and 1.6% + $0.30
• PayPal 1.99% and $0.49 (non-AMEX)

It’s a lot more to take in with the pricing, and it definitely isn’t as simple as the PayBee system, and things like data migration cost an additional $195 with Donorbox. You do get a lot for your money in terms of the recurring giving and donation forms, but there’s a lot to digest before you even set your payment plan up (but it does have one of many great fundraising apps). 

Comparing the Features Offered by PayBee and Donorbox

Now that you know more about these platforms and how they work, we can take a look at the features they offer and what makes them good. PayBee and Donorbox do share some features, but there are others that are exclusive to them. All of the features here were taken straight from the PayBee and Donorbox websites so that you can see them side-by-side. 

Donorbox Features:

• Recurring donations. Donorbox prides itself on its quick and simple recurring giving, which encourages donors to continue helping causes they love on a regular basis. 
• QuickDonate. This works by allowing donors an easy and accessible one-click donation button that allows for recurring giving without the need to add their payment information again.
• Donation forms/pages/widgets. These are dedicated online pages that are used to collect donations from people who want to give to your cause. They can be customised and shared with ease. Donorbox excels at allowing you to tailor them to your needs. 
• Donor management/CRM. With this, you can track donations and donor activity, store donor information, and use it to build a stronger relationship with them. 
• Memberships. This allows you to categorise your donors into tiers, which means you can offer them access to things like newsletters and perks in exchange for the amount they give to your nonprofit on a monthly basis. 
• Crowdfunding. It gives you the opportunity to raise money through customised campaign pages outside of events, normally for a specific cause or need. 
• Peer-to-peer fundraising. Your supporters can create their own pages to help raise money for your cause. They take charge of their part of the fundraising so that you are able to raise more through them and their contacts. Charity runs are a great example of this. 
• Text-to-Give. Instead of taking part in events and such, donors can send a short text message to your organisation with the amount they would like to donate to your cause.
• Donorbox Events (ticketing). This software is there to help you sell tickets for your event, manage the attendees, and raise some extra money for your nonprofit. 
• Donorbox Live Kiosk. The kiosk is a fantastic piece of software that can be used to transform a tablet or smart device into a cashless giving station for your event, meaning that it works on-site and takes active donations from those who want to give. 
• Jay·AI assistant. This is offered by Donorbox as a way for nonprofits to get help managing their campaigns, analyse data, and automate tasks that might be taking up too much time.

PayBee Features:

• Live & silent auctions. This is a great way to get people excited and engaged with an event to raise more money, and they tend to be very successful forms of fundraising. 
• Fund-a-need/paddle raise. These events are usually targeted at a specific cause, and donors give money directly to it without receiving anything in return. 
• Virtual/hybrid galas and livestreaming. Offering virtual and hybrid events allows more people to get involved, broadening your reach and making your events more accessible. 
• Tap-to-pay. This makes it easier to collect donations during live events because it turns your phone into a card reader that can take payments quickly and efficiently. 
• Event check-in. Having some tech to assist with scanning tickets is important when you are welcoming guests and confirming their details to ensure the right people are there. 
• Mobile checkout. This allows guests to make purchases instantly, which means they can pay for their auction items as soon as they win instead of having to wait. 
• Ticketing. Through this, you can set up an event where you can use tiered tickets, add-ons, or packages and passes to make your event more enticing to donors. 
• Donation pages. These are dedicated online pages that are used to collect donations from people who want to give to your cause. They can be customised and shared with ease.
• Reporting. This allows you to collect analytics from your event, showing you what went right with your fundraiser and the areas that could use some improvement. 

Essential Shared Features: 

• Stripe, PayPal, Apple/Google Pay. Having secure payment methods is vital, and these are the ones that are shared between the platforms. Each of them is trusted and safe.
• 501(c)(3), tax receipts. These are very important because they ensure that donors are able to mark their charitable donation as a tax-deductible item when doing their tax return. 
• Recurring giving. Both platforms offer recurring giving, which allows donors to set up monthly donations to the cause they want to support. 
• Integrations. This allows nonprofits to use tools such as Mailchimp and Salesforce to ensure their nonprofit is more accessible and also to ensure that their lists and items are readily available. 

Donorbox really has that big focus on recurring giving and encouraging people to donate to charitable organisations through their customisable forms. It’s their niche and speciality, and while they do offer events, they don’t have anything that goes to the same extent as PayBee. Since they have no auction software or capabilities, they can only take it so far. 

But Donorbox has also put more focus on the integrations it offers, which means users get a wider range of software for their campaigns. When you look at the two together, it really does make sense to combine them and utilise what each platform has to offer in terms of planning successful events (PayBee) and maintaining recurring donor support (Donorbox). 

Events and Auctions

It would be wrong to say that Donorbox doesn’t have events. It has ticketing, add-on donations, QR code check-ins, mobile wallets, and the option for a live or hybrid event. But that is where it ends. It offers minimal features for standard events, and these events do not include auctions. In fact, Donorbox itself points its users towards third-party software for auction fundraisers.

What a gala or auction actually needs are things like silent auction capabilities, paddle raise, livestreaming, live bidding, and accessible checkout services. These are all things that PayBee can provide because it’s a dedicated platform that was designed for nonprofits that want to host auction fundraisers. This makes PayBee the more capable choice. 

That doesn’t mean Donorbox is useless for events. It does have its own ticketing and events capabilities, and the recurring giving options are second to none in the industry. It’s why it can be a good idea to merge the two platforms and use both of them so that you get the event expertise and auction features from PayBee and the recurring giving from Donorbox.

Customer Support and Ease of Use 

Both platforms are praised for their ease of use and the fact that they make setup simple. It’s commonly noted that PayBee makes it easy to fundraise and that Donorbox offer effortless fundraising with a friendly user interface, which makes it comfortable to use. This means you can get right into things instead of waiting around to figure everything out. 

Donorbox definitely has strong reviews, and since it has a larger customer base and has been around for longer. But PayBee is rising up the ranks, and it has been shown to have exceptional event-night support that is always there when you need it to help your auction fundraiser run smoothly. 

What is Each Platform Best For?

We know a lot more about which platform is best for what now, and if you haven’t quite made up your mind about which one to go for, this quick breakdown should help make things clearer. You should choose PayBee if you want the following: 

• Galas and live events 
• Silent auctions 
• Low fees and low prices 
• Livestreaming 
• Fund-a-need and paddle raise auctions 

You should choose Donorbox if you want the following: 

• More focus on CRM and donor management 
• Recurring giving (using QuickDonate)
• Live kiosk options 
• Online donation forms that can be customised 
• Advanced integrations 

It’s easy to see which platform is best for what because they are designed to do very different things. But sometimes you need all of it together, which is what PayBee does as an all-in-one nonprofit platform, even if it is lighter on things like CRM. It also makes it easier to compare the two, especially since most other platforms are all-in-one or more inclusive.

Where Donorbox is the better choice

The whole point of this guide is to be honest about ourselves and the other platforms out there. Donorbox is the better choice in some areas, especially if you want to focus on recurring giving and donor outreach. Their whole model is based around your donors, which is what makes them so suited to the task. 

But they are also the prime choice if you’re looking for improved integrations, free entry options, and the scale at which they work with continued giving. They might not have auction capabilities, but their current event software is solid, and it works well with their recurring donation and crowdfunding model to encourage people to give more and help where they can.

Where PayBee is the Better Choice

When planning and executing your fundraising events and galas, PayBee has no match, It simply offers all of the tools and customizations anyone could ever want on the day of your fundraising event, if your organization relies on a couple big fundraising events a year that you need to maximize, PayBee is the way to go.

Switching from Donorbox to PayBee

If you decide to switch from Donorbox to PayBee, the process is very simple. All you need to do is export your data and donor history so that you can upload it to your PayBee account once it has been opened. The migration process includes everything from active recurring and online donations to old donor info, but it does cost $195 from Donorbox to leave with your data. 

Truthfully, you don’t have to leave Donorbox to use PayBee. Many nonprofit organisations like to keep a recurring giving tool like Donorbox and then add PayBee to the mix as a platform for events. It means you get the best of both worlds, and since PayBee starts with a free plan and is usually cheaper than Donorbox, it doesn’t add much to your expenses. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Donorbox Do Auctions? 

Donorbox doesn't offer native silent or live auctions. Instead, it works through donations and recurring giving while guiding users towards third-party tools for auctions. It does have ticketing and such for events, but it doesn’t include auctions. If you want built-in silent and live auctions, mobile bidding, and fund-a-need, you should use PayBee instead. 

How Much Does Donorbox Cost and What Are Its Fees? 

The standard plan for Donorbox is free and has a platform fee that varies from 2.95% to 3.95% depending on the features that are being used. Pro is priced at $150 per month and has processing fees that vary from 1.75% to 2%, depending on the features used. The payment processing for Stripe and PayPal is separate, and the fees vary there as well. 

Is PayBee or Donorbox Cheaper? 

PayBee and Donorbox can easily be cheaper than the other because it depends on what you want to do with it. PayBee has a flat processing fee of 2% and no subscription, making it simpler and lower, whereas Donorbox has a free tier that is higher per transaction, but there is no monthly cost. Comparatively, the Pro tier brings the rate to $150 per month. 

Can I Use Donorbox for a Gala? 

You can use Donorbox for ticketing and QR check-in, but it’s not recommended for the auction itself. For bidding, paddle raises, item checkout, livestreams, and the technical features behind the event, you’re going to want PayBee. This is because PayBee was built and designed for full galas and offers features based around this. 

What's the Best Donorbox Alternative for Events and Auctions? 

PayBee is a fantastic alternative because it offers full-service galas and auctions while also being an all-in-one nonprofit fundraising platform. But you also have equally strong contenders such as Givebutter, OneCause, Zeffy, and Handbid that can offer you great events and features for reasonable prices and with minimal fees. 

Should I Use Both Donorbox and PayBee? 

You can use both Donorbox and PayBee for your events. There are plenty of organisations that do this because they can utilise Donorbox for recurring giving and encouraging additional donations and gifts, and then PayBee for their gala and auction events. You can even consolidate on PayBee if the events are central. 

Find the Best Fit For Your Fundraiser 

The simple fact is that Donorbox and PayBee are strong contenders for different things. Donorbox is superior for recurring giving and has helped over 100,000 organisations raise more than $1 billion between them. They have a lot of support, and the optional donor tipping and no subscription requirements to start make it very appealing. 

But PayBee is the winner for auctions and galas. Donorbox doesn’t have native auctions, and while it can still be used for running events, it doesn’t offer the same features, dedication, and support as PayBee. With us, you get ticketing, memberships, hybrid events, and most importantly of all, transparency. All we want is to see your nonprofit thrive. 

So, are you ready to take the next step and host a gala your donors will remember for years to come? Book a free demo with PayBee today and see how we can bring you to the next level.