DonatoTomato vs WP Charitable
WP Charitable is a self-hosted WordPress plugin: a free Lite version on WordPress.org that adds a platform fee, and paid annual Pro licenses that remove it and open up features by tier.
Charitable is a plugin you install on your own WordPress site; DonatoTomato is a hosted widget that works on WordPress or anywhere else. On price a Charitable Pro license can beat us: as of September 2026, Basic is $69 for the first year and renews at its regular $149 with no platform percentage, so it costs less than our flat 1% once you raise more than about $6,900 online in that first year, or about $14,900 a year at renewal, and the FAQ below shows the arithmetic, including the Plus plan that recurring giving and donor fee cover need. Charitable Lite, the free plugin, adds a 3% platform fee on Stripe transactions, above our 1% at every size. What a license does not cover is the work: installing the plugin, keeping it and WordPress current, renewing every year, and owning the security of the site your form lives on. DonatoTomato is hosted, so recurring giving, donor fee cover, donor management and IRS-ready receipts arrive in one rate with nothing to maintain.
| Feature | DonatoTomato | WP Charitable |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Flat 1% platform fee per donation, on top of standard card processing, no monthly fee, no setup fee | Lite is free plus a 3% platform fee on Stripe transactions; Pro licenses carry no platform fee, $69 to $299 for the first year and $149 to $599 at renewal (as of September 2026) |
| Hosting | Hosted, nothing to install, update, or back up | A self-hosted WordPress plugin you install, update and keep secure on your own site |
| Recurring donations | Included in the flat 1%, with a donor self-service portal reached from an email link | Available with Charitable Pro; the pricing table lists Recurring Donations from the Plus plan, $99 a year (as of September 2026) |
| Donor covers card fee | Included (opt-in, clearly labeled) | The Fee Relief extension lets donors voluntarily cover gateway processing fees, and is listed from the Plus plan |
| Tax receipts | Automatic and IRS-ready once your EIN and nonprofit status are on file (your EIN + the required statement) | Customizable email receipts are automatic; downloadable tax-compliant PDF receipts are a premium extension, and Annual Receipts is listed from Plus |
| Where donors give | On your own site, in an embedded widget or a site-wide floating button, and donors never leave | On your site with the Stripe extension, or on a payment page hosted by Stripe, whichever you configure |
| Where donations go | Straight into your own Stripe account, you are the merchant of record | Into your own gateway account, with the payment provider collecting its transaction fee directly |
| Setup | Minutes, connect Stripe, embed or flip a switch | Install the plugin on WordPress, connect a gateway, and add whichever extensions your plan includes |
| WordPress | WordPress plugin, site-wide floating button or inline form, and one line of embed code anywhere else | WordPress-native |
Pricing and feature details reflect each provider's published information as of September 2026 and can change, please verify current pricing on WP Charitable's site.
No plugin to update, no license to renew, no extensions to add as your needs grow. The form is hosted and kept current by us, and the same embed code works on Squarespace, Wix, Webflow or a plain HTML page.
Monthly giving with a donor self-service portal, and the optional line that lets a donor cover the card processing fee, are both part of the flat 1%. There is no tier to move up to for either one.
Card fields are hosted by Stripe inside the widget, and a theme, plugin or core update does not touch your donation form or the code that runs it.
Setup takes minutes. Most of the switch is updating the links that pointed at your old form.
Above roughly $6,900 raised online in the first year, and above about $14,900 a year after that. As of September 2026, Charitable Pro Basic is $69 for the first year and renews at its regular $149, with no platform percentage; $69 divided by our 1% is $6,900 and $149 divided by it is $14,900, so past those points our fee is the larger number. Recurring donations and the Fee Relief extension that lets donors cover processing fees both start at the Plus plan, $99 for the first year and $199 after, which moves the lines to about $9,900 and $19,900. Charitable Lite, the free version, adds a 3% platform fee on Stripe transactions, which is above our 1% at any size. The licenses renew every year and the lower plans cover a single site, and none of them cover the hours you spend installing, updating and securing the plugin.
No. One line of embed code works on Squarespace, Wix, Webflow or a plain HTML page. The WordPress plugin is an optional shortcut that adds a site-wide floating Donate button in about a minute.
Nothing. The widget is hosted by us and loaded from one line of code, so a WordPress core, theme or plugin update does not touch it, and there is no donation plugin version to keep in step with your site.
Directly into your own Stripe account. You are the merchant of record, and funds pay out to your bank on Stripe's normal schedule. DonatoTomato never holds your money.
No. The only optional add-on at checkout is clearly labeled as covering the card processing fee, and it is never framed as a tip. There is no separate ask that funds DonatoTomato.
DonatoTomato is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by WP Charitable. Product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here only for comparison and identification. Comparisons reflect publicly available information as of September 2026 and may change, please verify current pricing and details on each provider's website.