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Subsplash vs Zeffy for Churches: Which Giving Platform Fits?
The honest headline: Zeffy costs the church nothing and funds itself with an optional donor tip, while Subsplash keeps giving free of a monthly fee but charges per-gift processing and lives inside a larger paid app-and-website platform. Which one fits depends on whether you want the cheapest possible giving or one vendor for everything.
Which One Should Your Church Pick?
Short answer: If you only need online giving and you want the church to pay nothing, pick Zeffy. It charges no platform fee and no processing fee, so the church keeps 100%, and it funds itself with an optional tip your donors can add at checkout. If you want one vendor to run your church app, website, media, and giving together, pick Subsplash, whose giving product has no monthly fee but does charge per-gift processing. Both work with NFC tap-to-give plates so guests can give in the pew without typing a URL.
I'm a pastor, and I built Tap.Giving because our own church wanted an affordable way to add tap-to-give without ripping out the giving software we already used. So I want to be straight with you: this is not a story where one platform crushes the other. Subsplash and Zeffy solve different problems, and the money lands in different places.
Below is what each one does well, where each frustrates churches, and how to decide based on what your weekend actually needs.
Zeffy Pricing & Features (2026)
As publicly listed by Zeffy in 2026. Verify before committing.
What Zeffy Is
Zeffy is giving and fundraising software that is free for the nonprofit. It handles donation forms, recurring gifts, receipting, event ticketing, and donor management. It has run this way for years across more than 100,000 nonprofits. Zeffy is software only: it does not sell a custom church app, a website builder, or NFC hardware.
Pricing (As Listed in 2026)
- Platform fee: $0. No monthly subscription.
- Card and ACH processing: $0 charged to the church. The church keeps 100% of what it raises.
- How it is funded: an optional tip your donor can add to Zeffy at checkout. By Zeffy's own figure, about two of three donors leave one.
- Terms change: confirm the current model on Zeffy's pricing page.
Strengths for Churches
- Truly no cost to the church budget, which is hard to beat for a plant or a tight year.
- Recurring giving, receipting, and event ticketing included at no charge.
- Fast to stand up for a single donation page.
Trade-offs
- The cost does not vanish, it moves to your donors: a tip prompt is shown at checkout, and some givers find it confusing the first time.
- No custom church app, website builder, or media platform, this is giving software, not an all-in-one.
- Deeper church-management integrations are thinner than a full ministry platform offers.
Subsplash Pricing & Features (2026)
Pricing as publicly listed by Subsplash in 2026. Verify before committing.
What Subsplash Is
Subsplash is an all-in-one ministry platform. Giving is one piece of it, alongside a custom church app, a website builder, media and live streaming, and church-management tools. Churches pick Subsplash when they want a single vendor for the whole digital stack rather than stitching several tools together.
Pricing (As Listed in 2026)
- Subsplash Giving: no monthly subscription fee and no contract to start.
- Processing: volume-based. Subsplash publishes rates as low as 1.9% for cards and 0.5% for ACH for high-volume clients, with rates decreasing as giving grows.
- Standard rate: Quote required. Standard per-gift rates are provided by Subsplash on request rather than listed publicly.
- Donor-covered fees: optional, so givers can absorb the processing cost.
- The wider platform (app, website, media) is a separate paid subscription, quoted to the church.
Strengths for Churches
- One vendor for app, website, media, and giving, which simplifies support and login sprawl.
- Giving carries no monthly fee, and processing rates fall automatically as volume rises.
- Strong media and app tools for churches that stream and publish content weekly.
Trade-offs
- Per-gift processing is a real, ongoing cost that Zeffy's model avoids for the church.
- Standard rates are quote-based, so you cannot compare the number on a public page before you talk to sales.
- The full value shows up when you use the app and website too, paying for the ecosystem to use only giving is overkill.
Subsplash vs Zeffy at a Glance
The head-to-head for a church choosing between them
| Feature | Zeffy | Subsplash |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee (giving) | $0 | $0 |
| Cost to the church per gift | $0 (donor tip funds it) | Processing (from 1.9% card, quote for standard) |
| Where the cost lands | On donors who tip | On the church (or donor-covered) |
| Recurring giving | Yes | Yes |
| Custom church app & website | No | Yes (all-in-one) |
| Media & live streaming | No | Yes |
| Best for | Cheapest possible giving, giving-only need | One vendor for app, web, media & giving |
Pricing as publicly listed by each provider in 2026. Verify current rates before signing up.
How to Decide Between Them
Match the choice to what your church actually needs this year.
Plant or tight budget
Pick: Zeffy. When every dollar counts and you only need online giving, a model that costs the church nothing is hard to argue against. Just prepare your people for the tip prompt so it does not surprise a first-time giver.
Pair with: a few NFC plates on the welcome desk and front rows.
Want one vendor
Pick: Subsplash. If you already want a custom app, a website, and streaming, adding giving from the same vendor keeps logins and support in one place. The per-gift processing is the price of that consolidation.
Pair with: 100-pack of NFC plates on every pew or chair.
Only need giving
Lean Zeffy if the app and website are not on your list, paying for a full platform to use one slice of it rarely pencils out. Revisit Subsplash the year you actually want the app.
Pair with: 200-pack, every seat covered, lower per-plate cost.
Whichever way you lean, the right answer for in-service giving is the same: do not make people type a URL. Read our 2026 online giving platforms guide for the wider field, or our Subsplash pricing breakdown for a closer look at Subsplash costs. Weighing other options too? See Subsplash vs Tithely and how Zeffy compares to tap plates.
What Surprises Treasurers Later
Both platforms are honest about their headline terms. Here is what a church board tends to miss until the first statement lands.
Zeffy's cost is real, it just sits with donors
"100% free" is true for the church. But your donors see a tip request at checkout, and the ones who tip are effectively covering the cost. If a giver expects their whole gift to reach the church, walk them through it once so it reads as generosity, not a surprise.
Subsplash's real number is behind a quote
The public "as low as 1.9%" is the high-volume rate. Your standard rate comes from a conversation with sales, so budget from the quote you actually receive, not the headline, and ask where the donor-covered-fees toggle defaults.
Paying for a platform to use one piece
Subsplash shines when you use the app, website, and media together. If you only want giving, the ecosystem subscription is weight you may not need, which is exactly where Zeffy or a lighter tool wins.
QR signage that keeps getting reprinted
Whichever platform you pick, printed QR codes get bent, stained, and reprinted when your URL changes. NFC plates last for years and can be re-encoded to a new giving page without new artwork.
Add NFC Tap-to-Give to Either Platform
We sell the plates. You keep the platform you already chose.
Tap.Giving does not process payments and does not compete with Subsplash or Zeffy. We sell physical NFC plates that mount on pew backs, chair backs, welcome desks, and lobby walls. Each plate is encoded with a web URL, your Subsplash giving page, your Zeffy donation form, anything you can open in a browser. A guest taps a phone to the plate and your giving page opens. No app, no QR code, no typing.
- One-time hardware cost, no monthly fees from us, ever.
- Works with Subsplash, Zeffy, Tithely, Pushpay, Givelify, any web URL.
- Free shipping; 2-3 weeks from artwork approval to delivery.
- First-time order? Start a quote to get 10% off for 7 days.
Want the wider field first? See our church donation technology guide for 2026 or the tap-to-give platform comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Zeffy really free for churches?
Yes. Zeffy charges churches no platform fee, no card-processing fee, and no monthly subscription, so the church keeps 100% of what it raises. Zeffy funds itself with an optional tip that donors can add at checkout. On Zeffy's own numbers about two out of three donors leave a tip, and donors are never forced to. The trade-off is that a tip prompt is shown to your givers, and the effective cost is carried by the donors who choose to tip. Verify current terms on Zeffy's pricing page before committing.
What does Subsplash Giving cost a church in 2026?
Subsplash Giving has no monthly subscription fee and no contract for the giving product itself. You pay per gift through processing that is volume-based: Subsplash publishes rates as low as 1.9% for cards and 0.5% for ACH for high-volume clients, with standard rates provided on request (quote required). Subsplash also offers a donor-covered-fees option. The wider Subsplash platform (custom app, website, and media) is a separate paid subscription. Verify current rates with Subsplash before committing.
Which is better for a small church, Subsplash or Zeffy?
For a small or budget-tight church that only needs online giving and is comfortable with a donor tip prompt, Zeffy usually costs the church the least because there is no platform or processing fee. For a church that wants one vendor for its app, website, media, and giving together, Subsplash is the stronger fit even though giving carries per-gift processing. Both work with NFC tap-to-give plates from Tap.Giving.
Can I use NFC tap-to-give plates with Subsplash or Zeffy?
Yes. Tap.Giving plates can be encoded with any web URL, including your Subsplash giving page or your Zeffy donation form. A guest taps their phone to the plate and your giving page opens in the browser, with no app to install. Tap.Giving sells the hardware only; you keep whichever platform you already use.
Does Zeffy or Subsplash include a church app and website?
Subsplash is built as an all-in-one platform: a custom church app, website builder, media and streaming, and giving under one vendor. Zeffy is giving and fundraising software only (donation forms, receipting, event ticketing, donor management) and does not build a custom church app or media platform. If the app and website matter to you, that difference usually decides the choice.
Whichever You Pick, Our Plates Work With It
Subsplash, Zeffy, or anything else, Tap.Giving plates link to whatever URL you give them. One-time cost. No monthly fees. Plates land on every pew or chair, and giving stops being awkward.
No monthly fees. Works with Subsplash, Zeffy, Tithely, Pushpay, and more. Start a quote to get 10% off for 7 days.
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