CharityAuctionsToday vs. GalaBid

Finding the perfect auction site to support your nonprofit or charity is a challenge. You’ve researched and narrowed down your search: CharityAuctionsToday vs. GalaBid. We can help you compare and contrast our platform with GalaBid’s and decide on which will best suit your needs.

Keep in mind that many charity auction platforms’ pricing and features change frequently. While this information was accurate at the time of publishing, like CharityAuctionsToday, Galabid is constantly updating and improving its products and services.

Looking for a different auction platform? Take a look at how we stack up against OneCause, Givebutter, BiddingforGood (Frontstream Panorama), and Charitybuzz.

CharityAuctionsToday vs. GalaBid: Features

GalaBid offers similar features to CharityAuctionsToday. With auctions, raffles, ticket sales, and CRM/data management solutions, both platforms offer common fundraising features. However, not every feature GalaBid offers is available at every pricing tier.

Depending on your price point, GalaBid restricts access to:

• Your ability to turn off a request to tip the platform
• Access to volunteer-level accounts within your event
• Allowing participants to opt into receiving campaign text notifications
• Customizable bulk communications
• A pre-event launch support call
• Allowing participants to text to register
• Your ability mark invoices as paid in person
• Table-specific leaderboards

CharityAuctionsToday also offers slightly different features depending on which plan you choose, however there are fewer restrictions overall:

• Our Flex plan does not offer unlimited Text-to-Give messaging
• Our Flex plan caps the amount of auction attendees but not the number of bidders
• There are restrictions on the number of auction items at the Flex level
• Popcorn bidding and pre-bidding are available for Prepaid plans only 
• The ability to disable auto-charge and accept offline payments (in the case of live events) is only available at the Prepaid level.

Compare and contrast 12 of the top fundraising auction sites.

CharityAuctionsToday vs. GalaBid Pricing

GalaBid offers a “free” plan, however this plan doesn’t include access to all of its features, such as customizable mass texts, charing pre-registered credit cards, or a leaderboard for people to see your progress towards your goal. Moreover, this “free” option still includes processing fees, although you can choose to pass these on to your guests. At this Free level, your participants will also be asked to tip the platform itself, a feature that GalaBid allows you to turn off at its higher price tiers.

GalaBid’s paid tiers start at platform fees of 4.9% with processing fees of 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction. This tier does not include a handful of features like Text-to-Register. GalaBid also offers a flat-fee upfront plan that starts at $1,250. At this price level, all features are available with the exception of event ticketing and check-in features, which have an additional cost not implemented at its lower tiers. 

Meanwhile, CharityAuctionsToday makes it simple: CharityAuctionsToday has two types of plans. These plans’ prices include platform fees, to help us cover the costs of operation, processing fees to cover transactions, and, in the case of our Pre-Paid plan, a subscription fee to make sure we can provide solutions and support you require. 

• Our Flex plan will cost you 5% of your total proceeds. If you don’t raise anything, you don’t pay anything.
• Our Pre-Paid plan costs a subscription fee of $297-$1,500 and platform fees of 0%-3%
• Both plans charge processing fees of 3% + $0.30 per transaction

We strive to provide auction and fundraising tools affordably, so that small nonprofits can make the most of their fundraising efforts. With a no-upfront-cost plan and a subscription plan that starts low at $297, we feel that CharityAuctionsToday is the clear choice against GalaBid’s more expensive auction solutions. 

CharityAuctionsToday vs GalaBid Reviews

Both CharityAuctionsToday and GalaBid have great reviews: our users find our tools simple to use and our customer support excellent.

Expand Your Reach

CharityAuctionsToday offers you the chance to share your event with more than your own email list or social followers. If you choose to make your event public it will show up in our public auction marketplace, putting it in front of a pool of experienced charity auction bidders.

GalaBid does not offer a similar marketplace function. Not only that, but their plans’ varying restrictions on Text-to-Give functionality and messaging could potentially make it more difficult for you to spread the word about your event.

Final Thoughts

While GalaBid offers a variety of fundraising features, we feel that our platform for nonprofits covers the same functions. Auctions that work for live, silent, or hybrid events. Raffles to increase your payout. Ticketing to make your guests’ check in process as simple as possible. Personalized text messaging, high touch support, and easy invoicing—we feel CharityAuctionsToday goes head-to-head with GalaBid. Especially because we’re more affordable.

We aim to help small nonprofits, schools, and charities to raise more with less, expand their reach, and host successful events year after year. If you’re an SMB nonprofit with limited budget and a need for flexible fundraising options, CharityAuctionsToday might be the best choice for you.