GiveWP review - the free WordPress donation plugin with 0% platform fees

What it is

GiveWP (now published by Liquid Web) is the most widely installed donation plugin for WordPress. If your website already runs on WordPress, it turns it into a full donation platform with forms, donor records, receipts, and reporting, without sending donors off to a third-party page.

The honest math

The core plugin is free and, importantly, charges a 0% platform fee - GiveWP never skims a percentage off your donations. The only unavoidable cost on the free core is your own payment processor (connect Stripe at the nonprofit rate of about 2.2% + $0.30, or PayPal). On a $100 gift you keep roughly $97.50 and GiveWP takes nothing.

The catch is that the features most nonprofits actually want - recurring giving, fee recovery (letting donors cover processing), and deeper reporting - live in the paid plans. Those run from around $199/yr for Essentials up to $399/yr for Pro (which adds recurring donations) and $599/yr for Elite, billed annually. That is a flat, predictable license rather than a per-donation cut, so it gets cheaper per dollar as you grow.

Who it fits

Small nonprofits already on WordPress that want to own their donation experience and avoid platform fees entirely. If you are comfortable maintaining a WordPress site, the free core alone can carry a real donation program.

The honest take

One of the few donation tools with a genuine 0% platform fee, and a strong pick if WordPress is your home base. Budget for at least the Pro plan if you need recurring giving. We are not currently enrolled in any GiveWP affiliate program, so the link above is a plain link to their site.