The best website platforms for charities

Some website platforms to consider for your charity

There are a huge number of website platforms available for charities to choose from for their charity website. Here are just a few of the best ones to take a look at:

WordPress - Good for charities of all sizes

WordPress is a very powerful website platform, with a large number of templates including ones specifically designed for non-profits and almost unlimited customisation options.

There are also a huge variety of plugins for charities which add functions – such as a Kickstarter plugin that allows you to embed a Kickstarter campaign in your website, or a DonorBox plugin that lets you offer one-time and recurring donations.

Pros:

• Very powerful website platform suitable for charities of all sizes including very large ones
• Many plugins available and new ones appearing all the time
• Sites automatically optimised for mobile
  

Cons:

• No ready-built drag and drop interface, so building websites requires some learning. Try using ‘Visual Composer’ for an easier experience for beginners

Pricing: From free to £36 per month for an e-commerce-ready site.

Wired Impact - Good for medium to large charities

Wired Impact has one very important thing going for it: it is a website platform specifically designed for charities and other nonprofit organisations.

That means it offers some very useful charity-specific features such as an online donation system, a volunteer management system which allows charities to post volunteer opportunities and accept registration, and an charity event management system with registration and payments.

Pros:

• Designed with charities in mind
• Easy to use
• Good integration with popular non-profit tools
• A reputation for good support
• Unlimited pages

Cons:

• May be beyond smaller charities’ budgets.

Pricing: Starts at $69 per month, rising to $329 per month for the fully featured service. A free trial is available

PageCloud - Good for charities of all sizes

PageCloud is a relatively sophisticated website platform which is easy to use thanks to is drag and drop, What-You-Want-Is-What-You-Get (WYWIWYG) interface.

Although it is not aimed specifically at charities it does offer a range of nonprofit templates which can be highly customised to create almost any look and feel.

Pros:

• Highly customisable
• A large number of app integrations mean it is easy to add functionality such as accepting donations and managing events.
• SEO optimisation
• Mobile customisation

Cons:

• Does not include image editing
• Some users say blog functionality lacks many standard options
• Standard e-commerce features are lacking

Pricing: Starts at just $20 per month, and a free trial is available

White Fuse - Good for smaller charities

White Fuse is a UK-based service which offers a charity website platform that includes fundraising tools, on-site payments, event booking and many other functions. The company helps to plan the structure and content of a new website, builds it, and then provides training so that customers can enter their own content.

Pros:

• UK based support
• Easy to use
• High customer satisfaction

Cons:

• Some users say that functionality is limited
• 1% transaction charge (in addition to payment processor fees)
  

Pricing: Starts at £65 per month with a setup fee for a new website starting at £500 plus VAT. A free trial is available.

Wix - Good for smaller charities

Wix makes it very easy for a charity to build a website from scratch using a simple to use drag and drop editor. There is a good range of templates available including some designed for charities.

Functionality such as the ability to accept donations and to allow volunteers to sign up can be added using apps from the Wix App Market.

Pros:

• Very easy to use
• SEO Wizard can help ensure that the site ranks highly on Google
• Automatically produces a mobile-friendly version of the site

Cons:

• Once a template has been chosen it cannot be changed
• Apps in Wix App Market are of varying quality
• Some users say pages can be slow to load

Pricing: A free option exists, but premium plans without Wix ads start at £6 per month, rising to £22 per month for the top-level service. A 14-day money back guarantee is provided.

Wix is currently available at a discounted rate on Charity Digital Exchange.

Weebly - Good for smaller charities

Weebly is arguably even easier to use than Wix, with a simple drag and drop interface.

The platform offers plenty of design templates, an easy way to create a fundraising online store, and the option to make fixed sum donations through the store.

Pros:

• Ease of use
• Free SSL security
• Low cost

Cons:

• Design templates not as flexible as on many other platforms

Pricing: Weebly offers a free option with advertisements, and pricing starts at £4 per month. The popular Pro option costs £9 per month and includes $100 of Google Ads credits.