Ummah vs Zeffy A Zeffy alternative for masajid
Zeffy is a donation platform that charges the nonprofit nothing and asks the donor for a tip at checkout instead. Ummah bundles the whole community in one published price: events with tickets and QR check-in, members and dues, prayer times, the shared app and a website we design and build, and on Advanced at $75 a month, donations at 0% with no tip asked, the Ummah Kiosk for tap-to-pay giving, TV displays and vendor booth maps. Here is the honest split, including where Zeffy is the better choice.
Zeffy is free to the nonprofit. Ummah is the whole masjid in one price.
Start with the part that is true: Zeffy costs the nonprofit nothing. Their pricing page, read on October 16, 2026, puts the cost to the organization at 0% with no monthly fee listed, issues tax receipts automatically, and supports recurring giving. The platform is funded by a tip suggested to the donor at checkout, which the donor can set to zero. If what your organization needs is a donation form and a link to put under a Jumu’ah announcement, and there is no budget for anything else, Zeffy is a good answer and the section below says so.
A masjid does more than collect, though. It sells tickets to an iftar and needs someone at the door to check people in. It runs a weekend school with families to register. It has members, some paying dues, and a board that wants to know who they are. It publishes prayer times, and its community expects to find all of that in one app and on one website. Ummah is built around those jobs, and donations sit inside them on the Advanced plan rather than on a separate tool with a separate login, next to the Ummah Kiosk for tap-to-pay giving at the door and TV displays that show the campaign total, on the tablets and TVs you already own.
The money works differently too. On Ummah the plan is $0, $19 or $75 a month on a public rate card, with the website included at $19 and $75. On a paid ticket the platform fee is added at checkout and paid by the attendee, so you bank the face value. Donations run on Advanced, where the platform fee is 0%, through your own Stripe or PayPal account, and no tip is asked of a donor giving zakat or sadaqah. Communities do switch from Zeffy to Ummah, usually when the second job arrives: a ticketed iftar, a weekend school to register, members with dues, and the donation, the ticket and the member in three different places.
Side by side
Zeffy's column was read from zeffy.com/pricing on October 16, 2026. Where something is not published on their site, this table says so rather than guessing. Bold is the side that is ahead on that row. Prices move, so check theirs before you act on it.
| Feature | Ummah | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| What the organization pays | Free $0/mo. Basic $19/mo, month to month. Advanced $75/mo billed annually on a twelve-month term, and donations are on Advanced. Card processing goes to your own Stripe or PayPal at their rates | 0% to the nonprofit, and no monthly fee on the pricing page we read. That is the headline of zeffy.com/pricing and it is true |
| Who pays the platform fee | On a paid ticket, the attendee: it is added on top at checkout, 3% on Free, 1.5% on Basic, 0% on Advanced, so the organization banks the face value. On a donation, nobody: donations run on Advanced at 0% | The nonprofit pays none. Zeffy is funded by a tip added to the donor's checkout, 17% by default, so in practice the donor pays unless they work out how to remove it |
| The donor tip | None. The checkout asks a donor for the gift and nothing else | Zeffy's checkout adds a 17% tip by default. On the Zeffy checkout we went through in October 2026 the tip menu had no 0% choice: to give without a tip, the donor opens the menu, picks Other and types 0 |
| Card processing | Charged by your processor, not by Ummah: Stripe 2.9% + 30c, or 2.2% + 30c for verified nonprofits; PayPal 1.99% + 49c for confirmed charities. Rates as our pricing page lists them, August 2026 | None to the nonprofit: zeffy.com/pricing puts the organization’s total cost at 0% |
| Tax receipts | Donor records on Advanced, so you know who gave what and when, and the payment record sits in your own Stripe or PayPal account under your organization’s name | Issued automatically, per zeffy.com/pricing |
| Recurring giving | Yes, on Advanced: monthly giving the donor sets up once, next to their member record | Yes |
| Donation campaigns and donor records | On Advanced: campaigns with raised totals, donor records and contacts, refunds, fundraising analytics, and a donation widget for your own site. Campaigns need nonprofit approval | The page we read covers fees, the tip, receipts, recurring and hardware. It does not describe campaign or donor tools, so this row does not score them |
| Events and ticketing | On every plan, Free included: events, RSVPs and waitlists, paid tickets with discount codes, multi-session schedules, the ticket QR code in the confirmation email, and QR check-in at the door from a phone | Not covered on zeffy.com/pricing, the page we read, so this table does not score it either way |
| Members and dues | Unlimited members on every plan. Approvals and member and household records on Basic and Advanced. Paid membership tiers with a monthly price, paid by card through Stripe | Not covered on the page we read |
| Prayer times and the app | Calculated adhan on 2,000+ masjid pages, real iqama on 300+, a prayer times widget on Free, and the shared Ummah app on iOS and Android, which 30,000+ Muslims already have | Not part of what zeffy.com/pricing describes. Zeffy is a donation platform, not a community app |
| Website | A branded website we design and build on your own domain, included on Basic and Advanced, with prayer times and the donation widget pulling live from your Portal. A public Community Page on Free | Not covered on the page we read |
| Hardware at the door | QR check-in from any phone on every plan. On Advanced, the Ummah Kiosk on an iPad or Android tablet you already own: tap-to-pay donations (Apple Pay, Google Pay, contactless), QR check-in and walk-up registration, with no device to buy | Tap to Pay in their phone app only. No kiosk |
| Everything in one price | Advanced, $75/mo billed annually: donations at 0% with no tip, events with tickets and check-in, members and dues, the Ummah Kiosk, TV displays, vendor booth maps, prayer times, the app and a website we build, in one Community Portal with one member record behind them. The full rate card is public | Zeffy is a donation platform. Whether tickets, members and prayer times come with it is not on the page we read; if they do not, each stays a separate tool with a separate list |
Where Zeffy is the better choice
No product wins every row, and a comparison page that pretends otherwise is not worth reading. Here is where we would point you at them instead.
Free means free
Zeffy charges the nonprofit nothing: no monthly fee and 0% on what comes in, on the page we read on October 16, 2026. The cost moves to the donor as a tip added at checkout, 17% by default on the checkout we went through. For an organization with no budget that only needs a donation form, and is comfortable with that tip, it costs less than Advanced at $75 a month, and we would tell you so on a call.
Automatic tax receipts
Zeffy sends the donor a tax receipt automatically. On Ummah the donor record and giving history sit next to the member, and receipts go out from that record; if hands-off receipts on a donation form are all you want, Zeffy does that well.
Simplicity
One form, one link, no plan to choose. If you do not need tickets, check-in, members, dues, prayer times, an app or a website, Ummah has more product than you need and Zeffy has exactly enough.