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#96

CiviCRM is ranked #96 in the Customer Database Software product directory based on the latest available data collected by SelectHub. Compare the leaders with our In-Depth Report.

CiviCRM Pricing

Based on our most recent analysis, CiviCRM pricing starts at $0 (Free, Open-Source).

Price
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Starting From
$0
Pricing Model
Free, Open-Source
Free Trial
Yes, Request for Free

Training Resources

CiviCRM is supported with the following types of training:

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars

Support

The following support services are available for CiviCRM:

Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Help Desk
Knowledge Base
Tickets
Training
24/7 Live Support

CiviCRM Benefits and Insights

Why use CiviCRM?

Key differentiators & advantages of CiviCRM

  • Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: Set campaign goals, create contribution pages and ask for donations. It’s possible to raise funds around birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and more. Each contribution either creates a new contact or gets added to existing contacts. 
  • Effective Advocacy Campaigns: Integration with CiviCampaign helps create surveys and petitions, record responses, link activities to specific campaigns, track voting and monitor user engagement. 
  • Improved Case Management: Manage and track simple as well as sophisticated workflows. It helps handle both single interactions and complex sequences of communications. 
  • Integrated Accounting: Handle accounting for all the contributions effortlessly by linking the income categories with the respective asset, income and expense accounts. 
  • Customized Platform: Configure and personalize the system as per specific business needs. Choose which features to use, set options using the standard user interface and adjust drop-down fields. The open source licensing ensures custom programming. 
  • Enhanced Contact Management: Personalize interactions based on detailed communication preferences.Create a unified database of contacts by storing data using an unlimited number of custom fields, identifying specific interactions using custom activity types, and storing multiple addresses, emails and phone numbers for each contact. 
  • Ease of Use: Add new features to the platform by choosing from hundreds of free add-ons from the extensions directory. 
  • Elaborate Reporting: Use the standard reporting templates or customize and configure as per requirement. It’s possible to create reports in HTML or PDF formats, export those in CSV format, add report results to certain groups, automate report delivery, restrict access and more. 
  • End-to-End Email Marketing: Create, manage and segment bulk email lists, perform A/B testing, monitor statistics, use templates or personalize emails, track unsubscribes and bounce rates, and more. 
  • Nurtured Relationships: Identify connections between constituents and the organization by categorizing contacts based on groups, relationships and tags. 
  • Easy Membership Management: Manage membership programs by integrating that with other features. Online memberships, automated renewal reminders, member-only emails, import and export of membership information, and membership-level configuration are some of the capabilities to leverage. 
  • Effective Event Management: Run events, record constituents’ attendance and create registration pages for events. It’s possible to establish the date, time, capacity, fees, confirmation and reception messages, and registration period of an event. 
  • Monitored Contributions: Generate and track different types of contributions including single and recurring donations, memorial donations, pledge payments, in-kind donations and more. Define contribution types, add custom fields, generate receipts, search for contributions, import and export contribution data, and more. 

Industry Expertise

Serves businesses of all sizes across the nonprofit and civic sectors.

CiviCRM Reviews

Average customer reviews & user sentiment summary for CiviCRM:

User satisfaction level icon: great

45 reviews

88%

of users would recommend this product

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Based on an aggregate of CiviCRM reviews taken from the sources above, the following pros & cons have been curated by a SelectHub Market Analyst.

Pros

  • Open-Source and Free: CiviCRM is free to download, use, and modify, making it a cost-effective solution, especially for smaller organizations with limited budgets.
  • Non-Profit Specific Features: CiviCRM offers a wide range of features specifically designed for non-profits, such as donation processing, event management, volunteer management, and advocacy campaign tools, which are not typically found in generic CRM systems.
  • Customizable and Flexible: CiviCRM's open-source nature allows for extensive customization, enabling organizations to tailor the system to their specific needs and workflows.
  • Integrations: CiviCRM can be integrated with various content management systems like WordPress and Drupal, allowing for streamlined workflows and data synchronization.
  • Community-Driven: CiviCRM has a large and active community of developers and users who contribute to its development, provide support, and share extensions, ensuring ongoing improvements and a wealth of resources.

Cons

  • Outdated User Interface: CiviCRM's user interface is often described as outdated and clunky, which can make navigation and daily use frustrating for some users.
  • Challenging Implementation: Setting up and customizing CiviCRM can be difficult, especially for organizations without dedicated IT staff. This often leads to additional costs for implementation services.

Researcher's Summary:

Is CiviCRM a CRM that really rocks the cradle of customer relations for nonprofits? CiviCRM is a popular open-source CRM platform specifically designed for nonprofits. Its most significant strength is its comprehensive suite of features tailored to the needs of nonprofit organizations, including contact, event, fundraising, membership, email marketing, and case management. This makes it a one-stop shop for managing various aspects of a nonprofit's operations. For example, its event management feature streamlines event registration, payment processing, and attendance tracking, while its fundraising module helps manage donation campaigns, track donor history, and generate detailed reports.

However, CiviCRM's user reviews are a mixed bag, with users appreciating its robust functionality but criticizing its steep learning curve and outdated interface. Many users find it challenging to set up and navigate, requiring technical expertise that many nonprofits lack. While its open-source nature allows for customization, it often necessitates hiring a developer, which can be costly. Despite these drawbacks, CiviCRM remains a powerful tool for nonprofits with the technical resources to implement and manage it effectively. Its comprehensive features and affordability make it a valuable asset for organizations looking to streamline their operations and maximize their impact.

Key Features

  • Personal Campaigns: Constituents can create a personal campaign page to solicit donations on behalf of the organization. 
  • Automatic Display Progress: Set up a page, along with a thermometer widget, to track donations and goals. This lets donors and prospective donors know the progress status. 
  • Campaign Progress Tracking: Understand the effectiveness of campaigns by creating reports that reflect how donations, emails and other activities are interrelated. 
  • Flexible Configuration: Use defined timelines and ad-hoc activities to track simple and complex workflows. Also, enter and search contribution data in an organized fashion. 
  • Reporting: Supports printing reports for a single case or for multiple cases. Edit sensitive data as required before publishing. 
  • Controlled Accounting: Choose transactions to export in each batch and ensure every transaction is exported only once. 
  • Email Targeting: Send newsletters and emails to specific users based on donor and membership status, open rate data and other factors. 
  • Membership Reports: Create member reports and monitor member interaction with the organization. 
  • Event Reminders: Send pre-event reminders as well as post-event wrap-ups to donors, attendees and sponsors. 
  • Automatic Interaction Recording: Integration with online contributions, bulk email, membership management and event registrations helps record interactions with contacts. 
  • Gift Acknowledgement: Thank donors quickly and easily using an integrated gift acknowledgement and recording process. 
  • Single System: Handle over-the-phone credit card transactions, integrate with online donation pages and record checks from a single platform. 

Limitations

At the time of this review, these are the limitations according to user feedback:

  •  User interface needs improvement. 
  •  PR and marketing needs to follow up. 
  •  Technical help is needed in the long run. 

Suite Support

Professional consulting, support services and a variety of self-service resources are available through documentation, bug reporting, release notes, training, meetups, webinars, community events, chat support, an online community and more. Documentations include guides for users, training, installation, developers and more. Users can consult with sponsors, contributors and partners for expert advice.

mail_outlineEmail: Not mentioned.
phonePhone: Not supported.
schoolTraining: In-person training, meetups, seminars, sprints and more are offered as part of local events. Attendees can engage with the community and gain insights and skills about the product.
local_offerTickets: Standard and paid issue queues are available for reporting bugs.
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