CRM
CiviCRM
Constituency relationship management suite.
What it is
CiviCRM is an open-source CRM built specifically for nonprofits, associations and civic-sector organisations rather than for sales teams. It handles contacts, memberships, donations, events and campaigns — the workflows a charity actually runs — and is free to download, use and share with no licence fee at any size. It can run standalone or inside WordPress, Drupal, Joomla or Backdrop. Free here means the software, not the project: hosting, upgrades and configuration are where the real budget goes.
CiviCRM pricing
CiviCRM does not publish a plan ladder we could verify. Free.
Prices read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-07. Vendors change plans without notice — check the source before you budget. Price verification log.
Key features
Free at any scale
No licence fee and no per-contact or per-user charge, however large the database gets.
Built for nonprofits
Memberships, donations, events and campaigns are first-class objects, not add-ons.
Standalone or inside a CMS
Runs on its own, or integrated with WordPress, Drupal 10+, Joomla 5+ or Backdrop.
Self-hosted data
The database sits on infrastructure you control.
Strengths and trade-offs
What works well
- Free and self-hostable
- Built for donations, memberships and events
- Integrates with WordPress and Drupal
Where it falls short
- Requires technical setup and maintenance
- Interface is functional rather than modern
- Small implementer community
Who it is for
Non-profits and membership organisations with technical support available.
Pick it or skip it
Pick CiviCRM if
- Nonprofits that need membership and donation tracking without a per-contact bill
- Organisations that must own their supporter data outright
- Teams already running WordPress or Drupal who want the CRM in the same stack
Skip it if
- You have nobody to maintain it — free covers the licence, not hosting, upgrades or configuration
- You want a sales pipeline CRM; this is built around members and donors
- You need vendor support included rather than buying it from a partner
Our verdict
The standard open-source non-profit CRM. Budget for someone to run it.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does CiviCRM cost?
- CiviCRM is free to use. We verified this against the vendor's own page; see "What we checked" below for the date.
- Does CiviCRM have a free plan?
- Yes. CiviCRM is free to use at its base level.
- Who is CiviCRM best for?
- Non-profits and membership organisations with technical support available.
- What are the main drawbacks of CiviCRM?
- The trade-offs we noted: Requires technical setup and maintenance; Interface is functional rather than modern; Small implementer community.
- When should you not use CiviCRM?
- Skip CiviCRM if: You have nobody to maintain it — free covers the licence, not hosting, upgrades or configuration; You want a sales pipeline CRM; this is built around members and donors; You need vendor support included rather than buying it from a partner.
What we checked
- Public APIOffers a documented API you can build against.Yes
- Mobile appHas a native app for iOS or Android, not just a mobile website.Not checked
- Open source / self-hostableSource is open and the tool can be run on your own infrastructure.Not checked
- SSO (SAML)Supports SAML single sign-on on at least one plan.Not checked
“Not checked” means exactly that — we have not verified it, and we do not guess.
Evidence and freshness
Status: Source listed, figures not recordedReviewed: 2026-09-07
- CiviCRM — Download ↗
Checked 2026-09-07 · Supports: free to download, use and share, open source CRM for nonprofits, associations and civic sector organisations, standalone version requires no CMS; integrations for Backdrop, Drupal, Joomla and WordPress, hosting providers and CiviCRM Spark are paid options
Limit: Vendor pages were reviewed; this record is not a ToolCompare benchmark.
Tools that do the same job as CiviCRM
Same job, different pricing. Verified starting price first.
More CRM tools: see the full CRM category
Work at CiviCRM? Embed the verified-pricing badge
We read this pricing from CiviCRM’s own pricing page on 2026-09-07. The badge says that and nothing more: no rating, no payment. How the badge works
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