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Best-Of GuideData current as of September 2026
8 Best Silent Auction Software for Nonprofits on Raiser's Edge NXT (2026)
The search for the best silent auction software for nonprofits usually starts with clipboards.
Paper bid sheets, handwriting nobody can read, a sheet that goes missing from the table by the bar, and a committee tallying winners by hand at 10 p.m. while guests wait in a checkout line. Moving to mobile bidding fixes that night. It does not, on its own, fix what happens next.
Because the second problem is quieter. The auction closes, the winners pay, and every bidder, winner and payment is sitting inside the auction tool.
Somebody rebuilds constituent and gift records in Raiser's Edge NXT by hand, fair market value gets split on a spreadsheet, and the guest who bid $4,000 on a trip and lost is never flagged as the major gift prospect they just revealed themselves to be.
This guide compares eight silent auction platforms on both problems. On seven of them, the second problem takes two to five weeks. On one, it is finished the same night or the next day.
We assessed each one on how bids, winners and payments reach Raiser's Edge NXT and how long reconciliation takes afterward, on the bidding experience on a phone in a dim room, on the mechanics that move final prices (overtime bidding, auto-bidding, outbid alerts, automatic close), on event-night reliability, on receipting, and on total cost including processing fees and what free tiers ask your guests to tip.
We built Trellis, so read our assessment of our own product with that in mind. The rubric is published below and we scored ourselves on it.
The verdict in a nutshell
We evaluated eight online silent auction platforms used by US nonprofits raising $200K or more a year through events.
Trellis, our own product, is the best overall pick for teams on Raiser's Edge NXT: mobile bidding that closes itself, every bid and winner landing in the CRM at constituent and gift level, and reconciliation done the same night.
OneCause is the best full-service choice for large galas that want vendor staff on site, and it is the platform we lose to most often when a team wants exactly that. GiveSmart is the best all-in-one platform with a donor CRM built in, and Auctria is the best value for auction-first teams on a fixed annual license. Givebutter, GalaBid and Zeffy cost the nonprofit nothing and are funded by donor tips at checkout.
Trellis
Best Overall for Raiser's Edge NXT
OneCause
Best Full-Service for Large Galas
GiveSmart
Best All-in-One With Donor CRM
Auctria
Best Value for Auction-First Teams
Quick Comparison Table
Data is current as of September 2026 and pricing was verified against each vendor's published pricing page or review-site listing. Where a vendor publishes no price, the table says so. Processing fees and donor tips are listed next to platform fees because on a large auction they are usually the larger number.
About the Author
Justin Goodhew, Co-founder and CEO
Justin brings extensive expertise in nonprofit fundraising, donor engagement, and event technology. Through Trellis, he has helped organizations raise over $125 million across 500+ fundraising galas. His insights are shaped by firsthand experience working with nonprofits to simplify fundraising, improve event performance, and maximize mission-driven impact.
How We Evaluated These Silent Auction Platforms
Every platform was scored one to 10 on six criteria, then weighted. The weights are published so the ranking is reproducible, and they match the weights we use across our gala and event guides so a platform's score is the same wherever it appears.
On the integration and reconciliation columns, a native sync scores 10, an import plug-in or paid middleware scores 2 to 3, and a file export scores 1, because moving from weeks of reconciliation to one day is a tenfold difference, not a two-point one. Reliability is scored on whether the platform runs the night without vendor staff in the room, not on whether staff are sold.
Our Scoring Methodology
Raiser's Edge NXT & CRM Integration Depth
25%
Whether bidders become constituents and winning bids become attributed gifts natively, through an import plug-in or paid middleware, or through a spreadsheet of names and amounts, and the reconciliation burden inherited after the event
Donor Experience & Giving Friction
20%
Taps to place a bid, login or app requirements, catalogue legibility on a phone, outbid notification channel
Revenue Drivers & Auction Tooling
20%
Overtime bidding, auto-bidding with max limits, minimum increments, automatic close, losing-bid donation conversion, paddle raise
Event-day Reliability
15%
Uptime, whether the closing window runs without vendor staff in the room, how much training volunteers need, and what happens if something breaks
Reporting & Reconciliation
10%
Fair market value splits, digital receipts, unpaid winner handling, payout reconciliation
Pricing Transparency & Total Cost
10%
Published pricing, platform fee plus processing fee, donor tip defaults, free tier gating, and the total cost of a $200,000 event
Top 8 Silent Auction Software for Nonprofits in 2026 Reviewed
What are the best silent auction software options for nonprofits on Raiser's Edge NXT? The ones that keep bidding alive through the closing window, close and charge automatically, and put every bidder and winning bid into the CRM as a constituent and an attributed gift.
Here is how the top online silent auction platforms of 2026 compare on that test, ranked by the score above.
Our top pick
#1
Trellis
Best Overall for Raiser's Edge NXTFundraising Tech Score: 9.6/10
Best for: development and events teams at nonprofits running Raiser's Edge NXT who want the auction to close cleanly on the night and land in the CRM without a rebuild.
Platform Overview
Trellis is our event fundraising platform, and its silent auction is built for phones rather than paper bid sheets. If you use Raiser's Edge NXT and you raise over $200K a year through events, it is built for you.
We are the only platform that actually integrates with Raiser's Edge NXT in real time, so bidders, winners and payments are in the CRM as the auction closes, and the reconciliation that takes other platforms two to five weeks is finished the same night or the next day.
Bidding is text-first, so any guest who can receive a text can bid, and the auction closes itself, charges winners and issues receipts so the team goes home when the guests do. Catalogue, bidding, paddle raise, ticketing, check-in and payment all sit in one system.
The 4 Auction Problems We Built Trellis to Solve
The problem
The auction ends, and the reconciliation begins.
Paper sheets and lighter auction tools produce a list of winners and amounts.
Someone matches each bidder to an existing constituent, creates the ones who are new, splits fair market value from the deductible portion, attributes each gift to the right campaign and appeal, and chases winners whose cards failed.
On most platforms that work takes weeks, sometimes months, and lands on the database administrator in the week the development team should be calling the high bidders who lost.
We are the only platform that integrates directly with Raiser's Edge NXT in real time, and that is not a feature, it is the reason customers choose us. Other platforms list Raiser's Edge as an integration. Read the documentation and it is an import plug-in run after the event or a paid middleware subscription. We actually integrate.
Every guest is matched to a constituent with your spouse and household rules, every ticket, sponsorship, winning bid and pledge is written as its own gift with campaign, fund, package and appeal mapping applied the moment it lands, and attendance is written to the Raiser's Edge NXT event module.
Post-event reconciliation that used to take weeks or months is finished the same night or the next day. Meals on Wheels moved off paper bid sheets onto Trellis, saw a 40% increase in silent auction revenue, and let the integration handle the data.
The problem
Guests will not bid if bidding means a password.
The first thing every event planner checks is whether their guests can use the thing. A guest asked to download an app or reset a password in a dim ballroom stops, and every time the login screen wins, a bid never happens.
Trellis is text-first and mobile-first. As long as your donors can receive a text message, they can bid: a text arrives, they tap the link, and their account opens with no app download, no login and no learning curve.
Outbid alerts arrive by text so a guest at the bar knows within seconds, and a day-before reminder works like an airline check-in so the tuxedo line at the door disappears. Easy enough that nothing goes wrong on the night of. That is the standard we hold ourselves to.
The problem
The committee tallies winners at 10 p.m. while the rest of the team dreads it.
Most platforms create work before, during and after the auction. Beforehand, the committee builds the catalogue in one place and re-keys donor details that already exist in Raiser's Edge NXT.
On the night, volunteers run card readers at a folding table, someone reads bid sheets by phone light, and the event planner, personally on the hook for the total, fields questions instead of working the room.
Afterward, staff spend a week chasing declined cards and mailing receipts, pulled off their real jobs for an annual event that then stacks up their work.
Trellis does the opposite. Before the event, your team pulls what it needs directly from Raiser's Edge NXT and Trellis, with no chasing the event planner, no manual exports and no re-entering data that already exists.
On the night, staff walk in and it just works, with no prior training required: hundreds of guests are checked in within minutes, and everything volunteers need is in front of them proactively, so the event planner gets to be present rather than stressed and fielding questions. Trellis runs at 99.99% uptime, published live for anyone to check at status.trellis.org, and we build the product so it does not need a person from our company standing in your ballroom.
After the event, the data is already where it needs to be. Dunham School raised $150,000 and closed its auction on time with no checkout line. The line we hear most often after a first Trellis event is a customer's: "my team doesn't dislike me anymore."
The problem
Bidding dies before the auction ends.
Guests stop watching the items during dinner, the closing time arrives, and a couple of last-second bids decide every winner. The catalogue that looked full at 6 p.m. closes at half of what the items were worth.
Overtime bidding, auto-bidding and Donate Auction Bid keep the money moving until the last second.
Auto-bidding with a maximum limit keeps a guest in contention while they are away from their phone, and overtime bidding extends an item's close when a bid lands in the final window, which ends sniping and lets two motivated bidders finish the contest.
The John Cooper School raised $12,000 from overtime bidding alone. When an item closes, Donate Auction Bid has already captured the losing bidder's opt-in while they were still bidding, and the donation processes automatically; it raises up to 15% more per event and surfaces motivated donors your gift officers can call the next week. Together with full-page upsells at checkout, it is the strongest set of revenue drivers in this guide.
Interactive Product Demo
Watch a winning bid land in Raiser's Edge NXT within minutes.
Pricing
Trellis is $5,000 per year, flat. There is no per-event fee, no percentage of funds raised, no item or bidder cap and no charge for onsite staff, because we do not send any. Transaction fees are 0% or 3.5% + $0.30. With 0% Transaction Fees turned on, Trellis covers the fee on eligible checkouts under $3,000 and your guests are offered the option to add a small contribution at checkout; if they decline, we still cover it. Checkouts over $3,000, and back-office entries through the Sales Entry System or Check-In Tool, are charged at 3.5% + $0.30, and you choose whether your organization or the purchaser covers them.
We are not the lowest headline number here, and three platforms in this guide are free to the nonprofit. Price the whole event before you decide. On a $200,000 event, OneCause lands around $11,000 to $14,000 once its 5% or annual fee, 3% to 4% processing and a quoted onsite staffer are counted, GiveSmart near $10,000 with its 3.5% processing, and Trellis $5,000 to roughly $7,500 with 0% fees on. The free platforms cost your guests instead: Zeffy pre-selects a 15% to 17% tip and Givebutter about 15%. An organization running Raiser's Edge NXT has already invested tens of thousands of dollars in its CRM; the platform that writes into it correctly, and gives your database administrator back two to five weeks after every event, is worth more than the one that hands back a spreadsheet.
Raiser's Edge NXT Integration
We are the only platform that actually integrates with Raiser's Edge NXT in real time, and it is the reason most of our customers chose us. Every other platform in this guide that lists Raiser's Edge as an integration gets there through a file export, an import plug-in your database team runs after the event, or a paid middleware subscription that customers tell us typically adds thousands of dollars a year.
When a guest registers or places a bid, we match them to an existing Raiser's Edge NXT constituent or create a new one, applying your spouse and household rules so a couple never becomes two records.
As the event runs, each ticket, sponsorship, winning bid, paddle raise pledge and donation is written as its own gift rather than a lump transaction, with campaign, fund, package and appeal mapping applied as the gift lands and fair market value and fees handled the way your Finance team configured them.
Attendance is written to the Raiser's Edge NXT event module, so next year's appeal can query who actually came. Sponsorship and organization gifts have their own rules.
The settings run nine sections deep and cover four levels: campaign, fund, package and appeal mapping; constituent matching with spouse and household rules; the event module and participation records; and gift type. For every one integration point most competitors offer, we have roughly twenty. What customers tell us after their first event is not that it is better than the last integration. It is that it works.
Setup
We can move as fast as you can. Setting up banking, the Raiser's Edge NXT integration and your first auction takes one to two weeks; the four to eight weeks you will hear from other vendors is the runway for bidding and ticket sales to run, not setup time. Catalogue build is a bulk import from a spreadsheet with images, categories, fair market values, minimum bids and increments, and donor and procurement tracking.
Setup is self-guided, with in-product tutorials and training moments that walk your team through each part of the event journey, and our team available at every step, including a Raiser's Edge NXT mapping session with your database administrator if you want one. There is no mandatory series of onboarding calls to get through before you launch. Mapping is done once and carries to every future event.
Event-night staff and volunteers need no training on the platform; onboarding is for your database administrator and event lead.
Tradeoffs
We do not send staff to your event and we do not sell emergency day-of support packages, because the product is built so you do not need them; we are the only company in this space that works this way, every customer is nervous about it before their first event, and the testimonials after that first event are the reason we keep doing it. If your organization requires a vendor representative in the ballroom during the closing window, OneCause and Greater Giving sell that, and you should budget for it.
We are not the lowest headline price, and for an organization that does not need CRM-level data integrity or automated receipting, Auctria, GalaBid or Zeffy will run a good auction. Price what free gates and what your guests will be asked to tip before you decide.
We are built for nonprofit fundraising auctions, not commercial auction houses, estate sales or consignment. Peer-to-peer and year-round campaigns sit outside the product. Organizations not on Raiser's Edge NXT get less of the core differentiator.
Switching carries setup time that compresses against a near-term event date, and we have fewer public reviews than the established names here.
Support
Our support model is built around a product that works: 99.99% uptime, published live at status.trellis.org, check-in and checkout screens that tell volunteers what to do, and the most robust in-product tutorials and training moments in this category. Onboarding is for the core team, not the room, and it moves as fast as you do.
The database administrator maps Raiser's Edge NXT once. The event lead builds the auction with guided tutorials and can bring us in at any step by chat or screen share. There is no fixed series of calls to complete before you can launch.
On event night your team has a direct line to a named rep on our team rather than a ticket queue. What we do not do is send a junior staff member to stand in your ballroom. Customers who have paid for that elsewhere tell us the person could not fix anything when something went wrong, which is why we build the product so nothing does.
Mini Case Study
Meals on Wheels moved its gala auction off paper bid sheets and onto Trellis. Silent auction revenue rose 40% and the event raised $260,000, with tickets, sponsorships, silent auction and paddle raise flowing into Raiser's Edge without anyone rekeying a record. The development team stopped dreading the event they were supposed to love. Read the full silent auction case study.
#2
OneCause
Best for Full-Service GalasFundraising Tech Score: 6.1/10
OneCause, part of Bonterra, is the most widely recognized event fundraising platform in the sector and one of the few that still puts trained staff in the room. Its mobile bidding is mature and its auction tooling covers silent, live and online formats.
Product Overview
OneCause gives you mobile bidding with outbid notifications, live auction tools for the auctioneer, scoreboards and slideshows for the room, fund-a-need, integrated ticketing and table management, express check-in and peer-to-peer campaigns. It is built as a full event platform rather than an auction-only tool.
Pricing
Pay-as-you-go from $200 per event with a 5% platform fee on funds raised, which OneCause says is capped, or the Professional Auction and Event package at $2,995 per year. Enterprise pricing is quoted. Payment processing is charged on top, with review sites reporting rates from about 2.9% + $0.30 to roughly 4%, and on-site staffing is an additional service. For a $200,000 event that puts the realistic total at $11,000 to $14,000 once a staffer and processing are included, against a $2,995 headline.
Raiser's Edge NXT Integration
Not a native sync. OneCause's Raiser's Edge NXT integration is Importacular for OneCause, a plug-in from Zeidman Development that runs inside the Raiser's Edge database view.
Your database team exports event data from OneCause, then imports it through Importacular using a saved mapping to constituents, gifts, funds and appeals.
It removes hand-keying, but it is still an export-and-import step your database team runs after the event, which is why Blackbaud Community users describe flat files going back and forth and why reconciliation on OneCause is measured in weeks rather than hours.
Ask OneCause to show the workflow end to end before you sign, and count the steps between a winning bid and a gift record.
Setup
Sales-led onboarding, typically six to ten weeks for a first gala.
Tradeoffs
The annual package prices in modules an auction-focused team may not use, and the Raiser's Edge NXT depth is the objection we hear most from Blackbaud customers.
G2 rates OneCause 4.7 across roughly 500 reviews, with support and ease of use the most cited strengths and learning curve the most cited weakness. If your gala has 600 guests and you want a vendor in the room, this is the safest choice on the list. See our detailed comparison.
#3
GiveSmart
Best All-in-One With Donor CRMFundraising Tech Score: 5.7/10
GiveSmart, from Momentive Software, grew out of mobile bidding and now runs auctions, events, campaigns and a donor CRM under one contract. It is one of the four platforms Raiser's Edge NXT teams most often shortlist for a gala auction.
Product Overview
GiveSmart runs the silent auction with mobile bidding, automatic outbid texts, max bids and item watch lists, and supports the live auction with displays for the room. Fund-a-need, text-to-give and ticketing with seating are included, along with a built-in donor CRM with DonorSearch scoring. Winners check out from their phones and the platform stores every event's auction history in one account.
Pricing
GiveSmart publishes two models. The annual subscription is listed at about $3,000 per year with credit card processing at 3.5% (3.95% for American Express). Pay-As-You-Go has no annual fee and a higher all-in processing rate disclosed at signup. On a $200,000 event the processing line alone is about $7,000, so the all-in cost is roughly $10,000 before setup or add-ons. There is no free trial.
Raiser's Edge NXT Integration
Not a native sync. GiveSmart lists Blackbaud Raiser's Edge among its CRM integrations, and the documented path is Importacular NXT, a third-party import tool from Zeidman Development that names GiveSmart as one of its data sources.
Constituent, address and gift imports are free in Importacular; other record types and automation carry a subscription. In practice the database team pulls GiveSmart data into Raiser's Edge NXT through that tool and maps funds and appeals there, so attribution and de-duplication are configured outside GiveSmart. Confirm whether event participation records are created at all.
Setup
Sales-led, six to eight weeks for a first auction with assisted catalogue and contact migration.
Tradeoffs
Long-tenured reviewers value the auction history and the intuitive item build, and they raise price increases at renewal and the fact that onsite event staffing, once a selling point, is no longer a standard offering. Some wish the CRM connectors went deeper. G2 rates GiveSmart 4.5 across roughly 160 reviews and Capterra 4.5 across about 200.
For a team that wants a donor CRM and auction software from one vendor and is not on Raiser's Edge NXT, it is the most complete package here.
#4
Greater Giving
Best for Volunteer-Run CheckoutFundraising Tech Score: 5.1/10
Greater Giving, a Global Payments company, has supported school and nonprofit auctions since 1983 and is built around the two things that go wrong on auction night: check-in and checkout. Its Go Time interface and Auctionpay terminals let volunteers run both with little training.
Product Overview
Greater Giving supports online and mobile bidding with outbid notifications, generates paper bid sheets and display pages for hybrid rooms, and records the live auction.
Event-night registration and checkout run through Go Time on laptops and tablets, with Auctionpay card readers storing cards at check-in and itemized receipts printed on the spot. Ticketing and sponsor tracking are included. Packages include unlimited users and events.
Pricing
Quote only. Annual Event, Express and Virtual and In-Person packages with no setup fee. The model is a baseline annual fee plus card processing on volume through Global Payments and proprietary Auctionpay terminals, and Greater Giving positions itself for organizations with event budgets of $50,000 or more.
Raiser's Edge NXT Integration
Export and import only. Greater Giving states that its event software exchanges donor data with Raiser's Edge, eTapestry and other donor databases, and that exchange is a file export from Greater Giving followed by an import on the Raiser's Edge side.
There is no constituent-level matching inside Greater Giving, no fund or appeal mapping applied at the moment of sale, and no event participation sync. Everything the platform captures on the night reaches Raiser's Edge NXT as a batch your database team maps and de-duplicates afterward.
Setup
About one month to first event, with a single volunteer training session on Go Time typically enough.
Tradeoffs
Ease of use is the weakest point in Greater Giving's reviews: Capterra rates it 4.4 across 100 reviews with ease of use at 3.9 and support at 4.7.
Reviewers describe an interface that takes time to learn and hardware that is dependable on the night but adds a line to the invoice. On-site staff is available for larger galas. G2 rates Greater Giving 4.2 across roughly 100 reviews.
#5
Auctria
Best Value for Auction-First TeamsFundraising Tech Score: 4.9/10
Auctria is a fixed-price auction platform used by schools, churches and small nonprofits, with online, paper and live auction support, event ticketing and a built-in event website, all under one annual license with unlimited events.
Product Overview
Auctria manages the catalogue and generates bid sheets, display pages and gift certificates for paper auctions, and it runs mobile bidding for online and hybrid formats. Paddle raise, raffles, dessert dash, ticketing and a customizable event website are included. Receipting and close-out tools handle payments, donations and tickets after the event.
Pricing
Explorer is free for up to $10,000 raised per year and 250 bidders per event. Emerald is $375 per year for up to $50,000 raised and 750 bidders. Diamond is $750 per year with no income cap and 1,000 bidders.
Auctria Launch adds assisted setup from $499 per event on an Emerald or Diamond plan. Card processing runs through Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30, so a $200,000 event pays about $5,800 in processing on top of the license.
Raiser's Edge NXT Integration
No Raiser's Edge NXT integration. Auctria's integrations cover payment processors and email tools, not donor CRMs, and bidder and gift data leave the platform as spreadsheet exports. Winning bids reach Raiser's Edge NXT as a manual import with fair market value and appeal attribution applied by your database team.
Setup
Self-serve, one to three weeks for a first auction including catalogue build.
Tradeoffs
Ease of use is the most common criticism: Capterra rates Auctria 4.8 across more than 530 reviews with ease of use at 4.5, the lowest sub-score. The interface rewards a volunteer willing to learn it. There is no constituent sync, so the post-auction rebuild remains.
For a team whose auction raises under $50,000 and does not feed a CRM, $375 a year is hard to beat.
#6
Givebutter
Free Online Auctions and Small EventsFundraising Tech Score: 4.8/10
Givebutter is a free fundraising platform funded by optional donor tips, with silent auctions, ticketing, donation forms, peer-to-peer and a built-in CRM. G2 named it the top nonprofit software of 2026.
Product Overview
Givebutter's auction runs mobile bidding with automated bidding, bid notifications and QR codes per item, and it handles self-service registration and checkout with auto-charge for winners and payment reminders. Ticketing and check-in scanning live in the same account, and the CRM is free with unlimited contacts.
Pricing
Free to the nonprofit when donor tips are enabled, with the suggested tip defaulting to about 15% at checkout. Disable tips and a platform fee applies: a flat 3% on Standard pricing for accounts created since 2025, or 5% for events and auctions on Legacy pricing; enabling auto-charge or charging winners from the dashboard triggers the platform fee even with tips on. Card processing is 2.9% + $0.30. In June 2026 a class action was filed in Pennsylvania (McClintock v. Givebutter) alleging that fees were added to donations without donors' consent; the case is pending and the allegations are unproven. Givebutter Plus starts at $29 per month for workflows and texting.
Raiser's Edge NXT Integration
Not native, and not free. Givebutter's Raiser's Edge NXT integration is powered by Omatic, a third-party integration platform with its own pricing, so the free platform's CRM sync is a paid add-on from another vendor.
Omatic can map Givebutter custom fields and push donations into Raiser's Edge, and it is a capable tool.
What it is not is a Givebutter-native constituent and gift sync: as of 2025, gift sync with campaign, fund and appeal mapping was still an open request on Givebutter's own community board. Budget for Omatic and for the mapping work before you assume the free platform reconciles itself.
Setup
Same day.
Tradeoffs
The auction platform fee applies exactly when a gala team needs it, at auto-charge, so free is rarely free for a live event. There is no overtime bidding and no paddle raise controls. G2 rates Givebutter 4.7 across more than 2,000 reviews and Capterra 4.8 across roughly 870.
For online-only auctions and smaller ticketed events it is a strong free choice. Read our detailed comparison.
#7
GalaBid
Best for Online-Only AuctionsFundraising Tech Score: 4.7/10
GalaBid, from CrowdComms, is a mobile-first silent auction, raffle and donation platform with leaderboards, text notifications and direct-to-Stripe payouts, built for both live events and standalone online campaigns.
Product Overview
GalaBid lets you upload items with multiple photos and run mobile bidding through a link or QR code with no app. It sends real-time outbid alerts, shows leaderboards with new-bid pop-ups, supports sealed bids and raffles, includes ticketing with check-in and volunteer accounts for assisted bidding, and invoices winners automatically with funds landing directly in your Stripe account.
Pricing
Three published options. Free, funded by optional participant tips, with 10% of tips shared back to the fundraiser. A 4.9% platform fee with tips disabled. Or a flat $1,250 per campaign. Stripe processing fees apply on all three and are not marked up.
Raiser's Edge NXT Integration
No Raiser's Edge NXT integration. GalaBid exports bidder, winner and payment data and pays out through Stripe; there is no CRM connector of any kind. Every record reaches Raiser's Edge NXT by hand or by a spreadsheet import your database team builds.
Setup
Same day. Reviewers regularly describe setting up a first auction in an afternoon.
Tradeoffs
GalaBid is an auction and raffle tool rather than a gala platform: table management, seating and paddle raise controls are thin, there is no CRM sync, and event-night support is chat and email rather than a dedicated rep. Its review base is small on Capterra and G2, with support and the fee structure the most praised points.
One recurring request is a way to flag guests who did not complete payment. For an online-only auction with no upfront budget, it is the best-run option here.
#8
Zeffy
Zero Fee to the NonprofitFundraising Tech Score: 4.3/10
Zeffy is a 100% free fundraising platform for US and Canadian nonprofits, covering auctions, ticketing, raffles, donations and memberships with no platform or processing fees to the organization.
Product Overview
Zeffy runs online auctions with item listings, minimum prices and increments, outbid notifications, and shareable links and QR codes for in-room bidding. Payment collection is automatic with cards and digital wallets, and ticketing with check-in and a basic donor CRM with automatic tax receipts are included.
Pricing
$0 to the nonprofit. Zeffy covers card and transaction fees and pre-selects a contribution to Zeffy at checkout: 17% on transactions under about $100 and 15% above, which the bidder has to actively reduce or remove. Zeffy says about two in three donors leave it in, and its own feedback board carries repeated requests from nonprofits to default the contribution to $0. More than 100,000 nonprofits use it.
Raiser's Edge NXT Integration
No Raiser's Edge NXT integration. Zeffy connects to other systems through Zapier and exports to Excel and Google Sheets; there is no Blackbaud connector.
A Zapier build can create constituents, but gift-level records with fund and appeal attribution and event participation are beyond what the connector supports, so every gala transaction reaches Raiser's Edge NXT as a manual or semi-manual import.
Setup
Under an hour.
Tradeoffs
No phone support tier and no event-night escalation path. Auction mechanics are basic: no overtime bidding, no auto-bidding with max limits, no paddle raise controls. Reconciliation into Raiser's Edge NXT is fully manual. Capterra rates Zeffy 4.8 across roughly 480 reviews. Free to you is not free to your guests: a $2,000 winning bidder is asked for a $300 contribution to Zeffy on top. For a first silent auction at a small organization, the price makes it the obvious place to start.
How We Built This Guide
We began with the situations that bring event teams to this search. Paper bid sheets are no longer workable. Bidder and winner data never reaches Raiser's Edge NXT. The auction does not close cleanly, and winners leave before paying. Bidding dies before the closing time.
The auction tool sits beside a separate ticketing platform and a card reader. Free platforms are on the shortlist next to paid ones and nobody is sure what each tier gates.
We verified pricing against each vendor's published pricing page or review-site listing in September 2026, read each vendor's integration documentation to separate a constituent-level sync from an export, tested the bidder path on a phone, and used G2, Capterra and the Blackbaud Community for recurring patterns rather than single complaints.
The weights are above. Where we could not verify a claim, we left it out.
This guide is for a Director of Development and an events coordinator comparing a shortlist together, with a database administrator checking the integration claims and an auction committee asking whether volunteers can learn the tool in an afternoon. It should get you to two vendor calls with the right questions.
What Features to Look For in Online Silent Auction Platforms
Every silent auction app lists mobile bidding. We measured each product against the problems those features are meant to solve, in the order the scoring weights rank them.
1
Constituent-Level Sync for Bidders and Attributed Gifts for Winners
If last year's auction ended with a spreadsheet of names and amounts, look for a platform that matches every bidder to a Raiser's Edge NXT constituent and records each winning bid as its own gift with fair market value split and appeal attached.
Ask to see a high bidder who lost appear as a prospect in the CRM. Among these eight, only Trellis, our own platform, does this natively.
2
Bidding With No Login or App
If guests gave up at the password screen, test how many taps it takes from text message to placed bid, whether an account or app is required, and how the catalogue reads on a small screen in a dim room. Any guest who can receive a text can tap a link, and that is the whole requirement.
3
Mechanics That Move Final Prices
If your items closed at half their value, look for overtime bidding that extends the close when a late bid lands, auto-bidding with a maximum so guests stay in contention away from their phones, sensible minimum increments, buy-it-now and scheduled open and close times. These directly change what each item sells for.
4
Automatic Close, Card Capture and Instant Receipts
If winners left before paying, look for cards captured at registration, winners charged automatically at close, receipts with the deductible portion issued immediately, and one list of unpaid winners. Ask how declined cards are handled the next morning.
5
Outbid Alerts by Text, Not Only In-App
If bidding went quiet during dinner, confirm notifications arrive by text message, not just inside an app nobody has open. Closing reminders matter as much as outbid alerts.
6
Pricing You Can Verify, Including What Free Gates
If free platforms are on your shortlist, verify which of CRM integration, receipting control, overtime bidding, auto-bidding, text alerts and event-night support sit behind a paid tier or a platform fee triggered at auto-charge. Then price the whole auction: platform fee, processing, per-event versus annual terms and setup services.
Silent Auction Software Pricing Comparison
Silent auction software is priced four ways in this guide, and a "free" tier is not the same thing on each platform. A fixed annual license (Auctria) caps your cost regardless of what you raise.
A per-event package or subscription (OneCause, GiveSmart, Greater Giving) is predictable but prices in more than an auction. Free with donor tips (Givebutter, GalaBid, Zeffy) costs the organization nothing until tips are disabled or auto-charge is enabled, at which point a percentage platform fee applies.
A flat annual fee with 0% transaction fees on eligible checkouts under $3,000 (Trellis) is the only model here where the number does not move with what you raise. Free to the nonprofit means the fee is charged to your guests; on Zeffy the default ask is 15% to 17%.
Pricing as of September 2026. Contact each vendor directly for current information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which silent auction platforms integrate with Raiser's Edge NXT?
Trellis, our own platform, is the only silent auction software that integrates with Raiser's Edge NXT in real time, syncing bidders as constituents and winning bids as attributed gifts with fair market value handled.
OneCause and GiveSmart move data through Importacular, a third-party import plug-in, Givebutter relies on Omatic's paid platform, and Greater Giving exports a file for import. Auctria, GalaBid and Zeffy have no Raiser's Edge NXT integration at all.
How much do silent auction bidding apps cost in 2026?
From free to the nonprofit to several thousand dollars a year, and the headline number is rarely the real one. Zeffy is $0 to the nonprofit and asks your guests for a tip pre-selected at 15% to 17%. Givebutter and GalaBid are free with donor tips, or a 3% and 4.9% platform fee respectively without. Auctria is $375 or $750 per year on a fixed license. OneCause runs $200 per event plus a 5% platform fee, or $2,995 per year, plus processing and quoted onsite staff.
GiveSmart is about $3,000 per year plus 3.5% processing and Greater Giving is quote only. Trellis is a flat $5,000 per year with 0% transaction fees on eligible checkouts under $3,000 and 3.5% + $0.30 above that. Processing is charged on top almost everywhere: OneCause about 3% to 4%, GiveSmart 3.5%, Auctria, Givebutter and GalaBid 2.9% + $0.30 through Stripe. Always price the whole event, not the platform fee.
Is there free silent auction software for nonprofits?
Yes, to the nonprofit. Zeffy charges the organization nothing and asks guests for a contribution pre-selected at 15% to 17%. Givebutter and GalaBid are free when donors leave optional tips, and Auctria's Explorer tier is free up to $10,000 raised a year. Free tiers gate CRM integration, event-night support and some bidding mechanics, and Givebutter's platform fee applies once you auto-charge winners, so verify per platform what free includes and what your guests will be asked to pay before you build the catalogue.
Do guests need an app or a login to bid in a silent auction?
Not on any platform in this guide, though the paths differ. Trellis sends a text with a no-login link that opens the guest's account with no username, password or app. Givebutter, GalaBid and Zeffy bid through a link or QR code in the browser.
OneCause, GiveSmart, Greater Giving and Auctria support browser bidding with optional apps. Test the path on a phone before you sign.
What is overtime bidding and does it raise more money?
Overtime bidding extends an item's close when a bid lands in the final minutes, so two motivated bidders can finish rather than being decided by a last-second snipe. Yes, it raises more: The John Cooper School raised $12,000 from overtime bidding alone on Trellis.
Trellis, OneCause and GiveSmart include it; Auctria supports extended close; Greater Giving, Givebutter, GalaBid and Zeffy do not offer it.
How do winning bids get recorded in a donor CRM?
On Trellis, our own platform, each winning bid syncs into Raiser's Edge NXT as its own gift on the matched constituent record, with fair market value split and campaign, fund and appeal mapping applied at sync.
On the platforms that route through Importacular or Omatic, the import tool does the matching and mapping after the event. On export-only platforms, someone downloads winners and amounts and builds the gift records by hand.
How long does it take to set up a silent auction catalogue?
A weekend for most teams once items are procured. Trellis, GiveSmart, Greater Giving, Auctria, Givebutter, GalaBid and Zeffy all support bulk item import from a spreadsheet with images, minimum bids and increments. The longer lead time is the platform itself: Trellis is live in one to two weeks including Raiser's Edge NXT mapping, sales-led platforms quote six to ten weeks, and self-serve tools can be live the same day.
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