Specialist

WordPress

Free open-source website software you host yourself, with thousands of plugins.

Visit site ↗Pricing ↗

Strong choiceFree, flexible and widely supported, though it needs maintenance.

See how WordPress fits your setup. Add the tools you already use.

Price

Open source · Free

Nonprofit offer

None found

Available in

🌍Anywhere

Suits

Volunteer-run · Small · Medium · Large

Great for

Charities that want full ownership and flexibility, such as donation, membership or event plugins
Organisations with a volunteer or agency who can manage hosting and updates
No licence fee and no lock-in to one vendor
Very large plugin and theme ecosystem
Easy to find volunteers and agencies who know it

Watch out for

Teams with no one to handle updates, backups and security
Organisations that want everything managed in one subscription (see WordPress.com, Wix or Squarespace)
You are responsible for hosting, backups, updates and security
Costs for hosting and paid plugins add up and vary by supplier
Quality of plugins varies, and old plugins can create security holes

Problems it solves

“We want to own our website and not be locked into one company”“Our volunteer built the site and left and we can't log in”“We need donations, events and membership on our own site without paying a platform fee”“Our site was hacked or is full of old plugins and nobody maintains it”“Should we use WordPress.org or WordPress.com?”

About WordPress+

WordPress.org provides the free, open-source WordPress software that you install on your own web hosting. You own the site and the data, and can add donation, form, event and membership features through plugins. It is more flexible than hosted builders but needs someone to look after hosting, updates and security.

Pricing: The WordPress software is free under the GPLv2 licence. You pay separately for web hosting, a domain name and any paid themes or plugins; those costs were not checked in this research.

Key features+

Free open-source software (GPLv2)Themes and a plugin directoryBlock editor for pages and postsYou choose your own host and domainPlugins for donations, forms, events and memberships

Works with (2)+

GiveWP

CiviCRM

AI features+

No built-in AI in the core software; AI features come from third-party plugins.

Data & privacy+

You choose where the site is hosted, so data location and GDPR compliance depend on your host and the plugins you install.

How sure are we?+

Partly confirmed on the vendor's pages; some details from reputable secondary sources. Prices and nonprofit programs change often, so check with WordPress before you commit. Rankings on Nonprofit Tools are never for sale.

Sources · last checked 2026-10-02