A self-serve alternative to book-a-demo software
Zelos covers open shifts, dispatch and team chat with published pricing, no sales call, and a free plan that never expires.
Volunteer database, training, screening, and impact reporting
Fits institutions with a volunteer manager and a procurement process.
Open shifts, task dispatch, notice board, and team chat
Built for coordinators who need it working today.
No credit card · Unlimited members on every plan · Set up in under 5 minutes
How signup works in each app
Shifts inside a volunteer database
Volunteers apply, get screened and trained into a profile, then self-schedule into the roles their qualifications allow.
Open shifts as the whole product
Admins post shifts and tasks; team members browse and claim what fits their skills and schedule.
What Better Impact is better at
If your workflow depends on the things below, Better Impact is the right pick.
Training and certification
A full online training LMS with step-by-step modules, testing, and certifications, plus expiry alerts on volunteer profiles. If people must be trained and certified before they start. Zelos has nothing comparable.
Screening and compliance
Background check integration, electronic signing of waivers and documents, online applications, and screening workflows. Hospitals, hospices, and youth programmes need this end to end, and Zelos doesn't do it.
Reporting and multi-site oversight
Customised raw data reporting, sub-accounts, cross-department oversight, permissions by location, SSO, and a REST API. For a hospital network or a municipality running programmes across sites, that's the whole job.
Depth, security, and a support team
ISO 27001 and ISO 27017 certification, 24x5 human support, an implementation advisor, and 25 years in the volunteer sector. Zelos is smaller and doesn't pretend otherwise.
If these bullet points are non-negotiable, you're a Better Impact customer.
What Zelos is sharper at
If you don't need the full volunteer-management suite, Zelos is a better fit.
You can see the price
Zelos publishes what it costs: free, or $99/month flat. Better Impact publishes no prices at all. Every plan ends in a demo booking, and the quote comes from a sales advisor.
Live in five minutes, no call
Sign up and post your first shift the same afternoon. Better Impact starts with a consultation call and an implementation advisor, which is valuable if you want it and an obstacle if you don't.
Every coordinator included
Better Impact includes 3 admin accounts on Foundation and 10 on Growth, with unlimited reserved for the top tier. Zelos gives you unlimited admins on every plan, including free.
Chat that goes both ways
Better Impact's communication tools are mass and individual messaging, usually by email and text. Zelos gives each task its own chat channel, plus group chats and direct messages, so questions and swaps happen in context.
If you're drawn to this kind of simplicity, you should spin up a free project in Zelos right away.
admin accounts
Better Impact's Foundation plan includes three admin accounts. Zelos includes unlimited, on the free plan.
What you can actually find out before you commit
Better Impact doesn't publish prices, so here's what's comparable.
| What you're checking | Zelos | Zelos Pro | Better Impact* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $99/mo | Talk to sales |
| Admin accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | 3 and up |
| Volunteer accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | 500 and up |
| Communication | Chat, push and email | Chat, push and email | SMS and email |
* Better Impact plans and limits pulled from betterimpact.com/features. Foundation covers up to 500 active volunteers with 3 admins, Growth up to 2,000 with 10 admins, and the Impact Plan is unlimited. Pricing is based on accepted and inactive volunteer profiles and is not published.
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Teams that pick Zelos over Better Impact
Small nonprofits without a volunteer manager
Better Impact is built for organisations with someone whose job is volunteer management. When coordination is one of six things on your plate, a database with applications, screening, and training modules is more scaffolding than help.
Zelos posts the work and lets people claim it.
Grassroots and mutual aid groups
No procurement process, no budget approval, and often no legal entity. A quote-only platform is a non-starter before the features even come up.
Zelos is free, published, and live the same day.
Disaster response teams
When a response scales to thousands in days, there's no time for applications, screening workflows, and an implementation call. Zelos handles smart targeting by skill and location, with chat attached to each task.
Event staffing and festival crews
Event crews mix paid staff, contractors, and volunteers, and assemble in weeks rather than quarters. Zelos treats everyone as a member who claims work, whether they're paid or not.
Sports clubs and community organisations
Match-day volunteers, kit runs, and canteen shifts across a season, usually run by a parent committee rather than staff. Unlimited admins means every section lead gets access without an upgrade.
Contractor pools and gig dispatch
Contractors aren't volunteers, don't need training modules, and won't sit through onboarding. Post the job, let the right people claim it, coordinate in the task chat.
From teams who picked Zelos
What teams who picked Zelos say
"It helped us a lot reducing the planning overhead. It is way more motivating for staff to pick their task than just getting assigned!"
Manuel W.
Coordinator, Events Services
"We were looking for a system to handle our concert staff. Zelos is really easy to access both for the administrator and the users!"
Niels Peter H.
Board member, Music
"The overall experience has been great, the customer service is amazing and I can't wait for all the new changes coming up in the app!"
Celia D.
Coordinator, Motion Pictures and Film
Free for teams of any size
No credit card, no trial expiration.
Pro starts at $99/month, never per person.
Nonprofit and education discounts on Pro and Enterprise.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Better Impact cost?
They don't publish it. Better Impact's plans are Foundation, Growth, and the Impact Plan, each ending in a demo booking, with quotes from a sales advisor and pricing based on your number of accepted and inactive volunteer profiles. Zelos publishes its pricing: free for unlimited members, or $99/month flat for Pro.
Can I try Zelos without talking to sales?
Yes: sign up and post your first shift in about five minutes, with no credit card and no call. Better Impact's process starts with a demo and continues with a consultation call and an implementation advisor after purchase.
How many admins do I get?
Unlimited on every Zelos plan, including free. Better Impact includes 3 admin accounts on Foundation and 10 on Growth; unlimited admins come with the top Impact Plan.
Is there a limit on how many volunteers I can have?
Not in Zelos, on any plan. Better Impact's tiers are capped by active volunteers, up to 500 on Foundation, up to 2,000 on Growth, unlimited on the Impact Plan, and billing counts accepted and inactive profiles, not applicants or archived ones.
Does Zelos have volunteer training modules?
No. Better Impact includes a full online training LMS with testing and certifications, plus certification expiry alerts. Zelos has nothing equivalent. If volunteers must complete training before their first shift, that's a Better Impact job.
Does Zelos handle waivers and background checks?
No. Better Impact has background check integration, electronic signing for waivers and documents, and screening workflows built into onboarding. Zelos doesn't. For hospitals, hospices, and youth programmes where screening is mandatory, Better Impact is the right tool.
Does Zelos have team chat like Better Impact?
Zelos has more of it. Built-in two-way messaging is on every plan including free: task-specific channels, group chats, direct messages, and push notifications, all with admin oversight by design. Better Impact's communication tools are mass and individual messaging out to volunteers by email and text.
Can Zelos do the reporting our funders need?
Partly. Zelos tracks task completion per member and exports to CSV on every plan, which covers most basic reporting. Better Impact goes considerably further with customised raw data reporting, cross-department standardisation, and a REST API on its top tier. If grant and board reporting is the point of the system, Better Impact is stronger.
Is Better Impact better than Zelos?
For a large institution, often yes. If you run a hospital, university, or municipal volunteer programme with screening, training, certification, and multi-site reporting, Better Impact does far more than Zelos does and has 25 years of sector experience behind it. Zelos is the better fit when you want signup and coordination working this week, without a sales call or a per-volunteer tier.
What's the catch with the Zelos free plan?
There isn't one, but there are limits. The free plan includes unlimited members, unlimited admins, full self-signup, built-in messaging, push notifications, gamification, smart targeting, and CSV export. The caps are 25 concurrent active tasks, a 100-task archive, and 10,000 chat messages. If you need more volume or features like CSV bulk upload, that's when Pro at $99/month makes sense.
Can I use both Zelos and Better Impact?
Yes. A large programme might keep volunteer records, screening, and training in Better Impact while running day-to-day shift signup and team chat in Zelos. They overlap less than they first appear.
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