A private team space, not a public network
Zelos coordinates the team you already have: invite-only, with unlimited coordinators and a chat channel on every task. Free, at any size.
Community engagement, service-learning, fundraising, and impact reporting
Fits institutions recruiting from a public network.
Open shifts, task dispatch, notice board, and team chat
Fits teams coordinating people they already know.
No credit card · Unlimited members on every plan · Set up in under 5 minutes
How signup works in each app
Opportunities on a public network
You list events and opportunities on your group page, where they're discoverable through GivePulse's city and organisation search alongside other groups. Volunteers register, then log and verify their hours.
A private team space with shift signup and chats
Members join your workspace once, fill in their own profile, then browse and claim what fits their skills and schedule, with a chat channel attached to every task.
What GivePulse is better at
If your workflow depends on the things below, GivePulse is the right pick.
Recruiting strangers
Your opportunities appear on a network they describe as 650,000+ organisations, searchable by city and cause, with map and calendar views. If you need volunteers who've never heard of you, that reach is the product and Zelos has no equivalent. Workspaces are invite-only by design.
Service-learning and higher education
LMS integration through LTI with Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle, plus reflections, service-learning transcripts, certificates, internships and experiential-learning pathways. For a university civic engagement office this is the category-defining feature set.
Fundraising and ticketing
Crowdfunding, peer-to-peer campaigns, donation drives, ticketed events and grant management, alongside the volunteer side. Zelos collects no money at all.
Impact measurement
Impact forms, outcome tracking, reflections, surveys, hour verification, heatmaps and research tooling built for reporting to boards, funders and accreditation bodies. Zelos reports hours and task completion.
If these bullet points are non-negotiable, you're a GivePulse customer.
What Zelos is sharper at
If you're coordinating a team rather than running a public engagement programme, Zelos is a better fit.
Every coordinator included
Zelos gives you unlimited admins on every plan, including free. GivePulse's entry plan covers two admins at $20/month, and the next tier up is $100. There's nothing between them, so a third coordinator costs five times the second.
Chat attached to the work
Zelos gives each task its own chat channel, plus group chats and direct messages with push notifications. GivePulse has an internal messaging system for sending to a group, a subgroup, an event or a shift, and wall posts on your group page. Targeted broadcast rather than a conversation the crew has in one place.
Free, and on the pricing page
Zelos has a free plan with unlimited members, unlimited admins and CSV export, listed on the pricing page and needing no credit card. GivePulse's selectable plans start at $20/month; they refer to a free Basic tier elsewhere, but it isn't offered among the plans you can choose.
Nothing published to the open web
Zelos workspaces are invite-only, with no public directory and no discovery feed, and data exports to CSV on every plan. That's the wrong choice if you're recruiting strangers, and the right one for a shelter rota, a contractor pool or any team that would rather not be listed.
If you're drawn to this kind of simplicity, you should spin up a free project in Zelos right away.
for a third coordinator
GivePulse's next tier up from two admins is $100 a month. Zelos includes unlimited admins on the free plan.
What you'll actually pay as your team grows
GivePulse tiers by admin seats and subgroups. The step from two coordinators to three is where it moves (USD, annual billing).
| Zelos | Zelos Pro | GivePulse* | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 coordinator | Free | $99/mo | $20/mo |
| 2 coordinators | Free | $99/mo | $20/mo |
| 3 coordinators | Free | $99/mo | $100/mo |
| 10 coordinators | Free | $99/mo | $100/mo |
| More than 10 | Free | $99/mo | Contact us |
* GivePulse Nonprofits & Events pricing from learn.givepulse.com/pricing, August 2026, billed annually. The lowest plan you can select is Give Joy at $20/month with 2 admins and 1 subgroup; Give Together is $100/month with 10 admins and API access; Give More is $170/month adding white-labelling and a custom subdomain. A free Basic tier is referenced in their FAQ and terms but isn't offered as a selectable plan on the pricing page. Data export is described as a premium-plan feature. Higher education, corporate CSR, United Ways, volunteer centres, K-12 districts and municipalities are priced separately.
If two people can run everything, GivePulse is inexpensive. A third coordinator is where it changes. Nonprofits and education teams get additional discounts on Zelos Pro and Enterprise.
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Teams that pick Zelos over GivePulse
Nonprofits where several people coordinate
The free Basic account allows one admin and the second costs $20 a month, but the third moves you to $100. Zelos gives every coordinator admin access on the free plan, at any number.
Teams outside the United States
GivePulse's discovery network, partner list and city pages are built around US institutions, AmeriCorps and United Ways, so the recruitment side delivers little outside it. Zelos is used by coordinators in more than 40 countries and is built in Estonia under GDPR.
Grassroots and mutual aid groups
No budget, no 501(c)(3) status, and often a reason not to be publicly listed at all. Zelos is free for unlimited people and unlimited organisers, invite-only, with nothing to verify.
Event staffing and festival crews
Event crews mix volunteers with paid staff and contractors, and need dispatch and a chat channel per shift rather than public discovery. Zelos treats everyone as a member who claims work, paid or not, at one flat price.
Contractor pools and gig dispatch
Contractors are paid for the work and aren't browsing a public network for causes. Post the job, let the right people claim it, coordinate in the task chat.
Brand ambassadors and street teams
Ambassador programmes are marketing rather than charitable work, so the nonprofit rates don't apply and the public network isn't where you'd recruit. Zelos gives them self-signup, targeting and chat, invite-only.
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 GivePulse cost?
For nonprofits and events, billed annually: Give Joy is $20/month with two admins, Give Together is $100/month with ten admins and API access, and Give More is $170/month adding white-labelling and a custom subdomain. Higher education, corporate programmes, United Ways, volunteer centres, K-12 districts and municipalities are all priced separately. Ask them for a quote. Zelos Pro is $99/month flat with unlimited admins and members, and the free plan has no limit on either.
Does GivePulse have a free plan?
It's not straightforward. GivePulse's terms and its volunteer management page both refer to a free Basic plan, and a Basic column appears in the feature comparison on their pricing page, showing one admin, five custom fields, no subgroups and one document. But Basic isn't offered as a selectable plan among the pricing cards, where the lowest option is Give Joy at $20/month. If a free account matters to you, ask them directly before assuming. The Zelos free plan is on the pricing page, needs no credit card, and has unlimited admins, unlimited custom fields and CSV export.
How many admins do I get?
Unlimited on every Zelos plan, including free. On GivePulse, two on Give Joy at $20/month and ten on Give Together at $100/month, with nothing in between.
Can Zelos recruit new volunteers for me?
No, and it's the clearest difference between the two. GivePulse runs a public network where your opportunities are discoverable by city and cause alongside hundreds of thousands of other organisations. Zelos workspaces are invite-only with no public listing, so it coordinates the team you already have. If recruitment is the problem you're solving, GivePulse is the better tool.
Can my volunteers chat in Zelos?
Yes, and this is a real difference. Built-in two-way messaging is on every plan including free: a chat channel per task, plus group chats and direct messages with push notifications, all with admin oversight by design. GivePulse has an internal messaging system for sending to a group, subgroup, event or shift, plus wall posts on your group page. Powerful for reaching people, but not a conversation attached to each piece of work.
Does Zelos handle fundraising or ticketing?
No. GivePulse covers crowdfunding, peer-to-peer campaigns, donations, ticketed events and grants alongside volunteering. Zelos collects no money. If your volunteering and fundraising need to live in one system, that's a reason to choose GivePulse.
Does Zelos integrate with Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle?
No. GivePulse offers LMS integration through LTI, along with service-learning transcripts, reflections and internships, which is why it's the standard in university civic engagement offices. Zelos has no LMS integration and isn't built for academic credit.
Can I track service hours in Zelos?
Zelos logs the start and end of each task or shift, calculates hours, and reports planned against actual with the difference, exporting to CSV. GivePulse goes further for formal programmes with hour verification, impact forms, reflections and printable service-learning transcripts and certificates.
Do I need 501(c)(3) status?
Not for Zelos. It doesn't ask what kind of organisation you are, and is used by agencies, contractor pools and unincorporated groups alongside charities. GivePulse states that its discounted nonprofit pricing applies to current 501(c)(3) organisations, with higher education, corporate programmes and public-sector bodies quoted separately.
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, unlimited custom profile fields, 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.
Can I use both Zelos and GivePulse?
Yes, and it's a sensible pairing. A nonprofit might list public opportunities on GivePulse to reach new volunteers, then coordinate its regular crew's shifts and chat in Zelos. The two solve different halves of the problem.
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