POINT alternative

A signup app for teams anywhere in the world

Zelos covers open shifts and task dispatch for any team, in any country, with no charity status to prove.

POINT logo

Volunteer recruitment, onboarding, hours tracking, and reporting

Fits US nonprofits running a formal volunteer programme.

Zelos logo

Open shifts, task dispatch, notice board, and team chat

Built for any team, anywhere, charity or not.

Start a free Zelos project

No credit card · Unlimited members on every plan · Set up in under 5 minutes

How signup works in each app

POINT

Opportunities in a volunteer hub

Volunteers discover opportunities through your website widget or hosted hub, register, and get scheduled into shifts.

Zelos

Open shifts as the whole product

Admins post shifts and tasks; team members browse and claim what fits their skills and schedule.

What POINT is better at

If your workflow depends on the things below, POINT is the right pick.

Recruiting volunteers you don't have yet

Website widgets, a hosted volunteer hub, and public discovery bring in people who've never heard of you. Zelos workspaces are invite-only by design, so it coordinates the team you have rather than growing it.

Onboarding and compliance

Custom applications, waivers, background check integrations, document storage, and credential expiry tracking. If people can't start until the paperwork clears, POINT handles that end to end and Zelos doesn't.

Hours tracking and impact reporting

Automatic hour logging, kiosk and QR check-in, self-submitted hours, and prebuilt reports for funders. Zelos tracks task completion and exports CSV, which is a good deal less.

The nonprofit ecosystem around it

Donor CRM and fundraising integrations, a 20-minute onboarding call on the free plan, migration help, and a support team of ex-volunteer coordinators. That hand-holding is real and Zelos doesn't offer it.

If these bullet points are non-negotiable, you're a POINT customer.

What Zelos is sharper at

If POINT can't take your organisation, or you need less than it offers, Zelos is a better fit.

Works anywhere, for anyone

POINT serves nonprofits in the US and Ukraine, and asks organisations to verify 501(c)(3) status. Zelos has no country restriction, no charity requirement, and no eligibility review, it's built in Estonia and GDPR-compliant out of the box.

Chat that goes both ways

POINT sends email, SMS, and push messages out to volunteers. Zelos gives each task its own chat channel, plus group chats and direct messages, so the questions and swaps happen in context instead of your inbox.

Live in five minutes, no call

POINT includes an onboarding call on every plan. Zelos is built so a single coordinator can configure it on a Tuesday afternoon and have a 200-person team using it by Wednesday morning, without talking to anyone.

Gamification that moves turnout

Points, badges, and leaderboards are on every Zelos plan including free. Changemakers Academy took task completion from 20-30% of the group to 75-90% after switching.

If you're drawn to this kind of simplicity, you should spin up a free project in Zelos right away.

2 → 40+

countries

POINT is available to nonprofits in the US and Ukraine. Zelos is used by coordinators in 40+ countries.

Which tool can actually take your organisation

Both products are free for unlimited people, and both charge $99/month for their paid tier. The real question is eligibility.

Your organisation Zelos Zelos Pro POINT*
US 501(c)(3) nonprofit Free $99/mo Free
Religious congregation, US Free $99/mo Free
Nonprofit outside the US Free $99/mo Not available
Unregistered community group Free $99/mo Not available
Advocacy or campaign group Free $99/mo Restricted
Business coordinating paid crews Free $99/mo Talk to sales

* POINT eligibility pulled from pointapp.org/pricing. POINT is currently available to nonprofits in the US and Ukraine; nonprofit accounts are for 501(c)(3) organisations, with separate account types for religious congregations, schools, and companies. Organisations must verify they don't support political campaigns and stay under POINT's lobbying thresholds.

If you're outside the US, unincorporated, or not a charity at all, the eligibility question decides it before price does. Nonprofits and education teams get additional discounts on Zelos Pro and Enterprise.

How Zelos works

Seen enough?
Get started in our self-service.

Start your free project

No credit card · Five-minute setup

Teams that pick Zelos over POINT

Nonprofits outside the United States

POINT currently serves nonprofits in the US and Ukraine. Zelos is used by coordinators in more than 40 countries, with no registration to verify and no waiting list to join.

Learn more →

Grassroots and unregistered groups

Mutual aid networks, residents' associations, and community projects often have no legal entity at all, which rules out charity-verified platforms. Zelos asks nothing about your paperwork, create a project and start posting work.

Learn more →

Disaster response and mutual aid

When a response scales to thousands in days, there's no time for applications and approval flows. Zelos handles smart targeting by skill and location, with chat attached to each task.

Learn more →

Event staffing and festival crews

Event crews are a mix of paid staff, contractors, and volunteers, which doesn't fit a volunteer-only platform. Zelos treats everyone as a member who claims work, regardless of whether they're paid.

Learn more →

Contractor pools and gig dispatch

Contractors set their own availability and aren't volunteers at all. Post the job, let the right people claim it, coordinate in the task chat.

Learn more →

Brand ambassadors and street teams

Marketing teams running ambassador programmes aren't nonprofits and don't need waivers or hour reports. Zelos gives them self-signup and built-in chat, and nothing they won't use.

Learn more →

From teams who picked Zelos

What teams who picked Zelos say

Capterra

"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

Full review →
Capterra

"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

Full review →
Capterra

"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

Full review →

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

Is Zelos cheaper than POINT?
No: they're priced almost identically. Both have a free plan with unlimited people and unlimited admins, and both charge $99/month for the paid tier. Price isn't the reason to switch; availability, chat, and what you actually need the tool to do are.
Can I use POINT outside the United States?
Not currently. POINT states it is available to nonprofits in the US and Ukraine, with a form to register interest for other countries. Zelos is used by coordinators in more than 40 countries and has no geographic restriction.
Do I need charity status to use Zelos?
No. Zelos doesn't ask what kind of organisation you are. POINT's nonprofit accounts are for 501(c)(3) organisations, with separate account types for religious congregations, schools, and companies, and organisations verify they don't run political campaigns and stay under set lobbying thresholds.
Can Zelos recruit new volunteers for me?
No, and this is a real gap. POINT has website widgets, a hosted volunteer hub, and public discovery that bring in people who don't know you yet. Zelos workspaces are invite-only, it coordinates the team you already have. If recruitment is the problem you're solving, POINT is the better tool.
Does Zelos have team chat like POINT?
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. POINT's communication tools are mainly outbound, email, SMS, push reminders, and auto-messages to volunteers.
Can Zelos track volunteer hours?
Partly. Zelos tracks task completion per member and exports it to CSV on every plan, which covers most reporting needs. POINT does this properly, automatic hour logging, kiosk and QR check-in, self-submitted hours, and prebuilt funder reports. If formal hour records are the point of the exercise, POINT is stronger.
Does Zelos handle waivers and background checks?
No. POINT has custom applications, waiver management, background check integrations, and credential expiry tracking. Zelos has none of that. If people can't start until paperwork clears, that's a POINT job.
Is POINT better than Zelos for a US nonprofit?
Often, yes. If you're a US 501(c)(3) running a classic volunteer programme with recruitment, applications, waivers, and funder reporting, POINT does more of that than Zelos does, and its free plan is generous. Zelos is the better fit when you're outside the US, aren't a registered charity, coordinate paid people alongside volunteers, or want chat and signup without the programme scaffolding.
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.
How long does Zelos take to set up?
Under five minutes, self-serve, with no onboarding call and no credit card. POINT includes an onboarding call on every plan, 20 minutes on Free, an hour on Pro, which is genuinely useful if you want the hand-holding, and unnecessary if you don't.
Can I use both Zelos and POINT?
Yes. A US nonprofit might recruit and onboard through POINT, then run its day-to-day shift coordination and team chat in Zelos. The two overlap less than they first appear.

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Trusted by coordinators in 40+ countries since 2018.