Your first shift posted in five minutes
Zelos is self-signup out of the box: create a workspace, post a task, and your team claims it from their phones. No configuration, no modules to switch on, no training day.
Volunteer records, scheduling, kiosk sign-in, and custom reporting
Fits teams with an administrator who'll learn the system.
Open shifts, task dispatch, notice board, and team chat
Fits teams who need it working this week.
No credit card · Unlimited members on every plan · Set up in under 5 minutes
How signup works in each app
Openings filled through a portal, once it's configured
Coordinators build the schedule and post openings. Volunteers can fill their own if you've bought VicNet and enabled self-scheduling under Setup, choosing list or calendar format, how far ahead people can book, and whether they may remove themselves.
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 Volgistics is better at
If your workflow depends on the things below, Volgistics is the right pick.
Twenty-five years of depth
They've been building this since the late 1990s, and it shows in the configurability: turn features on and off, hide fields and tabs, build your own reports, restyle the volunteer interface. If your programme has an unusual requirement, there's a good chance it's already a setting.
A polished volunteer experience
The volunteer-facing side is modern and well made. VicTouch is a clean PIN-pad kiosk for signing in and out, checking a schedule and reviewing service history. VicNet gives volunteers a tidy portal with a calendar showing open slots, document uploads, hour posting and a mailbox. Whatever the coordinator side looks like, volunteers get something contemporary.
Kiosk hours from actual arrivals
VicTouch records when someone signs in and out at the door, so hours come from attendance rather than the schedule. Zelos calculates hours from shift start and end, which is not the same thing when you need to know who's actually in the building.
Multi-site with separated visibility
Operators at each site see only their own site's volunteers while headquarters sets standards across all of them. That's a genuine structure for hospital networks and multi-branch charities, and Zelos has no equivalent. Support is free and unlimited alongside it, thirteen hours a day on weekdays.
If these bullet points are non-negotiable, you're a Volgistics customer.
What Zelos is sharper at
If you'd rather not learn a system before posting your first shift, Zelos is a better fit.
Everything about a person on one screen
A Zelos member has one profile: their details, the custom fields you defined, their skills and their whole history, in one place. A Volgistics volunteer record spreads the same information across nine tabs.
Self-signup is the default, not a setting
In Zelos, members browse and claim work the moment they join. That's the product. In Volgistics, volunteer self-scheduling needs the VicNet module bought, then switched on under Setup, then configured: list or calendar format, how many months ahead people may book, whether they can remove themselves and until when.
Nothing to learn before you start
Zelos has two things in it: members and tasks. Post a task, target it to whoever's eligible, and they claim it. Volgistics asks you to understand assignments, sites, places, clusters, sets, tags, flags, kinds, types, statuses and five volunteer roles before the system makes sense.
Conversation attached to the work
Every Zelos task has its own chat channel, alongside group chats and direct messages between members, all admin-supervised. Ask about Saturday's shift and the answer sits with Saturday's shift, where the next person to look also finds it. Volgistics messaging is a broadcast composer that permits one reply-to address, so responses collect in a single inbox instead.
If you're drawn to this kind of simplicity, you should spin up a free project in Zelos right away.
to see a volunteer
A Volgistics volunteer record spans nine tabs. In Zelos, a member has one profile.
What it takes to get running
Price is the smaller difference here. Volgistics is inexpensive per volunteer. What differs is how much stands between you and a filled shift.
| Zelos | Volgistics* | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup before first use | None | 14 setup sections, 10 under Scheduling |
| Tabs per member record | 1 | 9 |
| Self-signup | On by default | VicNet module, then configured in Setup |
| Volunteer mobile access | Native apps | VicNet portal, mobile-friendly |
| Messaging | Chat channel per task | Broadcast, one reply-to address |
Seen enough?
Get started in our self-service.
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Teams that pick Zelos over Volgistics
Grassroots and mutual aid groups
No budget line, no procurement, and a roster that changes constantly. Zelos is free for unlimited people and unlimited organisers, with nothing to calculate and nothing to approve.
Learn more →Volunteer programmes with several coordinators
Every operator who needs to log in is a line on the Volgistics calculator. In Zelos, admin access is unlimited on every plan, so a programme lead, a rota organiser and whoever is covering this month all get their own.
Learn more →Event staffing and festival crews
Event crews assemble in weeks, mix volunteers with paid staff and contractors, and need dispatch and a chat channel per shift. Zelos treats everyone as a member who claims work, paid or not, at a price that doesn't move with the roster.
Learn more →Contractor pools and gig dispatch
Contractors are paid for the work and need the job to reach their phone. Post it, let the right people claim it, coordinate in the task chat, with no per-record fee as the pool grows.
Learn more →Sports clubs and leagues
Match-day shifts across a season, run by a parent committee with no budget. Every team manager can post their own shifts, and parents claim from their phones with a push reminder the night before.
Learn more →Disaster and rapid response teams
When something happens tonight, the tool has to reach people in minutes. Push notifications to native apps and a chat thread on the task beat an email and a portal login.
Learn more →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
Full review → "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 → "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
How much does Volgistics cost?
Is Volgistics cheaper than Zelos?
How long does each one take to set up?
Do my volunteers need training to use it?
Is there a mobile app?
Do volunteers get self-service in Volgistics?
How many admins do I get?
Do I pay to keep old volunteer records?
Can my volunteers chat in Zelos?
Isn't Volgistics messaging built in too?
Does Zelos have a sign-in kiosk?
Can Zelos handle multiple sites?
What's the catch with the Zelos free plan?
Can I use both Zelos and Volgistics?
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