A side-by-side comparison
GroupSmarter vs Zeffy, for your school PTO
Both let your PTO take payments without paying a fee itself, and on a $12 item your PTO receives the full $12 on either one. The difference is what happens after the parent pays. On GroupSmarter, the money is already in your books, and the rest of your board's year lives in the same place: the calendar, the announcements, the fundraisers and Paige.
Current as of October 16, 2026 · Sources
How Zeffy works
Zeffy charges your PTO nothing. It has one plan, and that plan is free. At checkout, Zeffy asks the parent for an optional contribution to Zeffy, on top of the order. On a real $12 school fundraiser checkout on August 4, 2026, the suggested contribution was 17%, so the parent was asked for $14.04. The parent can set it to $0, and your PTO still receives the full $12. In its own words, Zeffy "relies entirely on optional contributions from donors," and "on average, 2 of 3 donors tip, which covers our costs." That contribution goes to Zeffy, not to your PTO.
How GroupSmarter works
Either way, your PTO receives the full $12. The difference is what the parent is asked for, and who it goes to. On GroupSmarter the parent sees one platform fee, named as a fee and set by the plan your group picks: $1.04 on Free or $0.92 on Complete on a $12 order, shown before they pay. Nothing else is asked, and the fee schedule is printed here and on the pricing page, where your board can see it.
GroupSmarter Free costs your PTO $0 a year. Complete costs $199 a year.
What the parent pays on a $12 item
Your PTO receives the full $12 on every row.
The two Zeffy rows use what a real $12 school fundraiser checkout showed on August 4, 2026: a suggested contribution of 17%, or $2.04, which the parent could set to $0.
| The parent pays | Parent | PTO gets |
|---|---|---|
| Zeffy, suggested contribution accepted | $14.04 | $12.00 |
| GroupSmarter Free | $13.04 | $12.00 |
| GroupSmarter Complete | $12.92 | $12.00 |
| Zeffy, contribution set to $0 | $12.00 | $12.00 |
The platform fee is 4.5% + $0.50 on Free and 3.5% + $0.50 on Complete, added to the buyer's total at checkout and shown to them before they pay. Your organization receives the full item, ticket, or donation amount on both plans.
What each one is good at
Zeffy
- Free donation forms, fundraising campaigns and events, with no fee to your PTO.
- An online store with photos, size and color options, discounts, and stock that counts itself down.
- A free connection to QuickBooks. Each payout Zeffy sends to your bank shows up there, sorted by campaign and fund.
GroupSmarter
Your group's own page.
- Events with RSVPs, fundraisers with their goal and a progress bar, online gifts, news, your store and your sponsors, all on one public page under your logo.
Fundraisers that do their own bookkeeping.
- Every card sale and online gift lands in your books by itself. A cash or check gift you record does too, and a refund goes back to the order and the books.
- Ask parents what you need at checkout, like the teacher's name or a shirt size. Then sort the orders by class and print each teacher's list.
- Move each order from paid to ready for pickup to done, so nobody has to ask who still needs their popcorn.
- Draw a raffle winner and send a thank-you letter for a gift, from the same place.
Books a treasurer can stand behind.
- Match the bank statement in three steps, close the month, and have the board approve it. A closed month stays closed.
- Budget versus actual, cash flow and year to date, ready as a PDF for the board meeting.
- A budget for every category, with a warning before one runs over, and next year's budget carried forward from this one.
- Receipts come in from a phone the day the money is spent. You approve them, and they land in your books, ready to match against the bank statement.
- On Complete: every year of your books in one place, trend reports across years, the district's quarterly report, and a handoff pack for the next treasurer.
Paige remembers what your board learned.
Most of what a PTO knows walks out the door in June. Paige keeps it.
- After every event and fundraiser she asks your officers what worked, what was hard and what to change next time, and she remembers the answers. The next board starts with last year's lessons, not a blank page.
- She plans next year's budget from what past events really cost, and starts your carnival, book fair or teacher appreciation week from a ready plan.
- She drafts the announcement, the email, the flyer and the post. She can set up the event, the meeting or the budget entry too, and nothing is saved until you confirm it.
- She reads the numbers on your budget screens and tells you what stands out.
Where each one fits
Both have an online store. The difference is what the parent is asked for, and how the money reaches your books.
Zeffy fits a group that wants to pay nothing at all, and whose families are fine with an optional contribution to Zeffy at checkout. If your treasurer keeps the books in QuickBooks, Zeffy can send each payout there.
GroupSmarter fits a board that wants the whole year in one place: the page parents visit, the fundraisers, the books, the calendar and a Paige who remembers, with the parent seeing one fee, named as a fee, before they pay.
Not yet in GroupSmarter: bank feeds and 990-EZ e-filing.
Switching is one fundraiser, not a weekend
- You don't have to move everything at once. Run your next fundraiser on GroupSmarter, and keep everything else where it is until your board is sure.
- It's free to start. There is no setup fee and nothing to cancel.
- Bring this year in as a file. Upload your bank statement and GroupSmarter lines it up with what you've entered, so the books start out matching the bank.
- Payouts take about ten minutes to set up. One officer starts it. Have your EIN, the bank account and your own ID details ready.
- If you ever leave, everything leaves with you. One download holds every transaction, receipt, bank statement and set of minutes, on any plan.
- Card payments are opening state by state. GroupSmarter is growing and adding new states all the time. If yours isn't open yet when you sign up, we'll work with your board to open it, usually within a week. Founding groups work directly with Matt, our founder.
Try it on one fundraiser
It's free. Run one fundraiser before you decide anything else.
Sources
- Zeffy's pricing page, as of October 16, 2026.
- Zeffy's online store page, as of October 16, 2026.
- Zeffy's QuickBooks page, as of October 16, 2026.
- A real $12 school fundraiser checkout on Zeffy, seen August 4, 2026.
- GroupSmarter: the rates on our pricing page, worked on a $12 item.