Overview

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, GivePulse is a freemium service available on the web, Android, and iOS. Engagement analytics and SMS outreach broaden its appeal beyond volunteer coordination; student surveys and LMS integration make it relevant to education settings too.

Key features

Engagement analytics and SMS outreach: Teams can track engagement and contact participants by text, useful when volunteer programs need more than basic coordination.
Student surveys and LMS integration: These capabilities suit education organizations connecting student engagement with learning systems. Higher education plans also offer options such as LMS LTI and, on the Platinum tier, internships and API access.
Plans for different organizational structures: Lower tiers set specific administrator and subgroup limits, while custom institutional and enterprise plans add capabilities such as SSO, reservation management, grants management, and custom integrations. That breadth can serve varied needs, though choosing a tier requires attention to both scale and feature requirements.

Pricing

GivePulse has a free plan, paid plans, and a 7-day trial. Some prices are custom; the stated paid rates below are billed annually, so they should not be read as month-to-month prices.

Basic Free: Price not listed. It allows 1 admin, 0 subgroups, and 5 custom fields. The zero-subgroup cap is restrictive for organizations that divide programs into separate groups.
Give Joy: 20.00 USD per month, billed annually, with 20% off the monthly price. It includes 2 admins, 1 subgroup, and unlimited volunteers, making it a fit for a small team that needs room for volunteer participation but little organizational segmentation.
Give Together: 100.00 USD per month, billed annually, with 20% off the monthly price. Its 10 admins and 10 subgroups suit teams with more internal structure than Give Joy accommodates.
Give More: 170.00 USD per month, billed annually, with 20% off the monthly price. It retains a 10-admin cap while increasing the subgroup allowance to 25, so its higher cost is most relevant to organizations needing more subgroup capacity, not more administrators.
Department: Custom pricing. It offers a custom number of admins and subgroups, SSO, OAuth with Google, LMS LTI, surveys, and onboarding. This is a more appropriate route for institutions needing educational integrations or tailored administration.
Platinum (Higher Education): 1.75 USD per year per full-time equivalent student, billed annually. It includes Department features plus event templates, internships, API access, email templates, and video conferencing integration; the per-student basis ties cost to enrollment rather than a flat team price.
Enterprise (Higher Education): Custom pricing for full-institution scope. It adds reservation management, a resources database, grants management, applications, and custom integrations, fitting institutions whose requirements extend beyond the Platinum package.
Silver: 1.00 USD per month, billed annually. With 2 admins and 2 ERGs, it is a low-cost option for a small employee resource group setup.
Gold: Custom pricing for mid-to-large teams. It provides custom admin and ERG counts, event submissions, administrative fields, onboarding, API access, and calendar integration, offering more flexibility than Silver for larger programs.
Platinum (Enterprise/CSR): Custom pricing for full-enterprise scale. It includes reservation management, SSO, whitelabelling, prioritized support, and custom integrations, suited to organizations that need those enterprise-level controls and services.

The free and lower tiers impose explicit admin, subgroup, or ERG limits. For a growing organization, the annual billing terms and the difference between fixed caps and custom-priced tiers are central to the decision.

Platforms

GivePulse is available on Android, iOS, and the web, giving teams and participants access across mobile and browser platforms.

Who it's for

GivePulse is a strong fit for nonprofits and community organizations coordinating volunteers, as well as educational institutions that need student surveys or LMS integration. Its higher education and enterprise/CSR tiers address more complex structures, but small teams with no need for analytics, outreach, or subgroup management may not benefit from the broader plan range.

Pros and cons

Pros: The free tier gives a way to start, while paid options span small teams through full-institution and enterprise deployments.
Pros: Engagement analytics, SMS outreach, student surveys, and LMS integration cover needs beyond volunteer coordination.
Pros: Higher education and enterprise plans include specialized options such as SSO, reservations, API access, and custom integrations.
Cons: Basic Free allows no subgroups, and Give Joy allows only one; organizations with multiple program units may need a higher tier quickly.
Cons: Give More raises subgroup capacity over Give Together but does not raise its 10-admin cap, limiting its appeal to teams primarily seeking more administrators.
Cons: Several institutional and enterprise plans use custom pricing, making cost comparison less direct than with the fixed-price tiers.

Alternatives

For adjacent options, browse Student Engagement Software, Nonprofit Volunteer Management Software, and Event Volunteer Management Software.

Rubric is a freemium web and mobile alternative with a free plan for transaction volume below $200 over 12 months; consider it when that stated free-plan scope fits your needs.
Zynvo is free and offers students discovery, events, and club features, making it the clearer choice for students seeking those functions.
InScribe is a paid web and mobile option with institutional pricing by discussion; consider it when you want to discuss institution-specific needs with its team.
Modern Campus CMS is a paid alternative available on web, mobile, API, and self-hosted platforms.
Nearpeer has a higher-education community-of-practice plan priced at 15000.00 USD per year per institution; its exact cost depends on eligible student population, so it is an alternative for institutions considering that model.
Pathify is a paid engagement hub with pricing based on enrollment and optional add-ons; consider it when that pricing approach suits your institution.
Suitable is another paid web and mobile option.
Civitas Advising is a paid annual-subscription alternative with quote-based pricing scaled to institution size and integrated systems; consider it when those factors shape your selection.

Verdict

GivePulse is best for organizations that want volunteer coordination alongside engagement outreach or student-focused capabilities, with plans that can expand to institutional and enterprise needs. Its strongest reason to choose is that breadth; its main drawback is that admin and subgroup caps, annual billing, and custom pricing can complicate fit and cost, so teams needing a simple low-cap coordination setup should compare alternatives.

	GivePulse	Zynvo
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	$0.15/mo	Free
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Android, iOS, Web	Android, iOS, Web
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Engagement analytics	Yes	Yes
SMS outreach	Yes	—
Student surveys	Yes	—
LMS integration	Yes	—

GivePulse vs Zynvo

GivePulse

Zynvo