32auctions is where a great many school PTAs and small charities run their first online auction, and for good reason — the free tier genuinely works for a modest event. The limits show up as you grow: item caps, feature restrictions, and a checkout experience that becomes a bottleneck once you are handling a few hundred winners.
Here are nine alternatives, sorted by the size of event they suit.
For small events and tight budgets
1. BiddingOwl
Straightforward, affordable, and specifically built for silent auctions rather than adapted from something else. Mobile bidding, outbid notifications and basic reporting without an enterprise price tag. A sensible next step up from a free tier.
2. CharityAuctionsToday
Simple setup, transparent pricing, and a model that suits organisations running one or two events a year rather than a continuous programme.
3. Auctria
Strong item and donor management with flexible pricing, popular with schools and community organisations. Good value for the feature depth.
For mid-size galas
4. Handbid
Mobile-first from the ground up, with a well-designed bidder app and genuinely good live event tooling — leaderboards, fund-a-need appeals, and paddle raise support. If your event has a room full of people and a stage, Handbid was designed for exactly that.
5. GiveSmart
Comprehensive event fundraising covering ticketing, silent and live auction, text-to-give and donor tracking in one platform. Heavier than the small-event tools and correspondingly more capable.
6. Accelevents
Event platform with strong auction functionality, useful when the auction is one component of a larger event with ticketing and sessions.
For large organisations
7. OneCause
Long established in nonprofit fundraising with deep event management and mobile bidding. Enterprise-grade, with pricing and onboarding to match. Appropriate when auctions are a recurring, material part of your revenue.
8. Greater Giving
Event fundraising with particularly strong payment processing and check-in workflows. The check-in and checkout experience is where large galas succeed or collapse, and this is a genuine strength.
9. Qgiv
Broader fundraising platform with auction capability, good for organisations wanting auctions integrated into a year-round giving programme rather than a standalone event.
How to actually choose
Ignore feature lists and answer these four questions:
- Who pays the fee? Some platforms charge you; others let bidders optionally cover it at checkout, which can make the platform effectively free. This single question changes the economics completely.
- How fast is checkout? At the end of a gala, 200 people want to pay and leave. Card-on-file at registration turns a 40-minute queue into an automatic charge. This matters more than any other feature.
- Does mobile bidding actually work in your venue? Hotel ballrooms have famously poor connectivity. Ask how the platform behaves on weak signal.
- What happens to your donor data? Can you export it, and does it integrate with your CRM? Your bidder list is a fundraising asset.
Our comparison of the best silent auction software for nonprofits goes deeper on the large-platform tier.
When to run your own
Organisations running multiple events a year, or a continuous online auction programme, eventually find that per-event platform fees exceed what an owned platform costs. That threshold arrives sooner than most boards expect.
The other driver is data. On a hosted platform, your bidders are recorded in someone else’s system. On your own, every bidder becomes a donor record you control, integrated with your CRM, available for stewardship year-round.
See silent auction software for the module set and how non-profits triple donations with silent auction software for the fundraising case.
Frequently asked questions
Is 32auctions really free?
The base tier is, funded by optional bidder contributions. Larger events and additional features move you onto paid plans, and payment processing fees apply regardless.
What is the most important feature for a gala?
Fast checkout, without question. Card-on-file at registration so winners are charged automatically is the single change that most improves both the guest experience and your collection rate.
Can I run a silent auction without any platform?
With paper bid sheets, yes — and you will raise less. The comparison is set out in auction software vs. paper bidding.
