Handbid is genuinely good at what it was built for: a room full of people, a stage, a fund-a-need, and mobile bidding that works. If you are looking at alternatives it is usually for one of two reasons — cost, or a need for capabilities beyond the gala itself.
Here are seven, positioned honestly.
Full event fundraising platforms
1. OneCause
Broader than Handbid, covering ticketing, donor management, peer-to-peer campaigns and reporting alongside auctions. The right choice when the auction is one element of a year-round fundraising programme rather than the main event. Enterprise pricing.
2. GiveSmart
Comparable breadth, with strong text-to-give and donor tracking. Worth quoting alongside OneCause — competitive tension is the most reliable way to improve either quote.
3. Greater Giving
Particularly strong on check-in and checkout at scale. For a 400-guest gala, how quickly people can register on arrival and pay on departure shapes the whole evening, and this is where the platform earns its position.
4. Qgiv
Broader fundraising platform with auction capability. Suits organisations wanting auctions integrated with recurring giving and campaigns.
Event platforms with auction capability
5. Accelevents
Built as an event platform first, with genuinely capable auction functionality attached. The right answer when you have ticketing, sessions, sponsors and an auction to run through one system.
Lower cost options
6. CharityAuctionsToday
Straightforward and transparently priced, suited to organisations running one or two events a year. Covers the essentials without enterprise overhead.
7. 32auctions and BiddingOwl
Budget tier, with 32auctions offering a genuinely usable free plan funded by optional bidder contributions. Adequate for smaller events, with limits that appear as you scale. Full comparison in 32auctions alternatives.
What a gala platform actually has to get right
Four things, and everything else is decoration:
- Bidding must work on bad wifi. Hotel ballrooms are notorious. Ask specifically how the bidder experience degrades on a weak connection, and test it in the venue if you can.
- Outbid notifications must be immediate. This is the mechanism that drives re-bidding, and re-bidding is where your total comes from.
- Checkout must be automatic. Cards captured at registration, charged when the auction closes. The alternative is a queue, and queues cost you both goodwill and uncollected revenue.
- Fund-a-need must be well supported. The paddle raise frequently raises more than the entire silent auction. It needs proper display, real-time totals and a clear giving-level structure.
Questions to ask any vendor
- Does the bidder experience require an app download, or does it work in a mobile browser?
- What happens to bids placed while a phone briefly loses signal?
- Can we export our full donor and bidder data, in what format, and does it integrate with our CRM?
- What support is available on the night, and is there a named contact?
- Who pays the platform fee — us, or can bidders cover it at checkout?
- What is the total cost including payment processing?
That first question matters more than vendors admit. A required app download costs you bidders, particularly among older guests, and older guests are frequently your most generous.
When to stop renting
Organisations running several events a year, or a continuous online auction alongside their gala, often find cumulative platform fees exceed what an owned deployment costs — with the added benefit that every bidder becomes a donor record in their own CRM rather than in a vendor’s.
See silent auction software, how to run a silent auction for the operational checklist, and silent auction payment processing for the checkout side specifically.
Frequently asked questions
Which platform is best for a first gala?
Something in the mid or budget tier. Enterprise platforms carry setup complexity that a first-time event team will find burdensome without a proportionate benefit.
Do guests need to download an app?
On most modern platforms, no — mobile browser bidding works and participation is higher without a download requirement. Confirm before signing.
How much do these platforms cost?
From free tiers funded by bidder contributions through to enterprise contracts in the thousands. Always compare total cost including payment processing, not the headline fee.
