Compare
How DonorDesk compares with what you may be using.
Different tools are built for different jobs. Below is a feature-by-feature comparison across planning, data collection, dashboards, reporting, evidence, access, integrations and security, using what each vendor states on its own website.
We compare only what each vendor publishes on its own website. We last read those pages on 28 October 2026 and re-check them every quarter. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Set DonorDesk beside
- Stated by the vendor, or done today by DonorDesk
- Partly
- Not offered
- Not found (we did not find it on the pages we read; it may still exist)
| Feature | DonorDesk | ActivityInfo | DevResults | TolaData | KoboToolbox | Spreadsheets and email |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price and getting startedAs each vendor publishes it. Prices change; check the vendor before you budget. | ||||||
| Price as published | Stated: A free plan. Team $79 a month, Growth $149 a month, Enterprise from $12,000 a year. Verified NGOs get 25% off the first year. | Stated: Solo from €545 a year (1 user, 1 database). Programme from €3,700 a year (5 full and 15 basic users, unlimited databases). Enterprise Agreement by quote (at least 250 users). Extra users cost €55 to €75 a year. | Stated: A set-up fee plus an annual subscription by programme size: from $33,800 and $28,000 a year for programmes up to $5M. Unlimited user licences. Training is billed separately. | Stated: Lite €69 a month (2 users), Essential €499 a month (20 users), Custom from €899 a month (40 users), minimum 12 months, excluding VAT. Other regular and NGO plan sets are also shown. | Partly: A free Community plan for eligible nonprofits; paid Professional, Teams and Enterprise plans. Limits and prices are on its own site. | Stated: Free. |
| Starting up | Stated: Create a workspace yourself in minutes. An onboarding call comes with the Growth plan. | Stated: Guided onboarding is included in all plans, per its pricing page. | Stated: Vendor-led: a set-up and configuration fee that covers a baseline assessment and help building your site. | Stated: A 1-hour configuration call comes with Essential; configuration and training are optional add-ons. | Not found: | Stated: Open a file. |
| Users | Stated: Seats by plan. Viewers do not use a paid seat on Team and above. | Stated: Full and basic users by plan; Enterprise has no limit on users. | Stated: Unlimited user licences, including partners and funders. | Stated: By plan: 2, 20 or at least 40 users. | Not found: | Stated: Anyone with the file. |
| Hosting | Stated: Hosted service on a Contabo data centre. | Stated: Software as a service on Google Cloud, or a self-managed server. | Stated: Microsoft Azure. | Not found: | Not found: | Stated: Wherever the file sits. |
| Planning and resultsSetting up what the programme will do and measure. | ||||||
| Results framework or logframe | Stated: Goals, outcomes, outputs and activities, with parents and codes. Import from Excel, CSV or text. | Stated: Evaluates impact "at any level of a results framework". | Stated: "Set up a results framework and define indicators." | Stated: Levels from goal and impact to activities and inputs, with cause-and-effect between levels. | Not found: | Partly: By hand. |
| Indicators, baselines and targets | Stated: Baseline, target, frequency and aggregation set once; scheduled targets across periods. | Partly: Tracks "key indicators" from outputs to impact. Its M&E page does not mention targets. | Stated: Set targets at programme and project level; baselines and targets in its help centre. | Stated: Links data to indicators to "monitor against targets". | Not found: | Partly: By hand. |
| Disaggregation (sex, age, other) | Stated: Breakdowns by sex, age group, disability, location or other group, with group targets. | Partly: Calculated fields compute "aggregated and disaggregated figures". | Stated: "Disaggregate data by customizable factors." | Stated: Aggregated results can be analysed by disaggregation types. | Not found: | Partly: By hand. |
| Roll-up across projects | Stated: Portfolio overview, programmes and grants; an indicator counted elsewhere is never added twice. | Stated: "Rolling up data from project to global level." | Stated: Overview of all projects on a map, with results and finance. | Stated: Aggregating indicators combine results from several projects, with custom formulas. | Not found: | Not offered: Rebuilt each time. |
| Calculated (formula) indicators | Stated: A ratio, total or difference of other indicators, calculated exactly; a missing part means "not measured". | Stated: Calculated fields and formulas. | Not found: | Stated: Custom formulas on aggregating indicators. | Not found: | Stated: Formulas. |
| Work plan, milestones and calendar | Stated: Work plan with timeline, calendar, milestones, dependencies and delivery status. | Not found: | Stated: Workplan overview with milestones, deliverables, reporting periods and calendar events. | Not found: | Not found: | Partly: By hand. |
| Risks and changes of plan | Stated: A risk register with owners and review dates, and dated records of changes of plan. | Not found: | Not found: | Not found: | Not found: | Partly: By hand. |
| Budgets, expenses and funding | Stated: Budget lines and expenses beside results, plus a finance register: funding sources, disbursements and money received in several currencies with dated rates. Entries are decided by a person before they count. | Not found: | Stated: Budgets with any number of line items, disbursements and expenses, multiple funding sources, multiple currencies. | Partly: Financial data is included in its IATI export. | Not found: | Partly: By hand. |
| Data collectionGetting data from the field into the record. | ||||||
| Form designer | Stated: Forms with conditional rules, photo and document questions, GPS, place questions and public links. | Stated: Form designer with calculated fields and validation rules. | Partly: Data entry and data tables in the application; for field collection it integrates with other tools. | Stated: A built-in form builder; forms can be copied and shared as web links. | Stated: Form builder and XLSForm. | Not offered: No. |
| Offline mobile collection | Stated: Forms and activity records work offline once the app has been opened online, and send when a signal returns. | Stated: Works offline with two-way sync, GPS, photos, signatures and barcode scanning. | Not offered: Web-based; needs an internet connection. It integrates with offline mobile collection tools. | Not found: | Stated: "Collect data offline or online." | Not offered: No. |
| Signatures and barcode scanning | Not offered: Not available. | Stated: Stated on its mobile page. | Not found: | Not found: | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| Public collection links | Stated: Shareable form links that expire and can be withdrawn. | Stated: Collection links. | Not found: | Stated: A webform link for data collectors. | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| Bring in data from other collection tools | Stated: KoboToolbox and SurveyCTO submissions arrive as records you review; Excel imports throughout. | Stated: Spreadsheet importer and XLSForm import. | Stated: Excel import and export; a help article on importing from KoboToolbox. | Stated: API imports from Ona, KoboToolbox and Google Drive; CSV imports from SurveyCTO, CommCare, ODK and Excel. | Not found: | Stated: Copy and paste. |
| Spreadsheet-style entry | Stated: An entry sheet: paste from Excel, fill down, undo, autosave, offline queue, Excel round trip. | Stated: Interactive tables and a validating spreadsheet importer. | Stated: Data entry, data tables and a bulk import tool. | Stated: Data tables to import, organise and clean data. | Not found: | Stated: Native. |
| Review before data counts | Stated: Values move from draft to handed in to verified; records from forms are reviewed before they count; approved periods lock. | Stated: Draft records, and results can be locked once reported to the donor. | Not found: | Partly: Data approval is listed on its Custom plans. | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| Dashboards, charts and mapsSeeing and sharing results. | ||||||
| Dashboards | Stated: Dashboards from sector templates (WASH, health, nutrition, education, food security, protection), tabs, a wall-screen mode and print. | Stated: Dashboards that pair visualisations with tables, with slicers. | Stated: An overview dashboard with all projects on a map, finance, results charts and alerts. | Stated: Configurable dashboards that update automatically when new data arrives. | Partly: Reports and data visualisation for a project. | Partly: Charts by hand. |
| Chart choice and editing | Stated: 39 chart types in a Chart Studio with full editing; a chart that would mislead is refused with the reason. | Stated: Bar and line charts, pivot tables and notebooks. | Stated: Graphical charts of progress for projects or the whole programme. | Stated: Charts, graphs, narratives and images on dashboards. | Not found: | Stated: Native, by hand. |
| Maps | Stated: Results by place: circles sized by value, coloured countries, rankings; KML and GeoJSON downloads; a map of planned work. | Stated: Interactive and thematic maps with a built-in geographic database. | Stated: Interactive mapping, custom map layers, KML export, bulk place import and automatic assignment to provinces and districts. | Not found: | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| Ask a question across indicators | Stated: A report builder: ask in one sentence, break down by sex or age group, save it and put it on a dashboard. | Stated: Pivot tables across one or several forms, with sums, averages and counts. | Stated: "Create, save and share customized reports." | Not found: | Not found: | Stated: Pivot tables. |
| Ask your records a question | Partly: Ask in plain language; the answer is built only from your records and names the source behind each statement, and it says so when the records do not answer. Off until an administrator turns it on, and new. | Not found: | Not found: | Partly: AI features (a knowledge database, a data analytics assistant) are described as in pilot. | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| Share outside the organisation | Stated: Read-only links and embeds for dashboards and infographics, with expiry; finance is never shown through a link. | Stated: Publish reports online, embed them on websites or share a public page. | Not found: | Stated: Dashboards shared by a URL. | Not found: | Stated: Send the file. |
| Infographics for supporters and donors | Stated: A one-page infographic studio in four languages, with share links. | Not found: | Stated: Infographics for budget breakdown, burn rates and outstanding advances. | Not found: | Not found: | Partly: Slides by hand. |
| Donor reportingTurning the record into reports. | ||||||
| Report drafted from the record | Stated: Drafts for each section of a donor template, written from the record with the source of each statement shown; a person approves. | Partly: A report designer; its pages do not mention donor reports or narrative drafting. | Stated: Custom reports, report templates and templates for document exports. | Partly: AI report generation is described as a pilot with wider availability planned for late 2026 and 2027. | Not found: | Not offered: Written by hand. |
| Donor template structure | Stated: Upload a Word, PDF or Excel template once; sections, questions and word limits are extracted for review and reused. | Not found: | Partly: Standard forms automatically populated with project information. | Not found: | Not found: | Not offered: By hand. |
| Checks before submission | Stated: Claims checked against the record, readiness and compliance checklists, a second-approver rule, and sealed submissions. | Not found: | Partly: Checklists with due dates and a "complete & approved" sign-off. | Not found: | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| IATI publishing | Not offered: Not yet. It is planned. | Not found: | Stated: Describes itself as fully IATI-compliant, with export to the IATI format. | Stated: Publishing and validating IATI datasets to the registry; listed as an add-on. | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| Exports | Stated: Word and PDF reports, Excel and CSV data, an evidence pack and a full organisation export. | Partly: Data export for analysis in tools such as R and Python; export formats are not named on the pages we read. | Stated: Excel export and document exports from templates. | Not found: | Stated: Exporting and downloading data, with advanced export options. | Stated: Native. |
| Evidence, quality and auditStanding behind the numbers. | ||||||
| Evidence linked to what it proves | Stated: Files linked to the activity or value they prove, with verification, confidentiality levels and text extraction. | Partly: Attachments with preview. | Stated: A document library per project, in folders; a photo gallery with captions and dates. | Not found: | Not found: | Partly: Folders. |
| Change history and audit log | Stated: A tamper-evident audit log; every value keeps its history. | Stated: An audit log of every change and record history, kept until the database is deleted. | Stated: A full change history showing who changed what and when. | Not found: | Not found: | Partly: Version history in some tools. |
| Notes and comments | Stated: Comments on indicators, activities, reports and statements, with mentions. | Not found: | Stated: A running log of notes and comments, emailed to linked staff. | Stated: A discussion feature on Essential plans. | Not found: | Partly: Email. |
| Reminders and automations | Stated: A daily summary per person, late-work reminders, and assignments from one queue. | Stated: Email notifications, webhooks and an automation builder. | Stated: Alerts for overdue milestones and over-budget projects; upcoming task notifications. | Not found: | Not found: | Not offered: By hand. |
| People, partners and accessWho can see and change what. | ||||||
| Roles and permissions | Stated: Seven roles per project, and a second-approver rule. | Stated: Permissions per folder, form or subform, with roles and record-level conditions. | Stated: Groups with permissions per data category: full, view-only or none. | Not found: | Stated: Project-level and user-level sharing permissions. | Partly: File permissions. |
| Outside partners | Stated: Partners limited to named projects and to the routes they need. | Stated: External partner reporting on Programme and Enterprise plans. | Stated: Unlimited users, including partners and funders. | Not found: | Not found: | Partly: Share a copy. |
| Interface languages | Partly: English, French, Spanish and Arabic; the translations are still being reviewed. | Partly: Multi-lingual forms and automatic translations; interface languages are not listed on the pages we read. | Stated: Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Dutch, French, Nepalese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian. | Not found: | Stated: Translations for forms, and collecting data in several languages. | Partly: Depends on the software. |
| Integrations and APIConnecting to the tools around it. | ||||||
| API | Stated: A public read-only API with keys and scopes, plus signed webhooks. | Stated: A JSON-based, mostly RESTful API that can query, add, edit and delete records and manage users; an R client library. | Stated: An API that enables many integrations, documented in its knowledge base. | Not found: | Stated: An API, with a getting-started guide. | Not offered: No. |
| Connect AI assistants | Stated: An MCP server with read-only tools for projects, indicator values and results by place. | Stated: An MCP server to connect assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini. | Not found: | Partly: AI features (a knowledge database, a data analytics assistant, report generation) are described as in pilot. | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| Business intelligence and GIS tools | Partly: Through the API and exports. No native Power BI or GIS connector. | Stated: Power BI, Python, R, ArcGIS Online and QGIS. | Not found: | Stated: Power BI, Tableau and Apache Superset are named on its home page. | Not found: | Stated: Excel and exports. |
| Security and trustWhat each vendor says about protecting data. | ||||||
| Single sign-on | Partly: SSO and SCIM on the Enterprise plan. | Stated: Azure AD, Google Workspace and Okta. | Not found: | Partly: Listed as an optional add-on on Custom plans. | Not found: | Not offered: No. |
| Two-step sign-in | Stated: Available to staff; an administrator can require it for everyone. | Stated: Organisation-wide two-factor requirements can be enforced. | Not found: | Stated: Multi-factor authentication on Essential plans. | Not found: | Not offered: Depends on the software. |
| Data isolation and encryption | Stated: Each organisation's data is separated in the database itself; encryption options for stored files. | Stated: Data encrypted in transit and at rest; TLS 1.2 or higher. | Partly: Passwords and critical data protected to industry standards; encryption methods are not stated. | Not found: | Partly: A "Data Security & Protection" section is in its documentation. | Not offered: Depends on where the file sits. |
| Backups | Stated: Scheduled, encrypted backups with restore tests; no point-in-time recovery. | Stated: Automated backups across several replicas; deleted databases kept at least 60 more days. | Stated: Continuous backups kept at least 30 days, in several locations. | Not found: | Not found: | Not offered: By hand. |
A grey dash means we did not find the feature on the pages we read, not that the tool lacks it. A red cross is used only where a vendor says it does not offer something. Prices and features change; check the vendor before you decide. Product names belong to their owners.
What DonorDesk adds
One record from the first target to the donor's question.
Other tools are strong at parts of this. DonorDesk is built around keeping the whole chain in one place.
Run the programme
Logframe, work plan, risks, budgets and teams in one record, with a role for each person who touches it.
Measure against targets
Indicators against their own targets, by place and group, in charts, dashboards and maps. Gaps show as gaps, never as zero.
Prove it
Evidence stays linked to the value or activity it supports, every change is in a tamper-evident log, and approved figures cannot change under a report.
Report from the record
Upload a donor template once. Drafts cite the activity or value behind each statement, checks run before submission, and a person approves.
Which fits
When another tool is the better choice, we say so.
A spreadsheet is enough when…
You run one small project, one person keeps the numbers, and a single donor asks for a simple report. When you add a second donor or a second person, the rebuilding starts.
KoboToolbox is the right tool when…
You only need to collect survey data. Keep using it. DonorDesk brings its submissions in as records you review, so collection stays where it is strongest.
A vendor-led platform fits when…
You are a large programme that wants a bespoke set-up and hands-on training, and has budgeted for it. DonorDesk is self-serve and priced for teams that want to start this week.
DonorDesk fits when…
You want planning, field data, results, evidence and donor reports in one record, you report to more than one funder, and you want to see where you stand before they ask.
Try it with your own project.
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