Free tools
Tools for the decisions that come before the project.
Every tool here is free, works without an email address, and shows its own maths. They exist because the hardest part of a nonprofit technology decision is usually finding an honest number to plan against — so these publish the ranges rather than hiding them behind a contact form.
Which number do you actually need?
Most nonprofit technology questions are really one of five decisions. The tools cover the first; the rest already have an honest written answer on this site, and a calculator would only dress it up.
- Putting a software line in a grant budget or a board proposal. Use the cost estimator. Five questions place a custom build in one of four bands between $8,500 and $102,000+, and the page publishes every band in full so the widget hides nothing.
- Deciding whether you need custom software at all. Read what nonprofit software development actually involves and, just as often, when an off-the-shelf product is the better answer.
- Choosing between building and buying a platform. The custom software vs. Salesforce comparison works through the trade-off with the licensing costs included.
- Moving to Google Workspace or a new CRM. Migrations are quoted as a fixed fee from the size of the move, not from these bands. The pricing page explains how.
- Hiring someone to help. How to choose a nonprofit technology consultant lists the questions to ask, including the ones that rule us out.
How the numbers are made
Every range a tool shows comes from one model that also renders the full outcome table on the tool's page, so the published numbers cannot drift from the computed ones. The model is priced from the rates real engagements are billed at, not from an industry survey, which means a tool here never shows a figure a proposal would contradict.
They are ranges rather than quotes on purpose. The width of a band is honest uncertainty about scope, design polish, and data migration; narrowing it takes a conversation, not more form fields. And the tools run entirely in your browser: no email gate, no lead scoring, and your answers are not sent anywhere.
What these tools won't tell you
- The cost of a website. A public site is a different kind of project with different economics; see website modernization.
- What ongoing support costs. Support is a monthly arrangement, published on the pricing page, and is not folded into a build estimate.
- Whether the project is the right one. A calculator prices what you describe. Whether you should build it is what a technology assessment is for, and the honest answer is sometimes that you should not.
Want the reasoning rather than the calculator? The nonprofit technology guide covers the same decisions in long form, and pricing publishes what engagements actually cost.