GiveWP Review: Best Way To Create A Donation Website?

Thinking about creating a donation website using WordPress? GiveWP has been one of the top choices when it comes to that but is it any good in 2024? Let’s find out in this detailed GiveWP Review.

After a lot of user feedback and burning midnight oil, the GiveWP team recently released the GiveWP 3.0 version that we’ve all been waiting for.

That’s what led me to write this article as I believe it’s a significant improvement that changes things. It no longer feels outdated in my opinion.

Let’s dive into the details of this game-changing release!

Gutenberg Block Editor Integration Is Here In GiveWP 3.0

GiveWP now works seamlessly with the new WordPress Block Editor or the Gutenberg Editor that is the future. I’ve been waiting for this for a long and I’m glad it’s here.

This enhancement changes a lot of things and makes it even easier to create forms and accept donations on your website.

However, this is not the only improvement that GiveWP 3.0 brings in this year moving forward. We’ll talk more about it in a moment.

Visual Donation Form Builder: Crafting Forms in Real-Time

Gone are the days when you used to imagine how your donation forms would look in the front end while creating it and then checking it again and again for minor adjustments.

It was an inefficient way to do it and with the introduction of the Block Editor, it has become seamless and far more efficient as you can now build your donation forms visually in real-time.

Block Editor Form Builder

It’s a dynamic and intuitive process that mirrors the power of Gutenberg Block Editor and enhances the user experience for everyone.

I think we’re all used to it now and if so, you’ll love it. It’s far more easier and exciting to create your donation forms now with this new form builder.

I’m super excited for you guys to try this out!

The Design Mode

Along with the block editor, you also have a dedicated section for design or a design mode. This makes things even simpler and more efficient as you can see exactly how your form will look on your website.

No need to imagine it and hope for the best.

Here’s an example clip of how it looks like now:

Amazing, isn’t it? There’s more.

Donation Amounts & UX Improvement

The GiveWP team has also made some practical style adjustments to the block, making it simpler for donors to navigate through.

Now, there’s a handy currency indicator sitting above the amounts, automatically adjusting its symbols and separators to match the chosen currency which is something that we’ve been struggling with.

This tweak is a thoughtful touch for the international donors on your website that ensures smooth currency switching by default and makes the user experience better than ever.

However, please note that you’ll need the Currency Switcher add-on to enable this feature and to make your donation effort truly international.

In essence, clear currency identification and straightforward donation amounts lead to confidence in donors and they can give to your cause with ease, knowing exactly what they’re contributing.

It fosters a sense of trust and support which is a necessity in this line of work.

Login & Registration

With GiveWP 3.0, there’s also an improvement in the login and registration process.

From now on, every donor automatically becomes a registered WordPress user without any extra steps and confusion.

It may not seem big but it used to create a lot of friction and trust issues with the donors thus resulting in cancellations or turn-off.

While I don’t have a number, I’m pretty sure your donation number will change slightly after you start using it on your website.

It’s much simpler now. Each donor gets their own WordPress user account automatically and it’s up to you how you want it to play out.

For example, if you want to offer or demand a login option, just toss in the block and toggle the “required” setting as you see fit.

You also get to pick where your donors end up after clicking “login” and tweak the accompanying text for better results or personalization.

Also, please note that if you enable this setting, you’ll be responsible for making sure the login page is available for your users and it works perfectly.

All in all, it’s a great user experience improvement.

Improvement For Recurring Donations

Now with the release of GiveWP 3.0, the recurring donation process is an even smoother experience.

It displays prominently at the top of your donation forms and your donor gets to choose their donation frequency before going through the amount selection process.

It’s simple but a thoughtful adjustment that places recurring support donations at the front and center.

Earlier it was tucked beneath the donation amounts as a checkbox and dropdown which was barely noticeable and was not optimized for better results at all.

The new design makes sure that your donors won’t overlook the importance of recurring contributions and hopefully, it will help you reach your donation goals even faster while maintaining stability with the recurring donations coming your way.

Recurring Only Donations

With GiveWP 3.0, now you also can create recurring-only forms if that’s the way you want to go.

No need to rely on your donor to choose whether they want to donate with a one-time payment or they want to pledge a recurring donation.

Taking the option away is far more beneficial in my opinion in many cases. It reduces the effort of a donor to go through multiple form fields and also helps them avoid decision fatigue or stress over it.

It may seem simple but if you’ve worked in the sales and marketing industry like me then you know it works and it works very well.

Humans are lazy that way!

But the good thing is, you get to help your cause with a recurring donation without worrying much about the stability of your funds.

Improvement For Terms & Conditions

On this refresh, the “terms and conditions” option also got some improvement that we were looking for.

Now you can add the “Terms and Conditions” block to your donation forms whenever you want your donors to agree to it before they can finalize the donation.

Also, as mentioned before, you can customize everything you want within your new visual donation form builder and design it as you like.

For example, you can change the checkbox label for it, write your own terms and conditions as you see fit, and decide how it will be shown to your donors.

You can either include it on the form, display it in a modal or popup, and link to a dedicated page like we used to do.

I would highly recommend using the modal option as it is more efficient and streamlines the donation process.

Make sure to try it out as soon as you can.

Billing Address Is Simpler

With the earlier version of GiveWP, you could only collect your donor’s billing information such as billing address if it was enabled with your payment gateway setting and even then there were some limitations.

Well, that changes now and from here on you can add the “Billing Address” block in your donation forms to collect the details efficiently and make your tasks simpler.

By doing this, you have access to your donor’s billing information regardless of the payment method used which reduces some extra work.

And of course, all the information that you collect can be mapped as per your needs and can be processed by the payment gateways as well.

It’s just getting better and better.

Changes In Payment Gateways

Another important change that is here with the 3.0 release is in how you use the payment gateways.

I haven’t tested it yet but according to the announcement by the official team, GiveWP will continue to support both the forms created using the visual donation form builder and the former way to do it.

However, not all the payment gateways will work with both of them.

I would encourage you to switch to the new form builder as it is the way to go in the future, plus it brings in some new improvements that you’d love.

Let’s talk about it.

Better Stripe Payment Gateway

From now on you also have access to the better and brand new Stripe payment gateway.

To use this payment gateway, you have to use the new visual donation form builder and it’s super convenient to do so.

Once you’re ready, simply connect your Stripe account with it and enable it to accept your donations.

Stripe is one of the best payment gateways out there and it supports most of the payment methods that you can think of such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, CashApp, etc.

Make sure to learn more about it before making the switch to Stripe payment elements for uninterrupted donations.

What About The Add-Ons?

If you use any of the add-ons with your GiveWP donation forms then you must be concerned about the compatibility of those add-ons with the GiveWP version 3.0 and later.

Thankfully, most of the popular GiveWP add-ons are already compatible with it and the rest are on their way to serve you with your newest version of the GiveWP as soon as possible.

However, please make sure that all your add-ons are compatible before upgrading to the latest version or back up everything just in case anything happens.

Add-on As Blocks

With the new changes, the add-ons are also updated to work seamlessly with the new visual donation form builder.

Once you activate any of your add-ons that are supposed to add some new features or settings to the donation forms, they will be added or shown to you as blocks.

You can add those blocks to your forms using the visual donation form builder and just like the post and pages, you’ll see the block settings that you can customize to your needs or liking.

It’s a better way to do it, trust me!

Changes In The Global Settings

If you use add-ons with your GiveWP donation forms then you know that most of the add-ons have their global settings where you enable or disable the add-on by default on all your forms.

The new version, it simply dictates whether the add-on will automatically be added to your donation forms in the new visual donation form builder.

Also, please note that disabling the feature in your add-on settings will not remove the block from any of your forms. So it would be wise to think about it before you add them to your donation forms.

And if you’re concerned about the old forms, don’t be. They should be working as usual and won’t cause any issues.

By the way, you can also switch between global settings and a custom configuration, and along with that you can add or remove blocks on each form if you want to do so. There’s nothing to worry about.

Migrating To New Form Builder

Now let’s address probably the biggest thing that is on your mind right now, migrating to the new donation form builder.

If you’re worried about losing your data then there’s nothing to worry about as GiveWP has made sure that you migrate to the new form builder without having any issues.

When you’re ready for it, you can migrate all your existing donation forms to the new visual donation form builder and get going as usual without any impact on your donations or the existing data that you have.

The migration process consists of a simple 2-step process. It makes a copy of your old forms first and then lets you transfer the donation data from the old forms to the new ones without any interruption to your ongoing donations.

Please note that the migration process can only be initiated manually by you when you think you’re ready to move on. So make sure you do that when you find the time to be appropriate as it won’t happen automatically.

Good luck with everything!

Conclusion

GiveWP 3.0 isn’t just a small update; it’s a leap into the future of donation forms or WordPress websites.

With over 664,253 lines of code as mentioned by the team, it is one of the best WordPress donation plugins that you can get your hands on right now.

It had a few shortcoming that has been eliminated now and I’m hoping to see more improvements sooner than later.

I’m certain that it’s on our way already.

All in all, there’s nothing to stop me from recommending that you create your own Donation WordPress Website with the help of GiveWP.

Make sure to try it out today. Good luck!