Donum vs Zola
On Zola, $5,000 in gifts
becomes $4,875.
We let it stay $5,000.
Zola takes a 2.5% platform fee on every credit-card cash gift. We don’t. The wedding-website builder is theirs. The 2.5% can stay theirs too.
One $500 gift,
two ledgers.
Aunt Linda wires $500. Here is what arrives, side by side, on each platform’s rails.
ZolaReceipt
- Aunt Linda sends$500.00
- Zola platform fee (2.5%)−$12.50
- Card processing (Zola)absorbed by Zola margin
Couple receives$487.50
DonumReceipt
- Aunt Linda sends$500.00
- Donum platform fee$0.00
- Stripe processing (guest covers, default-on)$0.00
Couple receives$500.00
Public pricing as of April 2026. Card processing on Donum (2.9% + 30¢ via Stripe) is offered to the guest to cover at checkout, default-on, with industry-typical adoption around 80%.
The math,
three weddings.
Same gift totals, both platforms. Card payment, which is how guests actually pay.
| Cash gifts received | Zola keeps | Donum keeps |
|---|---|---|
| $4,000 | $100 | $0 |
| $8,000 | $200 | $0 |
| $20,000 | $500 | $0 |
Across one wedding, the difference is a vacation, a piece of furniture, a chunk of a down payment.
What Zola does well
- 01The cleanest UI of any large registry.
- 02A polished wedding-website builder with templates.
- 03A vendor marketplace if you want to book photographers and DJs in one place.
- 04Brand recognition that makes your registry feel familiar to older relatives.
What Donum does that Zola does not
- 010% platform fee on cash gifts. Forever.
- 02Items from any retailer, including stores Zola does not partner with.
- 03Cross-store duplicate detection so two relatives never buy the same thing.
- 04No vendor marketing emails to your guests, ever.
The questions
couples ask.
- Is Zola really free?
- Setup is free. Receiving cash by card is not. Zola takes a 2.5% platform fee on every credit and debit cash contribution, separate from card processing. Donum takes 0%.
- What is Donum's catch?
- Donum is paid by retailers when guests buy items through the registry, not by taking a cut of cash. We make no money from your cash fund.
- Can I move a Zola registry to Donum?
- Yes. Most items are pasted from the retailer's product page in seconds, and our extension grabs the rest in one click. Cash funds carry over with the names and amounts you choose.
- What does Donum lack that Zola has?
- Today, Zola has a more polished wedding-website builder and a vendor marketplace. If those are central to your wedding, use Zola for those and Donum for the registry. They coexist.
Keep the $125.
Or the $500. Or the $1,000. Whatever your guest mix gives, it arrives whole.