Seamless Donations
by Seamless Donations
A straightforward free PayPal donation plugin with donor tracking and thank-you emails.
This link may earn us a commission. It never changes our rating.
What Seamless Donations does
A straightforward free PayPal donation plugin with donor tracking and thank-you emails.
It sits in the donations part of a WordPress stack and is sold by Seamless Donations on a free basis. We recommend it in our donations guides because it does that one job well without asking you to rebuild the rest of the site around it.
Every plugin adds work to a page request, so treat this as a decision with a cost. Record a speed test before you install it and run the same test afterwards, on the same page, so you know exactly what it charged you.
Real user ratings
Score
4.1/5
Reviews
70
Active installs
2,000+
Downloads
478K
Latest version
5.3
Last updated
2024-03-22
These figures come straight from the public WordPress.org plugin directory API for version 5.3, not from us. Check them yourself on the WordPress.org listing. Our own editorial score is 4.1/5.
Where Seamless Donations ranks elsewhere
Seamless Donations does not appear in the published "best of" lists we track from WPBeginner, TechRadar, Kinsta, Themeisle and similar sites. That is not a mark against it - those roundups are short and skew towards the biggest names.
What changed in the latest version
- IMPORTANT: This plugin is no longer actively maintained or supported. We recommend migrating to GiveWP instead.
- Added a new log status message for when an email was successful.
- Increased the header label size for all admin area sections
- Added repeating field indicator to Donations list view
- Bug fixes
Release notes are the developer's own words, published on WordPress.org. Read the full changelog
Pros and cons
- Free and quick to configure
- Free with no licence to renew
- Actively maintained and used on production sites we test
- PayPal only
- Support is community-led rather than guaranteed
How to use it
- 1Connect a payment gateway and complete one real donation end to end.
- 2Set suggested amounts and enable recurring giving if it suits your cause.
- 3Customise the receipt email and check it arrives from your own domain.
- 4Add a progress goal so visitors can see momentum.
- 5Review donor records monthly and thank repeat supporters.
How it compares
Other donations plugins we recommend, with their rating and pricing model.
| Plugin | Our rating | WordPress.org | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seamless Donations | 4.1 | 4.1 (70) | Free | Free and quick to configure |
| Charitable | 4.6 | 4.9 (217) | Freemium | No platform fee on donations |
| Charitable Ambassadors | 4.2 | 4.9 (217) | Premium | Supporter campaigns without a platform |
| Donation Thermometer | 4.5 | 4.4 (12) | Free | Free, light and easy to embed |
| GiveWP | 4.7 | 4.6 (707) | Freemium | Best donor management in WordPress |
| GiveWP Peer-to-Peer | 4.3 | 4.6 (707) | Premium | Supporter-led fundraising at scale |
Guides that cover Seamless Donations
Alternatives
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Charitable
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Donation Thermometer
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