If you’re still managing volunteers with spreadsheets and long email chains, you’re not alone, but you may be working harder than you need to. Successfully coordinating a growing volunteer base means complex scheduling, clear communication and accurate reporting. This is where having volunteer management software can help you save time, reduce errors, and deliver a better experience for your volunteers and team.
Even if you find recruiting volunteers to be easy, the more people you have, the greater your need for tools to simplify your volunteer program. Software can organize schedules, automate email reminders, offer online registration, and match jobs to volunteer skills.
The world of volunteer management software is a big one, so we’re here to help! We’ve put together this list of every volunteer management tool to help volunteer managers from any sized organization.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Top 9 free volunteer management software solutions
- Top 7 inexpensive volunteer management software solutions
- How to use WildApricot for volunteer management
- Top 3 volunteer management solutions for larger nonprofits and associations
- Top 6 free AND inexpensive volunteer scheduling software solutions
- 7 additional free resources for volunteer managers
How to Pick the Right Volunteer Management Software
It can be fun researching the right volunteer management software that fits your organization, but it can also get a little overwhelming. The options are endless, and with a wide range of features, you might not know where to start.
So, what are some of the most important things to consider when picking your dream volunteer management platform?
The real answer is that it depends on your organization’s size and budget, but here are some of the most important factors to consider when choosing a volunteer management solution.
| Consideration | Why It Matters | Key Questions to Ask |
| Volunteer Recruitment Tools | Attracts the right people aligned with your mission; streamlines application management and posting opportunities | Does it support online application forms? Can you post opportunities to multiple channels? |
| Volunteer Profiles & Database | Tracks skills, availability, and personal information for task matching | Can you store comprehensive volunteer data? Is it easy to search and filter profiles? Can volunteers update their own information? |
| Scheduling & Shift Management | Ensures good coverage and simplifies coordination across events and ongoing programs | Does it support multi-shift events? Can volunteers self-schedule? Does it prevent double-booking? |
| Volunteer Hour Tracking | Allows for recognition, reporting and can show impact to funders | Can volunteers log their own hours? Does it generate reports? Can hour tracking be done by project or activity? |
| Communication Tools | Keeps volunteers informed, engaged, and connected with volunteer leaders and each other | Can you send targeted emails? Does it support SMS/text messaging? Can you automate reminders and confirmations? |
| Mobile Accessibility | Supports real-time updates and on-the-go scheduling changes from mobile devices | Is there a mobile app for both volunteers and admins? Can volunteers check in via mobile? |
| Reporting & Analytics | Measures impact, identifies trends, and supports data-driven decisions | What reports are available? Can you customize reports? Does it show volunteer engagement metrics and trends? |
Read more: New Volunteer Checklist: How to Onboard and Welcome New Volunteers
Top 9 Free Volunteer Management Software Solutions
If you’re a small organization looking for a simple way to manage and engage volunteers, or have a smaller budget, consider one of these solutions. All of them offer a free plan with enough options to easily sign volunteers up and see when they’re scheduled.
We’ve included a quick summary table below, or you can keep scrolling for more details on each option!
| Software | Best For | Free Option | Mobile App | Starting Price (Paid Plan) |
| iVolunteer.com | An ad-free volunteer experience | ✓ | ✓ | $15/month; Mobile app available in premium plan |
| RosterVolunteers | Easy scheduling & shift changes | ✓ | – | – |
| SignUp | Mobile signups | ✓ | ✓ | $8.34/month |
| Signup Zone | Quick launches | ✓ | – | $10/user one-time payment |
| Sons of Service | Unlimited users | ✓ | – | Free (open source) |
| Timecounts | Recruiting & onboarding | ✓ | – | $59/month |
| Track It Forward | Volunteer time tracking | ✓ less thatn 25 volunteers (30-day trial) | ✓ | $12/month |
| WhenToHelp | Autofill features | ✓ | ✓ | $16/month |
| YourVolunteers | Cloud-based option | ✓ | – | $20/month |
1) iVolunteer.com
Best for an ad-free volunteer experience
Free Account Details:
- Unlimited sign ups by up to 15 volunteers
- 1 administrator
- Free accounts must be renewed every 30 days
Ivolunteer.com is an easy, effective way to sign up volunteers for events and to manage volunteer scheduling. Just publish your event through email or on your website and Ivolunteer.com will take care of the rest. Features include reusable sign-up sheets, automated emails, and advanced reporting. Premium accounts start at $20/month.
2) RosterVolunteers
Best for easy scheduling & shift changes
Free Account Details:
- No limits to the number of volunteers who can register
- Free accounts have all premium features, but have ads
RosterVolunteers is a basic volunteer registering software that can be accessed by members, leaders, administrators, and supervisors. Functions include a schedule view with 1-click confirmation (for volunteers) and 1-click mass reminder email (for supervisors only), as well as several features to easily create on-the-fly mass emails based on member qualifications/duties.
3) SignUp
Best for Mobile Signups
Free Account Details:
- 1 Group Page
- 1 Custom Question Field on sign-up sheet
- 1 Primary Organizer
SignUp makes it easy to create a volunteer group and begin coordinating them right away. Features include unlimited emails, customized signup themes, reminders, shift scheduling, and unlimited signups. Formerly VolunteerSpot.com. Starter accounts start at $8.34/month.
4) Signup Zone
Best for quick launches
Free Account Details:
- Up to 3 Free Signups
- Free surveys
Signup Zone makes it easy to create a signup form and allows volunteers to see what time slots need to be filled. They offer flexible subscription options that allow you to pay month-to-month and pause whenever you need to.
5) Sons of Service
Best for unlimited users
Free Account Details:
- Open source software, 100% free
- Unlimited users and admins
Sons of Service (SOS) is a 100% free volunteer management database for any type of nonprofit. Track any volunteer information including contact info, availability, relationships, and comments. Please note that SOS has not been actively developed since 2011, so it may be limited versus more modern systems. If you require new functionality, you can modify the software yourself, or you may contact Andrew Ziem (the creator) and discuss rates with him.
6) Timecounts
Best for recruiting & onboarding
Free Account Details:
- One Admin
- Brandable Community Hub
- Volunteer Directory with Custom Fields
- Log Volunteer Time and Total Hours Report
Timecounts’ free plan is great for leaders looking for a simple way to onboard volunteers, organize data, create signup opportunities, and track time—all at no cost. Paid accounts start at $59/month and allow more reporting insights, emails, and admins.
7) Track It Forward
Best for volunteer time tracking
Free Account Details:
- 0-25 volunteer max
Track It Forward allows volunteers to sign up and begin tracking their own hours. Features include embeddable registration of your website, instant reports, and a mobile app for volunteers to log their hours. Free 30 day trial. Premium accounts start at $24/month.
8) WhenToHelp
Best for autofill features
Free Account Details:
- Need to be considered a charity: have a US 501(c)(3) designation or are a Canadian Registered Charity, and
- Only schedule unpaid volunteers
- Schedule volunteers to do community service
WhenToHelp makes volunteer scheduling easy with automatically assigned schedules based on your volunteers’ work time preferences. Features include an unlimited number of schedulers, scheduled email reminders, and text message alerts. Premium accounts start at $16/month.
9) YourVolunteers
Best cloud-based option
Free Account Details:
- Unlimited volunteer “Focuses”
- 1,000 volunteers per “Focus”
- No email schedules
- Account has ads
YourVolunteers is a powerful, cloud-based volunteer management system used by over 10,000 organizations around the world. Features include a public calendar on your website, shift tracking, list filtering, and a volunteer database. Premium accounts start at $20/month.
Read more: How to Recruit Volunteers from Start to Finish: 4 Phases to a Successful Volunteer Program
Top 7 Inexpensive Volunteer Management Software Solutions
You might need a bit more functionality than free volunteer software offers. So here are the best cheap volunteer management tools that have come under our radar.
While many of the free tools we mentioned also offered paid features, below is a list of the top seven paid-only, but still budget-friendly, volunteer software tools. We’ve included a table here for a quick overview, or keep scrolling to read more.
| Software | Best Option For | Mobile App | Starting Price (Paid) |
| WildApricot | Managing members and volunteers all in one place | ✓ | Free 60-day trial; starts at $63/month for 100 contacts |
| Get Connected by Galaxy Digital | Volunteer app | ✓ | Custom quote, free demo available |
| VolunteerLocal | Growing nonprofits | ✓ | $200/event or $600/year |
| Volgistics | Customization options | – | $9/month |
| Volunteer Impact (Better Impact) | Post-launch support | – | Custom quote, free demo available |
| VolunteerMark | Signups from social media | ✓ | $34/month, free limited plan and demo available |
| VolunteerSchedulePro (Rotundra) | Targeted volunteer communications | ✓ | $45/month |
| Planning Center | Church volunteer scheduling | ✓ | Pay for the volunteers you need. |
1) WildApricot
Best for managing members and volunteers all in one place
- Free 60-day trial; starts at $63/month for 100 contacts
Hey there, it’s us! WildApricot is designed for member management, but our software can also be used for volunteer management, allowing you to create volunteer application forms, add webpages about what your organization needs volunteers for, and send email blasts with the information volunteers need to get started. Utilize our comprehensive reporting tools to track email performance, volunteer activity and engagement, and form submissions.
It’s the perfect solution for organizations looking for an all-in-one tool that houses all their contacts and provides a centralized place to track and manage outreach. Start your free 60-day trial today!
2) Get Connected by Galaxy Digital
Best volunteer app
- Learn more about Get Connected by requesting a free online demo. From there, you can get a custom quote built for your organization.
Get Connected is a one-stop solution for all your volunteer management needs. With it, volunteers can quickly check in, track their hours, and receive important messages and notifications in a timely manner. Features include a mobile app, volunteer profiles, pre-built and customized reports, automated communications, and marketing tools to promote events and opportunities.
2) VolunteerLocal
Best if you’re a growing nonprofit
VolunteerLocal includes everything you need to manage an effective and happy volunteer force for events. Features include your event listed on HappyVolunteering.com, your own sign-up website with a custom URL, automated follow-up emails, and online check-ins. Premium accounts start at $200/event.
3) Volgistics
Best customization options
- Starting at $9/month
Volgistics provides a complete volunteer management software. Features include a volunteer portal, automated scheduled reminders, report customization and free support. Over 5.5 million volunteers tracked.
4) Better Impact
Best post-launch support
- Learn more about Get Connected by requesting a free online demo. From there, you can get a custom quote built for your organization.
Volunteer Impact is a volunteer database and management software for any sized organization. Features include unlimited administrators, a half-hour consultation, a volunteer time clock, and an online volunteer portal.
5) VolunteerMark
Best for signups from social media
- Starting at $34/month
VolunteerMark is a robust volunteer management solution that can scale according to the size of your organization. Features include a volunteer dashboard, email and text communication, analytics, and online donations.
6) Volunteer Schedule Pro (Rotundra)
Best for targeted volunteer communications
- Starting at $45/month
As its name suggests, Volunteer Schedule Pro is a solution for scheduling, managing, and communicating with your volunteers. Features include flexible scheduling, automatic reminders, online substitutions, reporting, and tiered access.
7) Planning Center
Best for church volunteer scheduling
- Pay-for-what-you-need model. They offer a free option that includes 5 member volunteers.
Some nonprofits, such as churches and other religious institutions, have specific volunteer needs. Planning Center is a church member management platform that has volunteer scheduling features that let church staff organize by team (ushers, nursery etc.) and by services.
Read more: How To Create A Volunteer Engagement Strategy that Actually Works
How to Use WildApricot for Volunteer Management
As we mentioned before, WildApricot is an all-in-one nonprofit management option used by over 20,000 organizations (here’s a link to the free, 60-day trial). Though it’s not a tailored solution for volunteer management like others in this list, if you’re already using WildApricot to manage your members, or are looking for an inexpensive solution that allows you to combine member and volunteer management, it’s a worthy option to consider.
Below, we’ve listed three easy ways you can use it to combine member management and volunteer management all in one place.
1. Ask Your Members for Their Availability
If it’s a simple need of members letting their availability be known, you can create a specific section in membership fields called something like Volunteer Opportunity. The example we have shows Interests below, but you can easily change this to Volunteer Opportunity, allowing your volunteers to select the opportunities they’d like to sign up for.
Creating a multiple-choice field in this section listing all the opportunities your organization offers allows volunteers to log in and simply let their preferences be known. The admin can then run an advanced search on that field and the values to find out who is available. This is a simple workaround for a simple need.
2. Embed Your Favourite Volunteer Scheduling Software
WildApricot allows you to embed any platform that provides an embed code for their platform. You can simply create a page for volunteers to schedule themselves and embed the code in that page.
3. Integrate With Google Calendar Slots
It is possible to create appointment booking slots in Google Calendar. You can then embed this calendar on any page. Then, using our integrations, you can record the event on a specific member’s profile.
In this solution, the volunteer would book a slot on the embedded Google Calendar, and Make (previously Integromat) would then look up that member and make a note on their WildApricot profile. This would make it possible to run advanced searches and get a report on who volunteered on a specific date.
Top 3 Volunteer Management Solutions for Larger Nonprofits and Associations
Large organizations need a few additional features and greater access to the number of members or users. This means finding a more robust solution to simplify operations.
These volunteer management solutions are geared towards those large nonprofits that will most likely need more tools and more support.
| Software | Best For | Mobile App | Starting Price | Key Volunteer Feature |
| VolunteerMatters | Unified donor and volunteer relationship management | ✓ | Starts at $219/month + $499 set up fee | All-in-one platform that focuses on volunteer engagement, not just management |
| Golden | Multi-chapter organizations and corporate partnerships | ✓ | Free (limited) / $110/month | Location-based volunteer opportunity recommendations across multiple regions |
| VolunteerHub | Organizations needing deep CRM integration | ✓ | $143/month | Seamless integration with Salesforce & Blackbaud (Raiser’s Edge, eTapestry, Altru) |
1) VolunteerMatters
Best for unified donor and volunteer relationship management
Think of VolunteerMatters as your one-stop shop for volunteer management. You’ll get the full picture of how volunteers find, engage with, and stay active in your mission. VolunteerMatters takes on some of the heavy admin work of recruiting, background checks, etc., so your team can focus on engaging with your volunteers. Find out how much it costs by speaking to one of their experts.
2) Golden
Best for multi-chapter organizations and corporate partnerships
Used by over 40,000 organizations including nonprofits, corporations, foundations, governments, and healthcare institutions. Golden shines when you’re managing volunteers across different cities or regions, with smart location-based recommendations. They offer a free option with limited features, and their starter package starts at $100/month with custom pricing for larger organizations.
3) VolunteerHub
Best for organizations needing deep CRM integration
A proven platform with over 20 years of experience helping thousands of organizations manage billions of volunteer hours. If you’re already using Salesforce or Blackbaud products (Raiser’s Edge, eTapestry, Altru), VolunteerHub plays really nicely with them. Pricing starts around $143/month with custom options for larger organizations.
Read more: How to Create a Winning Volunteer Newsletter: Ideas, Examples and Templates to Inspire
Top 4 Free And Inexpensive Volunteer Scheduling Software Solutions
If you’re just looking for volunteer scheduling software, here are a few options that we’ve found to do just that! If you don’t need extensive paid functionality, these are great options, so you’re only paying for managing volunteer schedules. As before, we’ve included a quick table to start, with more details below.
| Best For | Mobile App | Starting Price (Paid) | Key Limitations of Free Plan | |
| Roosted | Bot-assisted volunteer placement | – | $50/month | Up to 50 active workers |
| Sling | Additional task management features | ✓ | Free | Up to 30 users |
| Celayix | Automated reports | ✓ | Not disclosed | No free option |
| SignUpGenius | Custom online sign-up forms | – | $8.99/month | Limited features |
1) Roosted
Best for bot-assisted volunteer placement
This platform is mainly used by healthcare companies for staff and volunteer management, but they also serve nonprofits. You can pay $2.50/per active worker/month or $50/month for the starter package.
2) Sling
Best for additional task management features
Sling allows you to quickly create shifts, tasks, messages and a newsfeed in an easy to use drag-and-drop schedule builder. 100% free for up to 30 users.
3) Celayix
Best for automated reports
Celayix is a very powerful scheduling tool giving you every capability possible when it comes to scheduling. From contact management and emailing to on-the-go schedule editing, this software has it all. Price is not shown but well received by customer reviews.
4) SignUpGenius
Best for custom online sign-up forms
SignUpGenius is not only an amazing scheduling tool for your volunteers, it also processes payments, mass emailing, and record keeping. The software has a free plan with limited features, but their basic plan starts at only $8.99/month.
Read more: The Ultimate Guide to Volunteer Appreciation
7 Additional Free Resources for Volunteer Managers
We know how difficult it can be for new volunteer managers to get started — so here are a few resources to help you out.
- New Volunteer Checklist: a useful resource for any volunteer manager looking to seamlessly recruit new volunteers.
- Free Volunteer Schedule Templates: Sometimes you just need a simple time sheet or task list instead of a sophisticated volunteer management system. If that’s the case, here are 15+ free volunteer scheduling templates.
- Doodle: Doodle is great if you’re looking to set up a training meeting with your volunteers and you’ve got a flexible schedule. Simply create an event for free and email the link to your volunteers, who can choose the best time that works for them.
- New Volunteer Application Template: Don’t have time designing a new volunteer application form from scratch? Use one of these 15+ free templates. Microsoft Word compatible.
- Volunteer Appreciation Certificate Templates: Add an extra touch to your volunteer appreciation by giving your volunteers an appreciation certificate. These 16 templates are Microsoft Word compatible.
- Volunteer Name Tag Templates: Tired of writing out name tags by hand? Download this simple, printable Microsoft Word template.
- Volunteer Survey: Learn how to create a volunteer survey to gain feedback from your supporters. Plus, explore creative questions to add to your next questionnaire.
I hope these volunteer management software options can help you better manage your volunteers, and that you find the one that’s right for you!
