32auctions for UK charities: fees, features and a UK alternative

I built a fundraising platform myself, so I read other people’s pricing pages closely. Every figure below comes from 32auctions’ own pages in October 2026, in the currency they show. I am not here to knock anyone, just to turn the lights on.

What is 32auctions?

32auctions is an online silent auction platform for nonprofits, schools and similar organisations. Bidders join through a web link on their phone or laptop, place bids, and get outbid alerts, with no software to install.

Its home page claims 130,500 causes and $320M raised, with a history going back to 2009. Its help pages say it supports six currencies, GBP among them, so a UK charity can run an auction in pounds.

How much does 32auctions cost?

32auctions costs nothing for an auction of up to 20 items with one image each. Beyond that you buy upgrades, and the help pages say they are bought per auction, with no subscription and no performance fee on the total raised.

These are the upgrade prices on its pricing page in October 2026, shown there in US dollars:

Its suggested packages add up to $170 (“Most Popular”, 100 items), $240 (“Best for Offline Event”, 200 items) and $360 (“The Works”, 300 items).

For a one-off online auction, that is a fair, transparent price. The catch is two words: “per auction”. Run three events a year and you pay three times.

What are the 32auctions fees on payments?

32auctions charges 2.9% plus $0.40 on every payment or donation taken online through it. Collect payments yourself, in person or by bank transfer, and it charges nothing.

The processor adds its own fee on top. For a UK charity on its own Stripe account, the standard rate for UK cards is 1.5% plus 20p. PayPal’s charity rate is 1.4% plus 20p, after approval.

So take a night where £30,000 of winning bids is paid online through Stripe. 32auctions’ 2.9% is £870, and Stripe’s 1.5% is £450, before either fixed fee per payment. Those fixed fees are quoted in dollars, and the help pages say fees are worked out in the auction’s currency, so ask what they come to in pounds.

This is the bit I would underline. A fee that moves with what the room gives takes more the better your night goes. Bidders can be offered the chance to cover it, and the Fundraising Regulator’s Code requires fees to be shown clearly to donors before they pay.

Does 32auctions have an app, and how do proxy bids work?

32auctions has no app to download. Its help pages say bidding runs in any mobile browser, with outbid alerts by email and, as a paid upgrade, by text to UK numbers.

Proxy bidding is included free. A bidder enters their maximum, and the system bids for them until that ceiling is reached. Buy Now prices and extended bidding, to stop last-second sniping, are also in the free plan.

For a week-long online auction, that is a sensible set of tools. How mobile bidding changes a live room is a different question.

What do 32auctions reviews say?

32auctions reviews are mostly positive. On Capterra UK it holds 4.0 out of 5 from 14 reviews, nine of them five-star.

The praise is about ease of use: clear item pages, outbid alerts that keep bidding going, and quick checkout. The complaints mention a frustrating setup, slow support, and item details that cannot be changed once someone has bid. Fourteen reviews is a small sample, so read the recent ones with your own event in mind.

Where 32auctions fits, and where a gala outgrows it

For a school, a club or a small charity running a timed online auction, 32auctions does the job at a modest, visible price.

A gala is a different animal. Ten lots in a room of two hundred means ten winners, and the other hundred and ninety reach the end of the auction having given nothing. The generosity is already in the room, and the pledge straight after the auction is what releases it. At the Jigsaw Trust gala, the auction raised £27,000 and the pledge after it raised £30,600. That total belongs to their team as much as mine.

Here is how 32auctions’ own help pages describe the parts a gala leans on:

• The pledge. There is no paddle raise feature. The workaround is a hidden item where an administrator keeps re-entering the running total as a bid.
• Tickets. There is no ticketing system. You list each ticket type as a Buy Now item.
• Cards on file. AutoPay Bidding stores a card and charges winners when the auction closes, but it cannot be combined with the Transition to Offline Event feature. A live room goes back to invoices.

None of that is a fault. It was built for a timed online auction, and a gala asks for more.

Can a UK charity claim Gift Aid through 32auctions?

Not on the auction itself, in most cases. HMRC says a winning bid is a purchase, not a gift. Only in narrow cases, where a bidder knowingly pays more than the item is worth, can part of it count as a donation.

Gift Aid matters for the donations around it. It adds 25p per £1 from a UK taxpayer, and the claim needs a declaration from each donor. I could not find Gift Aid anywhere in 32auctions’ help pages in October 2026, which is no surprise for a US product. Ask how you would collect declarations.

Is BetterWorld a better fit?

BetterWorld is the other US platform that comes up beside 32auctions, and it charges differently. Its pricing page lists a free plan with a 0% platform fee, funded by donors covering fees, a Flex plan at 2.2% to 5%, and a Partner plan at $1,550 a year plus 1.25%.

So BetterWorld puts the cost on your donors or a percentage. 32auctions puts it on upgrades and online payments.

The Generosity Works platform as the alternative

I built the Generosity Works platform for the evening, not the timed auction. The silent auction software sits alongside the parts a gala needs:

• Payments run through the charity’s own Stripe account, so the only deduction is Stripe’s fee.
• No percentage of what you raise, and no tip prompt.
• Cards held from registration, charged when a lot is won.
• Ticketing, tiered pledges, a gala screen and Gift Aid capture in one system, with an offline event server for when the venue wifi gives up.

It is free when a charity books me as auctioneer and host, and my fee is the only money Generosity Works takes. The platform is not sold on its own; our pricing page explains why.

Where 32auctions is stronger, I will say so. For a small online-only auction of 20 lots or fewer, its free plan is hard to beat.

Do the sum before you sign

Whichever platform you pick, do one sum. Take the total you expect to raise, add the upgrades you will actually need, apply the payment fees to whatever is paid online, and write down what the charity keeps.

If you have a number to hit this year and want the platform, the plan and the night itself designed together for one fee agreed up front, book a discovery call. Let’s talk about your number.