Emma Live pricing explained: what a charity really pays

I build fundraising software myself, so I read these pricing pages closely. Here is Emma Live’s, in plain terms, with the figures taken from its own site.

How much does Emma Live pricing come to?

Emma Live publishes three tiers. In short: a free tier funded by a percentage, and two paid tiers with no percentage.

• Emma Essential. Free to start, funded by a 4% platform fee on what you raise.
• Emma Enhanced. From £1,295 for a single event, adding unlimited users and dedicated support.
• Emma Annual. Bespoke pricing for charities running several events a year, with account management and CRM access.

That is the whole menu. The features are broadly similar across the tiers; what changes is how Emma Live is paid, and that is the part worth thinking through before you pick one.

What does the “free” Essential tier actually cost?

It costs 4% of everything you raise. There is no upfront charge, which is what “free” refers to, but the platform takes 4% of your total, so the cost is real and it is proportional to how well your event does.

Put a figure on it. Raise £50,000 on the Essential tier and the 4% fee is £2,000. Raise £100,000 and it is £4,000. The money comes off the top of what your donors gave to the cause, and unlike an upfront fee you cannot see it coming when you sign up, because it depends on a total you do not yet know.

It is also the hardest tier to budget for, because the fee is a moving target. You are quoted a percentage, not a pound figure, and you only learn the real cost once the night is over and the total is counted. For a finance team that has to report what the event cost, that is an awkward way to plan.

None of this is hidden. Emma Live states the 4% clearly, and the Fundraising Regulator’s code expects fundraising costs to be open and honest with donors, which a stated percentage is. The point is not that anything is concealed. It is that “free” and “4% of your total” are two very different things, and it pays to read the second one.

What do the Enhanced and Annual tiers cost?

The Enhanced tier starts at £1,295 for a single event, with no percentage taken, plus unlimited users and a few hours of dedicated support. The Annual tier is priced bespoke for charities running multiple events across a year, and adds account management and CRM access.

Here is the thing worth noticing: the paid tiers exist precisely because the percentage stops making sense above a certain total. Emma Live is effectively offering you the choice to swap the 4% for a fixed cost once your event is big enough that 4% would exceed it. That crossover point is lower than most people expect, and working out where it sits for your event is the single most useful thing you can do with these numbers.

To put a figure on the crossover: at £1,295, the Enhanced flat fee matches a 4% cut at around £32,000 raised. Below that, the free plan is cheaper. Above it, every extra pound you raise on the free plan hands another 4% to the platform, while the flat fee stays exactly where it is. Most galas, balls and fundraising dinners clear £32,000 comfortably, which is why, at that end of the market, the flat option almost always comes out ahead.

What is not included in Emma Live pricing?

Card processing. On top of any tier sit Stripe’s standard payment-processing fees, which you can absorb or pass on to donors. Emma Live does not mark those up.

To its credit, Emma Live runs payments through your own Stripe account, so the funds land directly with the charity and are never held by the platform. That is exactly how it should work, and it is worth confirming with any platform you consider. We handle it the same way, which you can read about on our payments page. So the fee comparison is genuinely about the platform’s own charge, tier for tier, because the card fees are the same wherever you go.

Emma Live pricing at different event sizes

The 4% plan and a flat fee cross over quickly. Here is roughly how the platform’s own charge lands as the total climbs, ignoring card fees, which are the same either way.

At £10,000 the 4% plan is cheap, and for a small community event it may well be the sensible choice. By £100,000 it is £4,000, and by a quarter of a million it is £10,000, all taken from money the room gave to the cause. A flat fee does not move, so once your total clears the crossover point every extra pound raised stays with the charity. The bigger your ambition, the more that matters.

How does Emma Live pricing compare to a flat fee?

For a large event, a flat fee almost always keeps more with the cause. That is the whole reason we refuse to charge a percentage, and it is the heart of the belief this brand is built on: the generosity is already in the room, and a platform should not take a cut of it.

The honest comparison is not feature against feature, because the feature lists are similar. It is fee model against fee model. A percentage rewards the platform when your night goes well; a platform that takes no percentage leaves the reward with the charity. We set the two side by side, tier for tier, on our Emma Live alternative page, and our own numbers are on the our pricing page.

To be fair to Emma Live, if you are running a small event, want capable software, and have the team to run the night yourselves, the free tier is a reasonable, low-cost way in. The calculation only turns as the total grows.

Does platform pricing change who runs the night?

Platform pricing decides what the software costs, not who runs the evening. Whether you choose Emma Live or another system, a gala needs an auctioneer and host to call the lots and ask for the pledge. With me, the platform comes with the hire.

If a volunteer can run your night, a platform alone may be enough. Otherwise bring the date, the room size and the total you expect. The platform is free when a charity books me as auctioneer and host; my fee is the only money Generosity Works takes, and the platform is not sold on its own. Book me at thecharityauctioneer.uk.

Work out your own number first

Emma Live pricing is not complicated once you see past the word “free”. Three tiers, one of them a 4% cut, two of them flat, with card fees on top and your own Stripe underneath.

Before you choose, do the one sum that matters: take the total you realistically expect to raise, apply 4% to it, and compare that with a fixed fee. That number tells you which tier, or which platform, actually keeps the most for your cause.

One last thing worth saying: the cheapest platform on paper is not always the one that raises the most. The software matters far less than the plan and the person running the room, and no pricing tier fixes a night that was never designed to give everyone a way to give. If you want the platform, the strategy and the auctioneer designed as one evening for one fee agreed up front rather than a percentage, book a discovery call and let’s talk about your number.