Software/Electronic raffle software for charity events: UK platforms compared
Electronic raffle software for charity events: UK platforms compared
Search for an electronic raffle and you get software vendors, each promising to put your raffle on your guests’ phones. Very few mention that in Great Britain, the way you sell the tickets decides which lottery rules you are under, and that an app can quietly move you from one set to the other.
In short
- An electronic raffle sells and draws tickets through software instead of paper strips and a bucket. In law it is still a lottery.
- A raffle run inside your event needs no licence, but the Commission says the tickets must be physical, sold at the venue while the event is on, and never online or in advance.
- Selling raffle tickets online, or before the night, puts you in small society lottery territory: register with your council first, sell only to over-16s, and charge every buyer the same price.
- Raffle platforms charge through buyer tips, a commission of 3% to 10% for charities, or a subscription. On a £5,000 raffle that is anything from nothing on your invoice to £500.
- A raffle ticket never attracts Gift Aid. A pledge can.
I built the Generosity Works platform, raffle draw included, so I read these rules more closely than is healthy. The legal points below come from the Gambling Commission and the Gambling Act, and each competitor price from that company’s own page in October 2026. General guidance, not legal advice.
What is an electronic raffle?
An electronic raffle is a raffle where software does some or all of the work: selling tickets, taking card payments, recording each entry and drawing the winner at random. People also call it a digital raffle, an online raffle or a raffle app.
The software is the easy part. A raffle is a lottery whether the ticket is a cloakroom stub or a QR code. For a charity event, two kinds matter: an incidental lottery, run inside the event, and a small society lottery, registered with your council. Which one you are in depends on where and when tickets are sold, and that is exactly what raffle software changes. For smaller events I have written a plainer guide to the raffle licence question.
Can you run an electronic raffle at a charity event without a licence?
Yes, provided it meets every condition of an incidental lottery, and those conditions are stricter about tickets than most raffle apps assume. The Commission says you need no licence for a raffle held alongside a fundraising dinner, gala or fete, as long as the raffle is not the main reason for the event and the money goes to charity.
The conditions that matter once software is involved:
- Tickets can only be sold at the event’s location, while it is taking place. The Act says the same: on the premises, while the event happens. It covers England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own law.
- You can’t sell tickets online, which includes social media, or in advance.
- You must provide physical tickets. Cloakroom tickets are fine.
- You can deduct no more than £100 from the proceeds for expenses, and £500 for prizes you buy. Donated prizes have no limit.
- No rollovers. The draw can happen during the event or after it.
- The price is up to you, multi-buy discounts are allowed, and you can sell to children.
So a raffle where guests scan a QR code on the table and buy entries on their phones sits awkwardly with the Commission’s guidance, even when every buyer is in the room. The safe pattern is a physical ticket for every entry, with software handling the payment and the record. Raffle strips sold on a card reader at the desk do exactly that.
When does an online raffle platform need a registration?
As soon as you sell raffle tickets online, or before the night, you are outside the incidental exemption, and for most charities the route is a small society lottery registered with the council. The Commission says you need a registration or licence to run a lottery online, and it names fundraising platforms alongside social media.
The small society lottery rules, from the Commission’s own guidance:
| Rule | What the Commission says |
|---|---|
| Where you register | Your council. Normally £40, then £20 a year |
| Sales limit | No more than £20,000 of tickets per lottery, or £250,000 a year |
| Money to the cause | At least 20%. Prizes and expenses up to 80% |
| Prizes | No single prize over £25,000, even if donated |
| Ticket price | Every ticket costs the same, paid before entry |
| On the ticket | Society name, price, organiser’s name and address, draw date |
| Who can buy | Aged 16 and over |
| Where you can sell | Online, by phone, door to door or face to face, not in the street |
| After the draw | Details to the council within three months |
Above those limits you need an operating licence from the Commission itself. And if somebody outside your charity runs the lottery for you, they are an external lottery manager and must hold a lottery manager operating licence. If a vendor offers to run your raffle end to end, ask which licence they hold.
Three raffle app habits that can break the rules
Raffle software is built for a global market, not British lottery law. Three defaults catch charities out.
Bundle pricing in a registered lottery. Raffle advice online loves bundles: one for £10, three for £20. At an incidental lottery that is fine. In a small society lottery every ticket must cost the same, so the bundle has to go. Charity Hive gets this right: it offers bundle prices for prize competitions, not raffles.
A 50:50 draw at the event. Half the pot goes to the winner, but an incidental lottery can take no more than £500 from the proceeds for prizes. Sell £1,000 of tickets and the prize sits right on that limit. Sell £3,000 and a £1,500 prize is three times over it. A big 50:50 belongs in a registered lottery, or needs a capped prize.
A percentage fee against the £100 expenses limit. The Commission’s examples of running costs are printing tickets and hiring equipment. A 6.9% platform fee on a £3,000 raffle is £207. Whether a platform’s fee counts against that limit is a question for your council or a solicitor before the night, not after it.
What does electronic raffle software cost in the UK?
Electronic raffle software charges in one of three ways: an optional tip from ticket buyers, a percentage of sales, or a subscription. Card processing usually sits on top. These are the five that come up most for a UK charity, from their own pages in October 2026.
| Platform | How it charges for raffles |
|---|---|
| Raffall | Free plan at 15%, or 10% for fundraising. Premium £300 a year, Pro £1,500, both 10% (9% fundraising). Pricing plans |
| Zeffy | £0 to the charity, card fees covered, funded by optional tips |
| RallyUp | Free plan funded by donor tips, or Flex pricing at 6.9% on raffle entries |
| GalaBid | Free with suggested tips (10% shared back), Pro at 4.9%, or a flat fee of US$1,250 per campaign |
| Charity Hive | 3% transaction fee on raffles, plus 1.1% and 15p processing |
Against one raffle that sells £5,000 of tickets:
- Raffall’s free plan, at its fundraising rate, takes £500.
- RallyUp Flex takes £345, plus card processing.
- GalaBid Pro takes £245.
- Charity Hive takes £150, plus about £55 and 15p a sale in processing.
- Zeffy, RallyUp Free and GalaBid Free put nothing on your invoice. Your buyers are asked for a tip instead.
Raffall’s paid plans also list free-entry raffles, a different legal animal. A prize competition must turn on skill, and a free route must be no less convenient than the paid one. Otherwise it can be an illegal lottery.
Is a free raffle app really free?
A free raffle app is usually free to the charity and paid for by the ticket buyers, through a tip prompt at checkout. That is how Zeffy, GalaBid’s free plan and RallyUp’s free plan all work.
For a school raffle with no budget, that can be a fair trade. At a gala, think about what the tip actually does. The generosity is already in the room, and the tip prompt asks a guest who has just given to your cause to give again, to a software company, at the moment they feel most generous. I would rather that second ask was for the charity.
Raffle money also does less work than it looks. HMRC says a raffle ticket is not a gift but a payment for the right to enter, so it never carries Gift Aid. A pledge made as a gift, with a declaration, can.
How to choose raffle software for a gala
Ten lots in a room of two hundred means ten winners. A raffle is one of the few things every guest can join, at a price anybody can reach, which is why it deserves to be run properly. Before you pick any online raffle app:
- Decide the legal route first. Incidental or small society, then the software that fits it.
- Check whose account the money lands in. The charity’s, on the night.
- Ask if it can sell physical strips at the desk. For an incidental lottery, that is the whole game.
- Make sure the draw leaves a record a trustee could check.
- Ask whether the fee grows with your total.
Then put the raffle in its place. At the Jigsaw Trust gala, the raffle and silent auction made up the rest of a £57,600 night. The live pledge, straight after the auction, raised £30,600 on its own. The raffle is a good supporting act. It should never take the pledge’s slot.
What does the room around an electronic raffle need?
An electronic raffle needs a room that knows when tickets close and when the draw happens. The software records the entries, but a host announces the draw, builds the moment and keeps the evening moving. At a gala, a professional host makes the raffle part of the night. A small club raffle needs only the software.
Have the date, room size and where the draw sits in your running order ready. It is free when a charity books me as auctioneer and host, my fee is the only money taken, and the platform is not sold on its own. You can book me at thecharityauctioneer.uk.
How does the Generosity Works platform handle raffles?
The Generosity Works platform runs raffles and 50:50 draws in the same system as the bidding, ticketing and pledges, built for draws you can defend.
- One entry per ticket, so ten tickets really are ten chances.
- The draw records the entry list, the winning position and the time, and flags in red if anyone changes the entries afterwards. More on running your event.
- Card readers at the desk sell raffle strips in the room, counted the moment they are paid for.
- Payments go into the charity’s own Stripe account, never through Generosity Works.
- No percentage of what you raise, and no tip prompt.
It does not choose your legal route for you. Selling entries online? Register a small society lottery first. Keeping the raffle in the room? Hand over a physical ticket for every entry.
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. And if all you want is a standalone online raffle with no event attached, a dedicated raffle platform may be all you need.
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