Software/Live auction software
Live auction software, for an auction somebody is actually calling.
Most software described as “live” means a countdown on a web page. This is built for the other kind: a person on a microphone, a room in front of them, and people bidding from their phones at home in the same lot.
Auction software for live auctions is software an auctioneer runs from a console while a room bids and guests join online. If you are searching for free auctioneer software, the Generosity Works platform is included when a charity books Kevin Durham as its auctioneer and host, and it is not sold on its own.
In short
- A live auction has somebody calling it, so the software has to follow the auctioneer’s pace rather than run a timer.
- Bids from the room and bids from guests online compete on the same lot at the same price.
- A bid from the floor carries no name, and the paddle is matched to a person afterwards.
- The platform is free when a charity books Kevin as auctioneer and host, and is not sold on its own.
Two things are called a live auction, and they are not the same
The first is a silent auction with a clock on it. Lots open, a timer runs, the highest bid when it stops wins. Nobody is speaking. Almost every platform that advertises live auction software means this one, and it is genuinely useful.
The second is an auction. Somebody is calling it. The pace is theirs, not a timer’s: they put a lot up, watch the bids land, decide when it is finished and knock it down. That is the shape this page is about, and it is the one most software cannot do at all, because a countdown cannot be persuaded to wait while an auctioneer works a room.
And there is a third shape, which is neither: no room at all, the auction called to camera and broadcast to several platforms at once. That has its own page, because the software problem is genuinely different once nobody is in the building: virtual auction software.
Running a silent auction alongside? Our auction software for silent auctions covers outbid alerts, bidding from the table and payment at the close.
Is there free auctioneer software?
Yes, in one specific way. The Generosity Works platform is free when a charity books Kevin Durham as its auctioneer and host, and it is not sold on its own. His fee is the only money taken: no percentage of what you raise and no tip prompt for your donors. The terms are on the pricing page.
Free software from other suppliers is paid for some other way. GalaBid’s free plan, for example, is funded by tips from your donors, according to its own pricing page, as I set out in my GalaBid breakdown. My guide to free online charity auction sites compares the free options. If you want an auctioneer and the software together, book Kevin through The Charity Auctioneer.
The auctioneer needs a console, not a dashboard
Ours is called the Rostrum. Every lot on one screen with its live price and who is winning it, built for a phone held one-handed at seven in the evening, because that is what an auctioneer is actually holding. One tap puts a lot up. Two taps sell it, and the second tap is deliberate, because selling is the one thing you cannot take back with a shrug.
Undo exists anyway, for ten minutes, for the tap that lands on the wrong row. It refuses once the winner has paid, at which point it is not a mis-tap, it is a refund, and that belongs in the accounts rather than on the console.
Auction software for live auctions: what the auctioneer’s console must do
Auction software for live auctions needs a console an auctioneer can run one-handed. Every lot shows its live price and leader, one tap puts a lot up, a deliberate second tap sells it, undo covers a mis-tap, and bids from the room compete with online bids at the same price. Without those it is a countdown timer.
- Show every lot on one screen with its current price and who is winning it.
- Put a lot up with one tap, and sell it with a second, deliberate tap.
- Allow an undo for a wrong-row tap, and refuse once the winner has paid.
- Take a bid from the floor without asking for a name, and match the paddle to a person afterwards.
- Answer the room automatically when an online bidder has set a standing maximum.
- Let any lot run on a short clock when you want one, with its own anti-snipe guard sized to the lot.
These are the tests I would put to any supplier, mine included. Ask to see each of them done on a phone, with a lot live, before you sign.
Bids from the room, competing with bids from the sofa
This is the part that decides whether the software is any use. An auctioneer with a room in front of him has to be able to take a bid from somebody standing there, and it has to compete with everybody watching at home in the same lot, on the same price.
He does not stop to ask their name. Nobody has ever run an auction that way, and a lot loses its shape the moment somebody is asked to spell an email address. So a bid from the floor carries no identity at all; the paddle is matched to a person afterwards, from a queue built for exactly that.
The part nobody thinks about until it costs them. If somebody bidding online has told the platform they will go to £1,000, the room must not get the lot at £500 simply because they are in the building. A standing maximum answers the room automatically, the way an absentee bid on the book has always answered a saleroom.
A clock, when you want one
Any lot can be put up with sixty seconds on it and closed the moment it runs out. It is worth having for the middle of an evening, where a deadline short enough to watch does more than talking louder.
Anti-snipe is the trap here, and it is worth knowing that we walked into it. The usual guard extends a lot when a bid lands near the end, by default two minutes. On a sixty-second lot that guard is longer than the whole auction, so every bid extends it and the clock never reaches zero. A flash lot carries its own guard, sized against its own length.
Watching, on a page that is not YouTube
Guests at home get the stream and the lot side by side, with the bidding controls under the thumb. The lot panel sits beside the video rather than on top of it, because text over a moving picture is unreadable and a bid button floating over a stream is a button people mis-tap.
The bid buttons offer a stated amount rather than opening a box that asks for a maximum. In a live auction the auctioneer is calling a number and the viewer is answering it. “What is the most you would pay?” is the wrong question mid-call, and it loses the bid.
What it costs, and whose money it is
You enter your own Stripe keys, so every payment lands in the charity’s own account. We never hold your donors’ money and we add no transaction fee of our own. The platform is included in every engagement, and is not sold on its own.
Who calls the lots if you buy live auction software?
Live auction software does not call the lots. A charity running a live auction still needs a person on the stage who holds the room, takes bids from the floor and from phones at the same pace, and knows when to stop. That person is the auctioneer, and the software sits behind them.
A short run of lots at a small event can be called by a confident volunteer. For a larger room, have the date, the lot list and a rough idea of how many guests will bid online. The Generosity Works platform comes free with my hire as auctioneer and host. My fee is the only money taken, and the platform is never sold alone. Find me at thecharityauctioneer.uk.
Live auction software: quick questions
Can guests bid online during a live auction?
Yes. A guest at home bids on the same lot at the same price as the room, and a bid from either side counts.
Does the auctioneer have to ask a floor bidder’s name?
No. A bid from the floor carries no identity at the time. The paddle is matched to a person afterwards, so the lot keeps its pace.
Does the software come with an auctioneer?
On its own, no: it is software. When a charity books Kevin as its auctioneer and host, the platform is included. A live auction needs someone calling it, which is why the two go together.
Does it take a percentage of what we raise?
No. You enter your own Stripe keys, so payments go straight to the charity’s account, and Generosity Works adds no transaction fee of its own. Kevin’s fee is the only money taken.
No obligation, and never a percentage of what you raise
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