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Aplos
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Aplos is a fund accounting system with donor management attached, and that is its strength: if your pain is the treasurer’s spreadsheet and the audit, this is the category built for it. True fund accounting, a general ledger by fund, is something almost no donor CRM offers, and Aplos publishes its rate card, which is rare in this space.
The rate card
Published, which is rare enough to note: $79/mo Lite, $129/mo Core, from $229/mo Advanced, and a quoted Custom tier for organizations past roughly $1M in revenue. Two users on Lite and Core, three on Advanced. Fifteen-day free trial, no credit card, month-to-month with no contract.
What each tier adds is genuinely accounting-shaped: Lite gets you balance sheet and income statement by fund plus bank reconciliation and 1099s; Core adds budgeting, accounts payable and receivable; Advanced adds budgeting by fund, grant, department and project.
Additional users and contacts cost extra; get those per-unit prices quoted during the trial, since they are not on the public rate card.
Processing rates, and one number to check
From the Aplos terms, in their own words: card payments run 2.9% + $0.30, ACH runs 1% + $0.30, Amex and international are typically 1% higher, and organizations that haven’t verified 501(c)(3) status pay another 1%.
The ACH rate has no cap, so check it against your gift profile: a $10,000 bank transfer costs $100.30 to process. If you receive several five-figure bank-transfer gifts a year, ask Aplos about options for those, or route them separately. Platforms that cap ACH (Donately caps it at $5) handle that specific pattern more cheaply.
How it works with QuickBooks
Worth knowing before you plan your setup: Aplos replaces QuickBooks instead of connecting to it. There is no live sync in either direction, whatever older roundup posts may suggest.
What exists instead is a clean, free migration path: export your account listing from QuickBooks to Excel, send it to Aplos support, and they load it, typically in two to five business days. The import replaces whatever is already in your Aplos account, so schedule it for your first week and not later.
Aplos recommends starting clean instead of importing historic transactions, with old reports exported and kept on file. Converting historic activity into true fund accounting is available as a separately quoted implementation project.
That is the right architecture for what it is: Aplos is the accounting software, not a layer on top of someone else’s. If your bookkeeper wants to keep QuickBooks, plan for a switch, not an addition.
One planning detail: third-party integrations start at the Core plan ($129/mo), so if you need Bloomerang, Keela or PayPal connections, budget for Core rather than Lite from the start.
Who owns it now
Aplos acquired Raisely in 2023 and Keela in 2024, and in August 2025 the three relaunched as a combined suite under a new brand, Velora. All three are still sold separately.
This matters if you’re comparing Aplos to Keela: they are the same company now, so treat that comparison as choosing between two products in one family, not two competitors.
What reviewers report
Reviews are strong on the core accounting. The practical advice from longer-term customers: ask about renewal terms before you commit and get the answer in writing, since some 2023-era reviewers described steep year-over-year increases that may or may not reflect current practice after the Velora consolidation.
Also worth testing in the trial: support response times, NSF check handling, and the filters on contribution statements, the small workflow details that matter more in month ten than in the demo.
Strengths
- Genuine fund accounting, balance sheet and income statement by fund, not a QuickBooks workaround
- Published rate card, month-to-month, 15-day trial with no credit card
- One system for the treasurer and the giving statements, which suits a one-person finance shop
Other options
- Need a fundraising CRM rather than an accounting system? Aplos leads with the books; donor management is the smaller half. If your problem is follow-up and retention, buy for that instead. Read our DonorDock write-up →
- Taking large gifts by bank transfer? Aplos charges 1% on ACH with no cap, $100 on a $10,000 transfer. Donately caps ACH at $5. Read our Donately write-up →
- Want the strongest retention reporting? Aplos reports on the books; Bloomerang reports on donor behavior. Read our Bloomerang write-up →
Keep comparing
Aplos head to head