Zola's 2.5% cash fund fee, explained

If you set up a Zola cash fund and a guest pays with a credit or debit card, Zola takes 2.5% off the top before the rest reaches you. The Knot does the same thing. Joy does too. Donum doesn't charge any platform fee — and most guests opt to cover the underlying card processing themselves so 100% of their gift reaches you.

This is a short, specific explanation of what that fee is, who it actually hits, and what it adds up to over a real wedding.

What the fee is, mechanically

The 2.5% is publicly documented in Zola's fee schedule and in The Knot's. It's described as a "credit card processing fee", but it isn't passed through at cost. Standard credit-card processing in the US is about 2.9% + 30¢ for online transactions. The 2.5% Zola charges is a markdown of that, taken from the couple, while Zola separately negotiates lower processor rates with their volume.

In short: it's a margin, not a passthrough. They're keeping some of it. The honest version is that Zola charges a platform fee (their margin) plus passes through processing cost — that's what's on every other web business's fee table.

Who actually pays

The fee is taken from the couple, not the guest. A guest who sends $500 sees $500 leave their account. The couple receives $487.50.

This matters because the framing on Zola's site implies the guest pays it ("the fee is added"). At the moment of payment, that may be cosmetically true, but the money flows to Zola, not to the couple. From the guest's perspective they sent $500. From the couple's perspective they got $487.50. The math is the math.

What it adds up to

The average couple managing a cash fund on Zola or Knot loses between $100 and $400 to processing fees alone, depending on guest mix.

A few realistic scenarios, assuming all card payments and average guest contributions:

• Small wedding, $4,000 in cash gifts: $100 to Zola.
• Median wedding, $8,000 in cash gifts: $200 to Zola.
• Big wedding, $20,000 in cash gifts: $500 to Zola.

This is the literal cost of using Zola or The Knot for a cash fund instead of a registry that doesn't take a cut.

Why this exists

Cash funds are popular and increasingly the way couples want to be gifted. They also have to be processed somehow, which means card fees. Zola and The Knot found a number (2.5%) that's close enough to the real processing cost to feel reasonable, but high enough to be margin. They then quietly book it as revenue.

Joy charges the same 2.5%. PayPal Honeyfund charges 2.9%. None of these are the same as the platform being free. Donum charges 0% as a platform fee. The card processor (Stripe, in our case) still charges its 2.9% + 30¢ for moving money — but that's just what cards cost, and we let guests opt to cover it for the couple at checkout (default-on, ~80% adoption industry-typical).

The cleaner version

The way to make this not a fee on the couple is to ask each guest if they'd like to cover it (default-on at checkout, ~80% adoption industry-typical) and let affiliate revenue from physical-gift purchases fund the platform. Donum does both.

That's the entire trick. There isn't a hidden one.

What to ask before picking a registry

1. Is the cash-fund fee zero on every payment method, or only on bank transfer? Some registries waive the fee on ACH but charge on cards, where >80% of guest payments actually happen.
2. Is there a cap on the cash fund? Some platforms cap individual contributions; some cap total cash funds.
3. Is the fee transparent in the receipt? A platform that's confident in its model will show the fee on the couple's dashboard, not bury it.

The bottom line

If you're cash-fund-heavy, the fee structure of your platform is the single biggest financial decision in your registry. A free physical registry with a 2.5% cash fee is a 2.5% cash registry, call it what it is.

If you want a registry that's actually free on cash, we built one.

The right question to ask any registry is: what's your platform fee on cash gifts, separate from card processing? If they don't disambiguate, treat the answer as "the whole thing." Donum's answer: 0%, always.