Why we’re
actually free.
Most wedding registries call themselves “free” while quietly charging 2.5% on every cash gift. Donum doesn’t. Here’s the math.
There are two kinds of fees on a cash wedding gift. The platform fee is what the registry company keeps for itself. The processing fee is what the credit card network charges everyone (Visa, Mastercard, etc.). It runs about 2.9% + 30¢ on every online card payment.
Zola, The Knot, and Joy charge a 2.5% platform fee on top of processing. That’s revenue for them. On a $5,000 cash fund, that’s $125 they keep before the rest reaches you.
Donum charges 0%. Always. We make money from optional affiliate commissions on the items you add to your registry, not by taxing your guests’ gifts.
What about the processing fee? Stripe (our payment processor) charges 2.9% + 30¢ on each card payment, just like everyone else. By default at checkout, your guests can choose to cover this fee themselves so 100% of their gift reaches you. Most do. It’s a single click. If a guest opts out, that small fee comes out of their gift.
On a $100 gift with the default fee-cover on, you receive $100. On a Zola cash fund, you receive $97.50. That’s the difference, gift by gift.
Cash funds flow directly from guests through Stripe to your bank account. Donum never holds the money, which keeps things simple legally, and means we’re not a money-handling middleman that could go down or freeze your funds.