WeGlow CRM vs CiviCRM: free software, real costs?

CiviCRM is free open source, but hosting and partners cost money. WeGlow CRM: €29/month with hosting and Belgian certificates. Compared.

CiviCRM is free to download, but a working installation is not free: you pay for hosting, setup and help. WeGlow CRM costs €29 a month for up to 1,000 contacts, €59 up to 5,000 and €89 up to 10,000, with hosting, updates and Belgian fiscal certificates included in the product. For a non-profit without a technical volunteer or a paid partner, we recommend WeGlow CRM. CiviCRM fits when you want open source, full control and have the people to run it.

At a glance

The main points side by side, as the CiviCRM and WeGlow pages show them.

CiviCRM: open source under the GNU Affero General Public License v3, made for non-profits. The software itself is free. Costs sit in hosting, partners and training.
Hosting routes, per CiviCRM: do it yourself, CiviCRM Spark ("low monthly subscription"), CiviCRM in the Cloud (pricing varies) or work with a partner ("generally more expensive").
WeGlow CRM: hosted by WeGlow, priced by contacts: €29, €59 or €89 a month (excl. VAT) at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 contacts.
Prices for CiviCRM hosting and partners: not published as figures on the pages we checked.

What does each cost at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 contacts?

With WeGlow CRM the price follows your contact band: €29 a month (€300 a year) up to 1,000, €59 (€600) up to 5,000 and €89 (€900) up to 10,000. Check the current prices in your dashboard.

For CiviCRM we cannot give a single price, and nobody honestly can. The software has no licence fee. What you pay depends on the route. If you host it yourself, you pay for a server and, more importantly, for the time of someone who keeps it updated and secure. Spark is described as a low monthly subscription, but no amount is shown on the page we read. Cloud hosting pricing varies, and partner work is described by CiviCRM itself as generally more expensive, depending on complexity. Notice that the number of contacts matters less here than the amount of customisation you want.

That makes a fair comparison hard, so here is a practical way: ask two CiviCRM partners for a quote that includes hosting for a year, the setup, a data import and training, and put that next to €300, €600 or €900 a year.

How much setup is there?

CiviCRM is a toolbox. It is powerful, and the community offers free chat support, documentation and a Stack Exchange forum. For paid help, CiviCRM points to its list of experts, and there is a paid CiviAcademy for training. All of that is real value, but it expects you to invest time or money.

WeGlow CRM is made for teams without a system administrator. The first import takes a CSV or Excel file, explains in plain language what will happen, and can be undone as a batch if something looks wrong. People are recognised by more than e-mail address. Members, volunteers, major gifts and certificates are switches in the settings.

What about Belgian specifics?

A Belgian donor can receive a fiscal certificate when they give €40 or more in a calendar year to the same organisation. In WeGlow CRM the certificates tab generates and e-mails these yearly attestations, tracks sent and failed ones and shows whether donor data is complete.

In CiviCRM, we did not find a ready Belgian certificate on the pages we read; the community may offer extensions, but we cannot verify that here, so check with a partner.

On languages: CiviCRM says it is translated into dozens of languages, and its website is available in nine, including Dutch and French. WeGlow's interface is available in Dutch, French and English, plus German and Spanish.

Donations, volunteers, members and major gifts in one place

With WeGlow CRM, your contacts, gifts, members (with dues and a sign-up form), volunteers (shifts, availability, reminders) and a major gifts pipeline with sponsorships are in one system and one contact list. Donations made through your WeGlow campaigns belong in the same place. Smart lists, tasks, automatic e-mails and reports are part of it.

CiviCRM can be configured to do many of these things, but you or your partner do the configuring, and you would need to connect it to your WeGlow donations yourself.

When does CiviCRM fit?

Open source and data ownership are principles for your organisation.
You have a technical volunteer or a partner you trust, and a budget for them.
You need custom processes that no packaged product covers.
You want to give back to a community-driven project (CiviCRM says it is sustained by contributions and financial support from its community).

Conclusion

If you want a CRM that is running this week, with a price you can read and Belgian fiscal certificates included, WeGlow CRM is the easier route for a typical Belgian or Dutch non-profit. CiviCRM is a respected open-source option when you have the technical capacity. Try WeGlow CRM in your WeGlow dashboard.

Is CiviCRM really free?

The software is free and open source. Hosting, setup, training and partner support are separate costs, and the pages we checked do not publish amounts for them.

Does WeGlow CRM include hosting?

Yes, it is a hosted service, and the price is the contact band you choose.

Can I move from CiviCRM to WeGlow CRM?

Export your contacts to CSV, import them in the CRM, read the preview and undo the batch if needed.

Do I need to pay per user in WeGlow CRM?

No. The price follows the number of contacts.

Sources

About CiviCRM: open source licence, community support, experts, translations (checked on 2 October 2026).
CiviCRM hosting and support routes: Spark, Cloud, partners, CiviAcademy, no figures published (checked on 2 October 2026).
WeGlow: CRM prices per contact band, features and languages as shown in the WeGlow dashboard (checked on 2 October 2026).