I’m wondering whether any of you would be interested in switching to a web-based version of DONATION, running on my own servers (so you don’t have to maintain a web application on your servers), if I developed one. To be clear, I have not yet decided to do so!
I would definitely also keep offering the current way of installing and using DONATION on your own computers (not web-based).
Advantages of using a web-based version include being able to access it from any computer with an appropriate web browser (it might require Internet Explorer 7 or 8), and having multiple people access the same data, without needing a network install in your organization. Also, you would never have to worry about installing upgrades again!
Disadvantages would probably include that it would work a bit more slowly, because web applications always work more slowly than installed applications. But I wouldn’t release such an application if it didn’t work fast enough to be very usable.
Charging for a web-based version would probably be based on a monthly fee per user/login, which would probably be a bit more expensive than my current base rates. That’s both because of the advantages of the web-based system, and because it would cost me more to run it. My guess would be it might be about $10/month, per user, but really at this point I have no idea.
Please let me know what you think, preferably by adding a Reply to this blog posting. Thank you!
Personally, I would have no interest.
I like it the way it is now. No need to develop it for me.
Hi,
I think it would be a great idea – it would help for any org’s that run on a national level with more then one office.
But would your organization switch to it, Rob?
I would have no interest.
As a church with about 230 donors per year and weekly inputs, I would see no advantages and thefore have no interest in it’s development.
Hi Dan. I am very happy with the way it is. I can’t see any reason for wanting to switch. So I guess you can count me out at this time.
Thanks,
Peter
Hi Dan.
I am happy with the way the program works. The only thing that would make a web based version appealing would be if it could then be accessed with a Mac. Our church and other charitable organizations are gradually switching from PCs to Macs. I have spoken to other users of Donation and they all have said they would like to see it come out in a Mac version. Any plans for that in the foreseeable future?
I have no plans to have a Mac version of the current installed program. But on the other hand, a web-based version would almost certainly be usable from Macs. So that’s another advantage of it!
Thank you for asking, but we would have no interest in it.
We are definitely not interested in a web-based Donation.
Dan,
I have been a proponent of this idea. I use Quickbooks Online Addition for accounting and find the ability to access from wherever I am to be an advantage worth some premium price.
Having said that, there is a limit to the value.. $10 per month vs $40 per year renewal would be too much of a premium for me.
So.. under these specific conditions, I would vote “no”.. but I really do like the idea of online access.. I just wish it was more cost competitive.
BTW.. you said it might require IE 7 or 8.. this would not bring the Mac crowd into the fold.. It would need to be Safari (preferably) or Firefox for Mac compatible.
David
You’re right, David, IE 7 and 8 aren’t available for the Mac. So some of the solutions for conversion to the web that I was considering, which need a recent IE, would not work on the Mac, as you said. That would be a serious disadvantage to those options.
I would have to think about the pricing. There are a lot more expenses in running a web-based application.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Re: Pricing, by way of comparison, here are some of the cheapest web-based systems I could find, after some quick web searching:
- eTapestry (for charities, not churches) is free for up to 500 donors, but that doesn’t include support, which starts at $27/month. (It also doesn’t include any optional modules, some of which users might need.) And for over 500 donors, the base cost without support starts at $37/month and goes up from there.
- Fellowship One (a more full-featured church management system) starts at $20/month for their least feature-full version
- CongregationBuilder starts at about $20/month, for the version that includes a contributions module
- IconCMO (Church Management Online) starts at $27/month