GoCardless
bank-debit collection for recurring donations and invoices
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Company | GoCardless |
| URL | gocardless.com |
| Pricing | varies— Free account, no monthly fee on the entry (Standard) tier; pay-as-you-go
per-transaction (roughly 1% with a per-payment cap -- verify current rates). US ACH is capped at $5,000 per transaction; $5 per chargeback above 15 in a month. |
| License | closed |
| Hosting | cloud |
Bank-to-bank payment collection built for recurring billing: Direct Debit (UK), SEPA (EU), ACH (US) and other local bank-debit schemes, plus an open-banking data service. It pulls funds directly from a payer's bank account -- it does NOT process Visa, Mastercard or any card network, and has no in-person/terminal capability. Best fit is predictable recurring collections: regular donations, memberships, retainers, subscriptions.
Usage Notes
Why it can be attractive for us: no monthly fee, and it's purpose-built for recurring collection (regular donors / members), which our current fundraising tools don't cover well. Because it rides bank-debit rails rather than card networks, it sidesteps card-network-driven account bans.
Deplatform caveat (important, per our criteria): self-hosting is NOT possible for GoCardless -- or any bank/card processor. Reaching Direct Debit, SEPA or ACH requires a licensed intermediary with scheme membership, which an ordinary org cannot hold, so there is always an operator who can freeze funds. GoCardless is centralized, closed-source and cloud-only; it keeps a restricted-activities list (gocardless.com/legal/restrictions) and can unilaterally suspend an account -- a hold means you cannot receive payments, with email-only support and no phone escalation. So GoCardless can never clear our self-host bar; score it as lower-risk-than-card (bank rails sidestep card-network bans), not low-risk. The only payment tool here that actually clears the self-host bar is BTCPay Server, at the cost of crypto volatility and donor familiarity.
Practical limits: online only (donors need a bank account that supports direct debit -- no card fallback); US ACH capped at $5,000/transaction; some high-risk sectors excluded. Merchant KYC verification is required before your first collection.
Rejected Alternatives
For deplatform resistance, see BTCPay Server (the only self-hostable option). The broader case against card gateways is covered on the Finance&Accounting category page.