PTO Homeroom compared
Head-to-head against the tools most parent groups are already paying for — on published rates, checked 9 September 2026, with the places each competitor wins called out.
What it really costs
The published rates, side by side.
Notice the fundraising column. That's the one that hits your biggest event of the year — and it's the number hardest to find on a pricing page.
These are PTO and PTA platforms — tools meant to run the whole organization. General collection tools like Cheddar Up or SignUpGenius do one slice well and aren't a like-for-like comparison; if you're weighing one of those, we wrote about that separately.
| Platform | Subscription | Fee on payments | Fee on fundraisers | Processing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homeroom | $0 | 3% | 3% | Your own Stripe · fees shown at checkout |
| PTBoard | $65–400/yr | 0.7% + 20¢ | 5% | Your own PayPal/Stripe |
| RunPTO | $299/yr | not published | not published | Your own Stripe/PayPal · flat price, 30-day trial |
| Givebacks | $499–599/yr* | 1.05% + 65¢ | 7.5% | Stripe only · *free for partner-state PTAs |
| Membership Toolkit | $550–1,150/yr | 0% | 0% | LumaPay 2.89% + 30¢ · text add-on extra |
| Konstella | not published | not published | not published | No pricing page — schools are asked to request information |
Why this is hard to check yourself: one leading platform's pricing page says only that “a transaction fee applies,” and its terms note it takes “a percentage of each monetary transaction.” The actual rates — 0.7% + 20¢ on payments, 5% on fundraising campaigns — appear only inside its own training site. We'd rather just print ours.
Published vendor rates as of 22 Aug 2026; tiers, add-ons, and processing options vary and change. Percentages exclude card processing except where noted. Check each vendor for current pricing.
Running a fun run?
What the a-thon vendors actually take.
This is the event that funds your year, so it's the fee that matters most. Watch for “0% platform fee” — it often means a donor surcharge switched on by default.
- 3%HomeroomPublished platform fee, shown at checkout. No subscription, no donor tip prompt.
- 15%Boosterthon — MyBoosterHelp center: “the Total Fees Withheld will always be 15% of the Paid Donations.”
- Not publishedGet Movin'Donors are asked to add a “credit” that covers the fee. They cite ~4% average after credits; the gross rate appears nowhere.
- 35–50%Boosterthon — full serviceSliding scale on gross collected, plus a $2,000 non-refundable base cost (2021 executed contract).
The gap worth knowing: one managed vendor markets that “schools keep 95%,” while its own help center states the baseline is 85% — the rest only comes back when donors volunteer to cover the fee. We'd rather publish one number and keep it.
Verified 22 Aug 2026 from vendor pricing pages, help centers, and live checkout pages; Boosterthon full-service figures are from an executed program contract published in a Kentucky school-board record (2021) and may not reflect current terms. Card processing applies on every platform, including ours. Check each vendor for current pricing.
Coverage, not features
The others each do a slice. You end up buying all of them.
That's why the real cost isn't one platform's rate — it's the stack. Homeroom is the whole column in one tool.
| Homeroom | Comms + dues platform | A-thon vendor | Bookkeeping tool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Announcements to every family | ||||
| Roster, classes and directory | ||||
| Membership dues | ||||
| Store and spirit wear | ||||
| Event tickets and volunteer signups | ||||
| Fun run / a-thon with student pages | ||||
| Goals and prizes at every level | ||||
| Receipt capture and reimbursements | ||||
| Budget vs. actual and the books | ||||
| One subscription, one fee |
Covered Partial or add-on Not coveredCompared by category; individual products vary — check each vendor.
Compared to the tool you're using now.
Each page covers pricing, the fundraising cut, what transfers when you switch — and an honest section on where that tool beats us.
PTO and PTA platforms
Tools built to run the whole organization — the real like-for-like comparison.
PTO Homeroom vs PTBoard
The long-running incumbent — cheap subscription, but the fundraising fee is the one to find.
PTO Homeroom vs Givebacks
Formerly MemberHub. Free for PTAs in partner states — but the fundraiser fee is the highest here.
PTO Homeroom vs Membership Toolkit
0% on dues and store — but 3% on peer-to-peer fundraising, on top of the highest subscription in the category.
PTO Homeroom vs RunPTO
Treasurer-first, one flat price, and they take nothing per transaction.
PTO Homeroom vs Konstella
Loved for parent communication. You can't compare the price, because they don't publish one.
PTO Homeroom vs MemberHub (now Givebacks)
The name most PTA boards still say. MemberHub became Givebacks in June 2023 — same product, same pricing, new logo.
Fundraising vendors
They run one event a year and take a cut of it. Most schools use one of these alongside a platform.
Adjacent tools
Good at one slice of the job. Not a PTO platform, and we don't pretend otherwise.