Comparison
PTO Homeroom vs Membership Toolkit
No platform fee at all — but the highest subscription in the category, before add-ons.
The short answer
Membership Toolkit really does take 0% of your transactions — you pay for that in the subscription, which starts at $550 and runs to $1,150.
All figures below are the vendors' own published rates, checked on 22 August 2026. Pricing changes — verify with each vendor before deciding.
Pricing, side by side
| PTO Homeroom | Membership Toolkit | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $0 | $550 – $1,150 / year |
| Fee on payments | 2% | 0% |
| Fee on fundraisers | 2% | 0% |
| Card processing | Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ | LumaPay 2.89% + 30¢ |
| Fees passable to the payer | Yes — shown at checkout and covered by the payer by default | Not published |
| Processor lock-in | No — funds settle to your PTO's own Stripe account | Effectively — LumaPay is their own processor |
Membership Toolkit tiers: Essential $550 · Premium $850 · Concierge $1,150. Billed yearly; no monthly option published.
What a $22,000 year actually nets
Assumes an average payment of $36.67 and that 55% of the total comes from your big fundraiser — the part vendors price differently.
PTO Homeroom
$22,000
No subscription; our 2% is covered at checkout, so you bank the sticker.
Membership Toolkit
$20,733
$1,267 to subscription and fees
What to watch for with Membership Toolkit
$550 to $1,150 every year
Before a single dollar is raised. On a $22,000 year the Essential tier alone is 2.5% of everything you bring in.
The add-on ladder is real
Text messaging is $2.50/month plus 2¢ per text beyond a small annual allowance.
The alternative processor is costlier than it looks
Their PaySimple partner rate is interchange-plus with a $15.00/month software fee, a $5.95/month PCI fee and a 49¢ batch fee — roughly $252 a year on top of the subscription, before any card is charged.
Whether fees can be passed to families isn't published
We could find no vendor statement either way, so our comparison assumes the PTO absorbs them.
Where Membership Toolkit is the better choice
We'd rather you pick the right tool than the one that wrote the comparison.
A genuine 0% platform fee
They take nothing per transaction. If your PTO moves a very large amount of money, a flat subscription can beat a percentage — run the numbers at your volume, not ours.
Mature, feature-deep product
Long-established with a wide feature set and a Concierge tier that includes hands-on help.
Predictable budgeting
One known annual line item is easier for some treasurers to plan around than a variable percentage.
Choose Membership Toolkit if…
They take nothing per transaction. If your PTO moves a very large amount of money, a flat subscription can beat a percentage — run the numbers at your volume, not ours.
Choose PTO Homeroom if…
You want one tool instead of three, no annual subscription, a published fee you can explain to any parent, and your fundraiser, roster, communication and books in the same place.
Sources
- Membership Toolkit — Pricing
- Membership Toolkit — Donations & sales (0% claim)
- Membership Toolkit — PaySimple partner rate card
Checked 22 August 2026. We don't republish figures a vendor doesn't publish; anything unstated is marked “not published” rather than estimated.
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