Aplos

I like that there is great customer support and easy to understand tutorials and instruction. The team there is always helpful, quick to respond, and so patient and kind. Although I can find the help I need online most of the time, I like to talk to a real person on chat or on the phone.

There are so many types of reports for a newbie to understand that sometimes it can be a little bit overwhelming.

I loves the customer service. You could always get someone on the phone, always and that was super helpful.

I did not like that customization was limited. Branding our colors and design was limited.

I like that everything is all together in one spot - donor software, accounting, newletters and online giving forms. I like how when someone gives online through your forms that it automatically incorporates into your accounting and saves info from the giver into your contacts.

Their customer service and support is their beacon of light. Extreme strong point. It's almost as if you have nonprofit accountant on your staff to answer your questions. They answer you quickly, and their answers are always helpful. And often times they've logged in and completely helped me fix an issue. This is the best thing I love about them and something that makes them completely unique. This was a game changer for me as a brand new nonprofit and didn't know what I was doing. I can't say enough about this! This is what makes me recommend them to everyone I know that's a nonprofit leader.

The newsletter email templates and online giving forms are very template-y and don't give you a lot of control. The final product can help you get information out, however it looks pretty amateurish, which in turn makes your nonprofit/your brand, look amateurish - which is more important than most people know. If Aplos could follow constant contact's lead on design formatting they would be top notch.

The other thing I don't like is often I'm fundraising for events and have options for customers to pick (example : I want to buy tickets for an event and a tshirt for two people), or want them to be able to buy multiples of items and it really needs somewhat of a "cart" option for online giving forms.

Third, I get lots of complaints from customers about the transaction errors which make it hard to give. I get this a lot. Which can hinder givers, often they won't go back again and give again when they get an email way later that the transaction didn't go through, so you lose donations. I've addressed this with them several times, but there hasn't been any resolution. I think it has to do with that the provider they use does a micro-transaction to the bank and then banks don't approve it.

I like the fact that the checkbook register, banking information, letter writing, fundraising campaign and donation tracking is in the same software. The software is easy to use especially if you already know what you are doing. Integration was easy for us because we already was using APLOS.

I don't like that you can't deleted or change charts of accounts once created. I don't think there are products that are difficult to use but just the person knowing what to do. I didn't have to bring our information from another software, I just had to add it to APLOS.