Custom URL. Phone-first bidding. No app to install, no account to create. Donors tap, bid, and stay engaged through outbid alerts and a live leaderboard. The platform behind 130,500+ causes since 2008.
"Almost double last year." — Sarah, PTA Pres.
An online silent auction means your donors never have to be in the same room as your items — or each other — for the fundraiser to work. That's been the dominant model for nonprofit fundraising since 2020, and the data is clear it isn't going back. The question stopped being "should we run online?" and became "how do we run online without losing the energy that made silent auctions raise more than direct asks in the first place?"
32auctions was built for this shift before there was a shift. Since 2008, organizers have used the platform to run 130,500+ online auctions for schools, churches, nonprofits, sports teams, and families. The core insight: online auctions live or die on three things — can donors find the auction page, can they bid in under thirty seconds, and can you collect the money once they win? We built the entire platform around those three questions.
This page covers the full picture of running an online silent auction on 32auctions: how the bidder experience works without an app or account, the features that drive engagement through long auction windows, the actual pricing (transparent — no sales call), how we compare to Handbid, OneCause, GiveSmart, and other platforms, and answers to the questions most organizers ask before they launch their first online auction.
Every painful step of a silent auction, rebuilt for how organizers actually run them.
Paper bid sheets. Midnight recounts. The runner who lost the form.
Every bid lands on every device in real time. Auto-bidding, outbid alerts, and a live leaderboard drive the final-minute frenzy. Final totals reconcile themselves the second the auction closes.
Praying donors show up. Praying they brought a checkbook.
Your custom URL is the only thing donors need. No app, no account, no friction. Outbid texts and emails keep them in the auction until the final minute.
Chasing winners for payment for the next three weeks.
When your auction closes, every winner gets their invoice. Most pay by card within an hour through your own Stripe or PayPal account — we never sit in the middle of your money.
Not a kitchen-sink feature list. The capabilities that consistently separate auctions that work from auctions that flop.
About three of every four bids on 32auctions happen on a mobile phone. That single fact drives the entire bidder UX. Your auction lives at a custom URL — donors tap it from your email, text, or social post and they're in. No app store. No account creation form. No email verification. Browse items, tap a bid button, enter name and email if they're winning the bid. Done. The same flow works on every modern phone and tablet, and large tap targets, fast-loading images, and mobile-keyboard-friendly forms mean the conversion rate from page-view to bid is meaningfully higher than apps that require installation friction.
Online auctions typically run five to ten days, not the two-hour window of an in-person gala. That changes the engagement math. Auto-bidding lets a donor set a maximum bid once and walk away — the platform incrementally outbids competitors on their behalf until they hit the max. They win without ever checking the page again. Outbid notifications (email free, text on upgrade) pull casual bidders back at the moment they're most likely to bid again. Together these features explain why online auctions on 32auctions don't suffer the middle-of-the-week engagement decay that kills competitor platforms.
Most online silent auctions earn 30-40% of their total in the final hour. The live leaderboard makes that frenzy possible — it shows top items, leading bidders, and the time remaining in real-time across every device. Extended bidding (also called auction sniping protection) automatically extends the window if a bid lands in the last few minutes, which keeps competitive bidding wars going to their natural conclusion instead of being cut off arbitrarily. Optionally project the leaderboard on screens at a venue if you're running a hybrid event with an in-person component.
Your auction has its own URL from the moment you create it — something like 32a.com/your-event. Easy to email. Easy to text. Easy to drop into a social post. The free base auction shows our house ads on the page. The Apply Your Brand upgrade (included in the Most Popular package) lets you upload your logo, set a custom color scheme, add a banner image, reorder page sections, and customize section headings — so the auction page looks like your organization, not a generic template.
While the auction is running, you see what's happening live. Page views by day shows whether your marketing is working (or whether to send another email). Active bidders shows engagement. Total raised so far ticks up in real time. Item performance data (Advanced Insights upgrade) shows which items are overperforming and which need promotion. Projected total, based on the fair-market-value of items, lets you set realistic goals and pace your promotion. Google Analytics integration is supported for organizations that want deeper marketing attribution.
When the auction ends, every winner is automatically invoiced through your own Stripe or PayPal account (Online Payment Collection upgrade). Most pay by card within an hour. Funds deposit on the standard Stripe or PayPal schedule (typically two business days in the US). 32auctions adds a 2.9% + $0.40 transaction fee per online payment, on top of Stripe/PayPal's own rate. Prefer to handle payments yourself? Use self-managed payments — cash, check, your own existing processor — at no 32auctions transaction fee.
The end-to-end workflow most organizers follow on 32auctions, in the order they follow it.
Create your account. No credit card. Three minutes.
Name it. Pick start and end dates. Choose privacy settings.
Upload photos, write descriptions, set starting bids and bid increments. Import from a spreadsheet if you have one from last year.
Free base supports 20 items with house ads. The Most Popular package (about $170) removes ads, adds branding, expands items and images, unlocks text notifications.
Link your Stripe or PayPal account for automatic winner invoicing, or use self-managed payments at no 32auctions transaction fee.
Share your custom URL via email, text, social media, and printed materials. Auction goes live at your scheduled time.
Real-time insights, live leaderboard, automatic outbid notifications — the platform handles engagement automatically.
When the auction ends, winners are invoiced. Funds deposit. Export your treasurer reports. Send thank-yous.
The full pricing model, plainly stated. Use this to compare against any competitor — we publish ours; most of them require you to talk to sales to find theirs.
Free base auction (free forever): Up to 20 items, 1 image per item, custom auction URL, real-time mobile bidding, outbid email notifications, real-time auction insights, proxy/Buy Now bidding, basic donor and sponsor promotion, unlimited bidders, email support. Funded by house ads displayed on the auction page.
Optional upgrades, à la carte or as packages:
The Most Popular package — about $170 per event: The pre-built combination most organizers pick. Removes house ads, adds your branding, expands items and images, unlocks text notifications.
The Works package: All upgrades bundled, for organizers who want everything.
Transaction fees on payment collection: When you use the Online Payment Collection upgrade, 32auctions adds 2.9% + $0.40 per online payment, on top of whatever Stripe or PayPal charges. Or use self-managed payments (cash, check, your own processor) and pay no 32auctions transaction fee.
What we never charge: No annual contract. No commission on what you raise. No platform fee on donations. No minimums.
Honest, sourced comparison. Pricing changes — verify with each vendor before purchase.
| 32auctions | Handbid | OneCause | GiveSmart | Bloomerang Fundraising | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free (base auction) | From $1,396/yr | From $200 + 5% on funds raised | Custom (no public pricing) | Bundled with CRM (~$3K+/yr) |
| Pricing model | Pay per event (~$170 package) | Annual subscription | Subscription OR pay-as-you-go | Annual subscription | Annual subscription |
| Free tier? | Yes — base auction free forever | No | No | No | No |
| Bidder requires app? | No — web-based | Yes — native iOS/Android app | No — web-based | No — web-based | No — web-based |
| Bidder requires account? | No | Yes (in-app) | Yes (registration) | Yes (registration) | Yes |
| Transaction fee on online payments | 2.9% + $0.40 (32a) on top of Stripe/PayPal — OR $0 with self-managed payments | 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction | 5% pay-later on pay-as-you-go; varies by plan | Custom (sales-led) | 2.9% + $0.30 (standard processing) |
| Years in market | Since 2008 (17+ years) | Since 2010 | Since 2008 | Acquired by Community Brands | Auction tools via Qgiv acquisition |
| Best for | 1-4 events/yr, schools, churches, small/mid nonprofits | Mid-to-large nonprofits with annual gala budgets | Larger nonprofits running multiple events/yr | Large nonprofits, schools, associations | Existing Bloomerang CRM customers |
Pricing and feature data sourced from each vendor's public pricing pages and verified third-party listings on G2, Capterra, and GetApp (Nov 2025-Apr 2026). Pricing changes — always confirm current rates directly with vendors before purchase. 32auctions transaction fees apply only when using the Online Payment Collection upgrade; self-managed payments carry no 32auctions transaction fee.
Stories from preschool PTOs to verified G2 reviewers. The metric we care most about: did they use 32auctions again the next year?
So easy, so smooth, and so fun. Our preschool has used them for many, many years for the biggest fundraiser of our school year — and every year it just works. Entering items is simple. The presentation to our families is great. Wrapping it up is easy.
The site was easy to set up and worked like a charm for our first fundraiser. The remote bidding features were the best part — administrators could post items in minutes and see who'd bid on what in real time. We raised more than I projected.
No marketing-speak. Just the truth about how the platform actually works for online silent auction.
How long should an online silent auction run?
Most successful online-only auctions on 32auctions run five to ten days. Shorter than that and casual bidders never see it; longer than that and engagement decays in the middle. The most successful close time we see is Sunday evening between 7-9pm local — that's when phone engagement spikes. For hybrid events with an in-person closing party, the online window typically opens 5-7 days before the in-person event and closes at the event itself.
Do bidders really not need to download an app?
Correct. 32auctions is web-based, not app-based. Bidders tap the link, the auction loads in their phone's browser, and they're in. This is a deliberate choice — bidder app installs cause measurable drop-off (anywhere from 20-50% depending on demographic), especially among older donors and people who don't routinely install new apps. Going app-free is one of the reasons engagement rates on 32auctions tend to be high for the donor demographics nonprofits actually reach.
Can multiple bidders bid at the same time?
Yes — the platform updates bids in real time across every device. If two bidders place bids within milliseconds of each other, the platform handles the contention cleanly and notifies the losing bidder immediately. Auto-bidding kicks in as well — if Donor A set a max of $200 and Donor B places a $150 bid, the platform auto-bids $155 on behalf of Donor A and notifies Donor B that they've been outbid.
How does an online silent auction compare to an in-person silent auction in terms of money raised?
Online auctions typically raise more, not less, than the same auction run in person. Two reasons: the bidding window extends from one evening to a week or more (more time for bids to land), and the audience expands to anyone with the link (grandparents, alumni, friends-of-the-family who couldn't physically attend). The trade-off is the absence of in-person event energy — which is why hybrid events (online auction + in-person closing party) are increasingly common and often outperform either pure format.
How do donors find my online auction?
You promote it. The platform doesn't generate traffic — your existing channels do. Email is consistently the highest-converting channel (typically 5-10x social media for auction promotion). Send a launch email, a midpoint email, and a closing-day email. Drop the URL in your social media, your website, and every group chat you have. Print the URL on any physical materials. Most successful online auctions get 60-70% of their bidders from email.
What happens if my internet goes out at the venue during a hybrid event?
The auction continues running on the platform regardless of any single device or local network. Bidders on their own data connections keep bidding. If you need to manually close the auction or make adjustments and your venue WiFi is down, switch to your phone's hotspot — the admin dashboard is mobile-responsive.
Is there a limit to how many bidders my online auction can have?
No. The free base auction supports unlimited bidders, as do all paid upgrades. We've run auctions with thousands of registered bidders. The 20-item cap on the free base is a more typical constraint to hit — most organizations running anything beyond a small casual auction add the More Items upgrade to expand.
Name it now. Set it up tonight. Share it tomorrow. Free base auction. No credit card. No commitment.