Shelterluv costs $2.00 per adoption, billed monthly. There's no setup fee, no per-user fee, no support fee, and no charge to import your data, including your history. Every other outcome, transfers, return to owner, TNR, is free. Most organizations more than cover the cost through adopter donations collected at checkout.
That's the whole answer. The rest of this page is the details behind it, because "what will this actually cost us" is a fair question, and it deserves more than one number.
There are three numbers people run together, and only the first one is a straightforward charge to your organization.
| Number | What it is | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|
| $2.00 per adoption | The software fee, billed monthly | Your organization |
| 3.4% + $0.30 per transaction | Card processing on Shelterpay | Your organization, on card payments only |
| 2.6% covered fee | Optional, added when an adopter chooses to cover fees at checkout | The adopter, and only if they opt in |
Forty adoptions in a month is an $80 software bill. Five adoptions are $10. A month where you took in animals, treated them, and transferred them out is $0.
Card processing applies only to payments run through Shelterpay. Cash and checks never touch it.
No. We don't take a cut of your adoption revenue.
Two fee-related percentages exist:
Card processing, 3.4% + $0.30. This is the processor's rate on card transactions run through Shelterpay. It's what any payment processor charges to move money, and you'd pay some version of it anywhere.
The covered fee, 2.6%. On the last screen of checkout, the adopter is given the option to cover the fees. If they say yes, the covered amount includes your card processing fees and your $2.00 software fee, plus an additional 2.6% that goes to Shelterluv. If they say no, your organization won't be charged the 2.6% fee at all.
Here's the part that matters for your budget: about 70% of Shelterpay transactions have fees covered by the adopter. Roughly seven adoptions in ten, someone standing in your lobby picks up the software cost, so you don't have to.
When an adopter completes a Shelterluv checkout on their phone, we ask them for a donation on your behalf. 71% of them give, averaging $20. Shelterluv organizations have raised more than $61 million this way.
| Adoptions per year | Software fee | Donations raised in checkout* | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | $200 | ~$1,420 | +$1,220 |
| 300 | $600 | ~$4,260 | +$3,660 |
| 600 | $1,200 | ~$8,520 | +$7,320 |
| 1,000 | $2,000 | ~$14,200 | +$12,200 |
*Assumes adoptions processed through Shelterpay checkout at the 71% / $20 average. Card processing is excluded on both sides. Your own donation rate may differ. Run the numbers on your donation potential using our Donation Predictor.
Because we'd rather be paid when the software does its job.
A flat subscription charges the same in February as it does in your worst month. A rescue that pauses intake for a summer still gets a bill. A transport group that moves 400 animals a year and adopts out nine pays a full monthly rate for outcomes we don't charge for at all.
Per-adoption pricing means the cost tracks the work. It also means a few specific kinds of organizations pay almost nothing:
With outcome-based pricing, the successful month is also the month the donations come in. The cost and the revenue arrive in the same transaction.
If you're writing a grant application in October for money you'll spend next August, a fixed line item is easier to type than a variable one.
Two things help.
Your adoption numbers are more predictable than your budget process assumes. You know roughly what last year looked like. Multiply by two dollars. A shelter that adopted out 640 animals last year is budgeting around $1,280; if the number comes in higher, so did the adoptions and the donations.
The bill has a floor of zero. A flat plan protects you from a high month by charging you in the low ones. If your intake is seasonal, or you're a foster-based rescue with an uneven year, that protection costs you money in the quiet months rather than saving it.
Everything here is in the $2.00. There are no tiers, no modules to unlock, and no add-ons.
We sell them. Adopterluv microchips are $5.95 each, in boxes of 50, with free shipping. They're coated to keep them from migrating and use a spring-action plunger, which matters more than it sounds like it does when you're chipping a wriggling terrier.
You can sign up for a free trial and use Shelterluv without talking to anyone first. Run a few intakes, enter some vaccines, send yourself a test checkout by texting cat or dog to 650-240-4964, and see what your adopters would see.
If you have questions, email us at info@shelterluv.com!