Head to head
BigHearts-Charity&DonationWordPressThemevsKrowd-Crowdfunding&CharityWordPressTheme
Choosing between BigHearts and Krowd comes down to one core question: does your organization primarily run donation campaigns, or do you need a full crowdfunding platform where supporters can launch and fund their own projects? Both are well-maintained WordPress themes built for nonprofits, but they serve meaningfully different operational models — and picking the wrong one means rebuilding your site later.
Assessed on documented capabilities & licensing · updated
Straight answers
Which theme is better for a traditional nonprofit collecting donations?
BigHearts - Charity & Donation WordPress Theme is the better pick for traditional nonprofits. It centers on GiveWP integration, a leading WordPress donation plugin, and ships with purpose-built charity pages designed around cause storytelling and donor conversion. Krowd is built around peer-to-peer crowdfunding mechanics, which adds complexity a standard donation-focused organization simply doesn't need.
Which theme is better for running crowdfunding campaigns where the public can create projects?
Krowd - Crowdfunding & Charity WordPress Theme is the clear choice for crowdfunding platforms. It integrates with WP Crowdfunding and WooCommerce, giving site owners the infrastructure to host multiple user-submitted projects with funding goals and progress tracking. BigHearts - Charity & Donation WordPress Theme lacks dedicated crowdfunding plugin support, making Krowd the only real option here.
Which theme has stronger market validation?
BigHearts - Charity & Donation WordPress Theme has stronger market validation by sales volume, with roughly twice the total sales of Krowd - Crowdfunding & Charity WordPress Theme. Krowd counters with a perfect 5.00/5 buyer rating from 55 reviews, suggesting very high satisfaction among its users. Both are actively maintained as of mid-2026, so either represents a low-risk purchase from that angle.
Which theme is easier to get started with for a non-technical site owner?
BigHearts - Charity & Donation WordPress Theme has a slight edge for non-technical users. Its Elementor Header & Footer Builder integration keeps the learning curve manageable, and the GiveWP plugin it relies on is extensively documented with a large support community. Krowd - Crowdfunding & Charity WordPress Theme also uses Elementor, but the added WooCommerce and WP Crowdfunding stack introduces more moving parts to configure.
At a glance
| BigHearts - Charity & Donation WordPress ThemeOur pick | Krowd - Crowdfunding & Charity WordPress Theme | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | WebGeniusLab | gavias |
| Type | Theme | Theme |
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid |
| What you pay for | — | — |
| Best for | Nonprofits, NGOs, and charities that need a polished donation-focused website powered by GiveWP. | Organizations or entrepreneurs building a multi-campaign crowdfunding platform with WooCommerce and WP Crowdfunding. |
The breakdown
Who Each Theme Is Built For
BigHearts - Charity & Donation WordPress Theme by WebGeniusLab is designed for the classic charitable organization: a nonprofit, NGO, foundation, or cause-driven group that wants a polished public-facing website with a reliable donation pipeline. The theme's integration with GiveWP — one of WordPress's most established donation management plugins — means your fundraising infrastructure is handled by a well-supported tool with its own ecosystem of payment gateways and reporting add-ons. If your primary goal is to present compelling cause pages and funnel visitors toward one-time or recurring donations, BigHearts is architected exactly for that workflow.
Krowd - Crowdfunding & Charity WordPress Theme by gavias targets a different operational model: organizations or entrepreneurs who want to run a platform where multiple campaigns or projects can be listed, tracked, and funded by the public. Its integration with WP Crowdfunding and WooCommerce enables project-based fundraising with individual goals, progress bars per campaign, and the commerce layer needed to handle contributor transactions at scale. Think Kickstarter-style mechanics rather than a charity donation button.
Feature Depth
BigHearts
- GiveWP integration for donation forms, donor management, and payment processing
- Elementor Header & Footer Builder for flexible, no-code layout control
- Purpose-built inner pages for causes, events, and volunteer sections
- Charity-oriented homepage designs focused on storytelling and conversion
- 3,100+ sales and a 4.33/5 rating across 75 reviews — a solid track record in a competitive niche
Krowd
- WP Crowdfunding + WooCommerce for multi-campaign project management
- Elementor page builder for visual customization
- Campaign progress tracking and goal-based funding displays
- Crowdfunding project pages designed for individual campaign storytelling
- Perfect 5.00/5 rating from 55 reviews — a smaller but highly satisfied user base
Pricing Model
Both themes are sold under a standard one-time ThemeForest Regular License, which covers a single end product used by one client or for one site. Neither requires a subscription for the theme itself, though the plugins each theme relies on may have their own free and premium tiers. GiveWP, for instance, offers a free core plugin with paid add-ons for advanced payment gateways and features; WooCommerce is free but WP Crowdfunding has its own licensing costs to consider. Krowd carries a lower upfront theme price, but buyers should budget for plugin costs on both sides before assuming one is meaningfully cheaper overall.
Learning Curve and Setup Complexity
BigHearts leans on GiveWP and Elementor — both of which have extensive documentation, active communities, and a large pool of third-party tutorials. For a site owner without a developer, this ecosystem reduces friction considerably. The theme's inner pages are purpose-built for charity use cases, meaning less custom design work out of the box.
Krowd introduces more technical surface area: Elementor handles design, but WooCommerce adds a shop/payment layer, and WP Crowdfunding adds campaign logic on top of that. For someone comfortable with WordPress, this stack is manageable. For a volunteer-run nonprofit with limited technical resources, the three-plugin dependency creates more configuration and maintenance overhead.
Lock-In and Migration Risk
Both themes carry typical WordPress lock-in caveats: donation or campaign data tied to GiveWP or WP Crowdfunding lives in those plugins' database structures, not in the theme itself. Swapping themes later is relatively low-risk for design; migrating donor records or campaign data to a different plugin is the harder problem. Buyers should evaluate the plugin choice as carefully as the theme choice — you're committing to that plugin's ecosystem more than to the theme's visual style.
Ecosystem and Long-Term Support
BigHearts was last updated in July 2026 and Krowd in June 2026 — both authors are actively maintaining their products, which is a meaningful indicator of long-term viability. WebGeniusLab's larger sales volume (3,100+ vs. 1,600+) suggests a broader installed base, which typically correlates with more community Q&A available in forums. Gavias's perfect satisfaction rating, however, signals that buyers who do purchase Krowd tend to get exactly what they expected — a strong sign of honest, accurate product positioning.
The verdict
Most readers landing on this comparison run traditional nonprofits and donation-based campaigns — and for them, BigHearts - Charity & Donation WordPress Theme is the sensible default. It has a larger installed base, a mature GiveWP integration, and a simpler plugin stack for non-technical teams. Krowd - Crowdfunding & Charity WordPress Theme is the right pick only when you specifically need a multi-campaign crowdfunding platform with user-submitted projects; for that use case, it's genuinely the better-suited tool.
Questions, answered
Can BigHearts handle crowdfunding-style campaigns with individual funding goals?
Not natively. BigHearts integrates with GiveWP, which supports goal-tracking on individual donation forms, but it isn't designed for a multi-project crowdfunding platform where backers fund separate campaigns. If you need Kickstarter-style project listings, Krowd with WP Crowdfunding is a better architectural fit.
Does Krowd work for a simple charity that just wants a donate button?
Technically yes, since WooCommerce can handle payment collection, but Krowd is over-engineered for that use case. You'd be maintaining a crowdfunding plugin stack you don't need. BigHearts with GiveWP is simpler, better documented for pure donation use, and less prone to plugin conflict issues.
Do I need to buy GiveWP or WP Crowdfunding separately after purchasing the theme?
Yes, in both cases. The themes bundle design and layout, not plugin licenses. GiveWP has a free core plugin that covers basic donations; premium payment gateways and features cost extra. WP Crowdfunding similarly has free and paid tiers. Factor plugin costs into your total budget before choosing.
Which theme has better buyer satisfaction — BigHearts or Krowd?
Krowd holds a perfect 5.00/5 rating from 55 reviews, edging out BigHearts at 4.33/5 from 75 reviews. Both are respectable scores. Krowd's perfect rating suggests buyers get exactly what's advertised; BigHearts' larger review pool and higher sales volume indicate broader adoption and market trust.
Are both themes compatible with the current version of Elementor?
Both themes list Elementor as a core integration and were updated by their authors in mid-2026, which strongly suggests current Elementor compatibility. That said, always verify plugin version compatibility in the theme's changelog or support forum before purchasing, as Elementor updates frequently.
Which theme is easier to migrate away from if I change my mind later?
Migrating the design layer is similar for both — switching WordPress themes is relatively straightforward. The harder migration is your data: GiveWP donor records and Krowd's WP Crowdfunding campaign data are stored in plugin-specific structures. Whichever theme you choose, the plugin ecosystem you adopt is the bigger long-term commitment.