Kagnotte

The review

Kagnotte is a French online group-pot platform, run from Lyon by the company M Pour Toujours, that lets people pool money for occasions such as birthdays, trips, funerals, and association fundraising. Alongside social cagnottes it supports cause-based collection and donations, and it explicitly markets itself as a lower-cost alternative to Leetchi. The site says it has been a leader in cagnottes for more than twenty years and has been trusted by over three million customers.

The pricing is built around a single low per-contribution commission plus a small fixed amount per payment, with a higher rate for payments made from outside the European Economic Area. Creating and managing a pot carries no subscription cost, and withdrawals to a bank account are unlimited and carry no additional charge. Payments are handled by Lemonway, a payment institution authorised by France's ACPR regulator, which holds the collected funds.

Kagnotte's strength is transparent, low headline pricing combined with regulated fund custody through Lemonway, which gives it credibility for French organisers wary of higher-cost competitors. The trade-offs are a France-centric focus, since the interface and support are French-first, and a higher cost for donors paying from outside the European Economic Area. For French and EEA-based group collections and association fundraising these terms are favourable; international campaigns drawing many non-European donors will see higher per-payment costs.

Functionally Kagnotte sits between a social group-pot service and a donation platform, much like Leetchi, and accepts bank-card payments worldwide with SEPA bank transfers available within the EEA. It does not state where donor data is stored, and its regulatory standing rests on its Lemonway payment-institution licence under the ACPR.