Bid Beacon 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
Integrations
User Reviews

Overview

Bid Beacon

4.4

(19)

Pricing

Pricing available upon request

About Bid Beacon

Bid Beacon is a powerful yet easy-to-use silent auction platform built for nonprofits, schools, charities, and event organizers. It works seamlessly across mobile and desktop, with a downloadable app available for guests to bid anytime, anywhere. With flexible tools like custom branding, sponsor management, merchandise sales, and integrated donations, organizations can deliver a fully branded fundraising experience.

The platform supports unlimited auction sizes, multiple administrators, and advanced bidding features including proxy and max bidding. Organizers can set fundraising goals, promote live items, integrate raffles, and streamline payments, invoices, and tax collection. Whether hosting a single auction or managing multiple events, Bid Beacon makes fundraising seamless, scalable, and engaging.

Bid Beacon Screenshots

Bid Beacon Pricing and Plans

Starting price: Connect with an advisor for pricing

Free Trial

Free Version

Full Auction

Pricing available upon request

Plan includes:

Unlimited Guests
Unlimited Items
Unlimited Images
Unlimited Admin Roles
4.9% Platform Fee
$999 Platform Fee Cap (Fees Exempt Beyond Cap)
Optional Subscriptions to Lower Platform Fee and Fee Cap
Express Banking Setup Through Stripe Connect
Optional Longer Duration (Up To 365 Days)
Outbid Notifications

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Bid Beacon Features

Popular features found in Auction
Absentee Bidding
Alerts/Notifications
Billing & Invoicing
Buy Now Option
Event Management
Inventory Management
Live Auction
Payment Processing
Proxy Bidding
Silent Auction
Watch List
More features of Bid Beacon
Access Controls/Permissions
Activity Dashboard
Attendance Management
Auction Management
Bid Management
Catalog Management
Credit Card Processing
Customizable Branding
Customizable Fields
Customizable Reports
Dashboard
Electronic Payments
Email Management
Event Ticketing
For Nonprofits
Goal Setting/Tracking
Mobile Access
Mobile Alerts
Online Auction
Online Bidding
Real-Time Monitoring
Real-Time Notifications
Receipt Management
Registration Management
Reporting & Statistics
Search/Filter
Social Media Integration
Third-Party Integrations

Bid Beacon Integrations

PayPal

Stripe

Square Payments

Bid Beacon User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.4

Ratings Breakdown

47%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.5

Value for money

4.8

Customer support

4.5

Functionality

4.2

Have you used Bid Beacon and would like to share your experience with others?

Amy J.

Verified reviewer

Arts and Crafts

2-10 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

Game changer for our fundraising auction!

Overall, this online tool is really amazing. I really like that it saves past auctions so you can compare years easily.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Functionality

Pros:

Easy to set up, easy for the users (older than baby boomers did struggle a bit), and even easier pick up process. Our company has used it two years in a row and it was a fantastic way to reach people, that otherwise wouldn’t have seen our items.

Cons:

I think the price for adding on photos is absurd. We’re showcasing art and sometimes to get the full “picture” I need 3-5 photos per item. I quickly have to up the package-, and it’s pretty frustrating. I wish there was a feature that could show others that were looking at the items real time. It could build excitement and up bids.

Reasons for choosing Bid Beacon

N/A this came recommend to us by someone on our team who had experienced it as a user in another online auction.

Vendor Response

Hi Amy, Thanks for your feedback! The nice thing is, in our packages you have flexibility to choose what you need, if choosing the ultimate package, you'd have 1000 photo's included right up front, and while we do describe it as 4 per item, you could have less items and more photo's per item if you wanted! I am interested to hear more about your idea on showing people watching the item in real time..sounds like a cool potential feature we could add! If you email me at support@bidbeacon.com I'd love to set up a call and chat more about it. Thanks! Laurie - Bid Beacon Customer Success Manager

Replied June 2022

Mac H.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

11-50 employees

Used monthly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

great product for easing the burden of typical silent auctions!

Great experience with Bid Beacon, we will definitely be using this for our silent auction every year.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Bid Beacon gave us the ability to do something we hadn't previously been able to do, which was have a silent auction without all of the cluttering around tables of miscellaneous items. We opted to make all of our silent auction items experiences, or coupons instead of tangible things. (For example, a 3 night stay in a nearby town vs a basket of wine and chips) Bid Beacon allowed us to make eye catching thumbnails for these experiences and all of them sold for more than what we were expecting. It's very user friendly, and even some of our older attendees were able to bid along.

Cons:

There isn't a feature that allows you to format the text within the auction item description. This makes the description look like a hard to read wall of text. It would be a huge improvement to be able to bold text and add bullet points.

Reasons for choosing Bid Beacon

Bid Beacon came recommended to us by somebody who had previously used it for a silent auction with high praises.

Vendor Response

Hi Mac, Hi Mac Thank you for this feedback! Great idea about formatting within descriptions on items. We have that in our product roadmap and it should be released in the coming months! Watch for updates or check in with us before your next auction and we'll be happy to keep you posted. Laurie - Bid Beacon Support

Replied June 2022

Erin J.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

Self-Employed

Used monthly for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

CPN review

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

It’s is very cost effective, and was pretty easy to figure out

Cons:

Users should be required to enter credit card info before they start bidding, and then charged at auction closing for any items won. this would help in closing out auction items

Reasons for choosing Bid Beacon

Cost

Vendor Response

Hello Erin, Thanks for this great feedback! We appreciate you trying us out. Good news! We do have the feature to require credit card to bid, and then run an autopay at the auction end - it's available using the Stripe integration at no additional cost. Hopefully for next time, you'll be able to use it! I'd love to offer you 15% off for next time, so you can try it out! Email me at Support@bidbeacon.com and I'll provide a promo code for future use. Thanks again, Laurie - Bid Beacon Support Manager

Replied June 2022

Christine P.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

2-10 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

Good Product for a Good Price

Overall it works great for what we needed it for, just have to keep up with any changes or updates since we don't use it often. I would definitely use it again, and think it is a great product for the price.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The auction was easy to set up and I was able to figure out through the step-by-step instructions how to connect it to my PayPal account. It's great for the price and overall worked great.

Cons:

We only use it about once a year, so the pricing structure and what was included changed from the last time I used it so had to make a few adjustments. I also had an issue and was disappointed that I had to use chat support over a phone call because it was not included in the package I purchased. We did have a slight issue with viewing items which were paid for after the auction, but were able to figure it after a slight frustration.

Reasons for choosing Bid Beacon

The other was recommended but was way more expensive.

Vendor Response

Hi Christine, Thank you for this great feedback! We appreciate your honest review and take all comments into account as we work to improve our support and product over time! Thanks again! Laurie

Replied June 2022

Jeff H.

Verified reviewer

Primary/ Secondary Education

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

On line auction

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Easy to put pictures and information onto the site

Cons:

You could not enlarge the pictures Some of the bid functions did not work properly.

Vendor Response

Hi Jeff, Thanks for sharing your feedback! I totally understand where you're coming from with the frustration on expanding images. Happy to share that has been fixed and images can now be expanded on all devices. We are always testing and fixing issues as they come up, so hopefully it's smooth sailing for you next time! Laurie - Bid Beacon Customer Success Manager

Replied June 2022

Kathryn A.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

2-10 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

Affordable Fundraising Solution

Bid Beacon has been the best choice for our organization's needs and has made it possible to run our silent auction more easily and with fantastic results.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Bid Beacon has been a game changer for our annual silent auction. This is our organization's primary fundraiser and Bid Beacon has made it possible for us to reach an entirely different group of bidders who may not attend our in-person event. We can't imagine using anything else!

Cons:

It would be great to have a few more customizable options, particularly the colors of the auction pages for those who pay for the highest tier.

Vendor Response

Hi Kathryn, Thanks for your amazing feedback! We are thrilled you enjoyed using Bid Beacon for your fundraiser! I am excited to share that brand colour customization is coming in our next release, which is just a few weeks away. Thanks again! Laurie - Bid Beacon Support

Replied June 2022

Melanie C.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

2-10 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

Bid Beacon Review

overall very happy. Customer service has been excellent. I really appreciate being able to set up a zoom call with the developers to talk about the specific needs we have.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

very simple to upload new items to the auction easy to switch between using the mobile app and the desktop version Amazing customer service!

Cons:

not always straight forward to join the auction depending on what operating system you're using would like to be able to sort report by bidder - not just by item

Reasons for choosing Bid Beacon

price

Vendor Response

Hey Melanie, Thank you for the feedback, we are so grateful for your continued business and support of Bid Beacon! Luckily, the exportable reports are in CSV format and can be sorted by any column you wish!! Hopefully in the future you'll find that a useful tactic to slice and dice your auction data. Laurie - Bid Beacon Support

Replied June 2022

James M.

Verified reviewer

Education Management

11-50 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

Great online auction app

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

This product is super easy to setup and was a great benefit to our fundraising

Cons:

The user management portion was a little buggy for our admin users.

Vendor Response

Hi James, Thanks for the review! We appreciate the feedback and will definitely look at user management to squash any bugs we can find! Thanks Laurie - Bid Beacon Support Manager

Replied June 2022

Karen V.

Verified reviewer

Primary/ Secondary Education

11-50 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

Bid Beacon review

Overall has been a good experience. We've use this platform twice to have an online auction.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

User friendly, having multiple admin users.

Cons:

1. Ability to generate a receipt (invoice) before the bidder comes to pay would be a nice feature. 2. Lot # on receipt (invoice) would be helpful. 3. Email of winners - didn't seem to have a rhyme or reason to order. Alphabetic would be handy. 4. Has issues with systems running very slow near end of auction. Some people's website quit working.

Vendor Response

Hi Karen, Thank you for the review, we are glad you enjoyed Bid Beacon! I am pleased to share that in our newest release, 6.1 published June 6, we have added the invoice feature you mentioned in your cons. We appreciate your feedback and have noted it for future roadmap planning! Laurie - Bid Beacon Customer Success Manager

Replied June 2022

Kesha D.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

51-200 employees

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

BID Beacon is the clear choice

My experience been great! 2020 was our first year utilizing the software. We came back last year and we will be back in 2022. I like the fact that basic info was saved and it gave our stats/success numbers.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Functionality

Pros:

Ease of use, quantity of features makes this a no brianer to utilize.

Cons:

Honestly, nothing. Keep up the good work.

Reasons for choosing Bid Beacon

Don't remember. They were all more expensive and offered less.

Vendor Response

Hi Kesha, Thank you so much for this amazing feedback! We are thrilled you enjoy using Bid Beacon and appreciate your business. Laurie - Bid Beacon Customer Success

Replied June 2022

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