--- title: "Silent Auction Pro Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of Silent Auction Pro. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if Silent Auction Pro is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/silent-auction-pro-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Auction Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/auction/) / [Silent Auction Pro](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/silent-auction-pro-profile/) / Silent Auction Pro Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/silent-auction-pro-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/silent-auction-pro-profile/alternatives/) # Silent Auction Pro User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.8/5 - Total reviews: 402 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.6/5 - Customer support: 5.0/5 - Value for money: 4.8/5 - Functionality: 4.7/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 334 reviews (83%) - 4 stars: 66 reviews (16%) - 3 stars: 1 reviews (0%) - 2 stars: 1 reviews (0%) - 1 star: 0 reviews (0%) ### Most mentioned pros - Donations to our organization go through SAP and we use them for our annual silent auction. - We were so grateful to have the ability to call someone during our event for troubleshooting. - We have had 4 years of great experience with the auction- often doing 2-3 auctions per year. ### Most mentioned cons - Instead of giving you a choice, it sets a standard of 10 records per page view, and you constantly have to change it to put more than 10 records per page. - At the end of our set up- we realized we had way too many gift cards which were already turned into items. If I were to do it again, I would delete the item and bundle them prior to adding as a new auction item. - When creating an auction item from a donation, the system did not advise me what the next auction item number would be in the sequence. ## Silent Auction Pro customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 402 (page 1). ### Wonderful Product! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Ciera M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We have increased our profit every year using Silent Auction Pro. The Auction setup is wonderful. I cannot imagine using any other product! 10 out of 10! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I love the changes that were made this year. The site looks great on mobile use. It was SO easy to get help when needed and Becca made a sheet for me that I needed that saved me SO much time!!! #### Cons I wasn't a big fan of the seating chart feature. I think it could be helpful for some people but there were just too many variables for us to use it. This wasn't a big deal to us at all. --- ### Outstanding Support! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Stacey D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: October 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered This is our second year using Silent Auction Pro for our fundraiser. The customer support is outstanding. We were so grateful to have the ability to call someone during our event for troubleshooting. Last year, there was a learning curve in mastering the program but there were plenty of how-tos and videos to consume. With the first year under our belt, we found it much easier to use and navigate the program for this year's event. We will absolutely use Silent Auction Program for our next event. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The customer support is just excellent. Emails are answered promptly, and event support was super helpful. #### Cons It wasn't as intuitive as we had hoped. However, after we used the program once, it was super easy to implement for the next fundraiser. #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro more cost effective compared to the others #### Reasons for switching to Silent Auction Pro We wanted a program that included ticketing and seating arrangment. #### Vendor response Thank you Stacey! We are so glad to have helped you with your second event - and look forward to many more! Finding all our embedded Help options hopefully made your event easier...and I know you know how to find us via phone or email! I'm sorry that you didn't find our platform to be quite as intuitive at the outset. Please do contact me with suggestions; we are always looking for ways to improve! We are so proud to be part of your success and look forward to helping you next time. Thank you! Replied October 2024 --- ### Allowed us to take our Silent Auction to the next level. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Craig W. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Civic & Social Organization - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used unspecified for more than 2 years - Reviewed: October 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We are a small volunteer group and this system fit right in to our needs. We were doing everything by hand, using Excel spreadsheets to do everything. This software has been an absolute lifesaver for us. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The system allows you to organize and keep track of donated items. The speed which we are able to check in and checkout customers is unbelievable! #### Cons This system fulfills all of our needs at the present time. --- ### Silent Auction Pro is Very-User Friendly - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Vickie S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: October 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, I love using this software as they made it so easy for me using it for my first time. It is very user-friendly and the tech support team is amazing and was always available to help! They basically held my hand through it all! That is what I appreciated the most. You guys rock! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros In my second time using the software for new online auction event, I love that software recognizes previous donors and if you want to add a donation you can select donation from previous year and update details like value, expiration dates, etc. without having to duplicate the work, and you don't have to upload photos - just use the same ones you had before. That was a huge time saver for me. #### Cons One sections you go in to Manage Online Bidding, you can see all of your auction items (and the ones that are bundled) with their assigned #, you click on the auction item number and can see all the photos of bundled items and total value and starting bid. There were times I wanted to know what is value of each or even the description of each bundled item while in that section but there was no option to click on while in there. The nice thing is for what I wanted to know was in a different section so I had to exit that section and go to another area to get the info I wanted then go back to Manage Online Bidding. #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro We had to pivot with our events during COVID-19 and had to go with an online option due to in-person restrictions at the time. We chose Silent Auction Pro because the pricing was reasonable and it was our first year. Going with Silent Auction Pro was the best decision we made, which allowed us to open up our auction to all donors. --- ### Overall Excellent Experience with Software and Support - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Kaylee F. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used other for less than 6 months - Reviewed: March 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. We were overall very pleased. It provided a greater reach than we would have ever been able to achieve with an in-person silent auction. We loved the versatility, the ease of use (after learning), and the support. We'd absolutely recommend this to another organization and will be using it again. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Easy to use: The software is very easy to use after spending a little bit of time familiarizing yourself with it. They have numerous help pages and even some youtube videos that help you learn the software. Additionally the technical support was out of this world (see Tech Support is Outstanding). We also loved that numerous people can enter donation items so that the cumbersome task of entering items is not tasked to one person. Reasonably priced: It is reasonably priced, relative to other similar softwares, and the support alone was worth the money. Originally, we thought the fees were slightly high, but after investigating other software pricing, and after our experience with this software and their support, the annual fee (which allows for as many auctions/events as you'd like within a year) and the 2.0% taken from high bids were nothing, and we would absolutely do it again. Tech Support is Outstanding: The event coaches are very friendly and incredibly helpful. They help you get started, make suggestions along the way, and they are there to wrap up afterwards as well. We had an IT problem at 9:00pm CST. I called in, my event coach answered me, and she had tech support looking into my problem immediately. Every tech call was answered or gotten back to within an hour. Overall Great Features: The user pages looked stunning, most features you'd want are available. We really enjoyed our use of the software and are looking forward to our next auction. #### Cons Takes Time to Learn: The administrative pages are slightly cumbersome to navigate in the beginning. They take time to learn, although that is probably true of every auction software. Some Features Not Available: There were a few features that were not available that we would have liked to have seen, such as an option for the public to view all bids placed on an item with bidders names or without, similar to an in-person silent auction. The Donate Button (Fund-a-need) was not intuitive for our users and confused them. Administrative Pages: Looked a bit dated. For a new software, we would have expected everything to be a bit more up-to-date looking. However, the user pages were very nice looking for the actual auction. Additionally, it would be great if there was a "view as user" option to be able to see what your changes look like once you've made them in the administrative account. It was cumbersome to have a user account and an administrative account and have to switch between the two constantly to be able to view things we were changing in the administrative account. Also the software won't let you have two logins open at the same time. #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro The support, the features, and the integration between it and Blackbaud (eTapestry). Our decision was based off of the reviews we read and the support we received even before we bought the software. --- ### Solid Auction Platform to use. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Steve H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, a good experience. We will continue to use it for our auction. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros The platform fits our needs quite well. The Silent Auction Pro staff are very helpful and responsive to your needs. #### Cons I have found it hard to navigate at times. Trying to find the exact place I need to go to do what I want. #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro The price and features seemed to match our needs. #### Vendor response Hello Steve! Thank you for taking a minute to share your thoughts. While I am very glad you had an overall positive experience; I'm also very open to hearing suggestions about the navigation or other enhancements you'd like to see. Our software is built on customer suggestion and we are always looking for great ideas. Thanks for being a longtime customer. We look forward to serving you in the future! Replied September 2024 --- ### Round 2; Regrouping - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Robert H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: October 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I loved the software. We had used BidPal/OneCause prior but the cost model was unbearable for us this year. With Silent Auction Pro we pay after the first event; nothing upfront. Capped fee% and low fixed cost are benefits. Credit card processing (we used WorldPay) fees are lower (and no monthly fee), making the total cost lower. Software is feature-rich. This can be a double-edged sword as features can add complexity. Help is always available and phone support was awesome. Overall, the features are worth it. Ability to 'stage' or start a new event while keeping a recently finished event active for a bit would be a welcomed improvement. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Features, Performance and Support were all Excellent. #### Cons Registration and PW requirements for bidding . No import (from spreadsheet) capability. Understandable, but would have been nice. They do offer to import for you at extra cost. They must have had bad experiences... It turned out to be less an issue than I thought. They were very upfront about it and it was not a surprise. #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro Cost/payment model. There were some interpersonal issues as well but did not drive the ultimate decision. #### Reasons for switching to Silent Auction Pro Cost and payment model. --- ### 3rd times is the charm! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Marissa L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. Great! I will use SAP again next year for our Auction. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros This is my 3rd year using Silent Auction Pro for my kids school Auction. The program is great and the staff are wonderful and very helpful. #### Cons I wish I could run a report the way we need it for item distribution after the auction. Instead of going into a large report and sorting it in Excel. Would be great if it just sorted by winners names all the items they won. #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro Sales call was great, I liked the look of the software, and ease of use. #### Reasons for switching to Silent Auction Pro The other product was not user friendly. Very hard for me to work with. #### Vendor response Marissa, thank you for the review! I'm sorry you didn't find the "down and dirty" report showing items by winner. It's available under the Check in & Check Out menu item! Remember, we are always a phone call away and happy to help anytime! Thanks for being a great customer! Replied September 2024 --- ### Initiative makes ALL the difference. 10/10! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jelaila G. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I was very impressed by the Silent Auction Pro team. The initiative makes ALL the difference. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I liked the personal nature of the customer service team. They were ALWAYS available. Coming from someone hosting their first-ever fundraiser, I felt so relieved to have their support. They checked in often, highlighted things I had missed, reminded me of deadlines, and personally helped throughout each specific process. Thanks team! #### Cons User-friendliness, customer service team, reports, easily accessible data, and overall layout of site. #### Vendor response Thank you Jelaila! We are so glad that you found our software easy to use and feature-rich. We are built on customer suggestion and take pride in the level of service we provide to our customers. We are excited to help you and your team with your next fundraising event! Thank you for your business! Replied January 2025 --- ### Excellent Event Planning Software! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: John F K. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Civic & Social Organization - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used other for less than 12 months - Reviewed: March 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We are a hypothermia shelter that houses 12 guests during the coldest months of the year, and have a fundraising gala every 2-3 years. At the beginning of our planning process for our February 2020 gala, we wrestled with the question “Do we really need an auction and event planning package for our little event?” At the end, there was no question that Silent Auction Pro was a HUGE reason why our event went so smoothly and exceeded our fundraising goals! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I cannot say enough good things about our experience using Silent Auction Pro. Some of the key things that we liked: Event Coach. From the beginning, we were assigned an event coach ([SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]), and she proved incredibly helpful in both understanding Silent Auction Pro as well as anticipating what other issues might come up before, during, and after our event. She checked in regularly, and was available even on weekends. Training Videos. Silent Auction Pro has a large number of training videos on YouTube that were very helpful. Admittedly, they seemed difficult to understand when I viewed them before we actually signed up, but once I was on Silent Auction Pro and able to play around, they made much more sense, and proved very helpful. Pricing Structure. At first, it seemed expensive to pay $800 and still give up 2% of our proceeds to Silent Auction Pro. However, the 2% is only out of auction proceeds, and not things like tickets or sponsorships. That kept the 2% cost down to under $300, for a total cost of $1,100. Comparing that to the many, many hours of time saved, the ability to start the auction before the event, ability to easily sell tickets, and all the communications tools made it worth the money many times over! Usability. While I would not call Silent Auction Pro the most user-friendly website in existence, it is user-friendly, and with a minimal amount of practice it becomes very easy to get around. The reports are also very useful and easy to generate. #### Cons There were a few very minor bugs, but that was it. I didn't care at all for WorldPay, which is one of the two credit card processors that Silent Auction Pro works with. They had horrible customer service and wanted to know WAY to much personal information about me in order to open an account. But that isn't Silent Auction Pro's fault ... #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro Early in the process, a friend said they loved Silent Auction Pro for their event, so I limited the evaluation to just this product. --- ### Church of the Little Flower - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Carolee A. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Religious Institutions - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: October 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Easy to use and nice, professional end result #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Misty and customer service were with me throughout the Auction even over the weekend and in the evenings. #### Cons Reconciling accounts! Many of the donors are also bidders. #### Vendor response Thank you Carolee! It's been a pleasure serving you and your organization. Thank you for your continued loyalty. And...we are working on making reconciling easier! We are excited to partner with you on your next event. Replied November 2024 --- ### Very Powerful, not very pricey. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Robert H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Music - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: October 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Online auctions require good software. SAP meets the challenge and excels at paper bidding and live auctions as well, integrating the results into common invoicing/check-out. Our experience has been very good. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros On-line bidding and automated event invoicing/check-out. Friendly, competent support staff. #### Cons To be maximally effective, email addresses and cell numbers need to be captured, for ALL guests at registration/ticket purchase. Most 'registering' users do not have this info (or refuse to enter it) for their guests making it a chore to hunt down before the event, or binding up check-in. Credit cards on file is also difficult, but at least is not mandatory. Don't have any good suggestions, though, except maybe allow guest names (only) during registration. #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro Price/features/performance reviews, live trial demo database/instance #### Reasons for switching to Silent Auction Pro Cost. --- ### This software was a Game Changer for us! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Sarah N. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Fund-Raising - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. I can't imagine using another software program. This is a program that can easily taught and transferred among changing administrators of your event (ours is a school/band fundraiser, so our parent teams are different and evolving each year). Since the software is straightforward and user friendly, it makes it easy to recruit and replace team leads (unlike our previous system, which made a potential new team lead say "oh, I couldn't do that! That looks complicated!"). We have appreciated the support from Silent Auction Pro, especially when we first got started with the program. It's been a real blessing to our event! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros This software has made the planning process so smooth for us. The Bidsheet Pro option has been the best fit for our event. The ability to enter donations/auction items, credit the student bringing in the auction item, and then have an online catalog to share, bidsheets, and an easy checkout process at the click of a button has improved the process for us 10-fold. #### Cons I do wish there was an option to download the reports into a Google Sheets format. The reports automatically download into Microsoft Office Spreadsheet format, which is the better format for functionality, but as an organization, we appreciate the ability to share documents with Google. #### Vendor response Thank you Sarah for the great review! Regarding the reports format - they are a CSV format and would think that could easily be imported into Google Sheets... We'll take a look Replied April 2022 --- ### Silent Auction Pro - Good, but with some significant reservations - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Alan H. - Industry: Entertainment - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: November 2016 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Southern Gateway Chorus used Silent Auction Pro (SAP) to manage our Gateway Gala for 2016, our major fund-raiser of the year. We found much to like about it, but also a few things that could stand improvement. The best thing about SAP is its people and the support they provide. They were right on top of everything. I never waited more than an hour for an answer to a support question. SAP also provides a very nice flow for managing donors and donations, and turning them into auction items. We were also impressed with the ease of checking guests in and out and providing them with paddles and invoices. Data entry for auction results is also well-thought-out, and quick and easy (with the exception of the Fund-a-need auction type - more below). Less useful is SAP's process for managing prospective guests. SAP conflates donors and guests as "Contacts". This means that if a person is both a guest and a donor, there is potential for duplication. SAP has a process for managing duplicates, but the outcome of the choices that you make in that process are not always very clear. Southern Gateway sells many of the tickets to our event through person-to-person contact. We did not find a good way to handle these sales in SAP. We wound up having our list of guests imported, and then using SAP to assign bidder numbers to them. SAP also does not deal well with groups of people (such as couples) who want to register using one credit card and bidder number. Its documentation, and its support personnel, stress the need to have each person have his or own contact record, phone number, email address etc. This is unnecessarily cumbersome. One kind of auction, which SAP calls "Fund-a-need", is not very well handled. It requires that you create multiple phony "donations", and then turn them into phony "auction items". Data entry for these auctions is cumbersome and error-prone. We wound up with a number of duplicate entries, which had to be manually resolved. This should be an easy software fix. Finally, SAP requires that you create a merchant account with Vantiv if you want to accept credit cards, and another account with American Express if you want to accept their cards. This process is not simple. You are also required to use card readers that you rent from SAP. Southern Gateway has a preexisting merchant account, and card readers, from Square. It would have been much easier if we could simply have used that account. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros Capturing information about donors and donations Creating auction items from donations Checking guests in and out, and providing them with invoices Bid entry (except for Fund-a-need) #### Cons Handling reservations and guests, especially couples and other groups Formatting bid sheets - very little control over this format Handling creation and bid entry for fund-a-need Requirement to create a merchant account with Vantiv --- ### Thumbs Up - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: LEA D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used other for less than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. We've really enjoyed working with them. Last year, we had to completely switch to an "all on-line auction" last minute. The support we received was excellent. It was our first time to use them and they truly helped us with the process. If you don't use the software year round, it can be challenging when you pick it up again however, they took us through it again this year. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] has been the best customer rep and event coach we've had and hope to continue to have. Her knowledge and mot of all her attitude truly makes a difference. You feel you have a partner and not just a provider. It was like have a "concierge service" which made it easier to use for us. Events are very challenging to execute specially when we do them tight budgets and limited staff. They made the process pleasant and easy for us and our customers/donors. They listened to our suggestions and have adapted some of these in the system. Overall, the features, service and support we receive from SAP are definitely worth the switch and the cost. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros Customer Support/having an event coach and cost. #### Cons Some reports are not exportable. Some features can be enhanced to make it more user friendly but the staff are very helpful. They are very open to taking suggestions and continue to enhance their system. I have found that continued use and their enhancements have made the program more user-friendly. #### Reasons for choosing Silent Auction Pro Cost and availability of various package options #### Reasons for switching to Silent Auction Pro Cost was the main reason. Then when we were reviewing our options, the product offerings became the deciding factor. The company we had before SAP also gave good customer support but the last time we used them, one of the on-site event coach was not very helpful. The main reason is the cost; however, after experiencing the customer support with SAP, that validated our decision. For the type of event we have, SAP provided what we needed at a very reasonable price. I highly recommend them. #### Vendor response Hi Lea - Thank you for posting your review! As you know we always welcome customer feedback and are always working to improve Silent Auction Pro. Replied June 2021 --- ### Silent Auction Pro Thought of Everything! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Stephanie D. - Product usage: Used unspecified for unspecified - Reviewed: May 2016 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, I am extremely pleased with this software. I was totally immersed in it, learning every possible feature and application, to ensure that we got the maximum use. Pro's: 1. The Help section is extremely well documented, and the customer support is amazing. The You Tube videos were very helpful for training both me and my volunteers. Any time of the day or night when I sent an email, I had an immediate response. 2. The options available were extremely comprehensive and knowledgeable about the mechanics of a benefit fundraiser. I cannot think of anything that I wanted to do that I couldn't do. From donor setup, to bidding styles (purchase of ticket parties for Teacher Experiences, to Silent Auction bidding, setting different minimum bids etc) to performance tracking, exporting info, everything was there. 3. The buzz that we created with the auction was definitely a boost to our event. We doubled our attendance vs. last year, just by starting the auction 4 weeks before the event, and creating excitement about the items that we offered early. 4. I am now set up for next year, with over 50% of the input work established already (donors, pictures and logos, bidders, etc). Next year should be a lot easier! 5. Auction Day section is powerful and easy to use - The check in was easy, online bidding was easy, and checkout was VERY easy, especially for those who had already registered their credit cards online. I could just click "auto process" for a batch of auction items, and with a click of the button, 20 people were checked out at once. Then I just looked up the auction number, passed out the gift envelopes or baskets, and done! "Be Awares" - I won't say Con's! 1. The upfront setup in the first year takes some time. Start early, and I strongly encourage you to read all of the "Help" sections before you start. Even then, tread carefully as you craft your setup, and re-read some of the Help sections. I ended up re-doing a few of my entries as I thought about the structure, and crafted it for maximum efficiency and reporting. 2. Engage team members to do their own data entry as they gather donations. This will save you a lot in data entry time, especially if you have a lot of auction items, and especially in the first year. 3. Train your "auction assistants" well, before event day. This includes check in, auction bidding assistance, and check out, but is especially true for Check in. Overall, very pleased! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 #### Vendor response Thank you Stephanie for your detailed review. I'm sure potential customers will find this very helpful! On the "be awares". As you point out, our system is very comprehensive. We encourage people to play around in the demo group sandbox to help learn the system while not affecting the data in your own group. We're also happy to coach users on the best practices via email or a phone call. As you pointed out there are a bunch of great tutorial videos too! Thanks again for the great review! Jim Replied May 2016 --- ### Reached our goal - even during COVID-19 - with help of Silent Auction Pro - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jennifer H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used other for more than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Our small non-profit has had a very positive experience with Silent Auction Pro. We have used Silent Auction Pro for 3 years, 2 years with paper bidding and this year with mobile bidding. This year we were so lucky to have transitioned to mobile bidding. Our auction went on without a hitch, in a virtual environment, during the COVID-19 shut downs. We were able to switch everything to a virtual offering easily and we were still able to exceed our goal of $75,000. We look forward to using this great software in the future. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Once you use the software for multiple years it makes it so easy to put in repeat auction items. The software offers so many options and ways to set up communication with bidders, attendees, donors, etc. I love that you can schedule items to go out ahead of time so you don’t need to think about doing them later. Every year new updates make the software better than the year before. The pricing is affordable for non-profits and they offer superior customer service, tech support and a fantastic help section. #### Cons There is a learning curve, as with any other software package – the more you use it the easier it is. We tended we only have 2 people inputting auction information so that it was consistent. We would love to see a more comprehensive package that allows you to input expenses and see the full picture of the event. I know this is something they are trying to incorporate for the future and once it is available it will be even more fantastic! #### Vendor response Thank you very much for the review Jennifer! We're hearing quite a few stories about groups switching to virtual events because of COVID-19 and still meeting or exceeding their goals - especially when you consider not having to pay for the venue and all the other expenses that come with it. I'm glad you had a great event! - Jim Replied April 2020 --- ### A Software that DEFINITELY Helps you Raise More Money - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Cindy J. - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: March 2017 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered This was our first use of this software and we were very satisfied with the results we achieved the night of our event. The software is relatively easy to use - the modules are marked but you do need to take you time to make sure you are on the right page. The customer support was fantastic. Every time I had a problem or a question they were there to answer it. They were able to go into my site, analyze my problem and help me solve it. I did not use the registration part of the software since I purchased it too late to really get the benefit of that part of the program. However, I was able to push my guests to the site to register their credit card prior to our event. On the day of our event as our guests checked in we had a few banks of computers with people manning so that if our guests had difficulties they were there to assist. (I would recommend that for anyone using the program.) During the event, we were able to showcase our fundraising live as it happened. This aspect definitely helped generate more bidding and involvement of our guests. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros This was our first use of this software and we were very satisfied with the results we achieved the night of our event. The software is relatively easy to use - the modules are marked but you do need to take you time to make sure you are on the right page. The customer support was fantastic. Every time I had a problem or a question they were there to answer it. They were able to go into my site, analyze my problem and help me solve it. I did not use the registration part of the software since I purchased it too late to really get the benefit of that part of the program. However, I was able to push my guests to the site to register their credit card prior to our event. On the day of our event as our guests checked in we had a few banks of computers with people manning so that if our guests had difficulties they were there to assist. (I would recommend that for anyone using the program.) During the event, we were able to showcase our fundraising live as it happened. This aspect definitely helped generate more bidding and involvement of our guests. #### Cons The modules could be designed to be easier to differentiate. --- ### Silent Auction Pro - Easy to use and very powerful - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Fred B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. Great program that I have used 10 plus timers over the last 10 years. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros This software is very straight forward and easy to use whether you are a computer geek or technically challenged. Customer support is the best you will find. 9 out of 10 you are connected with a live knowledgeable person. #### Cons Hard to find issues with this software. Has been able to handle about any game or twist to a traditional live auction we could come up with. With over 300 attendees the table assignments gets overwhelming. --- ### Windsor Farm Elementary PTO Silent Auction Pro Review - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Lisa S. - Industry: Philanthropy - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: March 2017 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Silent Auction Pro provided an ease and professional quality to our annual auction we had not previously enjoyed. In years past, our annual elementary PTO Fundraiser and Silent Auction was a tedious process. We would create our Bid Sheets and Display Sheets on separate programs. We would have another person create our event programs. Our donations would be logged in an Excel Spreadsheet. We would have ticket sales go through the office secretary. It wasn't seamless and it wasn't efficient. The checkout process at the event was also a mess as we didn't pre aucthorize credit cards and would have weeks of clean up trying to collect money from bidders who left without paying. Silent Auction Pro from the moment we received our first donation and our first ticket sale to the end of the auction provided a new ease and professional quality. The software is an Auction Administrators best friend as it tracked everything needed to make the event successful. We are a PTO of an elementary school and each year our auction makes a net profit of anywhere between $25-28,000. This year we had our most successful auction and I do believe it was because Silent Auction Pro freed up some of the time we used to spend on data entry. I was able to essentially run this auction by myself with the help of Silent Auction Pro. with over 300 auction items. I would highly recommend the program. The customer service was wonderful as I had many questions with this being my first time. It is an efficient tool to run a successful auction and event and I look forward to the opportunity to use this program again. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Easy to use, great customer service, able to manage all needs in one platform. #### Cons n/a --- ### Great product - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jennifer M. - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2016 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Silent Auction Pro completely changed the way we ran our annual silent and live auction. It took us out of the time-consuming task of tracking everything by Excel worksheets and allowed us to focus more on the actual fundraising. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros We used this software to transition from using Excel worksheets (SO time consuming) to check people out from a live auction, to swiping credit cards and capturing their info for faster checkout. We were able to track our history of donors and popular items, and streamlined our request process to focus on what bidders really wanted. Selling tickets to the event became a much easier process as well. The software was intuitive, and the customer service was great. #### Cons While we loved our experience with Silent Auction Pro, we eventually felt we needed to switch companies to a platform that allowed for public searches of online auctions, rather than requiring a link and approval from an Auction Chairperson. We switched to another company in order to take advantage of a large and searchable/public auction community. However, that switch has cost us much more money. Instead, a strong marketing campaign on social media would bring the extra bidders without paying the more expensive subscription fee that the other company charged us. I will encourage the next Auction Chairperson to use Silent Auction Pro. #### Vendor response Thank you for the review Jennifer! Regarding us not supporting a publicly searchable page - that's true though many of our customers prefer to keep their events private and use their own marketing efforts to reach bidders as you suggested. This also eliminates the need to potentially ship items to winners in any part of the country and reduces the likelihood of people backing out on an item they have won. We may add similar capability in the future if we find more demand for it. - Jim Replied July 2016 --- ### Silent Auction Pro is one of the Finest in the field! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Katherine G. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Events Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used monthly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: December 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review. I have worked with many different digital platforms in the nonprofit sector over the course of 10 years and I can absolutely say that SAP is my favorite. The platform is fantastic and the customer support is five-star all the way! I'm am relieved to have found a ticketing/bidding/tracking platform/business that actually listens to me and can help me with "sudden issues" so quickly and thoroughly. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The ease is creating various tickets, quickly, to match my clients impromptu requests is a bit plus! #### Cons My biggest issue was with the reports but to be very honest I was rushed into managing the client's event and I didn't have time to explore customizing the reports so I don't think this observation is totally accurate. I will be able to spend more time with reports this time around. --- ### Really Good Auction Program - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Tricia B. - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2018 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Once you play around with the program, it seems to be pretty user friendly. And what you do not know how to do or are having trouble with, there are lots of tutorials to lead you through the process. Plus the support staff is excellent and amazingly helpful. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros A good way to track all donations and purchases. There are many features which make this very easy. The check-out system is pretty user friendly and works well. The support staff at SAP are great to answer questions and lead you through the process. #### Cons The first ticket purchase by a buyer only allows for the purchasers name, and does not let you reassign the name to someone else right away – you have to go back in and readjust. It worked but is a little bit clunky. A lot of data entry. As we were using this for the second time, some bits were easier as we could pull from past donors info. The bid sheets selected the donations that were entered first, which were not always the biggest selling points when bundling Setting up the bar tickets was a bit messy. Would be nice to be able to pull more specified reports from the program. Customize the report formats. --- ### Great Auction Software - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Tara D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used other for more than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered This was my first year personally using the software to set up the auction, and I received incredible customer service throughout the process. I worked primarily with [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], but everyone I spoke with was polite and helpful. Not sure if it because there weren't as many auctions happening due to COVID, but I felt I had the support needed to be confident setting up the auction. We also needed some help during and after the auction, and we were well taken care of. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros We use this software for our yearly school auction. This is now our 4th year using it. One of the huge benefits is being able to use contacts, logos, donation descriptions, etc. from previous years. It really saves time if you have the same donors year after year. That being said, it does take time to set up contacts, donations and auction items initially, but you know you'll have everything saved for next year. Also, we got lots of compliments on how nice the auction looks and how easy it is to bid. I agree! #### Cons It took me a little time bit of time to learn where things are and how to use the tools. I don't know if it would be worth the time to set everything up if you weren't planning on using the software for more than once. --- ### Sheboygan Service Club - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Heather C. - Industry: Fund-Raising - Product usage: Used unspecified for less than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2016 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Silent Auction Pro is a powerful tool for fundraising events. Login is smooth for past members and new members of the organization. Once you're on the site for some time, it's neat to see all the various ways data can be sorted and viewed. Mobile bidding was an interesting transition for our group and guests, but I think it will become smoother every year. The software has made tasks for the auction and operations team smoother every year with the saved data. It was great to see our member's work real-time, so we knew where we were at for auction items and ticket sales. It's also great to have the data saved in one spot from year to year. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Silent Auction Pro helped our auction and operations team see data (auction items, ticket purchases) on a real-time basis. Previously, we relied on spreadsheets and emails, and version were easily confused and confusing. It was also great to tally up totals at the end of the evening quickly to make a grand total announce while all guests were present. #### Cons This was our organization's first time using mobile bidding and it was received with mixed reviews. It was confusing for some to login if they didn't receive an email. We will collect emails at registration next year to make it smoother. The QR codes on the items were great, but most guests did not already have the app on their phones. It was difficult, at times, to scroll through items. Lastly, it would be great to have a cross reference for "baskets" by individual. We weren't sure why the numbers continued from 2015 rather than starting fresh for the new event. ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/silent-auction-pro-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- Silent Auction Pro Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice