SignUp.com's advertised Starter plan is $9.99/month, but the price most coordinators actually want — text reminders with no ads on your volunteers' screens — is about $20/month, because ad removal is a separate $9.99/month add-on even on paid plans. I run a competing product, so read this skeptically. But the arithmetic below comes straight from SignUp.com's own pricing and help pages, and it's worth doing before you enter a card number.
What are SignUp.com's advertised prices?
SignUp.com's paid tiers, verified on their premium pricing page (signup.com/premium-offer-pricing-plan):
- Starter — $9.99/mo
- Plus — $24.99/mo ("most popular")
- Max — $49.99/mo
Annual billing works out to 12 months for the price of 10 — for Starter that is $99.90/year, about $8.33/month effective (signup.com/faq-premium-subscription).
"Unlimited Text (SMS) Reminders" appear on all paid tiers, with fine print limiting coverage to the US, Canada, and Australia and noting that standard carrier charges may apply (signup.com/premium-offer-pricing-plan).
So far, so reasonable.
Why do ads still show up even on a paid SignUp.com plan?
SignUp.com's free plan shows ads — most tools in this category do. What's unusual is that paying doesn't remove them. Ad removal is a separate add-on: $9.99/month or $99.00/year, on top of any premium plan, listed in SignUp.com's own help center among the premium features (signuphelp.zendesk.com).
So the honest arithmetic for "text reminders + no ads":
| Monthly billing | Annual billing | |
|---|---|---|
| Starter plan | $9.99/mo | $99.90/yr [reported] |
| Ad-free add-on | +$9.99/mo | +$99.00/yr |
| Real total | $19.98/mo | $198.90/yr (~$16.58/mo) |
That's the price most coordinators actually mean when they say "I just want volunteers to get a text and not see ads." See plans and pricing for how VolunteerReminder prices the same job.
What do SignUp.com reviewers complain about?
SignUp.com is a well-liked product — 4.8/5 across 390+ reviews on Capterra (capterra.com/p/135391/SignUp-com/reviews) — which makes the specifics worth reading, not dismissing. A handful of reviewers mention that the mobile experience doesn't match the desktop one, which can confuse volunteers who are less comfortable online, and that the calendar view leans toward showing upcoming openings rather than a full recurring schedule at a glance.
None of that is disqualifying. But if your roster skews older or low-tech, every point of confusion between "reminder sent" and "volunteer shows up" costs you people on shift day.
How much does SignUp.com cost for 40 volunteers compared to alternatives?
Say you coordinate 40 volunteers on recurring weekly shifts and you want them reminded by text, with no ads. Monthly cost:
| Tool | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| VolunteerReminder Deluxe | $9 | Covers up to 60 volunteers; texts + email included; no ads at any price |
| SignUp.com Starter + ad-free | ~$19.98 | Pricing + ad-free add-on |
| WhenToHelp | $54 | 31–60 helper band (whentohelp.com/pricing.htm); does not advertise SMS reminders, so this is a general-price comparison, not an SMS-parity one |
| Deputy Lite | ~$200/mo (40 × $5) | Employee scheduling, not volunteer software; $5/user/mo, $30/mo minimum (deputy.com/pricing); SMS $0.01/160 chars extra |
VolunteerReminder Deluxe is $9/month ($90/year): text and email reminders, a public sign-up widget, up to 60 volunteers, two reminders per shift. Volunteers never create an account, never install an app, and never see an ad — that's not an add-on, it's the whole point. No per-message fees and no credit packs, on any plan. Start a free trial to see it against your own roster.
Who should stay on SignUp.com
Being fair about it:
- Schools and PTAs already living in it. SignUp.com has a long history in classrooms; if your parent community knows it and the ads don't bother anyone, switching costs may exceed the savings.
- One-off event sheets with many kinds of slots. Like SignUpGenius, it's a signup-sheet tool first, and a good one — we wrote the same honest breakdown for SignUpGenius pricing if you're weighing that one too.
- Anyone who genuinely needs the free tier. If $0 is the budget and ads are acceptable, it works.
Where it fits badly is exactly where we fit well: the same volunteers, the same shifts, every week, with attendance that lives or dies on whether the reminder got seen. If you want to put a number on the no-shows you already have, our volunteer no-show cost calculator will price them for you.
How do you switch from SignUp.com?
Export your roster (or just send us the link) and we will help you set up your schedule and rotation. Fifteen minutes on your end, and your volunteers do not have to do anything at all — the next reminder simply arrives by text.
Start your free trial — no credit card required — or email me directly; I read everything: info@volunteerreminder.com.