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Guide

Honest comparison

Bothy vs. Instrumentl

Instrumentl is the dominant platform in this segment — about 5,000 nonprofit customers, a genuinely useful 10,000-funder discovery database, and one of the strongest grant prospect engines on the market. It also starts at $349/month. We're built for the small nonprofit that already knows who its funders are and doesn't need to pay for the database. Here's where each one wins.

Last updated June 19, 2026 · Reading time ~6 minutes

The TL;DR

Pricing reality check

Pricing pulled directly from instrumentl.com/pricing on 2026-06-19. Annual pricing requires upfront payment.

TierInstrumentlBothy equivalentAnnual savings
Entry$349/mo (annual $299/mo · 3 users)Solo: $99/mo · 1 user~$2,400/yr
MidPre-Award: $579/mo (annual $499/mo · 5 users)Pro: $149/mo + $1,500 one-time setup · 3 users~$3,660/yr (after setup)
TopFull Lifecycle: $1,159/mo (annual $999/mo · 15 users)Premium: $299/mo + $2,500 one-time setup · 5 users~$8,400/yr (after setup)

Apples-to-apples comparisons are imperfect — Instrumentl tiers include the discovery database and AI prospecting; Bothy tiers include hand-curated opportunity research and full post-award reporting. The right question isn't which tier matches, it's which feature set matches how your team actually works.

Where Instrumentl is honestly better

We'd be misleading you to claim otherwise. Three things they do well that we don't:

  • The 10,000-funder database.If you're a development director who needs to surface 50 funders you don't already know about and rank them by mission alignment, Instrumentl is the right tool. That's a real product. Our curated research at signup gets you 25–50 vetted funders for your org specifically, but it's done by humans against your context, not a self-serve search across the whole sector.
  • AI prospect matching at scale.Instrumentl's funder-matching engine is one of the best in the segment. If you do 50+ applications a year across multiple program areas and need automated mission-alignment scoring, this is genuinely useful.
  • Peer benchmarking.Instrumentl can show you who's funding nonprofits similar to yours. That's data we don't have. For larger orgs trying to understand the competitive landscape, this matters.

If those three capabilities describe what your team actually needs, the price tag is justified and we'd say so.

Where Bothy is honestly better

Instrumentl was built to solve discovery. Bothy was built to solve retention — keeping the relationships you already have, and keeping the person doing that work.

  • Post-award is included. Reporting hub, requirements timeline, 24-component checklist, role assignments — all standard on every Bothy tier. Instrumentl gates the same workflow behind their $1,159/mo Full Lifecycle plan.
  • Stewardship is first-class.Thank-you sends, site visits, mid-cycle check-ins, renewal LOIs auto-spawn when a grant moves to submitted. Lapsed-funder alerts color-grade funders you haven't touched in 90+ days. These are workflows Instrumentl lets you manually configure; we built them in.
  • Funder relationship view.Bothy aggregates every grant, task, report, and contact-log entry against one funder — so when your board chair asks “what's going on with the Norton relationship?” you have one screen. Instrumentl's funder profile is a discovery view, not a relationship view.
  • Price matches the org.A small nonprofit shouldn't pay $349/month for software when the person running grants is one part-time staffer. The 50%-off-indefinitely small-nonprofit discount on Solo makes Bothy $50/month for orgs under $100K revenue.

Feature-by-feature

Best-effort comparison from Instrumentl's public documentation and pricing page. = does it well, = does it with caveats, = doesn't do it.

  • Status

    Inst.Mature — ~5,000 nonprofit customersBothyActive — 42 pilot orgs, early SaaS access

  • Entry-tier price

    Inst.$349/mo (annual: $299/mo, billed upfront)Bothy$99/mo Solo · ~72% cheaper

  • Entry-tier users

    Inst.Up to 3Bothy1 (Solo) · 3 (Pro) · 5 (Premium)

  • Mid-tier price

    Inst.$579/mo (annual: $499/mo)Bothy$149/mo + $1,500 setup (Pro) · ~74% cheaper monthly

  • Top non-enterprise tier

    Inst.$1,159/mo (annual: $999/mo) — 15 usersBothy$299/mo + $2,500 setup (Premium) — 5 users · ~74% cheaper

  • 10,000+ funder discovery database

    Inst.Yes — flagship featureBothyNo — curated research at signup instead

  • AI prospect matching across funders

    Inst.Yes — mission-alignment scoringBothyNo — Bothy-verified opportunity research is hand-curated

  • AI-assisted proposal drafting

    Inst.Yes (Pre-Award tier and above)BothyAI-drafted reports planned Q3 2026 (Premium tier)

  • Custom opportunity research at signup

    Inst.Not offered — you search the database yourselfBothyYes — 25–50 hand-vetted funders aligned to your mission (Pro + Premium)

  • Grant pipeline tracking

    Inst.Yes — stages, deadlines, filtersBothyYes — scoring + drag-drop stages + per-funder rollup

  • Stewardship task management

    Inst.Limited — basic tasks in higher tiersBothyYes — first-class, including AI stewardship plans saved as tasks

  • Funder contact log (past touches)

    Inst.Yes — full activity history per funderBothyYes — every email, call, meeting against the funder

  • Post-award reporting hub

    Inst.Yes — Full Lifecycle tier ($1,159/mo)BothyYes — included on every tier · 24-component checklist · timeline

  • Award-letter requirements ingestion

    Inst.Yes — at higher tiersBothyYes — guided structured form generates timeline + checklist

  • Renewal cultivation arc on submission

    Inst.Manual via tasksBothyAuto — thank-you + site visit + mid-cycle touch + renewal LOI

  • Lapsed-funder alerts (90+ days quiet)

    Inst.ManualBothyYes — color-graded by quiet duration

  • Peer benchmarking against other nonprofits

    Inst.Yes — distinguishing featureBothyNo

  • Accounting / budget integration

    Inst.Yes — Full Lifecycle tier ($1,159/mo)BothyNot yet — CSV export today; integrations on the roadmap

  • Calendar (ICS) export

    Inst.YesBothyYes — deadlines + tasks + reports

  • Mobile-friendly

    Inst.Yes — responsive web UIBothyYes — pilot dashboards mobile-tested, PWA installable

  • Multi-user with live presence

    Inst.Multi-user, no real-time presence indicatorsBothyMulti-user + real-time presence + per-action audit trail

  • Sign-in

    Inst.Email + password (SSO at Enterprise tier)BothyGoogle sign-in + magic-link fallback (no passwords to rotate)

  • Discount for small nonprofits (<$100K revenue)

    Inst.Not advertisedBothy50% off Solo indefinitely — verified via 990 or determination letter

  • Public status page

    Inst.Yes — status.instrumentl.comBothyYes — bothy.so/status (live DB probe)

Which one should you pick?

Pick Instrumentl if

  • · You do 20+ applications a year and need fresh prospects regularly
  • · Funder discovery is the actual bottleneck
  • · You have a dedicated grants manager or development director
  • · Budget is $300+/mo on software alone
  • · You want peer benchmarking data

Pick Bothy if

  • · You already know who most of your funders are
  • · You run 25–100 active opportunities, not 500
  • · Post-award reporting is part of the load
  • · One part-time staffer is the grants team
  • · You want a workspace, not a database
  • · You'd rather pay $99/mo than $349/mo

Switching from Instrumentl?

Show us a recent Instrumentl invoice — we'll match the value.

  • Free data migration from Instrumentl CSV export
  • $1,500 Pro setup fee waived if you sign annual
  • First 60 days free on Solo or Pro
  • We'll do a 30-minute audit of your current pipeline against ours, before you commit

We onboard the first cohort personally. Drop your email and we'll come back with a concrete plan within one business day.

Read more before deciding