These are the questions animal welfare teams ask most often. They mirror the public FAQ page.
What is PawPlacer?
PawPlacer is a modern pet management platform built specifically for non-municipal animal shelters, fosters, and rescue organizations. We streamline operations with features like pet tracking, adoption management, foster partnerships, volunteer coordination, task management, and much more. Every feature we build comes from direct feedback from shelters and fosters, ensuring PawPlacer actually meets the real needs of animal welfare organizations.
Is PawPlacer free?
Yes. PawPlacer is free for every animal welfare organization. Every feature is included, with no pet, user, task board, or organization-size limits.
How can PawPlacer remain free?
PawPlacer is self-funded and built with direct animal welfare experience on modern infrastructure. We avoid municipal-contract overhead, ads, data sales, and venture pressure so we can focus our resources on the product and support.
Can I export my data?
Yes. Export your account data as CSV from Settings > Exports. Report results can also be downloaded as XLSX. You can request a custom export with the data you need.
What if my device or internet is slow?
Unlike many websites that load everything on your device, PawPlacer does most of the heavy lifting on our servers first, then sends you only what's needed. This means your device doesn't have to process or download as much, and pages load quickly, even on older devices or slow internet. See our technical FAQs for more details.
Can I charge adoption fees?
Yes. Set default fees by species and age, apply fee adjustments, or customize an individual pet’s fee. Your organization chooses its payment methods. PawPlacer takes no percentage of adoption fees or donations; payment-provider fees may apply.
Can I integrate PawPlacer with my own website?
Yes! We have no-code widgets you can add to your site to let potential adopters, fosters, and volunteers view your pets and/or apply and donate directly. We also offer a fully documented and heavily-typed PawPlacer SDK on npm for developers who want to work with pets, adopters, fosters, adoption fees, contracts, and custom fields. REST APIs are available for those who prefer a more manual approach. Grab a key from Settings > SDK/API and you'll be ready to ship.
Can I sell pets?
No. While adoption fees are permitted, selling pets is strictly prohibited. PawPlacer supports legitimate shelter and foster adoption processes only. Puppy mills, backyard breeders, and other unethical practices are not allowed and will immediately result in account closure. Zero exceptions to this policy.
Will PawPlacer remain free?
Yes. Free access to the complete platform is an ongoing commitment, not a trial or limited tier.
Why should I trust PawPlacer over larger, established platforms?
PawPlacer was built by organization volunteers and tech professionals who care deeply about improving animal welfare. Unlike corporate-owned or VC-backed companies, we answer to our users, not outside investors. We focus on practical organization needs, responsive product development, and responsible stewardship.
Can I import my existing data?
Yes. Import pets, adopters, fosters, volunteers, donors, and surrenders from CSV, XLSX, or XLS. Review matching headers, partial matches, and custom fields before saving. Column mapping automatically sends unmatched headers and field labels, not row data, to OpenAI. Medical timeline entries and documents are not imported.
Can I customize forms and terms?
Absolutely. Customize adoption, foster, volunteer, surrender, donor, and pet forms with the supported fields, sections, required responses, and templates. Adoption, foster, volunteer, and surrender terms are customizable in Settings.
Is there an app available?
PawPlacer is a mobile-responsive web platform that works in a current browser on phones, tablets, and computers. There is no separate native app, and an active internet connection is required. You can add the website to your device's home screen for quicker access.
How do you plan to compete with the larger companies in this space?
At PawPlacer, our focus isn't on competing. It's on serving. We want to give shelters, fosters, and rescues a new tool to manage their operations using UIs and methods that they are comfortable with. We're grateful to platforms like Shelterluv and Buzz for blazing the trail; PawPlacer couldn't have existed during the many years they have been serving this community. We see ourselves as friendly peers in the same mission, not opponents, and we're excited to keep learning, innovating, and contributing alongside them, all in service of helping animals find homes.
How do you decide what to build?
Direct feedback from shelters, rescues, fosters, and volunteers shapes the roadmap. We prioritize practical workflows that reduce administrative work and help teams spend more time on animal care.
How do you ensure long-term sustainability?
PawPlacer is here to stay. We have substantial capital available to ensure continued development and growth. Our lean, efficient approach supports continual improvement. We're committed to keeping PawPlacer free, scalable, and evolving based on the needs of shelters and fosters for the long haul.
Does PawPlacer handle pets directly?
No. PawPlacer provides organization management software only. We don't take in, house, foster, or transport pets. Contact local organizations directly for these services.
We have thousands of records. Is PawPlacer scalable?
Absolutely. PawPlacer is built to scale with your organization, no matter how large. We use modern cloud infrastructure, proper database design, and efficient code to keep common workflows fast and reliable on any device. We also stress-tested the platform with 1 million pets in a real-world scenario, and it handled the workload smoothly.
Are any features restricted by organization size?
No. Every organization can use AI-assisted imports, full exports, flyer design, custom forms, reports, integrations, and the rest of the platform.
Does PawPlacer take a cut of donations or adoption fees?
No. Donations and adoption fees flow through the payment methods your organization chooses, and PawPlacer never takes a percentage.
How do you treat sensitive data?
Creating an organization requires your email, name, phone number, and organization address. Organizations control what they collect in their forms and records. We never sell user data or use it for ads, data brokerage, or third-party marketing. Data is shared with service providers needed to run PawPlacer: Supabase, Vercel, OpenAI, Stripe, Square, Zeffy, Resend, PostHog, Sentry, and Google Maps, and integrations you enable. Public pet listings are shared with GetBuddy according to your visibility settings. Organization AI features start off; import mapping automatically sends unmatched column headers and form field labels, not row data, to OpenAI. Data exports let you keep local backups. Read our security page for details.
Do you offer a municipal or government edition?
No. We intentionally steer clear of municipal contracts to stay fast and flexible. Government partnerships often come with slow procurement cycles and broad requirements that can drive up costs. By working directly with shelters and fosters, we stay responsive and focused on practical day-to-day needs.
How quickly does support respond?
Support answers most questions, and technical discussions are available on request. We typically respond within 6 hours during business hours (8AM-8PM EST) and within 24 hours maximum, 7 days a week.
I'm a developer. What stack do you use?
PawPlacer runs on React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Supabase, and Vercel, using React Router SSR and account-scoped database functions. Payments use Stripe, Square, or Zeffy, and email uses Resend. OpenAI powers enabled AI workflows such as pet biographies and matching explanations. Import column mapping runs automatically and sends unmatched headers and field labels, not row data, to OpenAI. Matching retrieves a shortlist before AI scoring.
Do you run ads or broker data?
No. PawPlacer does not sell user data, broker user data, serve ads inside the product, or use shelter, adopter, foster, volunteer, donor, or pet records for third-party marketing. Organizations own and control their workspace content; public listings, forms, widgets, and donation pages are public only when an organization chooses to publish them. PawPlacer account data is minimal, and private records are protected through account-scoped access controls. You can read the details on our security, terms, privacy, and cookie policy pages.