FAQs

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.

Yes. PawPlacer is free for every animal welfare organization. Every feature is included, with no pet, user, task board, or organization-size limits.

PawPlacer is self-funded and built by a small team with direct animal welfare experience and modern infrastructure. We avoid municipal-contract overhead, ads, data sales, and venture pressure so we can focus our resources on the product and support.

Yes. You can export your data at any time from the exports page in settings as a richly formatted CSV, XLSX, or XLS file. You can also ask us for a custom export with the exact combination of data you need, and we'll provide it in a clean, easy-to-use spreadsheet.

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.

Yes! Set default fees by age and species or customize per pet. Enable temporary discounts for events. We never take a percentage of your adoption fees, ever. You choose which payment methods to accept, from PayPal to Venmo to Bitcoin, and keep 100% of the proceeds. We also offer a donation feature for supporters who want to contribute directly to your organization.

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.

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.

Yes. Free access to the complete platform is an ongoing commitment, not a trial or limited tier.

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.

Yes. You can import pets, adopters, fosters, and volunteers from CSV, XLSX, or XLS files. The uploader maps matching headers, helps review partial matches, supports custom fields, and can suggest pet column mappings with AI when that setting is enabled. It does not automatically import every historical record type, such as medical timeline entries or documents.

Absolutely. Create custom forms for adoptions, fosters, volunteers, and partners with our form builder. Add any field type and set required responses. All terms are fully customizable in settings.

PawPlacer is a mobile-responsive web platform accessible from any device with an internet connection. This ensures you always have the latest features without managing separate apps. Add a shortcut to your home screen for easy access. With modern web technology, the experience is nearly identical to a native app. Thanks to smart caching, you can still view most of your data even without a connection. Web push notifications are coming soon for devices that support them.

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.

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.

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.

No. PawPlacer provides organization management software only. We don't take in, house, foster, or transport pets. Contact local organizations directly for these services.

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.

No. Every organization can use AI-assisted imports, full exports, flyer design, custom forms, reports, integrations, and the rest of the platform.

No. Donations and adoption fees flow through the payment methods your organization chooses, and PawPlacer never takes a percentage.

PawPlacer keeps our own account data collection small: we require an email address for login, and names are optional. Organizations control what they collect in their own forms, applications, pet records, notes, documents, donations, and volunteer workflows. We never sell user data, broker user data, serve ads inside PawPlacer, or use rescue records for third-party marketing. We disclose data only to the subprocessors needed to operate the service, such as Supabase, Vercel, Stripe, Resend, Google Maps, and OpenAI when optional AI features are enabled. For payments, we don't handle card data directly; Stripe does. Optional AI features are organization-controlled and start turned off. We also offer data export options so you can keep local backups anytime. Review our security page for the technical deep-dive.

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.

PawPlacer is built by a small, dedicated team of developers, designers, and organization volunteers who understand shelter needs firsthand. Our support staff handles most inquiries, with developers and leadership available for technical discussions or upon request. We typically respond within 6 hours during business hours (8AM-8PM EST) and within 24 hours maximum, 7 days a week. Everyone contributes across multiple areas to ensure PawPlacer truly serves the organization community.

PawPlacer runs on React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Supabase, and Vercel. The app uses React Router 8 SSR for fast page loads, with account-scoped database functions and practical indexing to keep common workflows responsive. The UI is built with accessible shared components. Payments flow through Stripe, emails through Resend, and optional AI features, such as pet biographies, matching explanations, and column mapping, are powered by OpenAI. Matching uses a lightweight shortlist before AI scoring so we do not score every possible pair.

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, cookies are used for security, session protection, preferences, core functionality, and non-ad product analytics, and private records are protected through account-scoped access controls. You can read the details on our security, terms, privacy, and cookie policy pages.