Quillify vs Candid
Candid describes itself as “The sector's authoritative funding data utility.” That is their line, quoted, and it is a fair description of what they do.
Below is what Quillify does that they do not, what they are good at, and the prices side by side. Every figure about Candid was read off their own pages, and every figure about us is generated from what we actually charge, so both are checkable rather than claimed.
Every price and claim about Candid was read off their own live pages on 6 August 2026. Vendors in this category ship weekly, so check before you decide anything expensive.
What Quillify does that Candid does not
- We write the proposal, not just the letter of inquiry
- They ship an AI letter-of-inquiry writer, so it would be false to say they have no AI. What they do not do is draft a full proposal from your own documents, revise it in plain language, or grade it against the announcement. LOI-only is the accurate description and it is the limiting one.
- Contracts and lenders, which are not in their remit at all
- 7,900+ open government contract opportunities and 480+ community lenders. Candid is a nonprofit funding data utility by design and does not claim this ground.
- Workflow, not research
- Deadlines, a calendar, monitoring for new matches, assignable requirement checklists, and a record of what you applied for and won. Candid answers who might fund this. It does not carry you from there to a submitted application.
- You can start at zero
- They have no free tier and start at $219 a month. Browsing and keyword search here cost nothing.
What Candid is good at
Stated accurately, because a comparison that pretends a real product is bad is worth nothing to you and we would rather you could check every line of this.
- The dataset, and it is not close
- 304,000 or more funder profiles, 1.9 million nonprofit profiles, 29 million or more grants, and unlimited 990 downloads. We hold 122,000+ funders. Any professional grant writer knows Candid's numbers, and arguing corpus size against them would be both losing and obviously so.
- Nonprofit compliance screening nobody else has
- OFAC, Publication 78, automatic revocations, and California AB 488. Worth being precise here: that is eligibility screening on organizations, a completely different thing from our proposal compliance checklist, and conflating the two would be dishonest.
- Authority
- They are the reference the sector cites. For a research function inside a foundation or a large institution, that standing is itself part of what is being bought.
Price, side by side
| Quillify | Candid | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | $0, plans from $99/month | $219/month |
| Top published | $750/month | Annual plans in the low thousands, with a lower nonprofit rate |
| Free tier | Permanent. Browsing and keyword search, no card. | None |
Our figures come from the product's own pricing constants at build time, so this table cannot drift from what we actually charge. Theirs was read on 6 August 2026. Our full price list, including what every action costs.
Which one you want
Quillify, if any of this is you
You need an application written and submitted, not researched, contracts and lending are plausible sources for you, or you want to know which funders will read an unsolicited proposal before you build a list.
Still weighing it up? The wider set of alternatives to Candid, with prices, and the whole category in one table.
The cheapest way to decide is to look.
Browsing and keyword search are free, and there is no card required.