What is the best volunteering platform between Wwoof and Workaway?

When it comes to ‘volunteering abroad in exchange for free hospitality‘ the best websites are undoubtedly Wwoof (http://wwoof.org) and Workaway (http://workaway.info).

Many volunteering friends I know use Workaway and say they prefer it over Wwoof.

Why?

Because it’s cheaper. As a matter of fact, it costs only 30 euros per year and it offers a worldwide list of volunteer solutions.

Wwoof costs between 15€ to 30 € but it doesn’t offer a worldwide list. You have to buy a subscription for each country where you wish to volunteer. For instance, a Wwoof subscription in Italy costs 30 euros (with insurance included); in Ireland, it costs 20 euros; in England 20 pounds, and so on…

[Update September 2021📯 – Good news, WWOOF is now working to provide an international list!]

Which one to choose? My opinion…

Well, I’ve been volunteering a lot in the past years and I subscribed to both platforms. If you are searching for a recommendation here’s mine:

I would choose Wwoof because:

• It’s a non-profit organization.
• It’s about helping ecological realities.
• It offers insurance (at least for most of the European countries)
• Both hosts and volunteers have to pay for the subscription, which is fair.
• It invests the money of the subscribers to support ecological projects and interesting initiatives for the promotion of eco-lifestyles.

Workaway is without any doubt a great platform but I personally boycott it because:

• It’s a commercial entity, like Couchsurfing now
• Hosts on Workaway don’t have to pay for any subscription, which I think is a bit unfair. Since the hosts are the ones that need free ‘helpers’ shouldn’t they also pay for being on the list?
• this guy’s reasons, shared on a Facebook group, are also pretty reasonable:

Last but not least, it’s really sad that we have to pay for checking a simple list, in the age of the Internet and Open Source! There could be a simple website designed for this purpose and brought up similarly to a Wikipedia page, where everyone can freely subscribe and participate!

Are other platforms out there?

Sure, there are other nice websites for volunteering. However, they either offer expensive solutions or have limited resources.

At Voluntouring.org we offer a free volunteer database that offers volunteering opportunities oriented to sustainability, charitable work and Non-profit’s projects.

There are also free solutions (volunteering in exchange for food and accommodations) and non-free solutions in the case of volunteering in developing countries.

So, before exploring Wwoof or Workaway, consider checking our database first! It’s free! I still recommend you to subscribe to either WWOOF or Workaway in case you intend to live a long-term nomadic lifestyle. It will help you a lot!

I hope this will help you choose the most appropriate organization for your travel and volunteering needs.

[Read also: all the best Facebook groups for alternative lifestyles and travelling]

Go to the volunteer project Free list