Looking for an ActiveNet alternative? Communal offers recreation management for community centers without enterprise complexity or lengthy implementation.
Key Differences
ActiveNet vs Communal
Built for Community Organizations
While ActiveNet focuses on recreation centers and YMCAs, Communal is built specifically for community associations and non-profits with features tailored to their unique needs.
Volunteer Management
Communal includes robust volunteer management with shift scheduling, hour tracking, and volunteer discounts for events—features not available in ActiveNet.
Donor Management
Unlike ActiveNet, Communal offers comprehensive donation management with automatic tax receipts, donor tracking, and fundraising capabilities essential for non-profits.
Pros & Cons
What to know about ActiveNet
ActiveNet Strengths
Established recreation center solution with proven track record
Strong facility scheduling and management
Good program registration capabilities
Point of sale system included
Designed for large-scale operations
ActiveNet Limitations
No volunteer management or scheduling
No donor CRM or fundraising tools
Complex and expensive to implement
Long implementation and onboarding times
Less suited for smaller community organizations
Why Communal
Built for the work you actually do.
Community-Focused
Designed for community organizations
Unlike ActiveNet's focus on recreation centers and YMCAs, Communal is built specifically for community associations and non-profits. Our platform is tailored to the unique needs of organizations that build and sustain communities.
Built for community associations and non-profits
Specialized features for volunteer coordination
Donor management with automatic tax receipts
Flexible event management for community gatherings
Intuitive interface for volunteer administrators
Built With Feedback
Developed with community organizations
Communal was created in close partnership with real community organizations. Our platform continuously evolves based on direct feedback from non-profit administrators, ensuring it addresses your unique challenges and needs.
Features developed based on non-profit administrator input
Regular updates driven by community organization feedback
Intuitive design tested with actual community volunteers
Streamlined workflows for busy community administrators
Bring us your messiest workflow — we'll walk it with you.
How the hall gets booked, how program pricing works, how you chase renewals. No canned tour. We walk Communal through your real process so you can see the fit before you decide.
We love hearing from our customers and are proud to have helped 500+ organizations drive more impact and grow their communities.
We are finally able to communicate with our members, run booking software and a program payment platform all in one application. The cost to our Community is very reasonable and the team is fantastic to work with.
My experience with the software and the team has been overwhelmingly positive. We switched from another provider and the difference was night-and-day!
Revenue from membership sales and renewals increased, and we save a significant amount of staff time and paperwork. The customer service is outstanding and the team at Communal continues to add helpful features.
Frequently asked questions
Switching from ActiveNet is easier than you might expect. Our team provides comprehensive migration support to transfer your member data, program history, and facility configurations. Many organizations find Communal's modern interface significantly easier to learn than ActiveNet's complex system.
Communal offers transparent, straightforward pricing without the enterprise-level costs associated with ActiveNet. We don't charge per-admin fees or require expensive implementation projects. Visit our pricing page for current rates.
ActiveNet implementations often take 6-12 months due to their complexity. Communal typically gets organizations up and running in 2-4 weeks. Our modern platform is designed for quick onboarding without requiring extensive IT resources or consultant involvement.
Yes! Unlike ActiveNet, Communal includes comprehensive volunteer management with scheduling and hour tracking, plus donor CRM with tax receipting and fundraising campaigns—essential features for community nonprofits.
Absolutely. While ActiveNet targets large recreation departments and YMCAs, Communal is built specifically for community associations and mid-sized nonprofits. You get powerful features without enterprise complexity, with unlimited admin accounts and no per-user fees.
Communal provides responsive, personalized support without the bureaucracy often associated with large enterprise vendors. Our team understands community organizations and offers hands-on assistance during migration and ongoing support as your needs evolve.
Your data is stored in a secure database that is not accessible to anyone. Users' credit card information is not stored on our platform. We utilize Stripe to process payments, learn more about how they store their data here.
You can! Our team is happy to help migrate data from an excel spreadsheet or an existing platform you utilize today. Contact us for more questions.
Communal directly deposits into your bank account. We do not hold any funds on our platform.
Yes, Communal is fully PCI-DSS compliant as we partner with Stripe as our payment processor. Stripe has been audited by an independent PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and is certified as a PCI Level 1 Service Provider. Communal does not have access to see or store any credit card data as all transactions are sent directly to Stripe.