ActiveNet Alternative
Looking for an ActiveNet alternative? Communal offers recreation management for community centers without enterprise complexity or lengthy implementation.
Key Differences of 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.
ActiveNet Pros & Cons
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
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
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
- Transparent pricing structure with no hidden fees
Detailed Feature Comparison
| Feature | Communal | ActiveNet |
|---|---|---|
| Membership Features | ||
| Multiple membership types | ||
| Online member payments with auto-renewal | ||
| Digital membership cards | ||
| Automated renewal reminders | ||
| Region-specific memberships | ||
| Custom member fields and data collection | ||
| Family/household memberships | ||
| Waiver agreement collection | ||
| Facility Management | ||
| Online facility booking calendars | ||
| Member-only pricing for facility rentals | ||
| Instant or admin approved rental requests | ||
| Online payment for facility rentals | ||
| Multiple facility types management | ||
| Custom rental agreement forms | ||
| Damage deposit collection and tracking | ||
| Event Management | ||
| Event registration and ticketing | ||
| Custom information collection for events | ||
| Member pricing for events | ||
| Event attendance tracking | ||
| Integrated volunteer management for events | ||
| Volunteer Management | ||
| Volunteer signups during event registration | ||
| Volunteer hour tracking | ||
| Recurring volunteer shifts | ||
| Volunteer discount automation | ||
| Volunteer interest tagging | ||
| Donor Management | ||
| Automatic tax receipts for donations | ||
| Donor database and history tracking | ||
| Fundraising campaign management | ||
| Reporting & Analytics | ||
| Membership reports | ||
| Financial reporting | ||
| Facility usage analytics | ||
| Event participation reporting | ||
| Volunteer contribution reports | ||
| Donation and fundraising analytics | ||
| Other Features | ||
| Customizable for community organizations | ||
| Point of sale system | ||
| Unlimited admin accounts | ||
| Built-in online payment processing | ||
See How Communal Works for Your Organization
Get a personalized walkthrough of the features that matter most to you. We'll answer your questions and help you understand if Communal is the right fit.
Most demos are scheduled within 24 hours
Powering 500+ community organizations
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.