Most organizations leave GrowthZone because pricing is quote-only on annual or multi-year contracts, and the website, community, LMS and newsletter tools are separately priced add-ons. Stay on GrowthZone if you are a chamber that runs on its directory, sponsorship and committee workflows.
Ordered by how well each one fits the organizations that usually outgrow GrowthZone.
Memberships, programs, facilities and volunteers on one member record, month to month
Memberships, programs and events, facility booking, volunteer shifts and donations on one member record, with wallet cards, POS and a public REST API in the base plan.
Check first: No website builder, LMS, business directory or sponsorship module; Communal is built for community associations, clubs and rec organizations rather than chambers.
Website, events and email from one vendor, with every feature on every tier
Wild Apricot includes the website builder, events, email, store, donations, member and admin apps and a public API on every plan, billed month to month with a 60-day trial.
Check first: Pricing counts every contact, using your own payment gateway adds a 20% surcharge, and there is no volunteer management or facility booking.
A like-for-like AMS with committees, dues automation and chapter management
MemberClicks runs MC Trade for chambers and trade associations and MC Professional for professional societies, with committees, dues automation, review panels, an OAuth REST API and chapter management.
Check first: Still quote-based above the floor, annual contracts, implementation priced separately, and community, mobile app, LMS and registration tech are paid add-ons.
Event-led membership with a branded member app and multi-chapter support
Glue Up combines CRM, event management, email, invoicing and a member community with a branded My Glue app and multi-currency, multi-language support.
Check first: Annual billing only, no free trial, and website, community, chapters and certifications are extra power-ups.
Unlimited member records and renewal automation for chambers and small associations
Membee bills per admin seat rather than per member, so member records are unlimited, and it ships renewal and onboarding automation with zero vendor transaction fees.
Check first: No public API, no QuickBooks sync, no volunteer or facility tools, and reviewers call the mobile admin experience poor.
Membership and events embedded in your existing site, without an AMS
MembershipWorks embeds events, a directory, donations, forms, a job board and a shopping cart into WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or Weebly, with no contract and no setup fee.
Check first: No public API, no resource booking, no wallet cards, and basic volunteer tracking.
Pick this if fundraising and sponsorship revenue matter more than dues
Neon CRM is a fundraising system that grows into membership: unlimited records and users at every tier, with memberships, events and volunteers on Impact.
Check first: Entry tier is fundraising-only, processing is 2.99% + $0.30, and there is no website builder or free trial.
| Feature | Communal | GrowthZone | Wild Apricot | MemberClicks | Glue Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Membership management | IncludedTiers, custom fields, segments | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Automated renewals | IncludedReminders and auto-renew | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Digital membership cards (Apple / Google Wallet) | IncludedIncluded in every plan | Not offered | Partial | Not listed | PartialIn-app cards |
| Event registration & ticketing | Add-onPrograms & events, +$50/mo | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Program & class registration | Add-onWaitlists, capacity, attendance, rosters | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| Facility booking & rentals | Add-onFrom +$50/mo; approvals, invoices, agreements, iCal | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered |
| Volunteer shifts & hour tracking | IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts | Partial | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered |
| Donations & fundraising | IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Member self-service portal | Included | Included | IncludedMember app | Included | IncludedBranded app |
| Email campaigns | IncludedCampaigns and segments | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Website builder | Not offeredWorks beside your site | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Chapters & federations | IncludedFederated leagues and chapters | Included | Not offered | Included | Add-onChapter Management power-up |
| Public API | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Detail | Communal | GrowthZone | Wild Apricot | MemberClicks | Glue Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $75/mo | Quote only | From $66/mo | From $3,500/yr | From $3,000/yr |
| Pricing model | Flat, by member band (to 250 members at the floor) | Annual license, quote | Per contact, tiered | Annual quote by org size | Annual plan by org size |
| Contract | No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time | Annual (multi-year common per third-party reviews); no monthly option advertised | Month-to-month available;Detailsoptional 1-year and 2-year prepay discounts; no cancellation fees | Typically 1-year contracts;Detailsmulti-year contracts offered at a discounted rate | Annual (all contracts billed annually by default; one-off event pricing possible) |
| Payment fees | Card-processing application fee set in your agreement, often 2%; no monthly minimums | GZ Pay (integrated processor): helpdesk-reported 2.89% + $0.45 per card transaction (3.99% Amex), with a rate update effective May 1, 2026 whose new figures…DetailsGZ Pay (integrated processor): helpdesk-reported 2.89% + $0.45 per card transaction (3.99% Amex), with a rate update effective May 1, 2026 whose new figures were not retrievable; vendor page says 'no setup fees', 'no hidden gateway or batch fees'. Supports card, ACH, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Fees for using external gateways: not published. | No per-transaction fee from WildApricot itself when using the integrated Personify Payments processor (processor rates not published on the pricing page).DetailsUsing a third-party gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net) triggers a Payment System Servicing Fee described in the help center as 20% of the subscription plan price, applied to US/Canada accounts; vendor pricing page calls this 'an additional fee'. | Integrated payment processing via partner (Payroc/NMI gateway noted in help center at $16.95/mo customer rate with setup fee waived);Detailsper-transaction processor percentages not published on vendor pricing page. No published surcharge for external gateways found. | Payments run through integrated third-party gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Paygage and others) at the gateway's own rates;DetailsGlue Up does not publish a platform transaction fee. Fee for using external gateways: not published. |
| Free trial | Free trial, no credit card | No (demo only) | 60-day free trial, no credit card required; no permanently free plan | No free trial or free plan advertised; demo via sales | No (demo only) |
The GrowthZone pricing page lists three AMS tiers (ChamberMaster, GrowthZone AMS, MemberSuite AMS) and every add-on as "Contact Us for a Custom Quote". There is no free trial, only a demo, so you cannot see the admin side before you sign.
Contracts are annual with no monthly option advertised, third-party reviews report multi-year terms as common, and implementation fees are negotiated per deal. Small associations end up committed for years to a system they sized for a staff they no longer have.
GZ CMS (website), GZ Community, GZ Learn (LMS) and the newsletter tool are each separately priced, and GZ Pay is the integrated processor. The quote you start with grows as each piece is added.
GZ Pay is reported on the GrowthZone helpdesk at 2.89% + $0.45 per card transaction (3.99% for Amex), with a rate update effective May 1, 2026 whose new figures are not published. Fees for using an external gateway are not published either.
Volunteers are tracked through member records and tags rather than a dedicated shift and hours module, there is no facility or room booking, and no Apple or Google Wallet membership cards were found. Associations that run events in their own space or rely on volunteers need another tool.
Communal publishes a flat $75/mo price for up to 250 members that scales by member band, with no contract, prorated billing and the ability to cancel any module at any time. GrowthZone publishes no numbers and sells annual or multi-year licenses.
You can start a Communal trial at auth.getcommunal.com/signup with no credit card and see the admin side before anyone calls you; scoped data migration is free. GrowthZone offers a demo only, and setup fees are negotiated per deal.
Volunteer opportunities with shifts, capacity, clock in and out hour tracking and automatic volunteer discounts are in the base plan, and the facilities module adds approval workflows, member-type pricing and recurring seasonal bookings. GrowthZone tracks volunteers via member tags and has no facility booking.
Payments settle weekly into your own Stripe Connect account with no monthly minimums and a donor-covers-fees option at checkout. GZ Pay rates are reported at 2.89% + $0.45, with a 2026 update whose figures are not published.
Stay on GrowthZone if you are a chamber or mid-size trade association with staff, the directory and sponsorship workflows are the core of your operation, and the contract you negotiated is fair for what you use. An AMS that the whole office knows is worth a lot, and the gaps above only matter if you need volunteers, facilities or a self-serve monthly price. Move when the renewal quote grows faster than the membership, or when the work you actually do is memberships, programs and events rather than a business directory.
Wild Apricot if you want a website, member database and events from one vendor with a 60-day trial. Communal if you want memberships, programs, facility booking, volunteers and wallet cards on one member record, month to month, and both let you start without a sales call.
MemberClicks MC Trade for a chamber AMS with committees, dues automation and chapter management, or Membee if unlimited member records and zero vendor transaction fees matter more. MembershipWorks if the chamber already has a website and only needs membership and events embedded in it.
Communal. Resident vs non-resident pricing by map boundary, hall and court rentals, kids programs and volunteer shifts sit on one member record, and federations run each league as its own tenant under a parent that routes residents by address; the EFCL runs 163 Edmonton community leagues this way.
Glue Up for full event lifecycle management, a branded member app, and multi-currency and multi-language support, with chapter management available as a power-up.
GrowthZone exports members, contacts, membership types, invoices and event registrations as CSV; plan the move around your contract end date.
Export members and contacts, membership types and renewal dates, invoice history, event registrations and any volunteer tags from GrowthZone; we map types to membership types, tags to Communal tags and audiences, and run a dry-run import you can check.
Set up membership types, renewal rules, programs, facilities and volunteer opportunities in Communal, then import members with their existing expiry dates so the first renewal cycle lands on schedule.
Point your website to the Communal portal for signup, renewals, registration and bookings, send members their wallet cards, and keep GrowthZone read-only until the contract lapses.
The EFCL runs 163 Edmonton community leagues on Communal as a federation, with each league on its own tenant and residents routed to the right league by address. Read the case study.
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.
No canned tour · No sales script
For small to mid-size associations that want a published price and a self-serve start, Wild Apricot (contact-based from $66/mo) or Communal (flat $75/mo, month to month, with volunteers, wallet cards and an API included). For chambers that still want an AMS, MemberClicks MC Trade from $3,500/yr or Membee from $109/mo per admin. For event-heavy associations, Glue Up.
GrowthZone does not publish pricing. Its pricing page lists ChamberMaster, GrowthZone AMS and MemberSuite AMS tiers and the GZ Pay, GZ CMS, GZ Community and GZ Learn add-ons as custom quotes, on annual licenses with setup fees negotiated per deal. GZ Pay processing is reported at 2.89% + $0.45 per card transaction with a May 2026 rate update. Ask for the full quote including add-ons and implementation before comparing.
Wild Apricot for most small associations. It publishes contact-based pricing from $66/mo, offers a 60-day trial with no card, bills month to month and includes the website builder, events, email and apps at every tier. GrowthZone is a quote-priced AMS on annual contract built for chambers and staffed trade associations, and makes sense once directory, sponsorship and committee workflows are central. Neither has volunteer shifts or facility booking; Communal covers those at $75/mo.
Yes, and the scoped migration is free. We import members and contacts, membership types, renewal dates, invoice history, event registrations and volunteer tags from your GrowthZone exports, validate the mapping with you using a dry run, and keep existing expiry dates intact. Time the go-live to your contract end date and keep GrowthZone read-only until then.
No. Communal has an opt-in member directory but no business directory, sponsorship module or learning management system, and no website builder. It is built for community associations, clubs, recreation organizations and federations that run memberships, programs, facilities, donations and volunteers. A chamber of commerce whose product is the directory should stay on an AMS.
Yes. Communal is $75/mo with no contract and prorated billing, Wild Apricot is month to month from $66/mo, Membee is month to month from $109/mo per admin seat, and MembershipWorks is month to month from free to 50 accounts. MemberClicks and Glue Up are annual. See our pricing page for Communal's member bands and add-ons.