Most organizations outgrow Join It when the service fee on every payment adds up, or when they need events, volunteers or facility booking that Join It hands off to other tools. Stay if dues collection is the whole job.
Ordered by how well each one fits the organizations that usually outgrow Join It.
Programs, facilities, volunteers and wallet cards on one record
Communal keeps memberships, programs, facility rentals, donations with automatic tax receipts, volunteer shifts, POS and email campaigns on one member record, with Apple and Google Wallet cards in every plan.
Check first: A small club that only collects dues may not need this much system.
Free tier, with wallet cards and an API on Pro
TidyHQ has a free Starter tier with unlimited contacts and membership levels, and its Pro plan adds wallet cards, committee roles and a public REST API.
Check first: Its own service fee stacks on Stripe, and there is no facility booking.
Dues, events and a directory in your existing website
MembershipWorks embeds membership, events with check-in, a directory and donations into WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or plain HTML, charges no transaction fee of its own, and is month to month.
Check first: No public API, no wallet cards, no facility booking, and email runs through a Mailchimp add-on.
Website builder, events, email and donations in one product
Wild Apricot includes the website builder, events, email, store and donations at every published tier, with a 60-day no-card trial.
Check first: Pricing counts every contact, not just members, and an outside payment gateway costs extra every month.
Free Basic plan with texting and a member app
MemberPlanet's Basic plan is free with unlimited members and admins, and the paid tiers lower the platform fee.
Check first: A platform fee stacks on processing for every payment, and cards are in-app or PDF rather than wallet passes.
Free memberships, ticketing and donations for US and Canadian nonprofits
Zeffy charges the nonprofit nothing, including payment processing; an optional donor tip at checkout funds it.
Check first: US and Canada only, every member sees a tip prompt, and there is no volunteer scheduling or facility booking.
Pay per active member, with a built-in website and forums
ClubExpress bills only active members and includes a website, events, committees, interest groups, forums and volunteer tools, with resource scheduling sold as an add-on.
Check first: Setup is a paid package, and virtual cards and the API are yearly add-ons.
| Feature | Communal | Join It | TidyHQ | MembershipWorks | Wild Apricot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Add-onTotal tier and up | Included | Not offered | Partial |
| Family & household memberships | Included | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed | PartialBundles |
| Event registration & ticketing | Add-onPrograms & events add-on | PartialEventbrite sync | Included | IncludedCapacity and check-in | Included |
| Program & class registration | Add-onWaitlists, capacity, attendance, rosters | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| Facility booking & rentals | Add-onApprovals, invoices, agreements, iCal | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered |
| Volunteer shifts & hour tracking | IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts | Not offered | Partial | Partial | Not offered |
| Donations & fundraising | IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option | Included | Partial | Included | Included |
| Automatic tax receipts | IncludedAutomatic | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed | PartialDonation receipts |
| Member self-service portal | Included | Included | Included | Included | IncludedMember app |
| Email campaigns | IncludedCampaigns and segments | Not offeredMailchimp / Constant Contact | IncludedMetered | PartialMailchimp add-on | Included |
| Website builder | Not offeredWorks beside your site | Partial | Partial | Partial | Included |
| Public API | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server | Partial | Included | Not offered | Included |
Join It adds its own service fee to every online payment, on top of Stripe processing. It shrinks on higher tiers but never goes away.
Digital membership cards, QR check-in and API access only arrive on the mid tier. The entry plan buys dues collection and a member database.
Every self-serve plan stops at the same member ceiling; past that you are negotiating an Enterprise agreement. Growing leagues and associations hit it within a season or two.
Events sync from Eventbrite, email runs through Mailchimp or Constant Contact, and there is no volunteer, program or facility module. Each hand-off splits the member record across another account.
Programs and events with waitlists, attendance and member pricing, facility booking with approvals and rental agreements, and volunteer shifts with hour tracking all sit on the same profile. Join It syncs events from Eventbrite and has no program, facility or volunteer tools.
Apple and Google Wallet passes, scan-in check-in, automated renewals, family memberships and the REST API are in every Communal plan. On Join It, cards, check-in and API access start on a higher tier.
Communal charges a monthly subscription and takes no service fee of its own on top of card processing. Join It adds its own fee to every online payment, plus Stripe.
Communal scales by member band on published pricing and is quoted only at very large sizes. Every Join It self-serve plan has a hard member cap.
Stay on Join It if dues collection and a member list are the whole job and your membership is comfortably under the self-serve ceiling. It is a clean product for that job, and the gaps above only matter once you add programs, rentals or volunteers.
Communal. Resident vs non-resident pricing by address, hall and court rentals, kids programs and volunteer shifts are the core of the product, without a per-payment service fee, and the EFCL runs 163 Edmonton community leagues on it.
TidyHQ for a volunteer-run club outside North America that wants a free tier, committees and wallet cards on the Pro plan. Communal for a North American club that books courts or fields, runs seasons or clinics, and wants wallet cards and family memberships on one record.
MembershipWorks. It embeds in WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or plain HTML and charges no transaction fee of its own. Communal also runs beside any website, and adds programs, facilities and volunteers when you need them.
Zeffy if you are in the US or Canada and need free memberships, tickets and tax-receipted donations. Communal if you also run programs, rent space or schedule volunteers and want a member portal and CRA-format or US-format receipts on one record.
Join It exports members and payment history as CSV; the data set is small and most moves finish in one to two weeks.
Export your members, membership plans, renewal dates, custom fields and payment history from Join It; we validate the CSV and map each plan to a Communal membership type.
Set up membership types, family groups, programs and facilities in Communal, import members with their existing renewal dates so nobody renews early or late, and bring in historical memberships so tenure carries over.
Replace the Join It signup links on your website with the Communal portal, reissue wallet cards to members, and turn off Join It once the first renewals have come through the new system.
The Big Apple Knitters Guild moved 400 members off PayPal and Excel onto Communal and now runs renewals and member cards from one place. 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
Communal for clubs and associations that have outgrown dues collection and need programs, facility booking, volunteers or donations on the same member record. TidyHQ or MembershipWorks for small clubs that want a free tier or to stay embedded in an existing website. Zeffy for a US or Canadian nonprofit that wants free memberships and receipts.
MembershipWorks charges no transaction fee of its own, only your processor's rate. Communal charges a monthly subscription with no separate service fee on payments. Zeffy charges nothing at all and is funded by optional donor tips. See Communal pricing.
Yes, and the scoped migration is free. We import members, membership plans, renewal dates, custom fields and payment history from the Join It CSV export, validate the mapping with you, and keep existing renewal dates intact. Because Join It data sets are small, most moves finish in one to two weeks.
Yes. Communal issues Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes plus PDF cards in every plan, push-updates them when a membership renews or lapses, and supports scan-in check-in. Join It offers wallet cards and QR check-in only from its Total plan up.
Join It for a small club that only needs dues, a member list and wallet cards. Wild Apricot for a club that also wants a website builder, native events and email, and can live with per-contact pricing. Neither has facility booking or volunteer shifts; Communal covers both.
TidyHQ has a genuinely free Starter plan with unlimited contacts, adds wallet cards, committees and an API on Pro, and is Australian-hosted. Join It is US-based, puts cards and API access on its mid tier, and caps every self-serve plan. Both add their own service fee on top of Stripe.