Most organizations leave Membee because every admin is a separate paid seat, there is no public API or accounting sync, and the admin interface is built for a desktop. Stay on Membee if unlimited members and zero vendor transaction fees matter more than anything else.
Ordered by how well each one fits the organizations that usually outgrow Membee.
Unlimited admins, wallet cards, a REST API and facility booking on one record
Every plan includes unlimited admin accounts with scoped roles, member CRM, volunteer shifts, donations with automatic tax receipts, POS, wallet cards and a public REST API.
Check first: Priced by member band rather than unlimited members, no website builder, and no QuickBooks sync (CSV and XLSX exports with GL codes instead).
The fuller chamber of commerce AMS, with integrated payments, CMS and LMS
GrowthZone (ChamberMaster) has decades of chamber-specific workflow: business directories, sponsorship management, committees, certifications, a member app and a REST API.
Check first: No published pricing or trial, annual or multi-year contracts, negotiated setup fees, and website, community and LMS are separately priced add-ons.
Dues, events and a business directory embedded in your existing website
MembershipWorks embeds membership, events with check-in, a business directory, donations and a job board into WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or plain HTML, and charges no transaction fee of its own.
Check first: No public API, no wallet cards, no facility booking, and email marketing is a $9/mo Mailchimp add-on.
Published per-contact pricing with a website builder and a 60-day trial
Wild Apricot includes a website builder, events, email, store, donations and a public API at every published tier, month to month.
Check first: Pricing counts every contact, not just members, and a 20% subscription surcharge applies if you use a gateway other than Personify Payments.
Canadian association platform with CE tracking, LMS and community
Member365, based in Ottawa, adds continuing-education credits, certificates, an LMS, a job board, voting and a member community on top of memberships and events, with a REST API and Zapier.
Check first: Three times Membee's entry price, a setup fee that needs a quote, and no volunteer or facility tools either.
An event-heavy association platform with a branded member app
Glue Up pairs CRM, email, invoicing and a deep event toolset with a branded My Glue app and in-app membership cards, plus an API and Zapier.
Check first: Billed annually, no trial, and chapters, certifications, community and the website are extra power-ups.
A built-in website, forums and phone support, billed by active member
ClubExpress bills only active members and includes a website, events, committees, interest groups, forums and volunteer tools, with resource scheduling as an add-on.
Check first: Setup is a paid package, virtual cards and the API are yearly add-ons, and the templates look dated.
| Feature | Communal | Membee | GrowthZone | 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 | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered | Partial |
| Event registration & ticketing | Add-onPrograms & events, +$50/mo | Included | 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-onFrom +$50/mo; approvals, 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 | Included | 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 | Included | Included | PartialMailchimp add-on | Included |
| Website builder | Not offeredWorks beside your site | Partial | Included | Partial | Included |
| Built-in accounting | Not offeredCSV/XLSX exports with GL codes; no QuickBooks sync | Not offeredNo QuickBooks sync | Not offeredAccounting integrations | Not offeredQuickBooks/Xero export | Not offeredQuickBooks sync |
| Public API | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server | Not offered | Included | Not offered | Included |
| Detail | Communal | Membee | GrowthZone | MembershipWorks | Wild Apricot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $75/mo | From $98/mo | Quote only | Free to 50; $35/mo to 300 | From $66/mo |
| Pricing model | Flat, by member band (to 250 members at the floor) | Per admin seat; unlimited members | Annual license, quote | Per member account, tiered | Per contact, tiered |
| Contract | No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time | Membee: month-to-month, cancel anytime.DetailsMembee Complete: 1-year subscription paid monthly, then month-to-month. | Annual (multi-year common per third-party reviews); no monthly option advertised | No contract, month-to-month, cancel anytime; 30-day money-back guarantee | Month-to-month available;Detailsoptional 1-year and 2-year prepay discounts; no cancellation fees |
| Payment fees | Card-processing application fee set in your agreement, often 2%; no monthly minimums | 0% Membee transaction fee;Detailsyou pay only your own gateway's fees. 8 supported gateways (incl. Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, Bambora, eWAY, Moneris); no surcharge for using your own gateway. | 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 MembershipWorks transaction fee or revenue share;Detailsyou pay only Stripe / PayPal / Authorize.net gateway fees. No surcharge for using your own gateway. | 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'. |
| Free trial | Free trial, no credit card | First month free (billing starts the day member data is imported); no free plan | No (demo only) | No time-limited trial;Detailsfree plan up to 50 accounts plus 30-day money-back guarantee | 60-day free trial, no credit card required; no permanently free plan |
Membee is $109/mo for the first admin seat and $89/mo for each additional seat month to month, or $98 and $80 on annual billing. A chamber with a director, a membership coordinator and an events person is paying for three seats before anyone volunteers.
Membee publishes no API and has no QuickBooks or other accounting integration; integrations stop at Mailchimp and Constant Contact. Anything you want to connect is a manual export.
Membee has no Apple or Google Wallet membership cards, no volunteer shift scheduling and no room or facility booking. Chambers that rent a boardroom or schedule event volunteers, and clubs that rent courts, run a second tool beside it.
Third-party reviews describe the admin interface as desktop-oriented with a poor mobile experience, which matters when the people doing the work are volunteers checking in from their phones at an event.
Every Communal plan has unlimited admin accounts with scoped roles (Membership Manager, Program Manager, Facility Manager, Finance, Volunteer, Reporting and more) at $75/mo for up to 250 members. Membee bills for the first seat and again for every seat you add.
Communal issues Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes that update on renewal, and ships a versioned REST API, Zapier webhooks and a remote MCP server. Membee has no wallet cards and publishes no API.
Volunteer shifts with hour tracking are in the base plan, and programs and events and facility booking with approvals, invoices and rental agreements are add-on modules. Membee covers memberships, events, email and donations and stops there.
Communal bills in CAD or USD, supports Canadian pre-authorized debit, issues CRA-format tax receipts automatically, and ships the member portal in 11 locales including fr-CA. A chamber or league in Alberta or Quebec keeps the Canadian vendor relationship.
Stay on Membee if you are a chamber or small association with thousands of members, one or two admins, and a payment gateway you do not want to change. Unlimited records at a flat per-seat price is a real advantage at that shape, and its renewal and onboarding automations are mature. The gaps above only bite when you add admins, need an API or rent space.
GrowthZone if you want the fullest chamber AMS (directories, sponsorships, CMS, LMS, member app) and accept a quote and an annual contract; MembershipWorks for a small chamber that already has a website and wants no vendor payment fee. Communal if the chamber rents its boardroom, runs programs or schedules event volunteers and wants unlimited admins.
Communal. Resident vs non-resident pricing by address, hall and rink rentals, programs, volunteer shifts and CRA receipts are the core of the product, it bills in CAD, and the EFCL runs 163 Edmonton community leagues on it as a federation.
Member365 for a Canadian professional body that needs CE tracking, an LMS and voting; Glue Up for an event-heavy association that wants a branded app. Communal for smaller associations and chapters that mainly need tiers, renewals, events, a directory and volunteers at a published monthly price.
Communal for a club that books courts or rooms, runs seasons or clinics and wants wallet cards and family memberships on one record. ClubExpress for a hobby or social club that wants a built-in website, forums and phone support and is fine paying per active member.
Membee exports members, organizations, membership types and transaction history from its reports; most moves finish inside one renewal cycle.
Export member and organization records, membership types with renewal dates, custom fields, invoices and event history from Membee; we validate the files and map each Membee membership type and organization relationship to a Communal membership type before importing.
Set up membership types, boundaries, programs and facilities in Communal, import members with their existing renewal dates so nobody renews early or late, and load historical memberships so tenure carries over.
Replace the join and renew links on your website with the Communal portal, issue wallet cards, and run both systems briefly while the first renewals come through.
The EFCL runs 163 Edmonton community leagues on Communal as a federation, with each league billing its own members and residents routed to the right league by address. Read the EFCL 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 chambers of commerce that want a fuller AMS, GrowthZone; for a small chamber that wants the cheapest no-fee option and already has a website, MembershipWorks. For community associations, leagues and clubs that need unlimited admins, wallet cards, an API and facility booking, Communal at $75/mo. Wild Apricot is the published-price option with a website builder.
Membee is $109/mo for the first admin seat and $89/mo for each additional seat month to month, or $98 and $80 on annual billing (10% off). Membee Complete, which adds a vendor-built WordPress website, is $209/mo for the first seat ($188 annual) on a 1-year term. Member count does not affect the price, there is no setup fee, Membee charges 0% transaction fees, and the first month is free.
Yes. Communal includes unlimited admin accounts with scoped roles in every plan, at $75/mo for up to 250 members. MembershipWorks and Wild Apricot also do not charge per admin seat; they price by member accounts and contacts respectively. See Communal pricing for the member bands.
Yes, and the scoped migration is free. We import member and organization records, membership types, renewal dates, custom fields, invoices and event history from the Membee export, validate the mapping with you, and keep existing renewal dates intact so the move does not disrupt a dues cycle.
Communal has a versioned public REST API with scoped keys, Zapier webhooks and a remote MCP server, which Membee does not offer. Neither product syncs natively to QuickBooks; Communal provides CSV and XLSX exports with GL code fields for your bookkeeper, and Zapier for anything else.
Yes. Communal is Canadian, bills in CAD or USD, supports Canadian pre-authorized debit and Interac on terminals, issues CRA-format tax receipts automatically, and ships the member portal in fr-CA as well as English. Membee is based in Calgary; Communal keeps the Canadian vendor relationship while adding wallet cards, an API and facility booking.