Most nonprofits and clubs leave Memberful because it is a subscription tool for creators, with no events, donations, tax receipts, directory, volunteers or facility booking. Stay if you sell gated content, newsletters or podcasts.
Memberful is owned by Patreon and built for creators selling subscriptions and paywalled content. It shows up in membership-software searches because the word "membership" overlaps. If you run a club, association or charity, the alternatives below are the right category.
Ordered by how well each one fits the organizations that usually outgrow Memberful.
Programs, facilities, volunteers and donations on one member record
Communal covers memberships with automated renewals, wallet cards, volunteer shifts, donations with automatic tax receipts, POS and email campaigns, with programs and facility booking as add-ons.
Check first: No paywall, gated content, podcast feeds or course hosting; if that is what you sell, stay with Memberful.
Dues, events and a directory in the site you already run
MembershipWorks embeds membership, events with check-in, a directory, donations and a job board into WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or HTML, and charges no transaction fee of its own.
Check first: No public API, no wallet cards, no facility booking, and email marketing relies on a Mailchimp add-on.
Simple dues collection, a member database and wallet cards
Join It handles dues collection and a member database, with wallet cards, QR check-in and API access on its Total plan.
Check first: A service fee still applies on every payment, and events rely on Eventbrite sync.
Website builder, events, email and donations in one product
Wild Apricot includes a website builder, events, email, store and donations at every tier, with a 60-day no-card trial and a public API.
Check first: It counts every contact, not just members, and steers you toward its own payment processor.
Free to start, with wallet cards and committees on Pro
TidyHQ has a free Starter tier with unlimited contacts, and Pro adds Apple and Google Wallet cards, committee roles and a REST API.
Check first: A service fee stacks on Stripe, there is no facility booking, and data is hosted in Australia.
Free memberships and donation forms, funded by optional donor tips
Zeffy charges the nonprofit nothing, funded by an optional donor tip at checkout.
Check first: US and Canada only, every member sees a tip prompt, the API is read-only, and there is no volunteer scheduling or facility booking.
The creator-side alternative: community, courses and paid memberships
Mighty Networks combines a member community, courses, events, live streaming and paid subscriptions with native iOS and Android apps.
Check first: Not a member-management system: no dues invoicing, tax-receipted donations, directory, volunteers or facility booking.
| Feature | Communal | Memberful | Join It | MembershipWorks | Wild Apricot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Membership management | IncludedTiers, custom fields, segments | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Automated renewals | IncludedReminders and auto-renew | IncludedSubscriptions | Included | Included | Included |
| Digital membership cards (Apple / Google Wallet) | IncludedIncluded in every plan | Not offered | Add-onTotal tier and up | Not offered | Partial |
| Event registration & ticketing | Add-onPrograms & events add-on | Not offered | PartialEventbrite sync | 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 | Not offered | Partial | Not offered |
| Donations & fundraising | IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option | Not offered | Included | Included | Included |
| Automatic tax receipts | IncludedAutomatic | Not offered | Not listed | Not listed | PartialDonation receipts |
| Member self-service portal | Included | Included | Included | Included | IncludedMember app |
| Email campaigns | IncludedCampaigns and segments | PartialNewsletters | Not offeredMailchimp / Constant Contact | PartialMailchimp add-on | Included |
| Website builder | Not offeredWorks beside your site | Partial | Partial | Partial | Included |
| Public API | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server | Included | Partial | Not offered | Included |
Memberful takes its own cut of every sale on top of Stripe processing, so dues collection carries a platform fee forever.
Memberful has no event registration, donation forms, tax receipting, volunteer or facility tools. Everything a nonprofit does beyond billing has to happen somewhere else.
There are no wallet membership cards, no directory, no family memberships and no resident pricing. Member management in Memberful means a subscriber list with plans.
The roadmap serves newsletters, podcasts, courses and Discord communities. Nonprofits that adopted it for dues billing find the features they need next are never coming.
Family memberships, resident vs non-resident pricing by address, a member directory, wallet cards, volunteer shifts and facility booking all sit on one record. Memberful manages subscribers and plans.
Donation forms, campaign pages, recurring giving and automatic numbered tax receipts are in the base plan, and programs and events with waitlists and member pricing are one add-on away. Memberful has none of these.
Communal takes no percentage of your revenue, and card payments settle weekly to your own Stripe account. Memberful adds its own fee to every transaction on top of Stripe.
Like Memberful, Communal has no CMS and links from the site you already have. Unlike Memberful it gives members a portal for renewals, registrations, bookings, donations, receipts and volunteering, in 11 locales.
Stay on Memberful if you are a publisher, podcaster or creator and the product you sell is content. Its paywall, newsletter and community integrations are excellent for that, and none of the nonprofit tools above replicate them. The case for moving only exists if you are a club, association or charity using a creator tool to bill dues.
Communal. Memberships with wallet cards, programs, facility rentals and volunteer shifts are the core of the product, and it takes no percentage of your revenue. MembershipWorks if you only need dues, events and a directory inside your existing website.
Zeffy if you are in the US or Canada and need memberships, event tickets and tax-receipted donations free, funded by optional donor tips. Communal if you also run programs, rent space or schedule volunteers and want a member portal and automatic receipts on one record.
Wild Apricot for a small association that wants a website builder, events and email in one product. Communal for associations and chapters that need tiers, renewals, events, a directory and volunteers, or MemberClicks and GrowthZone if you are staffed and need a full AMS.
Mighty Networks. It keeps the paid-subscription model Memberful users know and adds a member community, courses, events and native apps, which is the honest answer if your members are paying for content rather than for an organization.
Memberful member data comes out through its export and GraphQL API; the data set is small and most moves finish in one to two weeks.
Export members, plans, subscription status and renewal dates from Memberful; we validate the CSV and map each Memberful plan to a Communal membership type with the same billing period.
Set up membership types, family groups, programs and facilities in Communal, then import members with their existing renewal dates so nobody renews early or late.
Replace the Memberful checkout links on your website with the Communal portal, issue wallet cards, and cancel Memberful subscriptions once members have saved a card for auto-renew or paid their next invoice.
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 need memberships, programs, facility booking, volunteers and donations on one system. MembershipWorks or Join It for small clubs that only need dues and cards. Zeffy for a US or Canadian charity that wants memberships and tax receipts free, funded by donor tips. Memberful itself is a creator tool.
Not really. Memberful bills subscriptions and gates content, which works for a paid newsletter or podcast. It has no event registration, donation forms, tax receipts, directory, wallet cards, volunteer or facility tools, and it takes a cut of every payment. A purpose-built member-management tool is the better fit.
Yes, and the scoped migration is free. We import members, plans, subscription status and renewal dates from the Memberful export, map each plan to a Communal membership type, and keep existing renewal dates intact. Memberful subscriptions stay on Memberful until you cancel them.
No. Communal has a member portal for renewals, registrations, bookings, donations and volunteering, and runs beside your website, but it does not paywall articles, host courses or deliver private podcast feeds. If selling content is your model, stay on Memberful or look at Mighty Networks.
Yes. Memberful takes its own percentage of every sale in addition to Stripe processing, and Stripe is the only supported processor. MembershipWorks charges no vendor fee of its own, and Communal takes no percentage of your revenue.