Organizations look past MyRec.com when they need volunteer shifts, a public API or donor tools it does not advertise. Stay if its game scheduler does real work and you want no contract.
Ordered by how well each one fits the organizations that usually outgrow MyRec.com.
Memberships, programs, facilities, volunteers and donors on one record
Communal covers the same registration, rentals and POS as MyRec.com, and adds volunteer shifts, donations with automatic tax receipts and a public REST API.
Check first: No game scheduler or standings (seasonal and recurring facility blocks only), no website builder and no built-in accounting.
Registration and leagues with a bundled rec website
RecDesk covers registration, facility scheduling, memberships, leagues, POS and email for small towns, with unlimited users and free training and support.
Check first: No volunteer management, donations or public API, and it was acquired by Clubessential in 2024.
League scheduling with the volunteer tracking MyRec lacks
Cogran includes a league scheduler alongside registration, volunteer scheduling with parent-hour tracking, facility booking, POS and Stripe payments.
Check first: Reviewers report a steep initial setup and video-only training, and it is a small vendor with a limited ecosystem.
Activities, memberships and facilities, with a REST API
Amilia SmartRec adds a REST API and volunteer tracking to the registration, facilities and league tools MyRec.com already covers.
Check first: A service fee applies to every invoice, and reviewers report annual contracts and slow payouts.
For municipalities on CivicPlus websites
CivicPlus Recreation Management covers activities, leagues, facilities, ticketing, memberships and POS, and integrates with CivicPlus municipal websites, 311 and process automation.
Check first: Quote-only, with reported downtime, slow POS and a government-only focus.
Enterprise scale if the department has outgrown MyRec entirely
ACTIVENet is the large-system option with activities, facilities, memberships, POS, childcare and mobile apps on enterprise hosting.
Check first: Quote-only, with per-registration fees and multi-year agreements.
| Feature | Communal | MyRec.com | RecDesk | Cogran | Amilia SmartRec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 listed | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| Family & household memberships | Included | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Resident vs non-resident pricing | IncludedAutomatic by address | Included | Included | Not listed | Included |
| Program & class registration | Add-onWaitlists, capacity, attendance, rosters | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Facility booking & rentals | Add-onApprovals, invoices, agreements, iCal | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Leagues, seasons & recurring bookings | Add-onSeasons and recurring blocks (Facilities) | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Point of sale | IncludedSoftware included; Stripe Terminal readers, Interac | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Volunteer shifts & hour tracking | IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts | Not listed | Not offered | Included | Included |
| Donations & fundraising | IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option | Included | Not offered | Included | Included |
| Automatic tax receipts | IncludedAutomatic | Not listed | Not offered | Not listed | Not listed |
| Member self-service portal | Included | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Website builder | Not offeredWorks beside your site | Not listed | Included | Not listed | Not offered |
| Public API | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server | Not listed | Not offered | Included | Included |
MyRec lists memberships, scheduling, rentals, POS and donations, but not volunteer management. Centers and leagues that schedule volunteer shifts run a second tool beside it.
MyRec does not advertise a public API or a website builder. Departments that want to connect access control, a finance system or a custom website are limited to exports.
MyRec adds monthly gateway, PCI and minimum fees on top of its card rate. On a busy registration season the statement shows it.
MyRec scales its annual fee to your revenue, so the exact number requires the vendor's calculator or a quote. There is no long-term contract, which is genuinely good, but you cannot compare without asking.
Volunteer opportunities with shifts, hour tracking and automatic volunteer discounts, Apple and Google Wallet passes, a versioned REST API, Zapier webhooks and a remote MCP server are in every plan. MyRec advertises none of these.
Community associations, community centers, clubs, cultural organizations and federations run on Communal alongside rec departments. The EFCL runs 163 Edmonton community leagues on it with resident routing by address.
Communal card processing has no monthly minimums, and deposits arrive weekly in your own Stripe Connect account. MyRec stacks gateway, PCI and minimum fees on its card rate.
Communal publishes what it charges and scales by member band, with modules you turn on as needed. MyRec requires a revenue calculator or a quote for the base fee, and both are no-contract.
Stay on MyRec if you are a small-town rec department that values the no-contract model and uses its game scheduler. It is an honest product for that buyer.
RecDesk for registration, leagues and a bundled rec website, or Cogran if you need a league scheduler. Communal if you want volunteer shifts and donations on the member record and can live without a game scheduler.
Communal. A single-site center that rents rooms and courts, runs classes and camps and depends on volunteers gets memberships, programs, facilities, donations and volunteer shifts on one member record; the Hawkwood Community Association runs its pickleball courts and community garden on it.
Cogran, where the league scheduler comes with parent-hour tracking and Stripe payments. Communal if the league mainly needs registration, resident pricing, household accounts and field bookings; the Tuscany Community Association runs soccer registration on it.
Amilia SmartRec for a self-serve registration front end with an API, or CivicRec if the city is on CivicPlus websites. ActiveNet or RecTrac only once you have become a large multi-site system.
MyRec reports export accounts, memberships, registrations and rentals as CSV; we map and import them at no charge.
Export accounts and households, membership types with expiry dates, program registrations and facility rentals from MyRec reporting; we run a dry-run import with validation and confirm the mapping with you.
Set up membership types, resident boundaries, programs and bookable spaces in Communal, import members with their existing expiry dates, and load historical memberships so renewal history carries over.
Switch the registration and rental links on your website to the Communal portal, send members their wallet cards, and run both systems until in-flight MyRec registrations finish.
The Tuscany Community Association moved soccer registration onto Communal and says it saved about 10,000 hours of volunteer time. 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 community centers, associations and small departments that want volunteer tools, donations and a public API on the member record; RecDesk for a bundled rec website; Cogran for a built-in league scheduler. Growing municipal departments should look at Amilia SmartRec or CivicRec.
Yes, and the scoped migration is free. We import accounts, households, membership types with expiry dates, program history and facility rentals from MyRec CSV exports, validate the mapping with a dry run, and keep renewal dates intact. The 30-day trial needs no card, so you can run both while you decide.
No. Communal handles league seasons as recurring facility blocks with team and organization renters on their own billing, plus program registration with rosters, waitlists and attendance. It does not generate game schedules or standings. If that is essential, MyRec, Cogran or RecDesk are better fits.
MyRec for a small town that wants no contract and a light setup; CivicRec for a municipality already on CivicPlus websites that wants a full rec suite from one vendor and can accept quote-only sales. See the CivicRec vs MyRec comparison.