Most clubs leave TidyHQ over the service fee it takes on every payment on top of Stripe, and the lack of facility booking and volunteer shifts. Stay on TidyHQ if the free Starter plan covers your club and committee tooling is what you need.
Ordered by how well each one fits the organizations that usually outgrow TidyHQ.
Court and hall booking, volunteer shifts and wallet cards on one member record
Membership tiers, automated renewals, family memberships, wallet cards, donations with automatic tax receipts, volunteer shifts and POS in one member database, with facility booking and programs as modules.
Check first: No free plan, no committee or meetings module, and no Xero, Mailchimp or Slack integrations (public API, MCP server and Zapier webhooks instead).
The simplest swap for dues and wallet cards under 250 members
Join It focuses on the dues cycle: a member database, recurring billing through Stripe and a member portal, with wallet cards and QR check-in on Total.
Check first: A 3% to 1.5% service fee by tier plus Stripe fees, so fee stacking like TidyHQ, and events run via Eventbrite sync.
Membership and events embedded in your current site, with no service fee
MembershipWorks embeds membership, events with capacity and check-in, a directory, donations and forms into WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or Weebly, with no contract.
Check first: No public API or Zapier, no wallet cards, no member app and no facility booking.
Website, member database and events from one vendor, with a 60-day trial
Wild Apricot bundles a website builder, contacts database, events, email, store and member and admin apps at every tier, where TidyHQ keeps the website separate.
Check first: Priced by total contacts, a 20% subscription surcharge for outside payment gateways, and no volunteer or facility tools.
Pay per active member with an included website, committees and phone support
ClubExpress counts only active members, so expired members and non-member contacts do not add to the bill.
Check first: Setup packages start at $150, virtual cards are a paid add-on, processing is 2.99% + $0.30 or higher, and the templates look dated.
Genuinely free memberships, ticketing and donation forms for US and Canadian nonprofits
Zeffy charges the nonprofit nothing: no subscription, platform fee or processing fee, funded by an optional tip donors see at checkout.
Check first: Donors see a tip prompt at every checkout, volunteer signups are a workaround through event forms, no facility booking, and the API is read-only.
Membership plus built-in accounting for treasurer-led clubs
Springly pairs a member CRM, email, forms and a website builder with built-in nonprofit accounting on its Professional tier, and has a free Liberty tier for payments and forms.
Check first: Per-contact pricing climbs steeply at 5,000 contacts, the built-in Adyen processor is 3.1% + $0.30 with no Stripe option, and there are no wallet cards.
| Feature | Communal | TidyHQ | Join It | 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 | Included | Add-onTotal tier and up | Not offered | Partial |
| Family & household memberships | Included | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed | PartialBundles |
| Event registration & ticketing | Add-onPrograms & events, +$50/mo | Included | 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-onFrom +$50/mo; approvals, invoices, agreements, iCal | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered |
| Leagues, seasons & recurring bookings | Add-onSeasons and recurring blocks (Facilities) | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered | Not offered |
| Volunteer shifts & hour tracking | IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts | Partial | Not offered | Partial | Not offered |
| Donations & fundraising | IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option | Partial | 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 | IncludedMetered | Not offeredMailchimp / Constant Contact | PartialMailchimp add-on | Included |
| Built-in accounting | Not offeredCSV/XLSX exports with GL codes; no QuickBooks sync | Not offeredXero integration | Not offered | Not offeredQuickBooks/Xero export | Not offeredQuickBooks sync |
| Public API | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server | Included | Partial | Not offered | Included |
| Detail | Communal | TidyHQ | Join It | MembershipWorks | Wild Apricot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $75/mo | Free; Pro $69/mo | From $29/mo | Free to 50; $35/mo to 300 | From $66/mo |
| Pricing model | Flat, by member band (to 250 members at the floor) | Flat plan + 1% to 3% service fee | Flat tiers to 250 members + 1.5% to 3% service fee | Per member account, tiered | Per contact, tiered |
| Contract | No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time | Monthly or annual (~17% saving);Detailsmonthly has no refund on downgrade, annual has 7-day refund grace | Monthly or annual (10% off);Detailscancel any time; no multi-year commitment | 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 | TidyHQ service fee 3% + $0.20 (USD/AUD/NZD/EUR) or 3% + 0.10 GBP on Starter;Details1% + $0.20 (or 1% + 0.10 GBP) on Pro; Stripe processing fees apply on top and are set by Stripe per country. Stripe is the payment gateway. | Join It service fee of 3.0% / 2.0% / 1.5% by tier on online transactions, plus Stripe processing fees charged separately;Detailsdonations carry a fixed 5% fee per the support center. Stripe is the only supported processor. | 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 | Free Starter plan, no credit card required (no separate timed trial of Pro published) | Free trial, no credit card required; no permanently free plan | 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 |
TidyHQ charges 3% + $0.20 per payment on Starter and 1% + $0.20 on Pro, and Stripe processing fees apply on top. A club on the free plan taking $20,000 a year in dues and registrations pays TidyHQ about $600 plus Stripe, which is more than many paid subscriptions.
Sports clubs, community halls and service clubs that rent courts, pitches or rooms have no booking module in TidyHQ. The website tool auto-publishes pages from TidyHQ data rather than acting as a full site builder, so a booking calendar has to live elsewhere.
TidyHQ handles volunteers as tagged contacts and tasks. There is no shift roster, no capacity per shift, no clock in/out hour tracking and no automatic volunteer discount on registrations.
Donations are tracked through finance categories rather than a donation form with automatic numbered tax receipts, which matters to charities and clubs with a fundraising arm.
The free Starter plan allows 2 apps or integrations, 100 emails a month and 30 days of activity retention, so most clubs end up on Pro at $69/mo USD. Data is hosted in Australia, which some North American and UK clubs flag during procurement.
Communal does not take a percentage of payments on top of card processing, with no monthly minimums and weekly deposits to your own Stripe Connect account. TidyHQ charges 3% + $0.20 on Starter or 1% + $0.20 on Pro per payment, plus Stripe.
Bookable courts, pitches and rooms with instant or approval booking, member-gated pricing, recurring and seasonal bookings for leagues, block-offs, public calendars and booking-to-invoice all sit in the facilities module. TidyHQ has no booking module at all.
Volunteer opportunities with shifts, capacity, clock in and out hours and automatic volunteer discounts on programs, plus donation forms, campaign pages, recurring giving and numbered CRA and US tax receipts, are in the $75/mo base plan. TidyHQ handles volunteers as tags and tasks and donations as finance categories.
Apple and Google Wallet passes that update on renewal or lapse, a card designer, scan in and out check-in and family memberships with dependents are included from the start. TidyHQ puts wallet cards behind its paid Pro plan.
Stay on TidyHQ if you are a volunteer-run sports, service or hobby club that mainly needs a member list, dues, a few events and committee tooling, and the free plan or $69/mo Pro fits. It is a good product for that job. The alternatives above matter when you rent facilities, schedule volunteer shifts, receipt donations, or process enough money that 1% to 3% per payment becomes real.
Communal. Court and pitch booking with member pricing, recurring league blocks, drop-in timeslots and invoices, plus program registration and wallet cards, cover what a tennis, pickleball or football club runs each week, and Hawkwood Community Association runs its pickleball courts on it.
Join It for the simplest dues-and-cards setup under 250 members, or MembershipWorks if the club already has a website and wants no vendor payment fees. ClubExpress if the club wants an included website with forums and interest groups and is happy to pay per active member.
Communal. Resident vs non-resident pricing by map boundary, family memberships, hall rentals, kids programs and volunteer shifts are the core of the product, and the EFCL runs 163 community leagues on it.
Communal if you want donation forms, recurring giving and automatic tax receipts sitting beside memberships and volunteers. Zeffy if you are a US or Canadian nonprofit and zero software cost matters more than volunteer and booking tools, or Springly if you also want built-in accounting.
TidyHQ exports contacts, memberships, finances and events as CSV and has an API; we map the data into Communal and run the import at no charge.
Export contacts, membership levels, expiry dates, custom fields, groups and event history from TidyHQ; we map levels to Communal membership types, groups to tags, and run a dry-run import with validation before anything goes live.
Set up membership types and renewal rules, family groups, any facilities and booking rules, volunteer opportunities and donation forms in Communal, then import members with their existing expiry dates intact.
Point your website and email links at the Communal portal, send members their Apple and Google Wallet cards, and keep TidyHQ read-only while the first renewals and bookings come through.
Hawkwood Community Association moved its pickleball courts and community garden off spreadsheets onto Communal bookings. 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 clubs that rent facilities, schedule volunteers or receipt donations, Communal at a flat $75/mo with no platform fee on payments. For a small club that only needs dues and wallet cards, Join It from $29/mo. For a club that already has a website and wants no vendor payment fees, MembershipWorks. See Communal pricing for what each module costs.
TidyHQ Starter is free with unlimited contacts and membership levels, 2 integrations, 100 emails a month and 30 days of activity retention. Pro is $69/mo USD (49 GBP, 59 EUR, $89 AUD, $99 NZD), about 17% less on annual billing, with discounted Pro for registered charities. On top of that TidyHQ charges a service fee of 3% + $0.20 per payment on Starter and 1% + $0.20 on Pro, plus Stripe processing fees.
Compare the service fee, not just the subscription. MembershipWorks is free to 50 accounts and $35/mo to 300 with no vendor payment fees. Join It is $29/mo with a 3% service fee. Zeffy is free for US and Canadian nonprofits. Communal is $75/mo with no platform percentage, which works out cheaper than TidyHQ Pro ($69/mo plus 1% + $0.20 per payment) once a club processes more than roughly $7,000 a year.
Yes, and it is free. We import contacts, membership levels, expiry dates, custom fields, groups and event history from your TidyHQ CSV export, validate the mapping with you, and keep renewal dates intact. You can test the import during the 30-day trial with no credit card.
Yes, in every plan. Communal issues Apple and Google Wallet passes that update automatically when a membership renews or lapses, with a card designer, PDF cards and scan in/out check-in. TidyHQ offers wallet cards on the $69/mo Pro plan.
Both charge a service fee on payments. TidyHQ Starter is free with unlimited contacts and 3% + $0.20 per payment; Join It starts at $29/mo with a 3% fee and caps self-serve tiers at 250 members. TidyHQ wins on committees, meetings and integrations; Join It wins on simplicity and wallet cards at $99/mo. If you also need facilities or volunteers, neither fits and Communal is the better comparison.
Wild Apricot if you want a website builder, member database and events from one vendor from $66/mo for 100 contacts with no per-payment platform fee (when using Personify Payments). TidyHQ if you want a free start, wallet cards on Pro and committee tools, and accept 1% to 3% per payment. Neither has facility booking or volunteer shifts.