№ 01Community association
5 / 5
“Revenue from membership sales and renewals increased, and we save a significant amount of staff time and paperwork. The customer service is outstanding and the team at Communal continues to add helpful features.”
Club Membership Software
Communal keeps members, payments, bookings, and events in one place, so the handover at the AGM is a login instead of a spreadsheet.
- Members join, renew, and pay online without emailing the treasurer
- Courts, ice, and the hall booked from one calendar
- Digital membership cards in Apple and Google Wallet
Renewals run themselves
Reminders sent before a card lapses
What is club membership software?
Club membership software keeps a club's roster, dues, and bookings in one system instead of a spreadsheet, a bank statement, and a shared inbox. It holds one record per member, takes the renewal payment, issues the card, and books the ice or the hall against that same person. For a club run by volunteers this matters most at handover, when the treasurer or the secretary changes and the records have to stay with the club.
Clubs come in different shapes and the software follows the shape. If you run teams, leagues, and tryouts, start with sports club membership software. If you are a registered charity issuing tax receipts, start with nonprofit membership software. If you want the smallest tool that tracks members and dues and nothing else, start with simple membership management.
You're looking for a better way to...
Get the roster out of a spreadsheet
One record per member, held by the club instead of by the last secretary's laptop.
Collect dues without chasing
Members pay online at renewal. Reminders go out on their own before a membership lapses.
Stop the double-booked hall
Requests for the hall, the ice, and the courts land in one queue with the conflicts already checked.
Fill the volunteer shifts
Post the shifts a season needs and let members claim them. Hours land on the member record.
Powering 500+ community organizations
Built for clubs like yours
These are real Communal clubs, running on the same system in six different shapes.
Cultural and heritage clubs
Austrian Canadian Club runs its hall, its Oktoberfest programs, and its annual memberships on it.
Rowing and paddling clubs
Calgary Rowing Club runs learn-to-row sessions and summer camps on it.
Curling and racquet clubs
Acadia Curling Club and Oakridge Racquet Club book ice and courts on it, each one sitting inside a larger complex.
Lawn bowls and swim clubs
Rotary Park Lawn Bowls Club and Marda Loop Swim Club take seasonal memberships and program signups on it.
Farm, garden, and hobby clubs
Vacant Lots Farm Club and Big Apple Knitters Guild keep member lists and dues on it.
Trail and cycling clubs
CAMBA, the Canmore and Area Mountain Bike Association, runs its volunteer trail days and event signups on it.
What a club actually has to run
Members, money, spaces, and volunteers on one record and one calendar.
Member database
One record per member with contact details, household links, and the fields your club actually asks for.
Dues and renewals
Members pay online, renewals run on schedule, and reminders go out before a membership lapses.
Wallet cards
Every member carries a card in Apple or Google Wallet that shows live status without anyone reprinting anything.
Court, ice, and boat booking
Members ask for time on the courts, the ice, or the boathouse, and your volunteers work one queue instead of a shared inbox.
Events and programs
Learn-to-row sessions, workshops, and the fall supper sell online with the member rate already applied.
Volunteers
Post the bar shifts and the ice-making rota, let members claim them, and log the hours against the member record.
Memberships, programs, facilities, and volunteers are separate modules. See membership management, program and event registration, facility rental software, volunteer management, and pricing.
Family plan bought online
Roster updated the same minute
Members join and renew without an email to the treasurer
Your plans sit on one page. A member picks the one that fits, pays for it, and the roster updates.
- Family plans cover one household
- Senior and junior rates priced separately
- Seasonal passes expire on the date you set
- Renewals charged without a new form
Read more about the member self-service portal.
Card in Apple Wallet
Family plan, renews Jan 1
Cards in the wallet app, and a directory members can search
The card shows live status at the door. The directory lets members find each other without the secretary passing a phone number along.
- Apple and Google Wallet cards, no reprints
- Status changes reach the card on their own
- Directory visibility set field by field
- Households listed together
Read more about digital membership cards.
Ice booked for the season
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, no double booking
Curling ice, courts, and the boathouse on one queue
Members and outside renters ask for time online. Your volunteers work one list instead of a shared inbox and a wall calendar.
- Recurring slots held for a whole season
- Double bookings blocked before anyone confirms
- Agreements signed and paid before a slot holds
- Every request shows the space, the date, and the status
Read more about facility rental software.
Saturday bar shift filled
Three members claimed it
Volunteers claim their own shifts
Post the roles the season needs. Members sign up, get a reminder, and their hours land on the member record.
- Bar shifts, ice making, and regatta marshals posted by date
- Members claim a shift without a phone call
- Reminders sent before each shift
- Hours logged against the member record
Read more about volunteer management.
Fall supper sold out
Member rate applied at checkout
Club events and programs, with the member rate applied
Learn-to-row sessions, workshops, and the fall supper take signups and payment online. Members get their rate without a promo code.
- Member and guest rates on the same listing
- Waitlists open when a session fills
- Attendance taken from a phone
- Receipts sent at checkout
Read more about program and event registration.
A club membership database your next treasurer can run
The reason clubs go looking for a membership database is turnover. The treasurer holds the dues file, the secretary holds the roster, and when either one steps down the club finds out what was only ever on one laptop. A database owned by the club fixes that, because the record belongs to the club and the login is the only thing that changes hands.
Communal keeps one record per member and hangs everything off it: what they paid, what they signed up for, what they booked, and what they volunteered for. Add the fields your club asks for, link a household, and export the lot whenever you want it.
- One record per member, held by the club
- Household links for family memberships
- Custom fields for boat class, skip position, or plot number
- Full CSV export whenever you ask for it
- Who paid what and when, on the member record
What free club membership software costs you
Free is a real option. These are the five places clubs find the bill later.
The spreadsheet has no renewal date
A sheet holds names. It does not know who lapsed in March, and nobody finds out until that member turns up at the door.
Payments land somewhere else
Free tools rarely take money, so dues arrive by e-transfer and cheque and a volunteer reconciles them by hand against a list.
Open source needs someone to run it
Admidio and CiviCRM are real software and cost nothing to license. They still need hosting, upgrades, and a volunteer who will still be around in two years.
Free tiers cap the thing you grow into
A free plan usually stops at a member count, a single admin login, or no online payments. The cap arrives in the season you least want to migrate.
The handover is the hidden cost
A tool that lives in one volunteer's personal account is a tool the club loses when that volunteer steps down.
Free is the right answer for some clubs. Forty members, one annual fee, no bookings: a spreadsheet and an e-transfer will hold. We wrote up the free membership management software options and a guide to free membership database software so you can see where the free line sits before you pay for anything.
How Communal compares for clubs
Capability first. Each product's prices and terms sit on its own page.
| Feature | Communal | Join It | Wild Apricot | ClubExpress | MemberPlanet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Membership management | IncludedTiers, custom fields, segments | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Automated renewals | IncludedReminders and auto-renew | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Family & household memberships | Included | Not listed | PartialBundles | IncludedSecondary members | Not listed |
| Digital membership cards (Apple / Google Wallet) | IncludedIncluded in every plan | Add-onTotal tier and up | Partial | Add-onPaid add-on, in-app | PartialIn-app / PDF |
| Facility booking & rentals | Add-onApprovals, invoices, agreements, iCal | Not offered | Not offered | Add-onResource Scheduling add-on | Not offered |
| Event registration & ticketing | Add-onPrograms & events add-on | PartialEventbrite sync | Included | Included | Included |
| Member self-service portal | Included | Included | IncludedMember app | Included | IncludedMember app |
| Volunteer shifts & hour tracking | IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts | Not offered | Not offered | Included | Not offered |
Looking at one in particular? We have longer write-ups on ClubExpress, Join It, and Wild Apricot.
Clubs already running on Communal
How membership organizations cut the admin down using one system.
Membership Management
How Big Apple Knitters Guild Cut Admin Time by 50%
Big Apple Knitters Guild
50%Admin time reduced
Read Case Study →
Programs & Events
How North Glenmore Park Doubled Summer Camp Capacity
North Glenmore Park Community Association
2XCamp capacity increase
Read Case Study →
Facility Rentals
How Hawkwood Increased Revenue with Unified Management
Hawkwood Community Association
IncreasedMembership revenue
Read Case Study →500+ community organizations use Communal to run memberships, bookings, and events.
Book a walkthrough and we will show you how a club your size would set it up.
Guides for club volunteers
Deeper reads on tier names, renewals, and where the free options stop.
Membership
Membership Tier Name Ideas
Tier names taken from 500+ organizations already running them, including the ones that fit a club.
Read guide →MembershipHow to Automate Membership Renewals
What to automate, what to keep human, and how to hold renewals up without more volunteer hours.
Read guide →DatabaseFree Membership Database Software
Where the free options hold up, where they stop, and what to check before you move your roster.
Read guide →Frequently asked questions about club membership software
Yes. Several membership tools have a free tier, and for a club with a short roster and one annual fee it can be enough. The limits show up as a member cap, a single admin login, or no online payment and no facility booking. Price the paid option against the volunteer hours the free one costs you at renewal time. Our rundown of free membership management software goes through what each one covers.
It is the part of club software that holds the roster: one record per member with contact details, membership type, renewal date, household links, and payment history. A spreadsheet does the first two columns. A database does the rest and keeps them attached to the same person, so a booking, a program signup, and a dues payment all land on one record. It also means the roster belongs to the club rather than to whoever built the sheet.
Yes. Admidio and CiviCRM are the usual candidates. Both are free to license, and both need someone to host them, update them, and keep backups. That is fine if your club has a volunteer who will still be doing it in two years. If it does not, the free licence is not where the cost sits.
Communal does. You post the shifts a season needs, members claim the ones they want, and reminders go out before each one. Hours log against the member record, so the volunteer count in your annual report comes out of the same system as the roster. Not every membership tool includes this, so check it if your club runs on volunteer labour.
Yes. A household membership covers everyone at one address under one record and one payment. Each person still has a profile, a card, and their own program signups, so a junior rower and a parent are two people on one family plan. Renewal reminders go to whoever pays.
Yes. Members sign in and ask for time on any space you have made bookable, and the request lands in one queue with the conflicts already checked. You can hold recurring slots for a season, require an agreement and payment before a slot confirms, and open some spaces to outside renters at a different rate. See facility rental software for how the queue works.
Payments run through Stripe, so dues, bookings, and program fees settle to your club's account. There are Xero and QuickBooks integration pages that set out what each one covers. There is also a public API if your treasurer wants the numbers somewhere else.
Communal charges a flat monthly fee based on how many members you have, with no per-member fee and no contract. Programs and facility booking are separate modules you add when you need them. Most clubs start on the base plan and add facilities the season they open bookings. View pricing for the current numbers.
Verified reviews
From teams who stopped taping tools together.
Community associations, rec centers, and member-based nonprofits across North America moved to Communal when their spreadsheet, booking calendar, and payment system stopped keeping up.
№ 02Switched providers
5 / 5
“My experience with the software and the team has been overwhelmingly positive. We switched from another provider and the difference was night-and-day!”
№ 03One application
5 / 5
“We are finally able to communicate with our members, run booking software and a program payment platform all in one application. The cost to our Community is very reasonable and the team is fantastic to work with.”
See it on your workflows
Bring us your messiest workflow. We'll walk it with you.
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.
- 30 min · real workflows
- Live in 24 h
No canned tour · No sales script