Wild Apricot ($66/mo for 100 contacts, 60-day trial) wins if you need a website builder and membership from one vendor and your contact list stays small.
Communal ($75/mo flat to 250 members, volunteers, donations and POS included) wins if you run programs, rent rooms or courts, or schedule volunteers, and if your database holds far more contacts than paying members. Both are month-to-month. Communal is the author's product.
Membership, programs, facility rentals, donations, volunteers and point of sale in one member database, priced flat by member count.
Membership database, events, email and a website builder, priced by total contacts.
| Feature | Communal | Wild Apricot |
|---|---|---|
| Membership management | IncludedTiers, custom fields, segments | Included |
| Automated renewals | IncludedReminders and auto-renew | Included |
| Digital membership cards (Apple / Google Wallet) | IncludedIncluded in every plan | Partial |
| Event registration & ticketing | Add-onPrograms & events, +$50/mo | Included |
| Program & class registration | Add-onWaitlists, capacity, attendance, rosters | Not listed |
| Facility booking & rentals | Add-onFrom +$50/mo; approvals, invoices, agreements, iCal | Not offered |
| Volunteer shifts & hour tracking | IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts | Not offered |
| Donations & fundraising | IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option | Included |
| Automatic tax receipts | IncludedAutomatic | PartialDonation receipts |
| Member self-service portal | Included | IncludedMember app |
| Email campaigns | IncludedCampaigns and segments | Included |
| Website builder | Not offeredWorks beside your site | Included |
| Public API | IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server | Included |
| Detail | Communal | Wild Apricot |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $75/mo | From $66/mo |
| Pricing model | Flat, by member band (to 250 members at the floor) | Per contact, tiered |
| Contract | No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time | 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 | 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 | 60-day free trial, no credit card required; no permanently free plan |
Wild Apricot is a website builder with a membership database behind it. Communal is a membership database with programs, facility booking, volunteers, donations and point of sale around it, and no website builder. If the word "website" is in your requirements, start with Wild Apricot. If the words "registration", "rentals", "shifts" or "courts" are, start with Communal. Wild Apricot prices by contacts; Communal prices by members. That one difference decides most of the pricing math.
Count two numbers before you decide: paying members and total contacts. On Wild Apricot, the second number sets your tier: $66/mo at 100 contacts, roughly $78/mo at 250, $147/mo at 500 and $252/mo at 2,000 per Capterra's listing, with 10% to 15% off for 1- or 2-year prepay. Add the 20% subscription surcharge if you keep Stripe or PayPal instead of Personify Payments. On Communal, only the first number matters: $75/mo to 250 members, then banded at 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000. Add +$50/mo if you run programs and from +$50/mo if you book spaces. Neither product has a contract; Communal also bills prorated and lets you cancel a module without leaving.
| If you are... | Lean towards |
|---|---|
| A club or association that needs a website and a database from one vendor | Wild Apricot |
| A group under 100 to 250 contacts that wants every feature included for one price | Wild Apricot ($66/mo) |
| An association running many public events with a long setup window | Wild Apricot (60-day trial) |
| A community league or neighborhood association with programs and rentals | Communal |
| A recreation or community center booking courts, rooms or halls | Communal (facilities from +$50/mo) |
| A group whose contact list is 3x or more its member count | Communal (priced by members) |
| A chapter-based federation routing residents to the right chapter | Communal |
Migration is free and scoped with you before you start, there is no contract, and the 30-day trial needs no credit card, so you can test the import before paying anything.
Short answers, with the numbers where they exist.
It depends on what you count. Wild Apricot starts at $66/mo for 100 contacts and bills every contact in the database; Capterra's listing shows roughly $78/mo at 250 and $147/mo at 500 contacts. Communal is $75/mo flat for up to 250 members, and lapsed members, newsletter subscribers and guests do not count. A club with 200 paying members and 900 contacts pays more on Wild Apricot; a club with 90 contacts pays less there.
No. Communal gives you a branded member portal and public pages for programs, bookings and donations (logo, colors, custom CSS and text), and it sits beside the website you already have. Wild Apricot includes a drag-and-drop site builder, themes and member-only pages. If you need one vendor for the website and the database, Wild Apricot is the better fit.
Yes. Wild Apricot charges no platform fee when you use its integrated Personify Payments processor, but its help center describes a Payment System Servicing Fee of 20% of your subscription price for US and Canada accounts that use Stripe, PayPal or Authorize.Net. Communal runs on your own Stripe Connect account with a card-processing application fee set in your agreement, often about 2%, no monthly minimums and weekly deposits.
Yes. Volunteer opportunities, shifts, hours tracking and automatic volunteer discounts are included at $75/mo. Facility booking (courts, rooms, halls) with approval workflows, member pricing, recurring bookings and invoices is an add-on from +$50/mo for up to 2 bookable spaces. Wild Apricot has neither volunteer scheduling nor room booking in the product.
Wild Apricot exports contacts, membership levels and event history to CSV. Communal's CSV importer maps fields, validates rows and runs a dry run before anything is written, and historical memberships can be loaded as legacy records. Migration is free and scoped with you, there is no contract, and a 30-day trial with no credit card lets you test the import first.
Yes, on every plan: a card designer, PDF cards, and Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes that update when a membership renews, plus scan-in check-in. Wild Apricot offers cards through its member app or a third-party PassKit integration.