The short version
Pick Wild Apricot if you are a club or association under a few thousand contacts that wants a website, member database, events and email from one vendor, month-to-month, with a long trial to set it up yourself. Pick Glue Up if events are the core of your association, you want a branded member app, you run chapters or operate across countries and currencies, and an annual contract from about $3,000/yr fits the budget. Pick neither if you also rent rooms, run programs or schedule volunteers.
Disclosure: Communal is our product. We cover it at the end for that last case.
Where Wild Apricot wins
- Price and terms for small groups. $66/mo for 100 contacts, month-to-month, no setup or cancellation fees, 10% off for a 1-year prepay and 15% for 2 years. Glue Up starts around $3,000/yr billed annually.
- All features at every tier. Website builder, events, email, store, donations and both mobile apps are included at every Wild Apricot tier. Glue Up sells website, community, chapters, certification and the branded app as separate power-ups.
- Self-serve. 60-day no-card trial and a very large user base, WordPress widgets, public API, Zapier, Make and QuickBooks. Glue Up is demo-led with no trial.
- Member-only web pages. Wild Apricot's builder and member-only content are its center of gravity.
Where Glue Up wins
- Events. Full event lifecycle from its EventBank heritage: webinars, speed networking, attendee apps, surveys and invoicing tied to events.
- Branded member app. My Glue with in-app digital membership cards and a community. Wild Apricot's member app carries its own brand and offers wallet cards only through the app or a PassKit integration.
- Chapters and international reach. Chapter Management power-up, multi-chapter and multi-location on Enterprise, multi-currency and multi-language, offices worldwide. Wild Apricot has no multi-chapter support.
- Automation and CRM. Advanced plan adds workflows, integrations and enhanced reporting; CPD credits for professional bodies.
Pricing in practice
Wild Apricot counts every contact, not just active members, so lapsed members, prospects and subscribers push you up tiers. A 1,500-contact association sits in the 2,000-contact tier at around $252/mo per third-party listings, roughly $3,000/yr. Add 20% of the subscription if you keep an outside gateway.
Glue Up starts near that same $3,000/yr figure but on an annual contract, and limits on events, emails, admins and contacts can be raised for a fee. Website, chapters, community and the branded app are extra. Ask for the full proposal with power-ups before comparing, because the headline number is rarely the invoice.
Who should pick which
| If you are... | Lean towards |
|---|
| A club or association under 2,000 contacts that wants a website and database together | Wild Apricot |
| A volunteer-run group that wants to trial and set up without a sales call | Wild Apricot |
| An association whose year is built around conferences, webinars and networking events | Glue Up |
| A chapter-based or international body that wants a branded app | Glue Up |
| A federation, league or center that runs programs, rents space or schedules volunteers | Neither; see below |
The third option
If your association also runs programs, rents facilities or depends on volunteers, neither product covers that. Communal prices by members rather than contacts ($75/mo to 250 members), adds program registration with waitlists and attendance for +$50/mo and facility booking with approvals and invoices from +$50/mo, and includes volunteer shifts, donations with tax receipts and POS software in the base. It runs parent and chapter tenants with address-based routing for federations, ships Apple and Google Wallet cards and a public API, and has no contract, a 30-day trial and free migration. It does not have a website builder, a native mobile app or CPD tracking, which is the honest trade against both tools here.