What does Hivebrite do that Wild Apricot does not?

Community engagement. Hivebrite provides groups and sub-communities, forums, messaging, member matching, mentoring programs, a white-label native mobile app as an extension, enterprise SSO (SAML, OIDC, Okta, Azure AD) and autonomous sub-communities with governance on the Prime plan. Wild Apricot offers a member directory, forums and a member app, but it is built around the database, website, events and email rather than peer-to-peer engagement.

Is Wild Apricot good enough for an alumni association?

For a small or regional alumni group that mostly collects dues, runs events and sends newsletters, yes, and the 60-day trial lets you check. For a university-scale network that wants mentoring, regional chapters with their own admins and a branded app, Hivebrite is built for that and Wild Apricot is not; Wild Apricot has no multi-chapter structure.

Do Wild Apricot and Hivebrite charge payment fees?

Wild Apricot charges no platform fee when you use its Personify Payments processor (processor rates not published), but using Stripe, PayPal or Authorize.Net adds a Payment System Servicing Fee of 20% of your subscription. Hivebrite processes through integrated gateways (Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, Square, Zelle per vendor pages) at gateway rates and publishes no platform transaction fee; a fee for external gateways is not published.

Which has a free trial or monthly billing?

Wild Apricot: a 60-day free trial with no credit card, month-to-month billing and optional 1-year (10% off) and 2-year (15% off) prepay. Hivebrite offers no trial, sells through a demo and bills annually, with no setup fee or minimum term published.

What if we also book rooms or run programs?

Neither Wild Apricot nor Hivebrite has facility booking, and volunteer management is absent in Wild Apricot and limited to posting opportunities in Hivebrite. Communal covers memberships, program registration with waitlists and attendance, facility booking with approvals and invoices, donations with tax receipts and volunteer shifts in one member database at a flat price by member count, starting at $75/mo to 250 members.

Head to head · 2026

Wild Apricot vs Hivebrite: small-association toolkit against an enterprise community platform

Wild Apricot (from $66/mo for 100 contacts, 60-day trial, month-to-month) is the self-serve membership database and website builder for clubs and small associations.

Hivebrite (from $895/mo billed annually, unlimited users, demo only) is a community engagement platform for alumni networks and large associations that want groups, forums, mentoring and a white-label app. Pick Wild Apricot for dues, events and a site on a small budget; pick Hivebrite if member-to-member engagement is the product. Groups that book facilities or run programs need a third option.

Wild Apricot

Membership database, events, email and a website builder, priced by total contacts.

Memberships
Events
Donations
Website

Best for: Small to mid-size clubs, associations and nonprofits that want website, member database and events from one vendor and are comfortable using the in-house payment processor
Watch out for: Pricing is by total contacts (lapsed members, prospects, newsletter subscribers all count), so database growth pushes you into higher tiers; 20% subscription surcharge for using your own payment gateway instead of Personify Payments

Hivebrite

Community engagement platform for alumni and professional networks.

Memberships
Events
Donations
Website
Chapters

Best for: Alumni networks, foundations, professional networks and large associations whose priority is member-to-member community and engagement
Watch out for: High entry cost ($895/mo, annual) that prices out most small nonprofits and clubs; Light on operational membership admin: no facility booking, volunteer scheduling is limited to posting opportunities, no native wallet membership cards (third-party PassKit needed)

Side by side

Wild Apricot vs Hivebrite, plus the option most comparisons skip.

Communal is listed as a third column because organizations comparing these two usually need the same things it was built for: memberships, programs and facilities in one database at a flat price.

Feature	Wild Apricot	Hivebrite	Communal
Membership management	Included	Included	IncludedTiers, custom fields, segments
Automated renewals	Included	Included	IncludedReminders and auto-renew
Digital membership cards (Apple / Google Wallet)	Partial	Not offered	IncludedIncluded in every plan
Event registration & ticketing	Included	Included	Add-onPrograms & events, +$50/mo
Program & class registration	Not listed	Not listed	Add-onWaitlists, capacity, attendance, rosters
Facility booking & rentals	Not offered	Not offered	Add-onFrom +$50/mo; approvals, invoices, agreements, iCal
Volunteer shifts & hour tracking	Not offered	Partial	IncludedShifts, hours, auto volunteer discounts
Donations & fundraising	Included	Included	IncludedIncluded; donor covers fees option
Automatic tax receipts	PartialDonation receipts	Not listed	IncludedAutomatic
Member self-service portal	IncludedMember app	Included	Included
Email campaigns	Included	Included	IncludedCampaigns and segments
Website builder	Included	Included	Not offeredWorks beside your site
Public API	Included	Included	IncludedREST API, Zapier webhooks, MCP server

Pricing and terms Show

Detail	Wild Apricot	Hivebrite	Communal
Starting price	From $66/mo	From $895/mo	$75/mo
Pricing model	Per contact, tiered	Flat plan, billed annually	Flat, by member band (to 250 members at the floor)
Contract	Month-to-month available; Details optional 1-year and 2-year prepay discounts; no cancellation fees	Annual	No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time
Payment fees	No per-transaction fee from WildApricot itself when using the integrated Personify Payments processor (processor rates not published on the pricing page). Details Using 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'.	Payments via integrated gateways (Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, Square, Zelle per vendor pages) at gateway rates; Details no Hivebrite platform transaction fee published. Fee for using external gateways: not published.	Card-processing application fee set in your agreement, often 2%; no monthly minimums
Free trial	60-day free trial, no credit card required; no permanently free plan	No (demo only)	Free trial, no credit card

The detail

The short version

Pick Wild Apricot if you are a club, association or small nonprofit with a few hundred to a few thousand contacts, you need a website, member database, events and email from one vendor, and you want to set it up yourself on a 60-day trial without a contract. Pick Hivebrite if you are an alumni network, foundation, professional network or large association with an annual budget in the five figures, and the reason you are buying is member-to-member engagement: groups, forums, mentoring and a branded mobile app. Pick neither if your week includes hall rentals, kids programs or volunteer shifts: both stop well short of operations.

Where Wild Apricot wins

Price. $66/mo for 100 contacts, every tier published, no setup fees. Hivebrite starts at $895/mo billed annually.
Trial and terms. 60-day no-card trial, month-to-month billing, no cancellation fees. Hivebrite is demo only on annual terms.
Operational membership tools. Dues, renewals, invoices, member bundles, events with registration types and waitlists, a store and donations, all in every tier and mature after fifteen-plus years.
Website builder at every tier. Drag-and-drop builder, themes, member-only pages, widgets and WordPress embeds. Hivebrite has a no-code page builder, but it is a community portal rather than a general website.
Mobile apps included. Member and admin apps ship with every plan; Hivebrite's native app is a paid extension.

Where Hivebrite wins

Community engagement. Groups and sub-communities, forums, messaging, member matching and mentoring programs. Wild Apricot's directory and forums are basic by comparison.
Unlimited users and flat pricing. No contact counting; plans differ by admin seats and groups (Core: 2 admins, 5 groups; Flex: 5 + 5 admins, 10 groups; Prime: 10 + 10 admins, 25 groups). Wild Apricot bills every contact.
Chapters and governance. Autonomous sub-communities with governance on Prime, community champions on Flex. Wild Apricot has no multi-chapter structure.
Enterprise integration. Documented REST API with OAuth2, SSO via SAML, OIDC, Okta and Azure AD, Zapier and Make. Wild Apricot has an API and Zapier/Make but no enterprise SSO.
No gateway surcharge published. Payments run through Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, Square or Zelle at gateway rates. Wild Apricot adds 20% of your subscription if you bring your own gateway.

Pricing in practice

Wild Apricot is a subscription by total contacts: $66/mo at 100 ($59.40/mo with 1-year prepay, $56.10/mo with 2-year), and third-party listings show about $78 (250), $147 (500), $252 (2,000) and $462 (5,000). Lapsed members and subscribers count, so clean the list first, and budget 20% of the subscription extra if you must keep Stripe or PayPal. Hivebrite is a flat annual plan from $895/mo ($10,740/yr) for Core, with hands-on onboarding included, professional services sized to package, and the native mobile app as an extension. A 2,000-contact association pays about $252/mo on Wild Apricot and at least $895/mo on Hivebrite; the gap only closes if you would otherwise buy a separate community platform, mentoring tool and branded app.

Who should pick which

If you are...	Lean towards
A club or association under 5,000 contacts that needs a site and dues	Wild Apricot
A group that wants to set up and run the tool itself with no contract	Wild Apricot
An alumni network or foundation where engagement and mentoring are the product	Hivebrite
A large association with regional sub-communities and SSO requirements	Hivebrite Flex or Prime
A community league, rec center or club that rents space or runs programs	Neither; see the third option below

The third option

If you are comparing these two because your current setup no longer fits, check what your organization actually does week to week. Communal was built for groups that run memberships alongside programs, facility rentals, donations and volunteers, and prices by paying members rather than contacts or a flat enterprise plan: $75/mo to 250 members with volunteers, donors and POS included, programs +$50/mo, facilities from +$50/mo, no contract, a 30-day free trial and free migration from either tool. It does not include a website builder, forums or a native mobile app, which is the honest trade.

Questions people ask about Wild Apricot vs Hivebrite

Short answers, with the numbers where they exist.

Wild Apricot, by more than ten times at the entry level. Wild Apricot starts at $66/mo for 100 contacts and, per third-party listings, reaches about $462/mo at 5,000 contacts. Hivebrite starts at $895/mo billed annually on its Core plan, with Flex and Prime above it, and pricing does not depend on contact count. Only very large databases bring Wild Apricot anywhere near Hivebrite's floor.