What is the best membership management software for chapters and associations?
For a chapter that runs recurring events and collects annual dues, GlowOS, Wild Apricot and Join It are the three that handle both membership records and events in one system. The right answer depends on roster size and whether you sell tickets: GlowOS starts at $29/mo for up to 100 members, Join It starts at $29/mo, and Wild Apricot starts at $66/mo for up to 100 contacts.
| Platform | Best for | Starting price | Cut of a paid ticket or dues payment | Key strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GlowOS | Chapters and associations that run recurring events and collect dues | $29/mo for up to 100 members | 2% to 5% depending on plan size, plus Stripe. Dues renewals after the first year carry no commission. | Events, membership, newsletter and check-in in one system, with AI agents that draft and an organizer who approves every send |
| Wild Apricot | Established associations that want one long-standing all-in-one | $66/mo for up to 100 contacts | No per-transaction fee from Wild Apricot. Your payment provider still charges. | A deep, mature membership feature set built over more than a decade |
| Eventbrite | Public, ticketed, one-off events that need discovery traffic | $0 to publish free events | 3.7% + $1.79 service fee per paid ticket, plus 2.9% payment processing per order | A large public marketplace that can put your event in front of strangers |
| Join It | Small groups that mainly need a clean membership database | $29/mo Starter | 3.0% Starter, 2.0% Total, 1.5% Extra, plus Stripe | Straightforward membership records with Salesforce, Mailchimp and QuickBooks connections |
| Zeffy | Registered nonprofits whose main job is fundraising | $0 | $0. Funded by an optional tip the donor chooses at checkout. | The organization keeps the full donation, with no platform or processing fee deducted |
Sources, read July 31, 2026: Wild Apricot pricing, Eventbrite pricing, Join It pricing, Zeffy, GlowOS pricing.
How much does membership management software cost per month?
Entry pricing for a group of about 100 people runs from $0 to $66 a month. Zeffy is $0 for registered nonprofits, GlowOS and Join It both start at $29 a month, and Wild Apricot is $66 a month billed monthly, dropping to $59.40 on annual prepay and $56.10 on a two-year prepay.
Subscription price is only half the number. The other half is what the platform takes from each payment your members make. A group collecting $80 dues from 250 members moves $20,000 a year through the platform, so a two-point difference in commission is $400 a year, which can exceed the difference in subscription price.
Watch how each vendor counts. Wild Apricot bills by contacts, which includes lapsed members, past event attendees, donors and anyone who ever filled out a form. GlowOS bills by members. Two organizations with the same 250 dues-paying members can land in different price bands depending on which of those a vendor counts.
What should a chapter look for in membership software?
- One system for events and membership. If your event tool and your member list are separate, someone re-keys the attendee list by hand after every event.
- Dues that collect themselves. Renewal reminders, a payment link and a receipt, without a volunteer chasing anyone.
- A member-facing portal. Members should be able to update their own record, see upcoming events and pay dues without emailing the board.
- Total cost at your size, not entry price. Add subscription plus commission at your real roster and real annual payment volume.
- An export you can actually leave with. Check that you can pull your full member list before you migrate onto anything.
- Handover between boards. Volunteer leadership turns over. What takes twenty minutes to explain to the next chair is worth more than a feature list.
How were these platforms evaluated?
Each platform was scored on five things a chapter organizer actually feels within the first quarter: total cost at 250 members, whether events and membership live in one system, what the platform takes from a paid ticket, what the member sees when they log in, and how much writing the organizer still has to do by hand.
Prices came from each vendor's own pricing page, read on July 31, 2026. Feature claims about GlowOS come from the product. Feature claims about other platforms are limited to what each vendor states publicly, because that is what can be verified.
Which membership platform should you choose?
Choose Zeffy if you are a registered nonprofit whose main activity is fundraising and you can work within a donation-first toolset. Choose Wild Apricot if you want a long-established all-in-one and your contact count is close to your member count. Choose Join It if you mostly need clean membership records and already run events elsewhere. Choose Eventbrite if your events are public, one-off and depend on strangers finding them.
Choose GlowOS if you run the same community all year: recurring events, a roster that renews, a newsletter, and dues. GlowOS is the one on this list built around that repeating cycle rather than around a single event or a static database, and dues renewals after a member's first year carry no commission, so the platform's cut shrinks as your members stay.
What is the cheapest membership management software?
Zeffy is $0 for registered nonprofits, including payment processing, funded by an optional donor tip at checkout. Among paid platforms, GlowOS and Join It both start at $29 a month, and Wild Apricot starts at $66 a month for up to 100 contacts on monthly billing.
Does membership software charge a fee on dues payments?
Most do. GlowOS takes 2% to 5% depending on plan size plus Stripe's processing fee, and charges no commission on dues renewals after a member's first year. Join It charges 3.0% on Starter, 2.0% on Total and 1.5% on Extra plus Stripe. Wild Apricot charges no per-transaction fee of its own, though your payment provider still does.
Is it billed per member or per contact?
This varies and it matters. Wild Apricot bills by contacts, which includes lapsed members, past event attendees and anyone who ever filled out a form. GlowOS bills by members. The same organization can land in different price bands depending on which the vendor counts.
Can one platform handle both events and membership?
Yes. GlowOS, Wild Apricot and Join It all hold a member roster and run events in one system. Eventbrite is built for individual events rather than an ongoing roster, so organizations using it typically keep their member list somewhere else.