Association management software solutions are essentially membership platforms. The only difference is that a membership platform is a more general term. A membership platform refers to a software solution that caters to a range of organizations and membership-based online ventures in addition to associations.
So, it would be fair to say that association management software and membership software are one and the same.
This software includes many diverse types of tools for managing membership records, payments, event calendars, and the like.
These tools are grouped into different modules that make up one integrated whole. What this means is that membership platforms are typically all-in-one solutions for organizations. They strive to include everything necessary to build, run, and manage your membership venture online in one place.
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Choosing Software
In this article, we’ll discuss membership platforms that have features adjusted specifically for associations. As we ascertained, that makes them association management software solutions and not just generic membership platforms.
Association management solutions usually have more advanced requirements than regular membership ventures. It’s highly likely that you want to know how to select the best association management software for your specific situation. We are here to help – we’re going to provide some guidelines on making your choice and name some of the best software solutions.
Modules
Every association management platform consists of multiple modules or components that cover different sides of your association’s day-to-day operations. The most common modules are related to member management, website building, payment processing, event management, communication, and analytics.
Database, Contact, and Member Management
Here are some things you can do with this functionality:
- Allow users to create and update their member profiles with ease.
- Add contact information like names, geographical location, and account preferences to a database, and filter it to find certain information.
- Create membership applications.
- Automate membership renewals or allow members to renew memberships on their own.
- Allow members to navigate their dashboards smoothly, thanks to a user-friendly graphical interface.
Website Builder and CMS
Quality association management software will enable you to build a website, either from scratch or from pre-designed templates. You should be able to:
- Customize your site how you’d like.
- Make use of page templates.
- Connect a custom domain.
- Provide updates and event information.
- Create a blog.
Finances and Payments
Financial management is certainly one of the most important facets of any association management platform. Often, they will include features like:
- A wider choice of payment gateways
- PCI compliance
- Multiple payment options for your association members, such as credit cards, debit cards, and checks
- Ability to accept online and offline payments
- Ability to start fundraising and accept donations
Event management
Associations and clubs will often run events of different kinds – sometimes ticketed, sometimes not. However, these events need promoting and managing. This module typically enables you to do the following:
- Create all kinds of events, such as workshops, conferences, seminars, and webinars.
- Allow users to register online regardless of the event type.
- Build registration forms in a visual form builder.
- Offer discount codes for upcoming events.
- Create event pages.
Emails and Communication
You can use email and communication tools to:
- Send marketing emails.
- Send emails in bulk, i.e., broadcast emails.
- Create personalized emails.
- Promote your events.
- Send automated reminders of different types, such as membership renewal emails.
Analytics and Reporting
Recording statistics and providing insights into how every aspect of your association venture performs is essential. It helps you to improve your association management overall.
Thanks to the analytics and reporting module, you can:
- Track email analytics, such as opened emails and clicked email links.
- Create custom reports.
- Check payment information based on different criteria, such as payments received in a certain period, overdue payments, and recurring donations.
- Track event-related statistics.
- Apply data segmentation.
Things to Consider When Choosing Association Management Software
Team
Since choosing the right association management software solution is of tremendous importance for your association, make sure you first have the whole team on the same page.
What we mean is that you have to ensure the people involved in decision-making understand the association’s needs. This includes those who will work with the software on a regular basis, those who have the last word on allocating budget resources, stakeholders who make the most important decisions, and managers.
Therefore, coming to a collective decision on what association management platform to choose is crucial.
Features
Needless to say, platform features always play a prominent role in the decision-making process, and for very good reason.
Having a thorough understanding of what tools your particular association needs now and in the foreseeable future is critical. Then, of course, you need to prioritize these needs.
Some questions to ask yourself and the management team are:
- What are the things that you can’t do without?
- What features are nice to have but not essential?
- Finally, what are the features that you can compromise on?
Cost-Effectiveness
The association management platform you choose should not only have reasonable prices but provide good value for the money as well. This applies even more so if you’re committing to a higher-tier plan and a long-term (annual or bi-annual) subscription.
Additionally, an important thing you need to consider is whether a platform would allow you to make good returns. For instance, while researching a different type of platform, we came across many customer reviews that claimed a platform was on the expensive side, but it was so good it basically paid for itself. This is the type of platform that you should strive to find.
Scalability
As your association grows, your management software also needs to grow with you. You can always switch platforms, but that’s never a hassle-free experience. When you’re choosing between different association management solutions, think long-term.
That’s why software scalability is also important to consider. Something that works for you today might not be ideal down the line. Simply put, if your association and online venture grow, can the software handle the higher demand? Are there limitations on member numbers? Or payment types? If it appears that the software is versatile and scalable, then that’s a big positive.
Mobile Apps
As is widely known, most users today access the internet through their mobile devices. Because of this, a mobile app solution for members and admins is virtually a must-have feature for any association management platform today.
Luckily, the bulk of the popular association management platforms today – Wild Apricot, GrowthZone, and MemberPlanet – offer mobile solutions. So, this is just something to think about.
Ease of Use
One of the purposes of association management platforms is to make your life easier through automation and an easy-to-navigate user interface. A simple, easy-to-use software system should be core to your number one choice.
If a platform is overwhelming, complex, and, generally speaking, not easy to get your head around, it’s going to be unpopular. To get active use by members and the management team, it needs to be something a vast majority of people can learn to use quickly.
Experience and Track Record
Association management platforms that have been on the market for a while and are still alive and kicking are normally pretty reliable solutions. A good track record and experience are usually good predictors of a platform’s future performance.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have to look exclusively for older platforms with an impeccable track record, but these two variables should definitely play a part in your decision.
Customer Reviews
Researching customer reviews on association management software solutions is a great way to gain a fairly good idea of the upsides and downsides of a specific platform. In addition to this, customer reviews allow you to form an informed opinion on what to expect when you start using the software.
Good review websites like Capterra.com and G2.com usually have large numbers of genuine customer reviews. Of course, you need to take reviews with a healthy dose of skepticism, as they are always one person’s subjective viewpoint.
Integrations
You would think a one-stop software solution like an association management platform should be self-sufficient. Well, not all of them are, but that’s ok if it provides all the tools necessary to run an association’s everyday activities smoothly. However, integration options are a must-have.
There are many reasons why integrations are important, but here are two of the most important ones:
- As you scale, you might want to add advanced functionalities that are not available out of the box with your association management platform.
- The platform of your choice may include many functionalities, but some of them are only in a rudimentary form.
As an illustration of the second point, Wild Apricot offers a content management system with its own native blogging solution. However, as good as its blogging solution may be, Wild Apricot is not a specialized content marketing platform. It will certainly lag behind a feature-packed blogging app like DropInBlog.
Since Wild Apricot is a serious platform that knows how important integrations can be, it offers multiple integration possibilities. One of those is integration through a custom HTML content block, which is exactly how you add a third-party blogging solution like DropInBlog to Wild Apricot.
Updates and Upgrades
In our experience, two things that customers are extremely grateful for and happy to see on any platform are regular updates and continuous upgrades. Updates are the most natural part of software maintenance, and automated updates are super convenient.
As far as upgrades are concerned, things vary from platform to platform. Some introduce new features and improve existing ones very often; others do so every once in a while. It’s generally a good sign if an association management software is continuously developing and enriching its features. So long as this doesn’t bloat the platform and slow down functionality – updates are a good thing.
This is especially true for platforms that make upgrades without increasing the existing fees. However, unfortunately, one rarely goes without the other among business and membership software solutions.
Popular Association Management Software Solutions
As you probably already know, there are so many choices when it comes to association management software. Once you’re done taking stock of what your association needs from a platform, you will want to check out our top picks. Here are the top five association management software solutions that we would like to highlight.
MemberClicks
MemberClicks was founded in 1998 and acquired by Personify in 2020. It’s a membership platform that’s primarily geared toward associations, more specifically, professional associations, trade associations, chambers of commerce, and association management companies.
As far as MemberClicks is concerned, the key things you need to know are the following:
- The pricing starts from $3,750/year and up.
- There are two plans, MC Trade and MC Professional, and they include pretty advanced features.
Two of the most interesting features of MemberClicks are:
- Classroom – a learning management system that allows you to create courses and other types of educational content for your members.
- Job Board – a career center that connects members to employers and helps further their careers.
WildApricot
WildApricot was founded in 2006 and, just like MemberClicks, was acquired by Personify in 2017. Despite the acquisition, the two platforms retained their unique identities.
Wild Apricot belongs to the subcategory of generic membership platforms suitable for many other types of organizations and membership-driven projects besides associations.
Some of the things worth noting about Wild Apricot are:
- A full-month free trial
- A completely free plan
- As many as seven paid plans ranging from $48/month to $420/month
- Multi-chapter pricing – for associations with multiple branches
- An online store functionality
Two other features worth noting are:
- Mobile event check-in
- Unlimited emails
MemberPlanet
MemberPlanet is another well-known membership platform that can effectively serve different types of organizations, including associations. It was founded in 2011.
Two things worth noting about MemberPlanet are:
- It includes a completely free account, three paid plans from $50/month to $175/month, and a custom enterprise offering.
- It provides features and tools especially suitable for managing multi-chapter associations.
You may have noticed that Wild Apricot and MemberPlanet are very similar. If you’d like to see a more detailed breakdown of the two platforms, check out our Wild Apricot vs. MemberPlanet comparison.
GrowthZone
GrowthZone started its journey long ago, in 1996. Greenridge Growth Partners acquired the platform in 2019. Unlike MemberPlanet and Wild Apricot, it’s a software solution exclusively geared toward associations.
The GrowthZone pricing starts at $259/month and goes up to $579/month. In addition to the three paid standard pricing plans, the same as MemberPlanet, it too offers a custom enterprise-level plan. There’s no free trial; instead, the platform offers a 1-on-1 demo and product tour.
GrowthZone is known for:
- The platform’s own payment system, GrowthZone Pay.
- The custom association website design possibilities its team offers.
- The customized association member onboarding process it provides.
MemberLeap
MemberLeap is another popular association management software solution. Overall, it holds favorable customer review ratings, and you’ll find it almost on any list of best association management software.
MemberLeap was founded in 2000. It refers to itself as an easy-to-use association management software, but it also caters to smaller organizations and nonprofits, such as alumni groups, civic organizations, and clubs.
This platform has a somewhat different pricing system compared to the other platforms we mentioned. Essentially the lowest monthly cost is $50. However, we recommend checking out the Monthly MemberLeap Lease page for more precise details on its pricing system.
Two special perks of MemberLeap that we can single out are the following:
- Its QuickBooks interface
- The ability to build your association’s own mobile app
FAQs
What is association management software?
Association management software is designed specifically for use by groups, clubs, nonprofits, and just generally anyone that has a need to manage members. The software includes a database function to manage membership details, payment processing, event management, and the ability to promote activities.
What features should I look for in an AMS?
First and foremost, you need to have a solid understanding of what your association needs.
However, the core features to look for in association management software are:
- Website building capabilities – whether you can build the website you want and customize it how you want.
- Membership database – look for a robust membership database with convenient automations.
- Communication options – a variety of communication options like email, social media integration, and blogging.
- Scalability – your chosen software needs to be able to grow alongside your association.
- Integrations – there is no complete package, so integration options are always important.
- Price tag – probably the most important aspect apart from features is the price tag. Does it fit within your budget?
- Mobile app – a platform that has a mobile app or the ability to build one is very beneficial.
- Analytics features – it's valuable to build your association if you can analyze the use of the platform and understand where to improve.
What is the difference between CRM and AMS?
Customer resource management and association management software have a lot of similarities, but the key difference lies in the purpose.
Customer relationship management is focused on analyzing contacts in order to maximize the potential for a sale. On the other hand, association management software prioritizes the managing of a range of day-to-day tasks – such as membership renewals, event management, and website maintenance – as well as member satisfaction.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we tackled the question of how to choose the best association management software. We covered what association management software is, and we looked at the most common components of this specific type of software.
We also covered the most important things you need to take into account when looking for the right software solution for your association. Lastly, we provided an overview of some of the most popular and famous membership and association management software platforms.
Hopefully, this was sufficient to give you useful guidelines and outline the direction you should head if you’re searching for an association management software solution. Happy researching!