Lately, Wild Apricot has been making waves in the membership management software space. Enough so to beg a couple of questions: Is Wild Apricot worth it? And if not, what are the best alternatives to Wild Apricot?

Well, reader, you’re in luck. Ahead, we’re looking at the good and the bad of Wild Apricot’s features; talking about what features to look for in a membership management platform, and checking out the best Wild Apricot alternatives on the market.

Let’s turn up the heat.

What’s the deal with Wild Apricot?

Wild Apricot is a membership site platform that helps associations, non-profit organizations, and more automate and simplify membership management tasks.

With Wild Apricot, teams can create, organize and manage their member databases; use the platform’s website builder to customize and build a professional-looking website; securely accept online payments; and manage virtual events.

According to its website, Wild Apricot hosts memberships for everything from alumni and homeowner associations to networking groups and garden clubs. But when it comes to something more robust—say, a dedicated community space, where members can connect and collaborate, or features like online courses, where members can master something interesting together—the platform comes up short.

That’s where the Wild Apricot alternatives come in.

For most creators, it’s worth finding a membership site platform that’s robust enough to grow with you. Sure, you might not start with features like subscriptions, mastermind groups, or online courses. But you want there to be room to add on those extras and any others that help your members get closer to their goals (whatever those goals may be).

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What should I look for in a Wild Apricot alternative?

Membership management software is supposed to make organizing and, well, managing a group of people easy through automation. But the best membership management software goes beyond that, providing creators with powerful tools to streamline how members connect, collaborate, and build relationships with each other.

Below, we’re diving a little deeper into what features you should look out for in the best membership management software—whether it’s Wild Apricot or an alternative.

Access to membership data, activity, and analytics

No matter the size of your membership, managing your members comes down to data—a whole lot of it.

The best alternatives to Wild Apricot will make it easy to download and organize that information, plus give you insight into your members’ activity: The when, how, and why they are engaging with each other and with your content.

Bonus points if there’s some analytics for you to parse, too. Whatever Wild Apricot alternative you’re looking at should offer detailed analytics on every member, every post, and all activity.

The ability to charge for memberships

This one is a no-brainer: Your software should allow you to charge for your services. At the very least, you should be able to charge for memberships. Even better? If you can create and charge for membership tiers, where you offer different levels of content.

Flexibility here is key. The best alternatives to Wild Apricot will let you change up whether you want to sell access to your membership with a one-time fee or a subscription (think monthly or annually).

Community-centered features

Memberships are all about bringing together people with shared interests and motivations. But whether your membership is focused on alumni management or online church services, there’s one huge must-have that you literally must have: A robust set of community-centered features.

The best Wild Apricot alternatives will make it as easy as possible for your members to build relationships with each other and navigate challenges together. And the easiest way to do that is with tools that put people first, including:

An activity feed where members can share text, links, images, and video.

The ability to post, comment, and cheer.

A message all member feature, so you can reach 100% of your members 100% of the time.

Beautiful member profiles with custom categories.

Direct & group messaging between members.

Functionality like polls and questions to keep the conversation going.

Live virtual events.

These features are all about sowing the seeds of a thriving membership community—one that your members won’t be able to get enough of.

Upgrades like groups, online courses, and the like

We mentioned earlier that the best Wild Apricot alternatives will give you plenty of room to grow. And halfway through this article, we’ve got to say: It’s still true.

Once your membership community has gotten going, you’ll likely want to find new ways to keep your members excited and engaged. You’ll also want to find new ways to get them closer to whatever results they’re looking for, whether it’s learning a new skill or just a general sense of transformation.

The best way to do this is to diversify your offerings. Create premium groups where members can be hyper-focused around a topic. Or build out an online course where you can offer members a structured path towards achieving a goal.

No matter what path you choose here, you’re giving yourself a chance to pile on the value for your members (and yourself, too!).

Availability

This requirement is small, but it’s major. As you look for alternatives to Wild Apricot, it’s super important that you choose an option that’s accessible on the web, iOS, and Android.

The truth is that we’re all on our devices (more than we probably should be, but them’s the breaks). That being said, your membership site should be available wherever your members are, whether they’re at home or on the go.

And that’s that on that.

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What are the best Wild Apricot alternatives?

Now that we have a good idea of what to look for in a Wild Apricot alternative, it’s time for the good stuff. Below, we’re digging a little deeper into the best alternatives to Wild Apricot on the market today.

Wild Apricot alternative #1: Join It

Join It is a membership management platform dedicated to making repetitive tasks easier through automation. With Join It, you’ll get a few of the same features as Wild Apricot, including an activity log, online payments, downloadable member analytics, and more.

Still, for all the monetization and automation you’ll get, you’ll still miss out on more robust features, including a website builder, a mobile app, and the ability to branch out with other tools like online courses.

The bottom line: As far as Wild Apricot alternatives go, Join It is one of the weaker links. It requires having a lot of infrastructure already in place and denies creators ample room to grow.

Wild Apricot alternative #2: Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks isn’t just a community building platform. It’s also a place where you can bring everything—memberships, subscriptions, online courses, virtual events, and more—together in one place, under your brand, instantly available on the web, iOS, and Android.

A Mighty Network offers creators the tools to build a dynamic membership community buoyed by network effects. How? With access to member analytics and data; the ability to charge for memberships, groups, and courses; plenty of community-forward features, from direct & group messaging, livestreaming, live virtual events, and so much more.

In other words, Mighty Networks is so much more than a Wild Apricot alternative. It’s a platform that enables you to create a thriving community that essentially runs itself. With our software, you can bring people together to master something interesting, and you can create a membership that’s needed in the world today—and get paid for it.

And isn’t that the dream?

The bottom line: Mighty Networks is a robust all-in-one solution for memberships, community, courses, and more. It’s the best Wild Apricot alternative for managing members and getting them closer to achieving their goals among others with shared interests. And that’s a really special thing.

Wild Apricot alternative #3: Memberspace

Memberspace is a membership management system that helps you corral your people, but it requires an already established website. As far as Wild Apricot alternatives go, that’s not great: Even Wild Apricot itself offers a website builder.

Here’s how it works: With Memberspace, you can lock access to any part of your existing website—content, online courses, member directories—and charge for it. The software lets you bring in unlimited members, create membership tiers, and integrates with Stripe, Zapier, and more.

But because it goes along with your existing website, the onus is on you to build out any and everything, whether it’s courses, paid membership groups, and more. And while Memberspace boasts that their integrations are mobile responsive, there’s no dedicated mobile app to speak of.

The bottom line: If you already have a robust website and/or the time and money for custom app development, Memberspace can be a powerful tool. But for most people, Memberspace won’t be the best Wild Apricot alternative: It’s a little too barebones and lacks a mobile app.

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Mighty Networks is the best alternative to Wild Apricot

Membership management software is meant to make building and sustaining a membership easy. And most Wild Apricot alternatives don’t exactly fit that bill.

But with a Mighty Network, there’s room to manage your members, take them on a path to results and transformation, and build a community that’s so valuable, you can charge for it. And that’s saying something!

If you’ve been looking for the best Wild Apricot alternatives, this is your chance to create something special. Are you ready to get started?