Membership Management Software for Nonprofits, Priced

Membership management software runs from free to a few hundred dollars a month, and the right choice depends less on features than on what membership is to your organization. For a trade association or a club, dues are the business: the median one filing the short form gets 45% to 70% of its revenue from them. For a charity with “members”, dues are a giving programme with a card attached: only 16.6% of small charities report any dues, at a median 15.5% of revenue. Those two buyers need different products, and most comparison pages, written by the vendors, do not say so.

Who actually lives on membership dues

The full Form 990 folds dues into contributions, but the shorter Form 990-EZ, filed by organizations with receipts under $200,000, reports them on a line of their own. Across 203,699 returns in the IRS extract, joined to the Business Master File for the population of each type, the split is stark.

Three kinds of organization are membership businesses. Business leagues and chambers of commerce, social and recreation clubs, and labor and agricultural organizations report dues in seven or eight returns in ten, and dues are a large or dominant share of their income. For them membership software is the core system: renewals, member directories, gated content, event registration at member rates, and the dues ledger.

Fraternal societies and veterans organizations sit in between. Most report dues, 77.4% and 64.6%, but dues are a small slice of what they take in, a median 13.0% and 5.6% of revenue, because their income comes mainly from events, halls and gaming. For them the membership roll matters for governance and eligibility more than for money, and a simple, cheap system usually does the job.

Charities are the opposite. Most report no dues at all, and where they do, a museum’s members or a friends group, dues are a modest slice of income, typically treated as a donation with a benefit. For them, the member is a donor, and the right system is a donor CRM with a membership module, so the person who renews at $60 can be recognised when they give $1,000. A separate association product splits the donor record in two.

What the products cost

Every price below was read on the vendor’s own pricing page in October 2026. Fees on dues are the platform’s own fee where it publishes one; card processing is usually charged on top and is not included.

The fee column is where the real cost hides. A subscription priced low and paired with a percentage of every dues payment can cost more at your size than a higher flat price with no fee. The only honest comparison is total annual cost at your own member count and dues level, so here is one.

A worked example: 300 members at $50 a year

A small association or club with 300 members each paying $50 a year online collects $15,000 in dues. Here is the published cost of three products at that size, before card processing.

The flat priced product wins at this size because $15,000 of dues makes a 3% fee worth $450 a year. Double the dues to $100 and the fee doubles too, while the flat price does not move. The comparison reverses only for organizations with very low dues or mostly free memberships, where a percentage of little is little. Run it with your own numbers before choosing; it takes five minutes and decides more than any feature list.

The products

MembershipWorks

Best for: associations and clubs that want a published, account based price ladder and a free start. Free to 50 accounts, $35 a month to 300, $95 to 1,200 and $259 to 10,000, with no contract. Wrong for: charities whose members are really donors and need donor history in the same record. MembershipWorks pricing.

Wild Apricot

Best for: small associations wanting membership, events, a website and email in one package, with onboarding help included. $66 a month at 100 contacts, 10% off prepaid for a year, and a 60 day free trial. The pricing page shows only the 100 contact price without a sales step, so larger tiers need checking with the vendor. Wrong for: organizations that already have a website they like and only need renewals. Wild Apricot pricing.

Join It

Best for: organizations with many free or low priced memberships, since free memberships carry no fee. Starter is $29 a month with a 3% service fee on paid memberships and event registrations, falling to 2% at $99 and 1.5% at $199, with 10% off annual billing and a further 10% for eligible nonprofits. Wrong for: organizations with high dues, where the percentage fee becomes the largest cost. Join It pricing.

Raklet

Best for: community style memberships wanting a member app and directory. Free to 100 contacts; Essentials $49 a month billed annually for 500 contacts, Professional $99 for 1,000, Premium $399 for 10,000, with a transaction fee from 4% plus $0.60 on the free plan to 1% plus $0.60 on Premium. Wrong for: organizations above 1,000 contacts on a budget, where the jump to Premium is steep. Raklet pricing.

Neon CRM, for charities with members

Best for: charities where members are donors. Neon CRM starts at $99 a month, priced on the organization’s revenue, and memberships are an add-on at 10% of the CRM fee, so the member and the donor are one record. Wrong for: a club or trade association that has no donors to speak of, where a donor CRM is the wrong shape. Other donor CRMs with membership features are compared in nonprofit CRM software. Neon CRM pricing.

Questions to ask before you choose

Are your members donors or customers? If a member who renews might also give, keep them in the donor system. If membership is the product, use a membership system.

How do renewals work? Anniversary renewals, where each member renews a year after joining, and calendar renewals, where everyone renews in January, are handled differently, and switching later is painful. Confirm the product supports yours, plus grace periods and automatic card renewal.

Who pays the fees? Some platforms let members cover processing fees at checkout. Decide whether you want that, since it changes the net value of every renewal.

Is any of the dues deductible? For a charity, a membership with benefits is partly a gift and partly a purchase, and a payment over $75 that is partly each needs a disclosure of the deductible portion. The software should print that on the receipt. For a 501(c)(6) or (c)(7), dues are generally not charitable gifts at all, and the receipt should not suggest they are.

What to test in a demo

Vendor demos show the member directory and the website builder, which are the parts that look best. Four things decide whether a membership system works, and each takes a minute to test with your own data.

A lapsed renewal. Ask the vendor to show what happens when a member’s card fails at renewal: who is emailed, how many times, and when the member’s status changes. Failed renewals are where membership income quietly leaks.

A household or organizational membership. If one membership covers a family or a company with several named people, see how the system records it and who gets the renewal notice. Many products handle individuals well and groups awkwardly.

The export. Ask for a full export of members, payments and renewal dates in a spreadsheet, and open it. If you cannot get your data out cleanly now, you will not get it out when you want to leave.

The accounting handoff. See how dues reach your books: a deposit per payout, or each payment with the member’s name. For a charity that has to split dues into the deductible and non-deductible parts, the second matters.

How this list was made

Products were chosen from those ranking for membership management searches in October 2026 that publish a price, plus Neon CRM as the donor CRM alternative. Prices were read on each vendor’s own pricing page on 6 October 2026. The dues figures are from the IRS processing year 2024 Form 990-EZ extract, 203,699 returns, with organization counts from the IRS Business Master File; organizations filing the full Form 990 are not included because that form does not report dues separately.

Questions people ask

What is the best membership software for a small nonprofit?

It depends on what membership is to you. A club or trade association should use dedicated membership software; MembershipWorks is free to 50 accounts and $35 a month to 300. A charity whose members are really donors should use a donor CRM with a membership module, such as Neon CRM, so member and donor are one record.

Is there free membership management software?

Yes, with limits. MembershipWorks is free up to 50 accounts and Raklet up to 100 contacts, the latter with a 4% plus $0.60 fee on payments. Join It charges no fee on free memberships.

How much does Wild Apricot cost?

$66 a month at 100 contacts on its pricing page, $59.40 a month prepaid for a year and $56.10 for two years, with a 60 day free trial. Larger contact tiers cost more.

Do nonprofits rely on membership dues?

Charities mostly do not: only 16.6% of those filing Form 990-EZ report dues, a median 15.5% of revenue. Trade associations, social clubs and labor organizations do: 71% to 82% report dues, a median 45% to 96% of revenue.

Are membership dues tax deductible?

Dues to a 501(c)(3) can be partly deductible, the amount above the value of benefits received, and a payment over $75 that is partly a gift needs a written disclosure. Dues to 501(c)(6) or (c)(7) organizations are generally not charitable contributions, though some may be deductible as a business expense.

Should we use our CRM or separate membership software?

Use the CRM if your members also give, so renewal history and giving history sit in one record. Use separate software if membership is your main income and you have few donors.

What do transaction fees cost on membership dues?

On 300 members paying $50, a 3% platform fee is $450 a year, before card processing. That is why a flat priced product often beats a cheaper subscription with a percentage fee once dues are more than trivial.

Where do the dues figures come from?

The IRS Statistics of Income Form 990-EZ extract for processing year 2024, 203,699 returns, with organization counts from the IRS Business Master File. Form 990-EZ reports membership dues on its own line; the full Form 990 does not.