WildApricot vs MemberPlanet: A detailed comparison

If you’re an organization with a member base — such as an association, nonprofit, fraternity or sorority, school, or foundation — you understand how difficult it can be to manage member relationships. Communication, online payments and donations, event registrations, and more can all get overwhelming, especially as your numbers grow.

That’s why many member-driven organizations choose to use solutions such as WildApricot and MemberPlanet, two leading software products designed to support membership organizations.

Which one should your organization go with?

To help you decide, we’ll give you a detailed comparison of WildApricot vs MemberPlanet below. Plus, we’ll also introduce you to a third option, Jotform, and highlight how it may help you reach your operational goals better than the other two offerings.

WildApricot vs MemberPlanet: Which one is right for your organization?

When evaluating software, it’s important to consider whether the product was designed to meet your needs and which features matter most to your organization.

Target audience

Both WildApricot and MemberPlanet support organizations that have a membership-based structure, but they cater to different target audiences. WildApricot is best suited for smaller organizations — specifically those with fewer than 1,000 users — such as small nonprofits, member associations, state chapter organizations, and more.

MemberPlanet can support organizations of all sizes. It typically caters to alumni organizations, schools, faith-based organizations, fraternities and sororities, homeowners associations, large nonprofits, and more.

Pricing and plans

Sometimes, deciding whether to use a solution comes down to the numbers. Here are the pricing and plan details for WildApricot and MemberPlanet:

WildApricot pricing

WildApricot offers seven plans, starting at $60 per month for 100 contacts. The highest tier plan is $900 per month for 50,000 contacts. Each plan includes all WildApricot features.

MemberPlanet pricing

MemberPlanet offers four plans, starting with a free Basic plan (though it does charge a 4 percent platform fee). The highest tier Premium plan is $175 per month. Each plan comes with an unlimited number of members, but you’ll need to upgrade to get additional features like board training and advanced directory search.

It’s difficult to make a direct comparison on pricing, since costs vary greatly depending on your budget, the kinds of features you require, and the number of contacts you need to reach.

WildApricot’s pricing structure is based solely on the number of contacts in your member database. (Note that WildApricot defines a contact as a member, an event attendee, a donor, a newsletter subscriber, or any combination of these roles.) If you have a lot of contacts, it can get pricey quickly.

MemberPlanet, on the other hand, offers unlimited contacts or members in each plan, including the free plan. The cost will depend on which features your organization requires to meet its goals.

Core features

In a roundup of the core features of WildApricot vs MemberPlanet, their offerings are quite similar in many ways. They both include

• Membership management
• Event management
• Email marketing
• Website creation and an easy-to-use content management system (CMS)
• Multiple easy integrations
• Customer support

WildApricot stands out for additional features like a mobile app specifically for organization members, an online store to sell physical and digital products, easy online payments through a proprietary payment system, and financial reporting for the organization. It also has an advanced contact search function that enables organizations to easily find specific contact information.

MemberPlanet, on the other hand, has other unique features, such as online survey tools and group text messaging. Its fundraising features are especially robust and include fundraising websites, peer-to-peer fundraising, multiple ways to accept donations, automated donation receipts for donors, and detailed reports for each fundraising campaign.

Like WildApricot, MemberPlanet also accepts payments, but they use a different proprietary online payment system that allows you to create customized payment forms. There’s also a mobile app for members, which they can use as a digital membership card when they’re on the go.

There are many similarities in WildApricot and MemberPlanet features, so choosing one over the other comes down to the needs of your organization. If fundraising is a major requirement for your organization, then MemberPlanet seems like the better choice, but if your organization does a lot of work reaching out to specific contacts and customizing your outreach, then WildApricot may work better for you.

Customer support

There are several ways to reach WildApricot customer support:

• Tech support: Live chat is available for paid accounts and is open Monday–Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.
• Billing: Email support is available on all weekdays.
• Sales: Online support is available anytime.

WildApricot also monitors its systems 24-7 and updates the customer support page when issues occur.

MemberPlanet also offers customer service through phone and email, though there’s no live chat feature like WildApricot offers. Its customer service hours aren’t listed on the website.

Ultimately, WildApricot offers more ways to get technical support — and that’s something decision-makers shouldn’t overlook.

Resources

WildApricot also offers many online resources for customers experiencing technical issues, such as a blog, webinars, a resource library, and a help center. They also have a “boot camp,” which is an online training series to help users become experts in the software.

MemberPlanet has a searchable introductory guide and a detailed FAQ section.

While both WildApricot and MemberPlanet offer lots of online resources, WildApricot has the upper hand with its training series and comprehensive resource library. However, if your organization already has internal tech support, it may not need to rely as heavily on the additional online resources.

Jotform: An excellent alternative to WildApricot and MemberPlanet

While WildApricot and MemberPlanet are solutions specific to member-driven organizations, Jotform is a software solution that supports organizations of any type and any size. That said, it has a number of features that go beyond the offerings listed above, and they can greatly benefit member-based organizations, especially nonprofits, associations, and similar organizations.

Jotform’s offerings include

• A drag-and-drop builder for forms, tables, and apps: Jotform is incredibly easy to use and doesn’t require any coding experience. You can quickly create attractive forms, tables, and even mobile apps from scratch, or you can customize existing templates to meet your needs.
• 10,000-plus templates: For organizations that value efficiency, Jotform comes with thousands of templates. Regardless of your industry or organization size, you can find a form, table, or app template to get you up and running fast.
• Robust integrations: Jotform seamlessly connects to PayPal, Square, Google Sheets, Dropbox, Mailchimp, and 100-plus other solutions member-based organizations commonly use.
• Online payments: Jotform has the functionality to accept online payments via a number of popular payment methods, including PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Plus, users can enable payments instantly without having to pay any extra transaction fees to Jotform.
• Multiple embed and share options: You can easily embed Jotform forms, such as for a contact form or donation form, into any website, or share your newly created forms via email or link. You can also easily create a QR code for any form and add it to marketing materials.
• No-code donation apps: Jotform Apps offers a donation box feature that includes payment processing, a donation goal progress bar, and custom preset donation amounts. There’s no coding required to create a donation app with Jotform, so you can easily begin accepting donations online through the 30-plus payment gateways Jotform supports. Most other member donation apps only have one or two native payment integrations. Jotform offers the flexibility to scale your operations and begin collecting more donations.
• Mobile functionality: In addition to the donation box feature, Jotform enables you to create mobile apps for your members so they can check event details, make online payments, provide information to the organization, and more.
• Data management: Jotform Tables is a great solution for overseeing large amounts of data, such as event registrations or donations. You can organize, review, edit, and manage data, as well as share it with colleagues.
• Reporting and analysis: Jotform Report Builder is a great way to visually analyze your membership data to better understand trends, spot anomalies, and make predictions.
• Electronic signatures: Member-based organizations require signatures for registrations, contracts, and more. Jotform Sign is the perfect solution for accepting e-signatures and automating the signature process to reduce backlogs.

These features offer immense value to member-driven organizations, but Jotform takes it one step further: It offers nonprofit organizations a 50 percent discount on all plans — all you have to do is apply.

Now you not only have a detailed understanding of WildApricot vs MemberPlanet, but you also know of a third option that may work better for you: Jotform. Get started managing your memberships more effectively today!

Photo by Mikhail Nilov