The Best Free Membership Management Software
We take a quick look at free membership management software in 2024.
Membership management software, also referred to as association management software (AMS) or club management software (CMS), is a specialized platform designed to integrate your membership data and improve administrative tasks associated with running a membership-based organization.
From tracking member information, to managing member dues and event registrations, membership management software offers a centralized hub for all your organizational needs (as well as your member’s needs).
What is Membership Management Software?
Membership management software, also referred to as association management software (AMS) or club management software (CMS), is a specialized platform designed to integrate your membership data and improve administrative tasks associated with running a membership-based organization.
The key features of membership management software are:
Member Database Management: One of the core features of membership management software is its ability to maintain a detailed database of member information. From contact details to membership history and preferences, organizations can easily access manage members and integrate their payments directly into their member profile.
Payment Integrations: With membership management software, organizations can better connect their data by hosting payment hubs for members to renew and signup at. This helps simplify the payment process for members and helps the organization better manage their finances and who-paid-who.
Event Registration and Management: Hosting events is a great way to engage members and attract new ones. Membership management software simplifies the event planning process by offering registration and management tools.
Communication and Engagement Tools: Effective communication is key to maintaining strong relationships with members. Membership management software typically includes built-in communication tools that allow you to create email lists, newsletters, and personalized messages, allowing organizations to keep members informed and engaged.
Reporting and Analytics: To make informed decisions and track progress, organizations need access to insightful data. Membership management software offers reporting and analytics features, allowing organization staff to generate custom reports, track membership trends, and measure the success of various initiatives.
Benefits of Membership Management Software
Increased Efficiency: By automating repetitive tasks and centralizing member data, membership management software significantly reduces administrative burden, allowing organizations to focus more time on strategic initiatives and events.
A Better Member Experience: From an easy online registration processes to personalized communications, membership management software enhances the overall member experience, leading to a better community and higher retention rates.
Improved Financial Management: With features like integrated payments on registrations, membership management software provides organizations with greater visibility and control over their finances, helping to ensure long-term sustainability & growth.
Scalability and Growth: As organizations grow, so do their needs. Membership management software scales with your organization, offering flexibility and customization options to accommodate evolving requirements and support continued growth.
Reduced Overhead: With access to real-time data and analytics, organizations can make data-driven decisions, identify areas for improvement, and capitalize on opportunities for growth without having to number crunch of meticulously go over member information.
The Best Free Membership Management Software
We’ll cover our two top picks for free membership management software in this section of the article: embolt.app and Zenbership. These platforms offer unique pros & cons which we’ll break down for you; if you’re looking to get started immediately however and skip any sort of setup we’d recommend checking out embolt first
Option One: embolt.app
embolt is a digital-first approach to running a member-based club, association, organization, league, etc… It’s completely free to get started with no bank account or credit card required. embolt believe’s that all leaders should have membership management tools available, regardless of their size, budget, or expertise.
Pros
No bank account required
Easy to setup and import existing members
No monthly charge or subscriptions
Simple & modern interface
Cons
Does not support integrations with other tools
Does not contain any bespoke solutions for specific industry needs
Features
Here’s just a couple things you can do with embolt:
Build a customize-able registration hub for your members and use your admin panel to manage everything from members to mailing lists.
Accept secure transactions over Credit/Debit Card, Venmo, and PayPal via embolt’s exclusive PayPal partnership. No bank account required.
Get a birds-eye view of your members with advanced analytics. Identify expiring or past due members, and create custom segments like first-time and recurring.
Member Registration Hubs
Registration hubs are where members pay dues and renew their membership status in your organization. These hubs are generated once you’ve created your own custom registration form and are hosted on a subdomain of embolt that you choose.
For example, if your organization is “Organization of Bishops Anonymous”, you might have this registration form hosted on oba.embolt.app which your members can easily access and signup at.
These registration hubs offer a number of benefits to organizations:
Simplified Registration Process: Registration hubs simplify the registration process for both organizations and prospective & recurring members. Instead of navigating multiple channels or filling out paper forms and sending disjointed payments, individuals can easily register for memberships through a user-friendly online portal. This approach saves time and reduces administrative burden, allowing organizations to efficiently process registrations and welcome new members into their organization.
Accessibility and Convenience: Membership registration hubs provide anytime, anywhere access to registrations, enabling individuals to sign up for membership at their own convenience. Whether it's from the comfort of their own home or on the go, new & recurring members can access the registration portal using their preferred device, whether it's a computer, tablet, or smartphone. By removing barriers to entry and offering a smooth registration experience, organizations can attract a broader audience and increase membership uptake.
Scalability and Growth: Membership registration hubs are scalable solutions that can accommodate organizations of all sizes and membership levels, from small clubs to large associations. As organizations grow and evolve, registration hubs can adapt to meet changing needs and requirements, whether it's expanding to support new membership types, integrating with additional software systems, or scaling up to handle increased registration volume. This scalability ensures that organizations can continue to grow and thrive without outgrowing their registration infrastructure.
Analytics Dashboard
embolt offers a powerful analytics dashboard for clubs to get a bird’s eye view on their past and future performance. Not all clubs need to be financially motivated, but being able to identify trends and how initiates pay off is an important part of any club.
Having powerful analytics can benefit your organization in many ways:
Data-Driven Decision Making: Reporting and analytics enable organizations to make decisions based on more than just gut feelings or anecdotal evidence with access to empirical data at their finger tips. By leveraging data collected within the membership management software, organizations can identify trends, pinpoint areas of improvement, and capitalize on opportunities for growth. Whether it's assessing membership demographics, tracking engagement metrics, or analyzing event attendance, reporting and analytics provide the foundation for strategic decision-making.
Performance Tracking and Evaluation: Membership management software offers a range of reporting tools to track the performance of various aspects of the organization. From membership growth and retention rates to revenue generated from dues and events, organizations can monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge their overall health and progress towards goals. By regularly evaluating these metrics, organizations can identify areas of success and areas that require attention, enabling them to adjust strategies accordingly and stay on track for success.
Member Engagement and Satisfaction: Understanding member engagement and satisfaction is critical for maintaining strong relationships and fostering a sense of belonging within the organization. Reporting and analytics within membership management software allow organizations to measure member engagement through metrics such as event attendance, participation in programs, and interactions with communications. By analyzing these engagement metrics, organizations can identify patterns, preferences, and areas for improvement, ultimately enhancing the overall member experience and driving satisfaction.
Forecasting and Planning: Predicting future trends and planning for growth are essential components of organizational success. Membership management software provides insights into into historical data that enable administrators to better predict future outcomes, such as membership growth projections, revenue forecasts, and event attendance estimates. By using these insights to inform strategic planning initiatives, organizations can plan resources effectively, set realistic goals, and position themselves for sustainable growth in the long term.
Compliance and Accountability: In addition to informing strategic decisions, reporting and analytics play a crucial role in ensuring compliance and accountability within the organization. Membership management software allows organizations to maintain financial transparency and governance practices. By maintaining accurate records and providing visibility into organizational performance, reporting and analytics help organizations uphold standards of integrity and accountability.
Member Management Tools
embolt offers easy-to-use member management tools to make managing an organization’s members easier. From creating new members to updating information and filtering down to specific segments, embolt allow an organization to take advantage of their integrated data.
With embolt’s user interface it’s trivially easy to answer any of the following questions (and more):
Filtering to find members expiring in the next 30 days to send renewal notices to
Filtering to find members who expired in the past 30 days to send reminders to
Filtering to find first time member who joined in the last year to send welcome emails to
Filtering to find recurring members to renewed in the last year to send personalized thank-you emails to.
Additionally, embolt allows you to export nearly all of your data making it easy to transition on and off the platform as your clubs needs develop.
Benefits of having these tools include:
Comprehensive Member Profiles: Membership management software allows organizations to create detailed profiles for each member, capturing essential information such as contact details, membership status, demographics, preferences, and engagement history. These comprehensive profiles provide a holistic view of each member, enabling organizations to tailor their interactions and offerings to better meet individual needs and preferences.
Centralized Data Storage: These member tools are a net benefit over scattered spreadsheets and disparate systems for storing member information. Membership management software centralizes all member data in one secure location, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and accessibility. This centralized approach eliminates data silos and streamlines administrative processes, allowing staff to quickly retrieve information as needed and make informed decisions based on up-to-date data.
Customizable Fields and Categories: Every organization has unique needs when it comes to member data. Membership management software offers customizable fields and categories, allowing organizations to capture and categorize information specific to their operations and membership demographics. Whether it's tracking membership types, interests, or participation in specific programs, organizations can tailor their database to align with their objectives and reporting requirements.
Signup Process & Pricing
embolt.app is free to signup and use; you just need an email to get started, no bank account or credit card required. Once you’ve registered an account & organization you’re free to use the platform at no-cost to manage your club.
If you decide to start accepting members through embolt and charging members dues, embolt does ask for a 5% surcharge on top of the transaction paid by the member. You can use our online calculator to estimate how much you’d receive per transaction before making any decisions.
Option Two: Zenberships
Zenbership is a 100% free, open source membership CRM platform, designed to provide a central hub helping online businesses & organizations acquire, monetize, and retain members.
Pros
Self-hosted, completely free
Powerful set of features
Good event management controls
Cons
Complex (understatement) setup process
Software is free, but requires you rent & pay for your own server hosting costs
Dated interface and high learning curve
Warning: Doesn’t seem to be actively maintained anymore
Features
Zenberships is an all-in-one solutions aimed at medium to large organizations looking to tap into the open source market and use free software at the cost of technical complexity in hosting the software.
This solution is best fit for organizations with permanent access to highly-technical individuals and organizations with a healthy wallet to support server hosting costs that are associated with using the open-source software.
Given you organization meets the above criteria, you’ll benefit from a highly advanced & customizable software solution that doesn’t require a monthly subscription price.
Membership Software CRM
Zenbership comes equipped with a CRM designed specifically for membership websites. Customize your database parameters and seamlessly convert contacts into members! Establish custom membership levels and automate registrations.
Ecommerce & Subscriptions
With subscription management, invoicing, and a full shopping cart, Zenbership allows you to monetize your memberships and content in multiple ways. Bring your own payment gateway, with one-click activation for presets like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net.
Marketing & Engagement
Never stop growing with tools to not only help you acquire new members, but retain your existing ones. Drip & double opt-in e-mail campaigns, social media integration, source tracking, and custom report building are all standard in the software.
Zenberships CRM page was last updated in 2013 and doesn’t seem to contain valid images anymore, so we’re unable to show you what the event management pages look like
Event Management
Whether you're throwing online or offline events, Zenbership's event management tools allow you to create beautiful event pages all without needing to write a line of code. Easily track attendance, set up flexible pricing options, and communicate with attendees.
Zenberships events page was last updated in 2013 and doesn’t seem to contain valid images anymore, so we’re unable to show you what the event management pages look like
Conclusion
Membership management software offers a myriad of benefits for organizations looking to improve operations, enhance member engagement, and drive growth. From customizable registration hubs to member management tools and insightful analytics, these software platforms empower organizations to operate more efficiently and effectively. By investing in the right membership management software, organizations can unlock their full potential and achieve their goals with confidence.
The two options above represent our top two picks if you’re looking for free membership management software in 2024. If you’re looking to try one out, give embolt a try today, totally free and no credit card required.