Association Management Software Pricing, AMS Cost by Member Count

The short answer: association management software pricing starts at $29 a month for Join It and $66 a month for WildApricot, reaches $265 a month for WildApricot at 2,000 contacts, and runs $3,000 to $18,500 a year for platforms such as MemberClicks and Glue Up. Higher Logic and GrowthZone quote on request. The sticker price is rarely the real bill, because each vendor meters something different: contacts, members, a share of every dues payment, or the size of your organization.

Every price below was read from the vendor's own US pricing page in September 2026. WildApricot's full tier table comes from the price data on its public pricing page. Where a vendor quotes instead of publishing a price, this article says so rather than repeating a figure from a review site.

AMS pricing, vendor by vendor

Two of the six publish full prices, two publish ranges or floors, and two quote. That split is normal for the category. The quote-only vendors tend to sell to associations with thousands of members, multiple chapters and a real implementation project, where the price depends on data migration and integrations as much as on the software.

The four meters, and which one punishes which kind of growth

Association software is priced on four different meters, and the right choice depends less on features than on how your association is likely to grow over the next three years.

• Contacts. WildApricot bills by every contact in the database, members or not. That includes event attendees who never joined, prospects from a recruitment campaign and members who lapsed three years ago. A 1,500-member society with 800 past attendees on file is a 2,000-plus contact account, not a 1,500 one. Cleaning the database is a real cost lever here.
• Members plus a payment share. Join It's base fee is low, but its service fee of 3.0, 2.0 or 1.5 percent applies to every online payment, before your card processor's own fee. That model is cheap for a small group and gets expensive as dues revenue grows.
• Organization size and features. MemberClicks and Glue Up publish floors or ranges and set the final number in a proposal. Expect the quote to move with member count, modules (events, community, mobile app, accounting sync) and support level.
• Quote only. Higher Logic and GrowthZone publish no numbers. Higher Logic says it never charges for exceeding a contact count, which is worth confirming in writing if your list is growing.

What association management software costs at 250, 1,500 and 5,000 members

Per-member prices only mean something against a real roster, so here are three typical US associations. Dues and database sizes are assumptions for illustration; the vendor prices are the published ones above.

A 250-member chapter or local society, $120 dues

Dues revenue is $30,000 a year. Join It Starter is $348 a year plus a 3 percent service fee on $30,000, which is $900, so $1,248 before card processing. WildApricot's 500-contact tier (a chapter with 250 members usually has a few hundred past attendees on file too) is $1,663 a year on yearly billing, with no service fee. The two land within a few hundred dollars of each other, and the choice comes down to whether you also want WildApricot's website builder.

A 1,500-member professional society, $250 dues

Dues revenue is $375,000. Here the payment-share model falls apart: even Join It's lowest 1.5 percent fee is $5,625 a year before the plan price, and 3 percent would be $11,250. WildApricot at 2,000 contacts is $2,862 a year paid yearly, or $3,180 month to month. MemberClicks MC Professional starts at $4,500 and Glue Up Professional at $3,000. A realistic AMS line for this society is $3,000 to $6,500 a year.

A 5,000-member trade association, $600 dues

At this size the database is almost always larger than the roster. Five thousand members plus prospects and past exhibitors puts WildApricot on its 15,000-contact tier at $6,307 a year paid yearly. Glue Up Advanced runs $8,000 to $18,500, and Higher Logic, GrowthZone and MemberClicks will quote, usually with an implementation fee attached. Plan on $6,000 to $20,000 a year for software, plus the one-time cost of migrating the data.

The costs that are not on the pricing page

The subscription is usually less than half of what an association spends in year one on a new AMS. Four lines are worth pricing before you sign.

• Card processing. Every vendor passes card fees through. On $375,000 of online dues, card processing alone is thousands of dollars a year, so compare vendors on the total they take from each payment, not just their own fee.
• Implementation and migration. WildApricot states it has no setup fee. The quote-based vendors typically price migration, configuration and training separately. Ask for it as a line item.
• Add-on modules. Community, mobile app, learning management, accounting sync and AI newsletters (an add-on at GrowthZone) are often priced outside the base plan.
• The marketing that runs on top. Every system here can send email and automated renewal reminders. None of them writes the onboarding series, the pre-renewal value recap, the annual meeting campaign or the recruitment ads. That work is either a staff member's time, a freelancer, or software built for production.

The marketing line most AMS budgets leave out

Renewal is where the software pays for itself or does not. The 2025 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report from Marketing General puts the median renewal rate at 84 percent. On the 1,500-member society above, one extra point of renewal is 15 members at $250, or $3,750 a year, which is more than its whole AMS subscription. The reminder email your AMS sends on schedule is not what moves that point. The value recap that arrives before the invoice, the welcome series that gets a first-year member to an event, and the win-back that goes out after the lapse are what move it.

Most membership teams of one or two people never find the week to write those. That is the gap marketing automation for associations is built around: an AI marketing agent plans the membership year, writes the renewal, conference and recruitment campaigns in your voice, and launches each one after you approve it, next to the AMS you keep. AiMarketer Growth is $149 a month, or $1,490 a year paid yearly. For the 1,500-member society, that puts total software at roughly $4,350 a year with WildApricot, including a full campaign calendar.

The newsletter your AMS sends is also an asset in its own right. A member newsletter with a steady open rate is exactly what industry vendors pay to reach, and some associations offset part of their software bill by selling a sponsor slot in each issue through a newsletter sponsorship marketplace instead of chasing sponsors one by one.

How to choose without overbuying

Start from the meter, not the feature list. If your dues revenue is small and you mainly need online joining and renewal reminders, a member-priced tool with a payment share is fine. Once online dues pass roughly $45,000 a year, a flat contact-based plan usually wins, and past a few thousand members with chapters, events and a community, the quote-based platforms earn their price.

Then ask each vendor four questions in writing: what the price is at your contact count including non-members, what they take from each payment on top of card processing, what implementation costs as a line item, and which modules you would have to add to match the demo. If a general marketing suite is also on the list, compare it honestly: HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional is $800 a month plus a one-time $3,000 onboarding fee, which is more than most small associations pay for their entire AMS. HubSpot alternatives covers cheaper routes, and associations that are also registered charities should read nonprofit marketing software for donor CRMs and Google Ad Grants.

Questions people ask about association management software pricing

How much does association management software cost?

Published US prices start at $29 a month for Join It at 250 members and $66 a month for WildApricot at 100 contacts, rise to $265 a month for WildApricot at 2,000 contacts, and reach $3,500 to $4,500 a year for MemberClicks and $3,000 to $18,500 a year for Glue Up. Higher Logic and GrowthZone quote on request. Payment processing is extra on every plan.

What is the cheapest association management software?

On sticker price, Join It Starter at $29 a month is the lowest published plan, but it adds a 3 percent service fee on online payments on top of card processing. For a group collecting more than about $45,000 a year in dues online, WildApricot at a flat $73.80 to $138.60 a month on yearly billing is usually cheaper once the fee is counted.

Does WildApricot charge transaction fees?

WildApricot itself charges no per-transaction fee on any plan and no setup, training or cancellation fee, according to its US pricing page. Your payment provider still charges card processing on each dues payment and event ticket, so budget for that separately.

How much does MemberClicks cost?

MemberClicks publishes starting prices only: MC Trade from $3,500 a year for associations with organizational members and chambers, and MC Professional from $4,500 a year for individual-member associations. The final price is quoted by organization size and the features you choose.

How much does Glue Up cost?

Glue Up lists Professional at $3,000 to $6,500 a year and Advanced at $8,000 to $18,500 a year, both billed annually, with Enterprise on custom pricing. Where you land in each range depends on organization size and requirements, which Glue Up sets in a proposal.

Is email marketing included in association management software?

Usually yes. WildApricot, MemberClicks, Glue Up and Join It all include email and automated renewal reminders in their plans. What is not included is anyone to write the campaigns, which is why many associations own an email tool and still send little beyond invoices and a newsletter.