How To Plan Your Membership Management Software Budget

If you’re looking for a way to make running your club easier and save time and money, membership management software is a great solution. However, it’s important to remember that this software comes at a cost, which can vary depending on your club’s specific needs. 

This article will guide you through the process of assessing your club’s needs, determining how much you should spend on membership management software, and calculating the total cost for your club. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to confidently budget for membership management software.

How Much Does Membership Management Software Cost? 

Unfortunately, there’s no straightforward answer to this question. The cost of membership software for your club relies on various factors. The amount you’ll pay for management software depends on the number of members you have, the range of features you need, how advanced you want those features to be, and what other software you require. 

Most membership management software divides its product into packages, with varying features, functions, and member limits, for varying prices. At Member Jungle, for instance, we offer three packages: Essential, Standard, and Premium. 

 

 

Generally speaking, membership management software from most companies for most clubs and associations will cost between $50 to $1000 per month. Again this will vary depending on all those factors we talked about. At Member Jungle, our prices range from $89 per month to a maximum of $319 per month. 

Most other companies, like WildApricot, JoinIt and Club Express, will also be in this ballpark. You can actually calculate how much a membership management system with Member Jungle would cost your club using our pricing calculator. I’d strongly recommend doing this for all membership management systems you’re considering. 

One thing you need to consider is the so-called hidden fees that come with membership management software. These are usually less hidden and more peripheral costs you may not have considered. In any case, knowing what these fees are and taking them into account is crucial to making an informed decision. To make sure that we at Member Jungle don’t have any hidden fees, I wrote an article about the “hidden” fees at Member Jungle. 

How To Assess Your Club’s Needs

As we have already discussed, the price of your membership management system will vary greatly based on your club’s needs. So, considering your club’s needs and what you want your membership management system to help you with will be a great way to work out how much your desired system will cost.    

The club needs you may need to consider include the following:

• Number of Members
• Membership levels
• Club events
• Club courses 
• Marketing capabilities
• Communication methods
• Data reporting
• Business Directory 

How Many Members Does Your Club Have?

The number of members your club has will significantly affect the price of the membership management system. More members mean more member data to log, more storage space is taken up and longer software setup time. Therefore, most membership management systems either have member limits on packages or charge more for extra members. 

At Member Jungle, unlike some other companies, we do not have member limits on packages. Instead, we have included members, the number of members you can have on your package for free. If your club exceeds these included members, you can either pay extra for the excess members or upgrade to a different package. This means you will never be forced to upgrade to a more expensive package simply because you have too many members. 

So the first thing you need to do when assessing your club’s needs is to determine how many members your club has. Also, consider at what rate your club is growing so you have some room to grow in your new membership management software. 

Once you have numbers on how many members you have and how many members you estimate you might have in the future, you can start shopping around and working out which companies have the package that fits your club best. 

Do You Have Or Need Multiple Membership Levels

Membership levels are categories or tiers of membership that offer different benefits and privileges based on engagement, commitment, or financial contribution. 

Membership levels can include: 

• Basic/standard
• Premium/enhanced
• Corporate/group 
• Student/youth
• Lifetime membership

By having different membership levels, your club can provide customised offerings and value to members based on their level of involvement. Membership management systems help track member details, benefits, and dues associated with each level.

The more membership levels you have, the more complicated your membership management system will need to be. So, most membership management systems will have limits on the number of membership levels you can have in each package. The more expensive your package, the more membership levels you have. At Member Jungle, our Essentials package has 3 membership levels, the Standard package has 5 membership levels, and the Premium package has 25 membership levels. 

When assessing your club’s needs, you should consider whether you will need membership levels and, if you do, how many you will need.  

What Type Of Club Events Do You Run? 

The next thing you need to consider is what type of events your club runs and how many of them you run. Now almost every single membership management software will have an event management module as a standard with every single one of its packages. Member Jungle is no different; our event management module is a standard part of every package we offer. 

The things you need to consider when it comes to events are what type of events you run and what peripheral things are involved in those events. 

Consider if you have events with: 

• A need for event marketing
• Continued professional development tracking
• Continued medical education tracking
• Courses
• Course or event completion certificates

Membership management software will have features that can help with all of these, but often, they will not be available in the cheapest package, or they will be optional extras. At Member Jungle, for example, we offer an event and course certificate module as an optional extra only. 

What Else Is Important To Your Club?

You should also take the time to consider what other features are important to your club. Do you want your membership management system to be able to help you with marketing, communicating with your members, data reporting, running a business directory, or selling merchandise? Depending on the membership software you are considering, these features may be standard with the cheapest package, be exclusive to more expensive packages or be optional extras. 

Knowing what features are included, where, and how much they cost is incredibly important to work out your overall budget. You can see a full list of how Member Jungle’s features are set up in the Compare Packages section of the Member Jungle Pricing Page. 
 

 

What Should My Club Budget For Membership Management Software Be? 

Now that you have determined what features are essential for your club and understand how membership management software pricing works, the next step is establishing a budget for a membership management system. To do this, consider factors such as user-friendliness, integration capabilities, scalability, customer support, and pricing models. Additionally, consider long-term benefits and potential cost savings, and plan for additional expenses like setup fees, training costs, customisation fees, or future upgrades.

It's worth noting that membership management software can help reduce club expenses in various ways. One of the significant ways is through automatic membership renewals, which saves printing and posting costs. With membership management software, the membership renewals are done digitally, saving you hundreds or thousands of dollars. In addition, most software provides optional digital membership cards, eliminating the need for making and posting new membership cards and saving your club a lot of money.

Membership management software can decrease expenses, and many clubs experience growth and increased revenue after implementing one.

However, it’s essential to remember that revenue increases and cost decreases are not guaranteed. Avoid relying on savings that have yet to happen. With Member Jungle and many other companies, you can implement the new system gradually, which can help space out the financial impact of the initial purchase.

How To Plan Exactly How Much Your Club Should Be Spending On Membership Management Software

Okay, so you’ve figured out what your club needs and how much money you’re willing to pay for membership management software. The next step is to check out different providers’ pricing pages and add up the cost of all the features you need. If your ideal package costs too much, see if there are any features you can live without or which can wait a while to be implemented. 

Once you’ve done that, you should have a membership management system that fits your needs and sits nicely inside your budget.

Start Planning Your Membership Management Software Budget

If you’ve assessed what needs you need the software to cover, it’s time to start checking out the price of your options. You can do this by going to the websites of whichever management software companies you are choosing between. 

If you want to work out how much Member Jungle will cost your club, either go to our Pricing Calculator or read How To Work Out How Much Member Jungle Will Cost Your Club.