GatherAMS vs Novi AMS: the Novi AMS alternative, priced honestly
Purpose-built for trade associations, and genuinely good at the accounting side — its two-way QuickBooks sync is the reason people choose it.
A trade association with a bookkeeper who wants membership and QuickBooks kept in lockstep automatically, and a budget that starts in four figures a month.
What each one costs you
Put in your own numbers. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs in your browser.
Everyone in the database — what our plans are counted in.
Dues, tickets and donations taken by card in a year. Novi AMS bands its plans on this.
- Subscription, yearly
- $1,068
- Payment markup
- None
- Card processing
- $21,750
Processing is Stripe’s own 2.9% + 30¢, billed to you by Stripe. We add nothing to it.
- Subscription, yearly
- $15,420
- Card processing
- $21,750
Processing assumed at the same 2.9% — they do not resell it either. Plus a one-time implementation fee, reported between $2,000 and $20,000.
Novi AMS pricing as widely reported; they do not publish a full price list, checked July 2026. Our own price is exact. Card processing figures are estimates from published rates, not quotes, and your negotiated rate may differ. Sources: Novi AMS, Novi AMS profile & pricing.
Where the two genuinely differ
A real two-way sync, and it is their strongest feature. It also requires a QuickBooks Online subscription.
A reconciliation-ready export your treasurer reviews before anything posts. Deliberately one-way — a sync that writes to your books can corrupt the one record you cannot reconstruct.
A four-figure monthly plan banded by your revenue, plus an implementation fee.
$45 to $329 a month by contact count, no implementation fee, and no charge for support.
Trade associations specifically. That focus is why it is good.
Clubs, chambers, trade associations and HOAs, each with its own vocabulary and setup rather than one model bent four ways.
No free trial, and an implementation project before you are live.
A live demo you can open with an email address, and 30 days free once approved.
The console the comparison is about — a live demo account with real records, not a mock-up. Open it yourself below.
Feature by feature
46 of these 59 capabilities are live in GatherAMS today; 30 are in Novi AMS. Where a line does not apply to a product it is marked with a dash rather than counted against it.
Members & contacts
Events & scheduling
Website & public pages
Communications
Payments, billing & accounting
Compliance & governance
Mobile
Reporting & analytics
Integrations & API
Platform & security
Capability marks for Novi AMS reflect published material and product documentation as of July 2026. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Switching from Novi AMS: the one-page checklist
Novi AMS lives in lockstep with QuickBooks Online, so a clean exit is mostly an accounting exercise. Take it in this order and nothing is lost.
Company records and the individuals under them export separately — take both, plus committee memberships and any custom fields, so the parent-child structure can be rebuilt.
Novi's sync means QuickBooks is the financial record. Close and reconcile the current period first; the clean QBO ledger is what you keep forever, whatever software you run next.
Anything unpaid at cutover needs to be re-raised on the new system or collected on the old one. A one-page list of open balances, agreed with your bookkeeper, prevents double-billing during the switch.
Registration lists and any continuing-education credits export per event. CE balances matter most — members will ask for them at license renewal, long after your Novi access ends.
GatherAMS deliberately replaces the two-way QuickBooks sync with a reconciliation-ready export your treasurer reviews before posting. If the automatic sync is the thing your bookkeeper loves most, weigh that honestly — our comparison page says when Novi is the better choice.
Companies with named staff, individual members, tiers and payment history import with a dry run first and a 90-day hold on your original files. Most associations complete the move inside a week of evenings.
We will email you the 6 steps so they are beside you while you export. One field, and it is the same text you can already read above.
Novi AMS questions, answered straight
How does Novi AMS handle member dues processing and automated renewals for associations?
Novi bills membership dues against company records and posts each invoice and payment into QuickBooks Online through its two-way sync, so the receivable and the membership record move together — that sync is the reason most associations choose it, and it requires a QuickBooks Online subscription. Renewals run on the anniversary with reminders ahead of the date. GatherAMS does the same dues and renewal work — invoices, automatic reminders, autopay, late fees on a schedule you set — but reconciles by export rather than by live sync: a numbered, account-coded file your treasurer reviews before it posts. Both collect on your own payment processor; GatherAMS adds 0% on top, at $89–$329/month with no implementation fee against Novi's reported $829–$3,622/month plus $2,000–$20,000 to implement.
How much does it cost to move a trade association from Novi AMS to GatherAMS?
The subscription difference is the whole of it. There is no implementation fee, no onboarding engagement and no charge for support or data export, so the cost of moving is your own time. Export your members with every field, your invoice and payment history as separate files, and your event history; the importer reads the column names most exports emit without you mapping anything. What you give up is the live QuickBooks sync — you would be reconciling from an export instead, which is the honest trade and the reason some associations should not move.
What does Novi AMS cost?
Novi AMS does not publish prices. Its plans are widely reported to run from about $829/month to $3,622/month banded by association revenue, plus a one-time implementation fee reported between $2,000 and $20,000, plus the QuickBooks Online subscription it requires. GatherAMS runs $89–$329/month with no implementation fee.
Is there a Novi AMS alternative that doesn't require QuickBooks?
Yes — GatherAMS works with or without QuickBooks. Instead of Novi's two-way sync it produces a reconciliation-ready export with sequential invoice numbers and account codes that your treasurer reviews before it posts. That is a deliberate design choice: an unattended sync can corrupt books, an export cannot.
Novi AMS vs Wild Apricot — which fits a trade association?
They sit at opposite ends: Wild Apricot is priced for volunteer-run groups but is built around individual members, while Novi is purpose-built for trade associations with company records and deep QuickBooks accounting at a four-figure monthly price. GatherAMS sits between them — company and individual membership, CE tracking and elections, at $89–$329/month.
When is Novi AMS the better choice?
When your association has a bookkeeper who lives in QuickBooks Online and wants membership and the ledger in automatic lockstep, and the budget supports a four-figure monthly subscription plus implementation. Novi's sync is genuinely its strongest feature, and for that specific need it beats our export-and-review model.
Do not take our word for any of this
Open a live demo and check the claims yourself. An email address, no card, no call.
The other comparisons
Same shape, same sourcing: their published prices, ours exact, and the part where they suit you better than we do.