GatherAMS vs Wild Apricot: the Wild Apricot alternative, priced honestly
The default for small clubs and volunteer-run groups, and the product most GatherAMS applicants are leaving.
A small group that wants a website and a membership list from the same vendor, and is happy to use the payment processor that comes with it.
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.
- Subscription, yearly
- $1,068
- Payment markup
- None
- Card processing
- $1,740
Processing is Stripe’s own 2.9% + 30¢, billed to you by Stripe. We add nothing to it.
- Subscription, yearly
- $1,440
- 20% servicing fee
- $288
- Card processing
- $1,740
Processing assumed at the same 2.9% — they do not resell it either. Plus your payment processor's own rate, on top of the subscription.
Wild Apricot charges a Payment System Servicing Fee of 20% of your subscription — charged to organizations in the US and Canada that take online payments through anything other than WildApricot Payments / AffiniPay. On the numbers above that is $288 a year for the privilege of using your own payment processor. The only way to avoid it is using their own payment processor instead of yours.
To be precise about it: the fee is a percentage of what you pay Wild Apricot, not a cut of what your members pay you. GatherAMS charges nothing either way — bring any processor you like. Wild Apricot help centre →
Wild Apricot pricing as widely reported; they do not publish a full price list, checked July 2026.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: Wild Apricot pricing, Payment System Servicing Fee.
Where the two genuinely differ
Adds 20% to your subscription — their Payment System Servicing Fee — for organizations in the US and Canada.
Costs nothing. Your Stripe account, your negotiated rate, no application fee at any volume.
Available, but repeatedly named in reviews as the weak spot on larger lists.
Saved segments from day one, built from stacked filters, targeted directly by email and event invitations.
Strong site builder — but it wants to be your website, which means a rebuild.
Embeds into the site you already have. WordPress, Squarespace or plain HTML, one line each.
Built around individual members; businesses and homes are a workaround.
Company memberships and unit records are first-class, so chambers and HOAs are not bending the software.
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; 35 are in Wild Apricot. 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 Wild Apricot 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 Wild Apricot: the one-page checklist
What to export, in what order, and what breaks. Most small organizations complete the move in an afternoon; this is the afternoon, written down.
Admin view → Contacts → Export, choosing all fields — including membership level, renewal date, member since, and your custom fields. Export to Excel, not the simplified CSV, so nothing is silently dropped.
Finances → Payments and Finances → Invoices each export on their own. Do this even if you only plan to import balances — it is the record your treasurer will be asked for in three years.
Wild Apricot exports registrants event by event. Pull the last two years; older attendance is rarely worth the hour it costs.
Renewal policies, bundle (household) settings and level prices do not export at all — they live only in settings screens. Screenshot each level before your access ends.
Your email templates and any Wild Apricot–hosted website pages do not come across — plan to rebuild the handful you actually use. Saved cards never transfer between processors (that is a card-network rule, not a vendor one): members re-save a card at their first renewal on the new system.
The GatherAMS importer reads Wild Apricot's export format — levels, renewal dates, payment history, custom fields — and runs against a sandbox copy first, with your original file kept intact for 90 days. Cancel Wild Apricot only after the dry run reconciles.
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.
Wild Apricot questions, answered straight
How does Wild Apricot handle payment processing, and what does the 20% fee actually cost?
Wild Apricot charges a Payment System Servicing Fee of 20% of your subscription to organizations in the US and Canada that take online payments through anything other than WildApricot Payments / AffiniPay — so keeping your own processor costs you a fifth of the subscription again, every month. On the reported ladder that is $13.20/month on the 100-contact plan at $66, $24/month on the 500-contact plan at $120, and $48/month on the 5,000-contact plan at $240 — $158, $288 and $576 a year, on top of whatever your processor charges. GatherAMS adds 0% at any volume: the money lands in your own Stripe account at your own rate, and there is no application fee anywhere in the platform.
How does Wild Apricot handle member dues and automated renewals for a small club?
Wild Apricot bills membership levels on the anniversary with renewal reminders and optional auto-renewal, which is the part it does well and the reason it is the default for volunteer-run groups. GatherAMS runs the same cycle — level-based invoices, reminders at 30, 7 and 1 days, autopay, and late fees on a schedule you set — with two differences that matter to a club: households can sit on one renewal with two adults on the record, and the payment goes to your own processor with nothing added.
What does Wild Apricot cost?
Wild Apricot publishes $66/month for its 100-contact plan; the wider ladder is widely reported at roughly $80/month for 250 contacts up to $350/month for 50,000, before discounts for prepay. Organizations in the US and Canada that use a payment processor other than WildApricot Payments/AffiniPay also pay a Payment System Servicing Fee of 20% of their subscription price, per Wild Apricot's own help centre.
What is Wild Apricot's 20% fee, exactly?
It is 20% of your subscription — not of your payment volume — charged when a US or Canadian organization takes online payments through anything other than WildApricot Payments/AffiniPay. On a $120/month plan that is $288 a year for the privilege of keeping your own processor. GatherAMS charges nothing either way: your Stripe account, your rate, no application fee.
What is the best Wild Apricot alternative?
It depends on what is driving the move. If it is the payment surcharge, weak tagging on larger lists, or being forced onto their website builder, GatherAMS was built against exactly those complaints — segments from day one, embeds for the site you already have, and 0% payment markup. If you want website building and membership from one vendor and are happy on their processor, Wild Apricot remains a reasonable choice, and we say so.
How hard is it to switch from Wild Apricot?
The GatherAMS importer reads Wild Apricot's export format — contacts, membership levels, payment history, event registrations and custom fields — with a dry run against a sandbox copy before you commit, and your original export kept intact for 90 days. Most small organizations complete the move in an afternoon.
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.