c/01
Annual, seasonal, and drop-in memberships
Clubs run on multiple membership types. Look for support for annual, seasonal (winter/summer), trial, drop-in, and family memberships out of the box.
Buyer's guide · 2026
Club management software
Club management software is a platform for hobby clubs, sports clubs, social clubs, and societies to manage members, collect dues, run events, and support community without duct-taping multiple tools together.
Clubs have been underserved by enterprise AMS tools and over-served by generic tools that do not understand what clubs actually do. Here is a buyer's guide aimed at the treasurer and the secretary who run most clubs.
01 · Evaluation criteria
What to look for.
c/02
Event series and recurring classes
Weekly rides, practices, or classes should be registrable as a series. Members sign up for the whole season in one click.
c/03
Member directory members actually use
Searchable, with opt-in privacy, shown on mobile without rendering problems. Most legacy club tools fail the mobile test.
c/04
Treasurer-friendly finances
Dues, events, pro-shop, and donations on one reconciled ledger. Monthly reports that print cleanly for board meetings.
c/05
A forum or community that looks like 2026
Threaded discussions, email reply-in, private groups. If the forum looks like a vBulletin install from 2008, members will not post.
c/06
Pricing that fits a club budget
Under $100/month for small clubs. No per-member fees that spike when a club has a good recruiting year.
02 · Buying questions
Questions you should be asking.
What's the best club management software?
For hobby and recreational clubs: Covey, ClubExpress, Wild Apricot. For sports clubs: TeamSnap, SportsEngine, Covey. For yacht clubs: ClubRunner, Covey, custom. Evaluate based on the specific workflows your club runs most often.
How much does club management software cost?
Small clubs (under 200 members): $29 to $100/month. Mid-sized clubs (200 to 1,000): $100 to $300/month. Large clubs: $300 to $800/month. Beware per-member pricing that can escalate quickly.
Do I need club management software for a 50-person club?
Yes, usually. The hours a treasurer spends on manual dues collection, renewal reminders, and event sign-ups exceed the subscription cost after the first month.
Can club management software handle a clubhouse or facility?
Yes. Facility reservations, court/court booking, and pro shop orders are available in tools like Covey, ClubRunner, and some ClubExpress tiers.
03 · Tools to evaluate
4 platforms, side by side.
Covey
ClubExpress
Wild Apricot
Join It
Pricing
$59–$999+/mo flat
$30 to $250+/mo
$66 to $720+/mo
$29 to $99+/mo
Migration
48h human-led, included
Wide-ranging ClubExpress export tooling covers members, dues history, event records, email templates, documents, and forum posts.
We've built a dedicated Wild Apricot import.
We import members and membership records from Join It.
Free trial
Private beta
Free 60-day trial
30-day free trial
14-day free trial
Best for
Orgs that want considered design + fast migration
Clubs and associations 25–25,000 members: car clubs, cycling clubs, yacht/sailing clubs, HOAs, professional societies, civic groups.
Small-to-mid associations, nonprofits, clubs, and chambers with 50 to 2,000 contacts.
Small community, cultural, sports, and nonprofit groups (under 500 members) already on Mailchimp + Stripe.
04 · Where Covey fits
We built Covey for this.
Covey is built for organizations in the club management software category that want four things at once: a considered interface, transparent pricing, a 48-hour migration, and human support on every plan. If those four things matter to you, Covey is worth a demo. If you need something else (a specific vertical module, an enterprise-scale implementation, a particular integration), we will tell you and point you somewhere that fits.
Considered interface
Legacy membership platforms feel like they were designed in 2008. Covey is built by a small team that treats typography, spacing, and the quiet details as the product.
48-hour human migration
A real human pulls your members, levels, events, payment history, email templates, and posts from your existing platform. You're live on Covey inside 48 hours, not six weeks.
100% human support, every plan
No support tiers, no ticket queues that take four business days. Every plan includes a real person answering your questions, often the same person who wrote the feature.
Pricing you can read
One page, plain numbers, no 'contact sales.' The price you see is the price you pay. Migration is included, onboarding is included, support is included.
Ready when you are
Shopping club management software? Start your Covey evaluation.
Join the betaPrivate beta · No credit card · 48-hour migration from any platform