Member directory
Covey
Households, multiple emails, custom fields, audit trail
Join It
Member records with avatars, inline editing, custom fields
Covey vs. Join It
Covey vs.
Join It
Lightweight, Mailchimp-and-Stripe-centric membership tool. 4,000+ orgs, $100M processed. Simple, cheap, low ceiling. Here is how Covey compares, where Join It still makes sense, and where it does not.
Choose Covey if
Organizations that have outgrown Join It's thin feature set, that want API access without upgrading to Total, that want a native event cart instead of Eventbrite, and that want to stop stacking service fees on top of Stripe.
Choose Join It if
Very small organizations (under 500 members) already committed to Mailchimp + Stripe + Eventbrite that want the cheapest possible way to add a membership list on top.
01 · At a glance
The numbers, plainly.
CoveyModern platform, built 2026
Join ItLightweight, Mailchimp-and-Stripe-centric membership tool
Founded
2026
2015
Headquarters
Chicago, IL
San Francisco, CA
Ownership
Independent
Independent
Target customer
Associations, nonprofits, chambers, clubs (50–50,000 members)
Small community, cultural, sports, and nonprofit groups (under 500 members) already on Mailchimp + Stripe.
Pricing model
Flat monthly plans, published pricing
Starter $29/mo (3% service fee on transactions, plus Stripe fees). Total $99/mo (2% service fee, plus Stripe fees). Annual prepay discounts available. Nonprofit discounts available.
Free trial
Private beta, early access by request
14-day free trial
Migration
48-hour human-led, included on every plan
Dedicated member-data migration page; CSV import with mapping assistance; no "48h" SLA published
Support model
Human support on every plan
Live chat, phone, and email, same response whether you are on a trial or a paid plan (reviewer consensus)
02 · Feature by feature
Where each one is strong, where each is thin.
Event registration
Covey
Full native event registration with cart and check-in
Join It
Relies on Eventbrite integration; no native cart
Dues & payments
Covey
Recurring, installments, invoicing
Join It
Recurring via Stripe; Join It adds 2–3% service fee
Email & communications
Covey
Built-in composer with gadgets
Join It
Mailchimp integration required; two-way sync is strong
Website builder
Covey
Modern drag-and-drop builder
Join It
No built-in website builder; widget embed on your CMS
Community & forums
Covey
Forums and groups, native
Join It
None
Pricing
Covey
Flat all-in, migration included
Join It
$29 or $99/mo + 2–3% service fees stacked on Stripe
Support
Covey
Human, every plan, US-based
Join It
Chat/phone/email, fast replies, consistent across tiers
03 · Pricing, in real numbers
What you'll actually pay.
Join It's sticker price is low ($29 or $99/mo). The real cost is the 2–3% service fee stacked on top of Stripe fees, plus whatever you pay Mailchimp and Eventbrite to fill the gaps.
Join It pricing tiers
- Starter $29/mo Simple membership 3.0% service fee on transactions + Stripe fees
- Total $99/mo Full feature access 2.0% service fee + Stripe fees; webhooks included
- Starter annual ~$23.20/mo Paid yearly Third-party reported ~20% discount
- Total annual ~$79.20/mo Paid yearly
- Nonprofit discount Varies Apply during signup
From joinit.com/pricing. Service fees apply IN ADDITION to Stripe's ~2.9% + $0.30. At high transaction volumes, total payment cost exceeds most AMS alternatives.
Covey pricing
- Flat monthly plans$59–$999+/moScales by member count, 50 to 50,000+Sign up for the beta to see your organization's price
Every plan includes migration, every feature, and human support. No contact tiers, no implementation fees, no overage surprises. Pricing is flat and predictable.
04 · Year-one total cost
Sticker price isn't total cost.
Join It's headline price is low, but the service fee structure means high-transaction orgs pay more than they realize. At $30k processed you pay about $600 extra in service fees on Total; at $100k that climbs to $2,000.
Budget line
Covey
Join It
Platform subscription (year)
Flat plan (est. $700–$1,500/yr at this size)
$1,188/yr (Total at $99/mo)
Setup / implementation
$0
$0
Migration
$0 (included)
Self-serve CSV with support help
Training & onboarding
Included
Self-serve
Payment processing (est.)
~$900 (Stripe at $30k)
~$900 Stripe + $600 Join It service fee (2%) = ~$1,500
Year-one total
~$1,500–$3,000
~$2,688 (including $600 stacked service fee on Stripe)
At low volumes, platform costs are similar. The Join It service fee on top of Stripe adds up: at $100k processed, that's an extra $2,000/year on Total ($3,000 on Starter).
05 · Integrations
What plugs into what.
Covey connects to
- Payments: Stripe, PayPal, ACH via Stripe
- Accounting: QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop (CSV), Xero
- Email: Native, plus sync to Mailchimp, Constant Contact if you need them
- Calendar: Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal subscribe
- Webhooks / Zapier: Full event stream, 80+ trigger types
- SSO: Google, Apple, SAML on Scale plan
- APIs: Full REST API on Teams plan and above
Join It connects to
- Payments: Stripe (required for payments)
- Email: Mailchimp (two-way native, best-in-class)
- Accounting: QuickBooks
- Events: Eventbrite (integration; no native event cart in Join It)
- Sheets: Google Sheets
- Automation: Webhooks on Total plan only; Zapier not a first-class integration
06 · What users actually say
Real sentiment, not vendor claims.
Join It earns consistent praise for simplicity and the Mailchimp sync. Complaints cluster on the ceiling: limited customization, service fees, and API gated to Total.
What people praise
- "Easily integrates with Mailchimp; mass emailing; membership lists are downloadable" (Capterra)
- "Team has been super supportive and helpful with quick replies" (Capterra)
- "Fantastic asset" for orgs that previously used cash/spreadsheets (Capterra)
What people complain about
- "No API or access to backend in basic edition" — webhooks only on $99 tier (Capterra)
- "Cannot include attachments in a general mass email" (Capterra)
- "Hard-coded link to a web page can not be removed from standard templates" — limited customization (Capterra)
Sources: Capterra reviewer analysis April 2026
07 · If your organization looks like this
Concrete scenarios, clear recommendations.
If you are: A 100-member theater group with Mailchimp already set up and dues of $50/year
Better choice: Join It
Starter plan at $29/mo is the cheapest way to collect dues on top of existing Mailchimp. Native sync works well.
If you are: A 500-member cycling club running 20 events/year
Better choice: Covey
Join It's Eventbrite dependency means every event has its own fees and registration path. Covey's native event cart consolidates registration, dues, and store in one checkout.
If you are: Any org processing more than $50k/year in dues or events
Better choice: Covey
The 2–3% Join It service fee stacks on Stripe. At $100k volume, that's $2,000–$3,000/year that goes to Join It on top of payment processing.
08 · Where Covey is different
Four things that feel different on Covey.
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.
What Join It does well
- 4,000+ organizations, $100M+ processed since 2016 (vendor claim)
- Published, transparent pricing ($29 Starter, $99 Total)
- Native Mailchimp two-way sync is best-in-class
- Very fast to set up for simple membership scenarios
- Support team praised as fast and responsive regardless of tier
Where Join It falls short
- "No API or access to backend in basic edition" — webhooks only on the $99 tier (Capterra)
- Service fees stack on top of Stripe fees (2% on Total plan, 3% on Starter)
- "Cannot include attachments in a general mass email" (Capterra)
- "Hard-coded link cannot be removed from standard templates" — limited customization
- No built-in website builder; depends on external site embeds
- Events depend on Eventbrite integration; no native cart
Switching from Join It?
We'll move
your data for you.
We import members and membership records from Join It. Because most Join It orgs use Mailchimp and Eventbrite alongside, we also pull email templates and event history from those tools during the same migration.
- What transfers: Members, membership types, payment history, Mailchimp list mappings
- What needs rebuilding: Eventbrite-hosted event data (we pull from Eventbrite directly), Mailchimp template HTML (we rebuild in Covey's composer)
- Typical timeline: 48 hours human-led with Covey (Join It migration is self-serve CSV with chat help)
- Cost: Included in every Covey plan
- 01 We pull a full export from Join It
- 02 You review member mapping & level translations
- 03 We stage the whole site for your approval
- 04 Flip DNS when you're ready. We'll be on a call.
09 · Support, when it matters
Who picks up when something goes wrong.
Channel
Covey
Join It
Email
Every plan, same-business-day response
Email support, consistent across tiers
Phone
Every plan, scheduled when you need it
Phone support available
Chat
In-app, business hours
Live chat available even on trial
Community / docs
Public docs, no paywall
Knowledge base
Dedicated success person
Included on Scale; assigned during onboarding on all plans
Not explicitly named; onboarding is self-serve with support chat
10 · Frequently asked
Questions that come up.
Is Covey a good Join It alternative?
Covey is designed specifically for organizations considering a move off Join It. We built a dedicated import that pulls your members, dues history, event records, email templates, documents, and community posts in a single 48-hour engagement with a real human on the other end.
How much does Covey cost compared to Join It?
Covey plans range from $59 to $999+ per month, scaling by member count. Migration is included on every plan. Starter $29/mo (3% service fee on transactions, plus Stripe fees). Total $99/mo (2% service fee, plus Stripe fees). Annual prepay discounts available. Nonprofit discounts available. At most member counts we see (200 to 5,000 members), Covey is competitive with or cheaper than Join It once you factor in migration, implementation fees, and integrations that Join It charges separately.
Can I migrate my data from Join It to Covey?
We import members and membership records from Join It. Because most Join It orgs use Mailchimp and Eventbrite alongside, we also pull email templates and event history from those tools during the same migration.
What are Join It's main weaknesses?
"No API or access to backend in basic edition" — webhooks only on the $99 tier (Capterra) Service fees stack on top of Stripe fees (2% on Total plan, 3% on Starter) "Cannot include attachments in a general mass email" (Capterra)
When would I pick Join It over Covey?
Very small organizations (under 500 members) already committed to Mailchimp + Stripe + Eventbrite that want the cheapest possible way to add a membership list on top.
Does Covey have every feature Join It has?
The workflow surface is equivalent across member management, events, dues, email, website, and community. Join It has more breadth in niche areas accumulated over a decade-plus of product history. Covey is newer and opinionated about how those workflows should feel. If you need a specific Join It feature you rely on daily, ask us before you decide.
Is Covey production-ready?
Covey is in private beta with design-partner organizations. Plans to expand to general availability through 2026. If you need a platform that's live today with a 10-year track record, Join It is more mature. If you're open to a platform built for 2026 with a faster release cadence, Covey is worth a conversation.
Ready when you are
Ready to see Covey side-by-side with Join It?
Join the beta. We will walk you through a live demo with your own data.
Join the betaPrivate beta · No credit card · 48-hour migration from any platform