WildApricot

Pros

Even people with no computer know-how can easily used this app.

Cons

Computer glitches may occur. One need to update the program every now and then to avoid errors in entries.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to WildApricot

Pros

For our organization, Oregon Potters Association, it has helped to solve a number of our problems. For example, not only do we use the platform to get membership dues, we rely heavily on the directory, and well as having a place to get our members to register for upcoming workshops and sales. It really is great!

We are about to connect Quickbooks to our website, which we really think will help us. We have a big pottery show once a year where sometimes 200 + members sign up to participate, it is always complicated on our end- because they pay a down payment to reserve a booth (like $50), and then we need to collect the remainder of the booth fee (like $300) when it gets close to the show ( about 8% cancel so they don't have to pay the remaining fee but we keep the registration fee)- I spent last year adding invoices manually to each participant, because I don't think WA has a way to do split-payments and it was a bloody nightmare! - but Quickbooks integration will surely help us this year, right!?!?! Please tell me it will 🤣

Cons

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do newsletters for non OPA members. It seems that a non-member could sign up for a newsletter, and then their email is in our system, but it kind of gets muddy when we want to only send a newsletter out for our members (member only events, get togethers at peoples houses, etc. ) and public events (come to our big pottery show). I also get confused then, when I see all of the numbers in the system - who is a member and who do we just have their email. We sometimes write grants and we like to share our reach for certain events we do - it would just be nice if it was clearer to separate the members/non members in our system. Maybe there is, and I just haven't quite figured it out.

Pros

The promises we were told that we could use our existing wordpress website with WA handling events, gating content, etc.

Cons

That the onboarding and support reps do not having training on how to set up WA with an existing wordpress website. We've wasted 2+ months with email and chat loops without answers and with support reps that provide conflicting information

Pros

Our whole ski club is run using Wild Apricot. It's a very comprehensive system to broadcast events, track registrants and collect payments. As director I found it extremely helpful to oversee event status, and track sales as they occur.

Cons

Admin access needs to be more granular. Giving someone admin access exposes major parts of the system. Our need is to limit admin access to a specific event or event grouping. Considerable computer experience is necessary to manage the system and our volunteers don't all have the same level required. This puts the system at risk of unintended damage.

Pros

WildApricot provides an excellent platform for the website for our arts and crafts guild. The website development tools are powerful and easy to use and customize. The platform allowed us to build our website ourselves without incurring costs for an outside web developer.

Our organization is membership-based, requiring that all participants in our events and activities be current paid-up members. The Wild Apricot platform ensures that this criteria is met at all times.

Great membership and event management features include customizable membership and registration forms, a helpful mobile app for administrators, easy payment processing, and effective search and reporting tools.

Cons

The main limitation of WildApricot for our organization is the inability for a individual to hold more than one category of membership at a time.

Pros

they promoted ease of use, quality of support, ease of launching and transferring data from last provider. None of those were accurate.

Cons

ease of use, technical support, transfer of data, general user interface

Pros

Most efficient platform. It genuinely supports manhour savings. What takes 100 manhours to achieve, is literally less than 20 manhours to achieve using all features of wild apricot. Imagine an 80% cost savings on manhours!

Cons

Email verification during registration. Unfortunately, some register with an email error. If there were an email verification during registration, it would further save manhours in contacting the registrants to correct email error.

Pros

It allows me to have a secure place to make tickets to a class I teach for injury prevention.

Cons

I wish there was a way to incorporate more admins at no charge and more geared to classes not fund raising.

Pros

I have used wild Apricot to build 4 websites since 2008 and several sites are still issue today.
The User Friendliness in Building a website for a non-developer. The COMPLETE features to include e-mail marketing and SaaS. (Members can join and update their details and register for events.

Cons

Storage space can sometimes limit keeping organizational files in the cloud. I would like to set more udpated plug and play web pages.

Pros

It is generally very easy to use and we have really good success with member use.

Cons

My main issue, and it's a big one for me, is that there is no live support. I just can't accept that there is no way for your company to offer support personel for training or trouble shooting.
The other important thing that could really be useful is the reporting. The options are not great and I find it hard to get data in a way that could be useful for our organization.

Pros

Great and easy software to use. Would recommend to anyone

Cons

I have no complaints about the software

Pros

When we first got the system, it was very comprehensive. We were able to get a trial to set up everything before we went live

Cons

There are two different mail systems/clients. Very fractured. Support is non-existent. There has been zero product improvement, in spite of multiple large price increases.

Pros

One of the things I liked most about Wild Apricot was its user-friendly interface and ease of use. Navigating through the platform and accessing its features was intuitive, making it simple to manage and maintain membership-based organizations. The ability to customize the website and membership portal was a standout feature, allowing for seamless branding and personalization. The event management module was comprehensive and made organizing and tracking events a breeze. Additionally, the integrated email marketing and communication tools were effective in engaging with members.

Cons

While Wild Apricot had many positive aspects, one thing I liked least was the limited flexibility in customizing certain aspects of the platform. There were some design limitations, and advanced customization options required technical expertise or assistance from support. Additionally, the reporting capabilities, while adequate for basic needs, could have been more robust with additional analytics and data visualization options. It would have been beneficial to have more flexibility in tailoring the platform to meet specific organizational requirements.

Pros

The customer support was good as its live chat and email. It facilitated a members only database. There is a mobile app and supports mobile payments.

Cons

It links with Wordpress but has limited other integrations. Does not have advanced social media intergrations.

Pros

A single system for membership, content management, and event planning

Cons

Email systems between membership and events are inconsistent (two separate systems). Difficult to set up, Zero product improvement or enhancements, poor customer support. Very dated GUI

Pros

I absolutely loved setting up this software, I found it very challenging but I do enjoy a challenge.

I migrated out of Associations Online (AO) to WildApricot (WA). I found that using the CSV export of the membership out of AO really easy and the upload in WA simple as well.

The events system is fantastic for Zoom and events that need to have someone at the door checking people in. The admin app for WA is awesome when I'm on the go and just want to see who has checked into an event or who has registered for an event.

Cons

The biggest, and I mean this is a deal-breaker, the site builder is seriously broken and needs a massive update. I have checked about 30 other sites that use WildAprioct and they all look the same. Very Narrow, broken up into blocks of either 1/2/3.

There is a basic function of having a button added but the customization of said button is the link and text. Not the colour or the size. The blogging functionality for the site is very basic which is fine but it would be nice if I could categorize it and allow for displaying the post on other pages so that it isn't locked to the single blog page.

WA integrates with WordPress so I wanted to build a better-looking frontend for my site but the downside is the integration is not in full. You can have the login and some profile migrated over but things like Events, Profile Updates and even administration of membership can only be done in WA. So any changes in the profile can not be done in WordPress as it is only a one-way sync. The plugin for Wordpress is only a SSO for WildApricot.

Finally, the Support/Feature request, WA is probably one of the slower ones for it. It may take years for anything to happen. They update often around the 4th of each month but its never anything that is really useful for the Admin or User. Its usually bugs in the system which is awesome, but I would really like to see some more functionality with the system like the website builder and other integration into online Accounting Packages.

Pros

Wild Apricot offers ECF an opportunity to create, modify and update our online software when needed, allowing our in-house staff to make necessary adjustments without having to spend association funds to hire programmers to complete the tasks.

Cons

There is one item on our "Wish" list that we hope to see in the future. It would be nice to upgrade to a newer version of Excel or Word when exporting information. It's a small thing, but when you are trying to handle multiple lists for conversion to reports, etc., the first move is to save and rename the document based on the compatibility function. On a busy day, it's an added step that's time lost.

A 2nd wish would be for a bit more friendly e-mail design module. It works but can be challenging.

Pros

WA has a great feature set that includes a lot of the functionality we need to completely manage our membership, communication, and payment collection. I especially like that we can have bundle memberships and can create saved searches for email distribution or member management.

Cons

There are occasionally issues with some of the search fields that can only be resolved by logging off and back in. I would like to have group texting capabilities.

Pros

With the baseline requirement for membership management completely fulfilled by Wild Apricot, we have found considerable value in the events management features to manage training courses, and the mass emailing features for communications. Of course, solid invoicing and payment processing are also very important. Overall, the user and administrative experience with Wild Apricot is satisfying and very productive. We built or re-engineered our business processes around the capabilities in Wild Apricot, to a significant degree.

Cons

It takes quite a while to get what look like simple enhancements made to the search and select features within "saved searches". We don't seem to be getting attention, and the enhancements we've requested have been in the queue for over a year. The result of having to wait is that our saved searches are needlessly complex and hard to maintain.

Pros

It offers a large selection of features and can be a one stop shop for membership tools. Although most of the features are not nearly comparable to equivalent stand-alone services, they are functional.

Cons

Customer support has been quite poor. They dropped telephone support in the last year and did not provide any guidance or assistance to us when they forced a payment system change that affected our members.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to WildApricot

Pros

Our agency hosts many repeated events not only multiple times during the school year but that also repeat year after year. The ease with which events can be duplicated and edited for specific dates allows staff to set up a year's worth of events in just a few hours.

Cons

We have many users creating events and Wild Apricot has only one events manager. We do have a very talented group but there is still a bit of nervousness since events are unable to be compartmentalized by a user or a department. PayPal payments are collected into one bank account and have to be parsed out after receipt by registrant as to which account the funds need to be deposited. We would like to have payments tied to department accounts for each event and pass that info through PayPal to our Fiscal Department.

Pros

The main reason we went with Wild Apricot was for the membership database. It is great to be able to keep track of all members, and be able to search by category.

Cons

would love a more step-by-step process for setting up the webpages. This is not my area of comfort

Pros

Easy, quick, and efficient transition over to Wild Apricot from other website types such as WordPress, Weebly, and other member platforms. Excellent for small to mid-size organizations to consolidate all needed features and tracking/reporting in one place.

Cons

The only weakness is the choice of new "themes" to help speed up a new website. You can certainly do almost anything you want with the templates... but the ready-made themes make it so much better (and easier). Just need to keep the sample themes up-to-date and competitive with WordPress... so the organizations are happy with the basic choices available when they are deciding to move to Wild Apricot.

Pros

We are able to use PayPal and Stripe- we had recurring payments set up- easy to use those vendors/

Cons

We are able to use PayPal and Stripe. Now WA want to charge us 20% more a month unless we switch to THEIR preferred vendor. We have auto renew and this will cause us to lose members, and we do not like the format of their vendor. We were given LESS than 60 days notice and basically told " it;s our way or Tuff" Thousand of small non profits are effected. this really stinks.. DON'T USE WA! Terrible customer service