Wild Apricot reviews

Best solution for small to medium sized associations

Opmerkingen: WildApricot is an excellent solution for managing association memberships and websites. The solution includes basic eCommerce and the ability to build a website with the Wild Apricot CMS - you can also connect easily to other website tools. Members love the easy of managing their own profiles and the other features for member communications.

Pluspunten:

Easy of use, ability to customize the member database easily and the integrated content management system for a professional website.

Minpunten:

The software does not allow you to determine the membership ID within he system. This creates a challenge for any organization that already has a member number schema.

Cost Effective Website and Database

Opmerkingen: Overall Wild Apricot is a great tool for associations and/or others who need to process dues payments, event registrations and keep up with your clients.

Pluspunten:

Wild Apricot makes it easy to process registrations for events, dues payments and store purchases in addition to being a website. It is very easy to use. There are user groups that you can join to get help from other users. Also, it is very easy to create a manual invoice for things that I might need a product for or a registration. There is also an app for administrators which is super convenient when to try to look up open invoices, etc. when away from the office.

Minpunten:

There are several features that should be available that are not. First and foremost there should be the availability within in the software to create a pdf and email it to contacts. The store does not appear to be integrated with the mail database and there are not a lot of reports. When I have orders from my store I have to constantly watch for duplicates. There is also not an email report to run that will search for possible duplicates in the system.

Wild Apricot for Non-Profits

Pluspunten:

The best thing is that it is an all-in-one software. So with the backend management system you have a web-site sitting on top of it. It makes everything super simple for us to only have to use one main software.

Minpunten:

Honestly, nothing. It does take a bit of time to figure it all out and their are limitations of it in terms of website design. But from what you pay for it is a solid software.

No customer service

Pluspunten:

Comprehensive membership management and membership data.

Minpunten:

no customer service. I am locked out of our web site and WA does nopt answer.

No major surprises - works as advertised.

Opmerkingen: Our society and its business processes and information management had grown without design, ending up a spreadsheet-driven beast with disjoint systems.Wild Apricot has allowed us to bring that all together with a single system, with clear business rules and a simple web user interface for admins and members.Yes there are bugs and limitations but no show stoppers for us.

Pluspunten:

Member management and communications is good.Event management is good.Support is good.

Minpunten:

Financial management needs work - only shows income not expenditure so no P&L view.Some permissions for admins need to be more fine-grained (e.g. FOH in event management with the app.)The contact-based pricing hurts organisations like us... the value is in our 300 members, the cost is in our 1000 other contacts.

Use with Multiple Organizations - A True Advocate

Opmerkingen: Eight years ago I went through a selection process and chose Wild Apricot and then implemented it. A HUGE step up from disparate systems on Excel, a separate website, and email. This year I led the selection and implantation process for a different organization and Wild Apricot came out on top again. Processing a new member went from one hour to minutes. Renewals from 30 minutes to zero. Sending out emails used to be a huge process. Now it's simple.
One thing I've noticed is that Wild Apricot continues to add and improve features. The website builder has gotten easier to use. And adding responsive themes and an easy-to-implement app is a huge plus.

Pluspunten:

Integrated features for membership management, communications, event management, and website development. Great coaching services during implementation and then support after.

Minpunten:

Nothing that would stop me from selecting it again. Some of the newer features like polls can use some development, and formatting is sometimes challenging. But the tradeoff for a fully integrated system is well worth it.

Repeat Customer

Opmerkingen: I have set up numerous associations with this software and still manage the website for 2. It is logical and has all of the necessary features (which are many). I know I can teach it to others and walk away when I am tired of volunteering as Web Master.

Pluspunten:

Wild Apricot is a full-feature membership management program. It handles every problem I have encountered since I stated using it in 2014. It has steady grown more powerful and they have developed solutions to almost every issue.

Minpunten:

It is sometimes easy to skip a step in the financial part of the software, and cause trouble later - such as not settling a payment before voiding an invoice. It works great if you know what you are doing, but you use one of the functions rarely, it is important to review the steps carefully.

Best Bang For Your Buck

Opmerkingen: Wild Apricot allows us to schedule classes, have members enroll in activities, and hosts our web site simply.

Pluspunten:

It's universality, it works well on every device, giving us instant functionality. I can find members, schedule events and make adjustments instantly, anywhere.

Minpunten:

Sometimes I get lost doing certain operations.

Friendly Website Design and Membership Management System

Opmerkingen: With Wild Apricot's assistance, we are able to easily add new events and maintain our website current with our ever-evolving needs. In addition to keeping tabs on emails and contacts. All of the personnel and volunteers of the several non-profit trade associations we oversee are constantly busy. Making a living in this industry is exciting and challenging, and there is never a dull moment.

Pluspunten:

I appreciate not having to ask anyone else to help me run the website or set up events. If you have a basic understanding of computers, you should have no trouble getting about. You can customize your page and report generation in a number of ways.

Minpunten:

When I have a question about how to use the site, I wish I could talk to a real person. It would be fantastic if there was a real assistance line.

Best for organisations in North America

Pluspunten:

Wild Apricot is a fully featured membership platform covering both the back office administration as well as member-facing website/portal. It would be a solid choice for an organisation that is willing to fully adopt the "Wild Apricot way", i.e. working in the way the system works rather than trying to do anything unique.

Minpunten:

Wild Apricot is from North America. This means many of the settings are geared towards organisations based in the US/Canada. Customers elsewhere (e.g. UK) may find certain important features don't exist, or are slow to be offered. Examples would be Gift Aid on donations and BACS Direct Debit.

Expensive Means of Driving Yourself Nuts

Opmerkingen: Wild Apricot is difficult to use, to the point where one membership coordinator refused to use it and another is bravely struggling through, but it's been hard. Newsletters are clunky to put together and never come out looking quite like they looked in preview mode. Duplicated members are hard to find. Overall the system is unintuitive and difficult to use.

Pluspunten:

Wild Apricot provides a great deal of hope that you've finally found the magic solution that will do it all. Event RSVPs work well.

Minpunten:

We were unable to successfully add Wild Apricot widgets to our website (which was not hosted on Wild Apricot's system). I contacted support multiple times and even they couldn't figure out how to fix it. So one of the chief reasons we wanted to use Wild Apricot (so that people could become members online through our website) never worked.

Excellent Management System for All My Needs

Opmerkingen: I began using WA in 2011 for a non-profit managing 90 volunteers and various events and fundraisers. Since then, I have created WA accounts for 3 other non-profits of similar size AND, as of 2017, also created a WA software account to manage my professional association of 1,000 members with great success. I am a huge advocate for Wild Apricot software and how is can effectively manage members/volunteers and manage events/fundraisers/conferences while being a user-friendly, professional platform to market my organizations.

Pluspunten:

The simplicity yet robust nature of this software is awesome. The user-friendly setups and ease-of-use make it an effective tool to help manage various facets of the organization. Many screens are at-a-glance summary overviews while others provide sufficient detail to meet a variety of needs. Many of my volunteers are elderly and they can navigate the system just as ease as a techny-teenager. The system is user-friendly enough that, if you are in it every day, it is not cumbersome and, if you are an infrequent user, it is quite intuitive.

Minpunten:

While I like many things about the software, I only wish there was a way to (1) track volunteer hours within member profiles and (2) have the ability to use more than one payment system (I have a 501c3 and 501c4 organization with different financial needs) so I wish I could manage both within the same software system. So, those are big wish list items that I hope come along in the future but so far those are manageable through other less than ideal means. Otherwise, on a daily basis, there is very little I have issue with within the software.

Excellent Full Feature CRM, Event Management and Website platform

Opmerkingen: Prior to using Wild Apricot, we had a custom-built CRM and Website with a separate payment system for events. We wanted to change the look and feel of our website but it would have been expensive to have a company rebuild it. We switched to Wild Apricot and have since had two website refreshes using different templates. Prior to WA there was a lot of backend reconciling of events, payments, etc which only our [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was able to do. Now WA takes care of it all seamlessly which means we don't have to rely on the knowledge of one person to keep everything working.

Pluspunten:

I like how easy it is to keep a consistent looking website using the themes.

Minpunten:

I don't like that you don't charge in local currency. It is very had for non-profits to budget when the cost varies so much based on the US dollar. I also don't like that you can not easily change the default theme colours for a theme so that they show up at the top of the selection box. Instead, we have to constantly use the hex codes for any text etc that doesn't pick up the theme colours automatically instead of picking one of the theme colours because they remain the colours of the original theme.

Wild Apricot has everything a non-profit needs

Pluspunten:

I was the Secretary for my Chapters well known organization. The Secretarial duties are vast and important to the life of the organization. Wild Apricot appears to have everything a non-profit organization needs. It allows me to do all of the required things necessary. The membership database allows for custom as well as preset categories with specified access. I can keep track of membership categories, addresses, dues due, and Quick books is a part of the application. Reports can be easily generated using the information entered into the database. My favorites are the communication sections. I can announce events that all members can quickly view, be registered for or wait listed. Reminders can also be sent to all members or those specified. Payments can be taken and recorded, invoices and receipts sent. The confirmation emails are customized and can be personalized. Documents that need to be shared can also be done. I find that Wild Apricot can complete all necessary duties assigned to an organization. While all officers can have premium access to all documents, reports and finances 24/7, it also allows for all shades of transparency to members while keeping confidential information secure. I haven't run across any application as thorough as Wild Apricot. I've only used the application a few days as they allow a 30 day trial to try it out and show off their goods to potential users.

Minpunten:

My only concern is that the way in which things are laid out aren't as intuitive as I would have liked. I would rather have an illustrated manual on the dashboard for when a new user signs in. There is a quick 4 minute video guide that I may find usable later on the opening page. But its definitely not a deal breaker for me.

Great product but not for everybody

Opmerkingen: Biggest impact has been the reduction in paper processing for membership applications and renewals, and for tracking event registrations and financial results.

Pluspunten:

We are the oldest ski club in the USA, and run hundreds of events each year, including over 20 high-dollar flight trips. WA has excellent features for setting up and managing events. The membership management software is also first-rate.

Minpunten:

WA recently implemented an in-house credit card processing feature. Soon afterwards they started charging a 20% processing surcharge for those who do NOT subscribe to their product. Their processing fees are higher than what we are paying with a very large merchant provider, so we don't want to switch. We are waiting for the "other shoe to drop" when WA will drop support for 3rd-party payment processors.

Great Service, no hidden costs and love the database

Opmerkingen: Have been with 3 other companies who promised great things for membership-based software and under-delivered. WA's response time for customer service is faster than any of the other 3. Sometimes takes several tries, but with stay with it and the issue is usually solved. Rather than promising many items before the contract is signed, then revealing that you get rudimentary versions and have to pay for the more robust item that you really need, WA is up front with what you get. They accurately answer questions about this type of issue before you sign on with them. They also have a free version limited to a small number of members, which can let you try everything before you totally commit to a fee-based version for a larger organization with more members. The database is faster than any other we have used. They allow a LOT of fields rather than limiting you to an extra 10 or 29 beyond the basic ones needed for a members-only database. As a result we have been able, for the first time, to keep track online of members, contacts, past members, exhibitors, donors, etc., all online without the need for separate offline databases for some of them. With other companies the limited fields means we could do a lot with members records, but could not adequately add or change anything enough to keep track of advertisers, sponsors, exhibitors for our conference, and had problems with trying to identify prospects for members or to track those who dropped their membership. There are a few areas that still are lacking. We currently use Joomla for content management, and find the Joomla templates, content categorizing, and methods of limiting access to be more useful than WA. There needs to be at least one responsive template, since a large number of our members have become more dependent on tablets and phones for their internet content. The report system gives a nice online report, but results are not printable and when downloaded, give you a spreadsheet including every single field in each record rather than the single items you were looking for in the report. WA makes upgrades about twice a year, usually incorporating the most requested improvements. They also make other smaller upgrades in between the main ones. If you can't wait, tweaks are available for a fee through a third party which is familiar with the WA environment. They are the only organization out there who makes me feel that they really DO care about what a non-profit organization might want.

Bringing our rowing club into the 21st century!

Opmerkingen: I was asked to "freshen up" the appearance of our club's static HTML website. I conducted user interviews, during which a lengthy list of wished-for functionality emerged, way beyond the site's appearance. The Board and our members wanted an online implementation for the following: up-to-date member directory; a wide range of membership "types" (scullers, sweep rowers, coxes, paddlers, kayakers, dragon boaters...); automated processing of membership applications and renewals; credit card payments; event scheduling; calendaring; email blasts; donations; and on and on. My research into available options within our limited budget yielded one clear winner: WildApricot. The Board agreed, I ported (and freshened up) the existing website content, and implemented all those requested features. The process was easy and straightforward. The WildApricot online help system is terrific, and the technical assistance is always timely and spot on. We have been using WildApricot for about five years now, and it continues to serve us very well.

Pluspunten:

Rich funtionality; ease of implementation; terrific customer support

Minpunten:

Complexity of handling our multiple member "types" (but at least we can handle them!); complexity of analyzing financial data

Don't expect improvements.

Pluspunten:

I will have to think on this one. I guess - the price BUT, you get what you pay for.

Minpunten:

Web page builder is not intuitive, lack of new features, poor customer service, no response to any of the registration action items that have been requested for YEARS. I could go on for quite a long time. We have used it for four years now and our team has had enough. I sent an email to them and it took WEEKS for them to respond. They have never made ANY upgrades to the software that are noticeable to the users in the four years we have used the product. They focus all their time on creating content to tell me how to run my organization as opposed to improving their product. They recently sent out a survey requesting feedback which I provided. I told them all the things I am writing now. Their response? No feature improvements but they are raising their prices! We are moving on. Unless you are seriously strapped for money, look elsewhere.

An inexpensive, easy-to-use, ever-growing association/member management software solution

Opmerkingen: I have used other software to manage our association's membership, and Wild Apricot is far ahead of the curve as far as functionality, customization, and ease of use. But probably the best feature is Wild Apricot's team of wonderful customer-focused developers and support personnel who respond quickly, efficiently, and reliably to all support requests...at no extra charge!

Pluspunten:

Wild Apricot's team is extremely customer service savvy and quick to respond to problems (of which there have been very few). They also are always making product enhancements (on nearly a monthly basis) based upon their customers'/users' requests, suggestions, recommendations, and needs. The functionality is as simple or as complex as needed, based upon the size, structure, and budget of an organization. Online registration has made keeping track of events a breeze; although we have not yet instituted online payment, several options are available. Automatic reminders of membership renewals are easily programmed and customized, as well as event reminders; membership blast e-mails; opt-out feature; advanced search and filtering of member records; back-end administration rights can be customized; importing and exporting records; viewing and editing member records and privacy settings; CSS and Javascript customization; saved e-mail drafts. Pricing is based upon number of active records.

Minpunten:

I have very few complaints. I have requested several features that have been incorporated into the software's functionality. I have made a request that is in the queue for consideration: because our association is for public relations professionals, we have a lot of news, and it would be nice to be able to set news posting dates and archiving dates with individual articles with a library of past news stories. The WYSIWYG formatting for pages is a little clunky, but there is a wealth of documentation for customizing pages as well as support materials.

I have been with Wild Apricot for 2 years now, all I can say is THANK YOU!

Opmerkingen: As a small non-profit and an all volunteer board, we do not have the capability to run our membership sign ups and training registrations, by hand. We now have automated payments, registrations, renewals and are able to communicate in an instant with our membership. It is also very nice to have all of this with a user-friendly website in one place!

Pluspunten:

As a small non-profit, this software has made organizing and communicating with our membership SO much easier. Membership is now automatic and registering for our events is easy for our guests and much less work for us. The website is easy to manage, and our financials are much more organized. I think what I like the most about this company is that they are CONSTANTLY improving according to a "wish list". It is very obvious that they care about their customers (US!) and continually work hard to improve. I love Wild Apricot!

Minpunten:

The software is missing just a few things that would be great for us personally, but with 1000's of wishes, I understand that not all of mine will be granted :) As far as function, I have no complaints.

Impact SA implementation of membership management software

Opmerkingen: Our implementation of Wild Apricot was very positive as our lists and fields easily transferred into Wild Apricot. Setting the membership levels was a challenge as we discovered that our different payment options created separate membership levels. If we could have simply set up four levels with different payment options it would be much simpler for our members. Wild Apricot support has been fantastic. Allowing our members to update their information and having members input their own information upon joining for the first time has saved us hours of manual put (both initially and going back to correct errors). One of the drawbacks of Wild Apricot for us is the inability to set up specific payment plans, while it is possible to set up recurring payments we must track the number of payments and turn off the renewal date once the required payment has been reached. Bundle memberships has also been a bit of a challenge as all the payment is required in order to set up the membership. We have created a way around by entering partial payments as a different membership level and moving them into the bundle membership once the required payment is accumulated. The inability to receive regrets for events has also been a bit of a drawback. Performing searches in Wild Apricot is one of it's strongest features. Searches may be saved and used for future needs. It is possible to search by every field that has been set up. Event are also easy to set up and track. The integration with our financial partner and square has also been very possible. Although, the integration with Square seems to be in the initial stages and not fully integrated with Wild Apricot.

Pluspunten:

Searches, ability to edit fields and event creation and tracking.

Minpunten:

No ability to set up specific payment plans (i.e. 5 payments, 4 payments). No option to send regrets for an event.

Good prior to December takeover by new management

Opmerkingen: Do not be fooled by the old positive reviews. In the past the software was great when it was a young, vibrant, independent company full of people who had a passion of helping non-profits. With the acquisition by Personify, and then the buyout of Personify by a private equity firm in December 2018 things have drastically changed quickly. The most recent change to force a 20% price increase on users was met with extreme frustration by the user base, but yet fell on deaf ears of the new management team. Buyer beware that what you buy into will not be what you have in the future.

Pluspunten:

The software has a good integration of features, but those features are fast becoming dated with limited to no upgrades.

Minpunten:

With the acquisition by a private equity firm, the company has totally changed. Price increases are frequent with very limited time for a no-profit to adjust budgets. They force you to use their in-house payment processor or face very stiff price penalties (20%). Their in-house processor has many shortfalls and simply will no work for certain non-profits.

Everyone professes to be the best, while Wild Apricot is supreme of all the rest

Opmerkingen: Efficiency times a 1,000 plus effectiveness times 1,000

Pluspunten:

The primary focus is tracking members and personalizing them. This is made possible with the back end user field creation. It is simple, user friendly and improves strategies on what to create, track and respond to the member with less man hours to use, that promotes huge cost savings when you achieve more with less using the full functionality and power of the the backend

Minpunten:

Two things, admin access has improved, but no option exist to disallow exporting members. This is a crucial consideration to manage and control member data. If a switch can be added where exporting is an option that would be great. Second is the forum or blog needs an option to screen a post prior to making it public.

Life Saver

Opmerkingen: This has streamed lined our membership and management there too. I love this website provider. They answer the phone all the time and work for solutions. Yes, there are a few things I would like changed but overall it saved our small organization. We are a nonprofit made up of only volunteers (no full time employees). Thank you for your comment to this software. Check our website out; we are a group of Artist with over 200 members and growing. Our people are starting to use their members photos so it is exciting. Take Care

Pluspunten:

Membership management, Easy of posting to website, Albums for our members (their art work is getting attention), Donation and payments, Just about everything is great....Oh email in one system and don't have to do constant contact.

Minpunten:

Need help with members directory....not responding to changes very easily .... had to rebuild several times to get it working. Also, would love to see a flag or way to highlight members who are using their albums. I did figure out a work around by adding a yes/no button to the members questionnaire. Once the member click yes they are using their photo album, I have a saved search that pulls that member to a special membership directory "Members Ark Work to Review". This allowed me to direct viewers to this list instead of the membership directory to view art work. We only had 35 members of 204 using their albums. Now the public doesn't have to hunt and peck and get frustrated trying to see members art work in albums.

They have changed and not for the better

Opmerkingen: Normally does well but we had a event in which we had to send out directions to and the list of registrants disappeared - we had to be put in a que for tech support and when I got to #6 at 4:55 they said I had to e mail and they would get back to me next week. When I first started with handling this the tech support was great and personal not now, it is thru chat and they shout you off supposedly at 5. Also being Canadian, they have different holidays which is frustrating. I managed to trick the system to bring up the list but it took an afternoon of my off time

Pluspunten:

It is a powerful platform to use alskdjmka xmm mc mcmscbhjsdbjbcm mzm mxbmncm

Minpunten:

It is Buggy to operate - not user friendly