Club Management Software (Wild Apricot) Comparison (Pricing, Features, & Benefits)

Manage and Grow Your Fitness Business Better with Exercise.com. Learn more below.

Choose Exercise.com’s All-In-One Fitness Business Management Software. Review our head-to-head Club Management (Wild Apricot) software comparison and see for yourself. Get a custom web and smartphone app designed for your brand with additional customization available throughout your custom-built software. Grow your business, turn leads into clients, and increase revenue.

At Exercise.com, we know choosing the right business management software can be a stressful decision. There are countless software platforms to consider, each with their own unique pros and cons. We’re here to help!

Keep reading this in-depth review of Wild Apricot to see how it compares with Exercise.com’s All-In-One Business Platform. In the end, it’s clear to see that our business platform will help your business grows for years to come! Book a demo today and keep reading to learn more!

Fitness Pros Who Trust Exercise.com

Wild Apricot Software Review

Wild Apricot was founded in 2006 by Dmitry Buterin and Dmitry Ivanov and acquired in 2017 by Personify, a Constituent Management and Engagement software company. Wild Apricot consistently ranks as Capterra’s #1 association management software.

Wild Apricot is a very versatile software and can be used for any club or association, such as non-profits, clubs, services, associations, organizations, churches, and more. Wild Apricot has a cloud-based member database that hosts customized web pages, accepts and processes payments, manages events, automates custom emails, and has admin and member apps.

Wild Apricot vs Exercise.com

Wild Apricot can be used by just about any club or association–and that is the biggest difference between Wild Apricot and Exercise.com. Examples of organizations that can use Wild Apricot’s software include but are not limited to: Homeowner Associations, charities, historical societies, garden clubs, libraries, fraternities and sororities, churches, and fitness clubs. This is a vast spectrum of organizations with little commonality.

But with Exercise.com, you have a software custom-tailored for your business’s success. We give you a custom website and app; key features to grow your business such as facility management, thousands of integrations, and e-commerce variety; and fitness-specific functions such as performance assessments, workout creator/logger, and nutrition trackers.

As we will see in the review below, Wild Apricot may get the job done, but there is no specificity to fitness businesses. Like every business field, there are certain features and functions that make your fitness business more efficient and profitable. Despite what Wild Apricot proposes, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all software for businesses.

Let’s dive into the review!

Unless otherwise stated, all images and reviews below are of/about Exercise.com’s All-In-One Fitness Business Management software platform.

Fitness Business Management Software

Fitness businesses need reliable management software that automatically performs time-consuming tasks so managers can stay engaged with their staff and customers.

Wild Apricot has a few features that may meet the basic needs of business management, but as you’ll see below, Exercise.com’s software meets and exceeds these needs with a fitness-specific, comprehensive approach.

Client/Class Scheduling

Wild Apricot offers an event calendar where admins can add one-time or recurring events for members to register. The event calendar feature has additional helpful features, such as a maximum limit of participants, event descriptions, waitlists, cancellations, reminders, and more. Members can view upcoming events by scrolling through a list or in a calendar view.

This event calendar feature is suitable for managing fitness classes and events, but events are only a portion of what fitness centers offer. Wild Apricot doesn’t offer a way for personal trainers to schedule 1-1 or group training sessions. This is a huge part of a fitness center’s business management that Wild Apricot doesn’t support!

Additionally, Capterra reviews show that the software only has one event manager. This means that only one admin user has the right to add or edit events. But with a fitness business, multiple staff and trainers need to alter and add events, classes, and appointments. Having only one event admin would be a logistical nightmare.

But Exercise.com is designed for fitness centers, so it supports all your calendar, booking, and scheduling needs. Easily adjust the privileges of individual staff members to enable admin access to the schedule. Members can use search filters such as location, trainer, day, time, and more, to find the class that fits their schedule. This results in more bookings and greater profit!

Clients can view and book individual appointments with their trainer, which is a function you’ll only get with Exercise.com. Additionally, because our platform is custom-designed for your business, we can add any other booking and scheduling feature your business needs.

Gym/Facility Management

Wild Apricot offers a few very basic reports, such as payments, income, and event attendance. There are no fields for customization and no specialized reports.

But Exercise.com uses targeted reports to examine your business from all angles. We also provide analysis of these reports, which give invaluable insight so you can streamline your business and increase your profit. A few of Exercise.com’s tailored reports include revenue, taxes, commission and e-commerce, client and group reports, and more! But we don’t stop there. We can customize reports specifically for your business!

Client Automation

Wild Apricot and Exercise.com both have automated email and SMS reminders for events, as well as an automated membership renewal. But Exercise.com, being tailored for fitness businesses, also automates other fitness-related features, such as automatic delivery of workouts, nutrition plans, and resources. In addition to sending reminders via email and text, members also receive automatic push notifications in your custom-branded app.

This ability to automate fitness-related features is beneficial to your business for two reasons. First, our all-inclusive program allows more ways for you to personalize your customer’s fitness experiences, which leads to customer loyalty and retention. Secondly, the automation of our software allows you to experience the benefit of customer loyalty without increasing your workload!

Dedicated Zapier Support

Wild Apricot has over 230 apps through Integromat, a feature where managers can pick and choose the integrations they want. This is a commendable effort to provide more integrations than many management software platforms.

Exercise.com is superior to Wild Apricot in two ways. First, Exercise.com has dozens of integrations already embedded in our software, so there’s no need to select popular integrations. Second, Exercise.com partners with Zapier so your business can run at its peak efficiency. Zapier has over 2,000 apps to choose from so you have everything you need to deliver a positive, personalized experience to every customer. Best of all, Zapier guides you through every step of the process!

Dedicated Account Manager

Like many companies, Wild Apricot’s customer service department can be reached by email or phone. Your request is put into a queue and answered in the order in which it was received by a customer service representative.

But Exercise.com takes out customer service very seriously, so with our software you receive a dedicated account manager who assists with all your software needs–indefinitely! Your account manager not only helps you set up your perfectly personalized website and app but is yours to contact at any time throughout your partnership with us.

Your account manager is dedicated to the adjustment of your platform as your business grows, such as modifications to your logo, adding an online fitness store, or completely revamping your website. Your account manager is happy to not only make every alteration but also guide you and your staff through changes.

Customized Software

Personalized experiences are becoming increasingly important to customer retention. In fact, one recent study showed 72% of customers expect companies to personalize engagement to their needs. For fitness centers, this means that gyms must provide personalized fitness experiences in order to be successful.

A strong selling point for Wild Apricot is its customizability of layouts, templates, and design, but there are a few drawbacks. Capterra reviews point out that a few pages aren’t able to be customized and the webpage design is constrained. Other reviews report that the interfacing is clunky and difficult to manage, and wouldn’t recommend Wild Apricot to managers who aren’t tech-savvy.

But Exercise.com is completely customizable, user-friendly, and designed to help your fitness business succeed! We do this by personalizing a custom website and app for your business, plus dozens of other personalized features with communication and e-commerce! Let’s examine these ways below.

Custom-Branded

Wild Apricot does a decent job of allowing custom-branding by enabling you to upload your logo to your website and mobile app. This is more than other generic management software, but because Wild Apricot isn’t designed for fitness businesses, you still miss out on a few features that help boost your business.

Exercise.com is intentional about promoting your brand from start to finish, and we support you every step of the way. Your platform is designed for your business, so you decide what gets featured instead of following a template like with Wild Apricot. Your custom app, website, e-commerce opportunities, workout software, and performance software all celebrate your unique brand, which keeps your customers strongly connected and engaged.

iOS & Android Apps

Wild Apricot has both admin and member apps. With the admin app, users can perform member management tasks (such as approve or deny requests, search for and view members, and suspend or archive members), event management tasks (such as adding events or editing information), and accept credit card payments on-the-go. The member app allows users to view other member profiles, register and pay for events, and view their own member profile information.

While these features are helpful for most associations, they’re pretty minimal and not much more of an upgrade from a free social media group. But more importantly, the features aren’t specific to fitness. This especially impacts personal training because Wild Apricot’s apps won’t deliver workouts, performance assessments, or nutrition plans. This means your trainers must manually create and deliver every plan and their clients must keep track of these plans in print form or another app.

But Exercise.com’s professional, organized app is designed for your fitness business. It includes everything in Wild Apricot’s app and more! Your custom-branded app sends automatic email, text, reminders, and alerts, plus delivers workout, resources, nutrition, and assessments straight to clients. This saves time by keeping your trainers productive and keeps clients from toggling between multiple apps; they stay engaged with your brand through your all-inclusive app!

Websites

Having a professional, eye-catching, informative website is vital in today’s media age. A website that looks outdated or lacks organized, accessible information will deter potential customers.

Wild Apricot offers a number of templates and customization features. Many users are pleased with Wild Apricot’s websites and options, even if they can’t be completely customized or has web design constraints.

But Exercise.com’s websites are completely customizable, secure, and SEO-optimized to both convert visitors to leads and keep members engaged with your brand! Choose from unlimited theme changes, custom graphic work, colors, features, custom dev, and more, and your dedicated account manager sets up and manages your website. This saves you hours of valuable admin time! (Plus, we’re a Google Certified Partner!)

Security Features

Both Wild Apricot and Exercise.com take security and protection of membership data very seriously. At Exercise.com, our websites and apps are SSL Secure, client information is protected with the internationally-secure Privacy Shield Framework, and we utilize Google Cloud for storing and transferring data. Payments are made and processed through Stripe.

Marketing Integrations

Wild Apricot has a number of marketing integrations through its Integromat feature. But Exercise.com’s partnership with Zapier offers 10x more integration choices than Wild Apricot. Some popular integrations include:

• MailChimp
• ConstantContact
• ConvertKit
• Zapier
• Google Analytics
• Facebook Pixel
• And more!

If you don’t see an integration your business uses, there’s no need to worry! Our software integrates with almost every program, making Exercise.com an exceptionally versatile and valuable fitness management platform!

Workout Software

Providing workout software to clients is an excellent way to further engage and personalize a client’s customer experience, see accelerated results, and set you apart from the other gyms in your area.

Workout software is not a feature Wild Apricot provides–and that’s because it’s not designed for fitness businesses. But Exercise.com knows how crucial workout software is to customer satisfaction, so we’ve carefully created an excellent workout software that aids in customer retention and boosts revenue! Since Wild Apricot doesn’t provide workout software, let’s take a look at this huge asset provided by Exercise.com!

Workout Creator/Logger

Exercise.com’s exceptional workout creator and logger is an efficient and effective way to keep clients engaged and motivated towards meeting their fitness goals. Trainers can assign pre-designed workouts or can create personalized workout plans for their clients. Inside your custom-branded app, clients can view and log their workout anytime, anywhere. Clients can also communicate with their trainers at any time. This gives clients the personalized fitness experience they desire but keeps your trainers productive by keeping everything in one app!

At Exercise.com, we know that every trainer-client relationship is different, so our workout creator/logger has endless possibilities for delivering workouts, tips, and encouragement to clients in any scenario, including:

1-1 Training

Exercise.com supports this traditional training method by keeping your clients laser-focused on their fitness success. Workout and nutrition plans, goals and progress reports, performance and fitness assessments, and resources are all easily customized and automatically delivered in a user-friendly format inside your app. Clients can communicate with their trainers at any time. All of these features encourage better program adherence, which leads to improved results and greater client satisfaction.

Group Training

Take full advantage of Exercise.com’s versatility and use the same resources and support as 1-1 training and apply them to group training! Members are more inclined to exercise when they are socially connected and accountable. Offering a group exercise setting boosts customer satisfaction, fosters a tight-knit gym community, and ultimately increases your profit! Exercise.com allows you to easily create, schedule, and track attendance, so you experience the benefits of group classes without the headache of managing all the moving pieces.

Online Training

Online training is becoming increasingly popular, and Exercise.com’s platform allows you to keep up with this trend by providing online training services to any customer! Trainers can easily create custom workouts with our extensive video and exercise library, track progress, and stay in communication with clients via the app!

Exercise Library

Exercise.com offers an extensive library of educational and instructional exercise videos. Trainers use these videos to create pre-designed or custom workouts. Our professional videos give clear instructions on proper form and modifications for injuries or difficulty levels.

This is a feature unique to Exercise.com and is not included with Wild Apricot. Trainers using Wild Apricot would need to provide their own videos and send them to clients separately or pay for an exercise logger and library. Both of these options are an inefficient process and frustrating for trainers and clients alike. Far better, Exercise.com keeps everything–including workouts– organized in your custom-branded app!

Custom Exercises

Exercise.com has dozens of professional videos of standard and modified exercises, but an excellent way to promote your brand is by incorporating your own videos. Exercise.com allows you to easily link with your YouTube or Vimeo accounts and save these videos into your exercise library. Using your custom videos in the workout creator builds trainer familiarity, which promotes your business and adds value to your brand.

TV Workouts

Trainers can easily cast Exercise.com or your own custom videos onto a gym television screen during group classes or 1-1 training sessions. This is yet another way Exercise.com promotes that personal touch so many customers are looking for when choosing a gym!

E-Commerce Software

E-commerce is an increasingly-popular way to boost profit without expanding the walls of your business. Wild Apricot only offers mobile payment processing and an online store feature. While fitness businesses can take advantage of both these features, Exercise.com includes and goes beyond these features! We have endless e-commerce capabilities that are not only specific to fitness but also promote your business.

Check out just a few popular ways Exercise.com grows your business through e-commerce!

Payment Processing

According to Capterra reviews, one of the most frustrating features of Wild Apricot is its payment processing. Wild Apricot offers eight different payment options, including PayPal, Stripe, and Square. But countless reviews reveal that Wild Apricot has its own payment processor (Wild Apricot Payments) and penalizes customers with an additional 20% fee with each payment if another processor is used. This can significantly reduce your profit!

With Exercise.com, we use the ease, security, and accessibility of Stripe for all payments! We don’t charge additional fees to process payments.

Sell Products

With your personalized e-commerce store, you can sell just about anything, which boosts your revenue and promotes your business! From custom-branded workout gear and paraphernalia to supplements and nutrition bars, you can list anything in your store. As your members use your custom apparel in the community, you gain creative business advertising and strengthened customer loyalty.

Sell Workout Plans

Selling pre-built workout plans is an excellent way to engage current members, retain members that don’t have time to make it to the gym, or give members the experience of a personalized trainer in the comfort of their own home. Your workouts can be completely customized and unique to fit the needs of your clientele, which gives you an advantage over generic workout videos.

Exercise.com doesn’t limit how many plans you can sell, so there’s no cap on your potential profit! Offering a variety of plan lengths, difficulties, fitness focuses, and more meets the needs of every client and keeps them fully engaged in your brand.

Offer Online Workout Memberships

An ever-increasing percentage of customers desire customized workouts they can perform independently. Businesses are able to charge a premium for this service, which can be a huge boost to your revenue! Unfortunately, the profit is often offset by the extensive time needed to create these personalized plans.

But with Exercise.com, our software allows trainers to create a client’s entire plan in one sitting, schedule automatic delivery intervals, and then track client progress through their program. It’s a win-win situation, and an excellent way to utilize Exercise.com’s versatile software!

Sell Workout Challenges

Workout challenges are a fun way for gym members to push themselves, have additional fitness accountability, channel a competitive spirit, and cheer on other gym members at the same time. Exercise.com’s software makes workout challenges a breeze by completely customizing and automating the challenges. Simply input the details and let the software take care of the rest! This is an effortless way to boost revenue without increasing your workload.

Performance Health Software

Performance assessments are crucial to fitness businesses and personal trainers in particular. Not only do they keep the client and trainer safe, but performance assessments are also an essential way to track a client’s progress towards their goals.

Wild Apricot doesn’t have a way to track or manage performance assessments. This is because Wild Apricot is a generalized business management software and not tailored for fitness.

But Exercise.com knows the responsibility and benefits of performance assessments, and that’s why we include it in our software! Since Wild Apricot doesn’t offer this feature, let’s examine how advantageous this feature is for your fitness business.

Assessments

Initial assessments help your clients see their baseline and guide personal trainers towards appropriate exercises and approaches. Periodic re-assessments motivate clients in their fitness journey as they see their progress. Exercise.com allows you to use standard assessments or personalize your own to fit the needs of your client. All our assessments are easy to complete so trainers stay engaged with their clients. Plus, assessments are automatically delivered to clients and stored in your app for instant accessibility.

Performance & Measurement Reports

Yet another customer personalization feature Exercise.com provides is personalized interactions! Automatically deliver workout reminders, goal achievements, recurring assessments, progress photos, measurements, and more! This personal touch increases customer engagement without adding managerial tasks.

Nutrition

To complete our all-inclusive software, Exercise.com offers a nutrition feature where clients can easily log and track their daily dietary intake. Clients and trainers can use this feature to determine whether clients prioritize pre and/or post-workout meals. Trainer accountability also keeps clients on track to meet their fitness goals, which ultimately improves client satisfaction.

Software Wild Apricot Pricing

Wild Apricot has a very complicated pricing system. Wild Apricot’s plans are based upon contacts (members for fitness businesses). As your business grows and you acquire more members, you must jump up to the next payment bracket.

Users can pay a monthly rate, pre-pay for one year and save 10%, or pre-pay for two years and save 15%. Below is a chart for monthly billing. Each plan also has a free trial option.

[Information is taken from Wild Apricot’s website]

Although Wild Apricot offers a free plan, it only allows one admin, and there is a long list of feature exclusions: online payments, custom domain, theme overrides, site search gadget, scheduled emails, online store, and mobile apps. It would be very difficult to operate a business using Wild Apricot’s free plan!

As you can see in the above chart, Wild Apricot makes huge jumps in its contact brackets. Many businesses fluctuate in their membership role–some months being in one bracket and other months being in another bracket–which makes Wild Apricot’s billing system a challenge. Plus, the bracket system is almost a penalty for growing your business!

But Exercise.com doesn’t penalize you for growing your membership role! Under one flat rate, you can add as many staff and members as you need.

Wild Apricot Software Competitors

Wild Apricot’s competitors include:

• Vagaro
• MINDBODY
• Rhinofit
• Donarius
• ClubExpress
• StarChapter
• memberplanet
• Brilliant Directories
• NeonCRM
• MemberClicks

And of course, Exercise.com!

The Bottom Line: Pros and Cons

In order to have a thriving business, you need the best business management software. But it’s not as simple as finding a great business software and adapting to its limitations–the best software is one that is programmed for fitness centers and can be customized to fit your specific needs. Let’s take a final look at Wild Apricot and Exercise.com.

Wild Apricot Cons

Wild Apricot isn’t a bad business management software, but it isn’t tailored to fitness businesses. It is designed to be adaptable to almost any club, association, or organization. And while it does a decent job at covering the basics, it doesn’t have fitness-specific features that will help your business grow, such as:

• workout, nutrition, or performance assessment software or delivery
• The calendar function only features events; it’s impossible to schedule or track 1-1 or group training sessions
• The reports are too basic to effectively analyze your business
• It has limited e-commerce opportunities

All of these drawbacks make Wild Apricot challenging software for fitness businesses to accommodate. Managers using Wild Apricot will have to find other software or apps to fill the gaps.

Exercise.com Pros

But Exercise.com is an all-inclusive platform for fitness businesses, and it is custom-tailored to meet the needs of your business! With a custom-branded website and app, a user-friendly scheduling and booking system, countless marketing integrations, automated services, e-commerce opportunities and fitness-specific features such as an exercise library, performance assessments, workout creator/logger, and nutrition tracker, your business has everything it needs to succeed!

Exercise.com makes your business platform decision easy! We’re here to help your business grow. Ready to get started? Book a demo today!