Quick picks
If you only read one thing: pick by the shape of your club, not by the feature list. A sports team, a run club and a choir with a board and five committees need different tools.
App | Best for | Free plan | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joyn | Clubs and associations with several teams, committees or sections | Up to 100 members | €4 per person / month |
| Spond | Sports teams and youth clubs that track attendance and collect fees | Free app | 2.5% + a fixed fee per payment |
| Heylo | Run clubs and social groups that meet in person | Unlimited members & events | $19 per group / month |
| WhatsApp Communities | Small groups where everyone is already on WhatsApp | Free | - |
| Facebook Groups | Being found by new members | Free | - |
| BAND | General groups that want a free feed, calendar and chat in one | Free, with ads | Ad-free is a per-member purchase |
| TeamSnap | Youth sports teams and leagues, especially in North America | Free to start | Paid plans per team |
| Discord | Communities that mostly hang out online | Free | Nitro, per member |
How we picked
This list is for groups run by volunteers that meet in person: sports clubs, choirs, churches, residents' associations, hobby and interest groups. We left out platforms built for creators selling courses and paid memberships - they're excellent at that, and it's a different job.
We looked at what a club needs every week:
- Events people answer. A real yes or no, reminders, and recurring events that don't have to be recreated by hand.
- Messages that reach everyone. Announcements that don't drown in the chat, and no algorithm deciding who sees what.
- Room for teams and committees. Groups inside the club, each with its own conversation and admins.
- A place for the work and the documents. Who's doing what, and the bylaws a new board member can find.
- A price a volunteer can defend. Free to start, and members never pay to join.
A note on bias
We make Joyn, and it's first on this list. We wrote every other entry from the vendor's own website and app store pages, and every entry - ours too - says where the app falls short. If you spot something out of date, tell us at contact@getjoyn.io and we'll fix it.
1. Joyn
Best for: Clubs and associations with several teams, committees or sections
Joyn is the app we make. It puts a whole community in one space, and gives every team, committee or section a group of its own with channels, events, to-dos, boards and files. It's built for clubs that meet in person and have more going on than one chat can hold.
Good at
Events with real going or not going answers, recurring events, reminders, capacity and a waitlist
Groups with their own channels, events, to-dos, boards and files
Announcement channels only the people you choose can post in
Permissions per community, group and channel
Your events and news on your own website
iOS, Android and any browser
Watch out for
Doesn't collect payments or membership fees - those stay in your membership system
No voice or video calls
No guardian accounts - parents can't answer for a child
The app itself is in English for now
Pricing: Free for your first 100 members, no credit card. Then €4 per person a month, or €250 a month flat with unlimited members. Monthly, no annual lock-in.
2. Spond
Best for: Sports teams and youth clubs that track attendance and collect fees
Spond is a free app for sports teams and clubs, used by millions of players and parents. It's very good at the weekly rhythm of a team: repeating sessions, who's coming, reminders for the ones who haven't answered, and collecting kit money or match fees.
Good at
Repeating events, with members attending by default if you like
Automatic reminders to people who haven't answered
Payments and fee collection built in
Parents answer and get messages for their children
Availability requests and tasks on events
Watch out for
Shaped around sports teams - choirs and associations get the same squad-and-session shape
Group chats cap at 100 people, groups at 500
The club website is a paid add-on, and Spond Club isn't offered in every country
Pricing: The app is free. Spond earns a fee on payments you collect through it - 2.5% plus a small fixed amount per payment in most currencies - and sells a club website as a paid add-on.
Joyn vs Spond - the honest side-by-side, including where Spond wins.
3. Heylo
Best for: Run clubs and social groups that meet in person
Heylo is built for groups that meet up - run clubs, social clubs, hiking and volunteer groups. Members, events and RSVPs are unlimited on every plan, and it handles paid events and memberships.
Good at
Unlimited members, admins, events and RSVPs, even free
Waitlists, paid events and memberships
Group chats and a member directory
iOS, Android and web
Watch out for
Search history is limited to 30 days on the free plan
Payment fees are high on the free plan, and pricing is in US dollars
No file library listed for documents like bylaws or minutes
Pricing: A free Base plan with a 5% + $0.59 fee on payments. Paid plans per group start at $19 a month (Plus) and lower the payment fee.
4. WhatsApp Communities
Best for: Small groups where everyone is already on WhatsApp
WhatsApp is where many clubs start, and for good reason: it's free and everyone has it. Communities put several groups under one roof with an announcement group on top, and groups now have events with real RSVPs.
Good at
Everyone already has it - no new app to explain
End-to-end encrypted
Events with going, maybe and not going, plus polls
An announcement group across the community
Watch out for
Members' phone numbers are visible in groups while usernames roll out
Files and documents scroll away in the chat
Events don't repeat, and new members don't see events made before they joined
Up to 1,024 members per group
Pricing: Free. Every member needs a phone number and the app.
Joyn vs WhatsApp groups - the honest side-by-side, including where WhatsApp Communities wins.
5. Facebook Groups
Best for: Being found by new members
A Facebook group is still where a lot of people go looking for a local club, and nothing on this list beats it for being found. As the place to run the club, it's a feed that competes with everything else on Facebook.
Good at
People discover your group through Facebook
Events and polls
No practical limit on members
Watch out for
An algorithm decides who sees a post
Every member needs a Facebook account
Ads, and members' activity used for ad targeting
Documents and old posts sink in the feed
Pricing: Free, paid for with ads around your content.
Joyn vs Facebook Groups - the honest side-by-side, including where Facebook Groups wins.
6. BAND
Best for: General groups that want a free feed, calendar and chat in one
BAND is a general group app with a feed, a shared calendar, chats and photo albums. It covers a lot for free, paid for with ads.
Good at
Calendar with RSVPs and custom answer options
Sign-up sheets, polls and to-do lists
Photo albums and chats
Watch out for
Ads in the free app
Feed-first, so organized information still scrolls away
Removing ads is up to each member, not the club
Pricing: Free with ads. Members can pay to remove the ads, each for themselves.
7. TeamSnap
Best for: Youth sports teams and leagues, especially in North America
TeamSnap is built for sports: schedules, rosters, availability and, for clubs and leagues, registration and payments. If you run a youth league, it's one of the most complete options.
Good at
Availability, rosters and schedules
Registration and payments for clubs and leagues
Live streaming and sports-specific features
Watch out for
Sports only - a poor fit for choirs, churches and associations
Key features sit behind paid plans
Club and league pricing isn't public
Pricing: Free to start for a single team, with paid plans per team. Clubs and leagues get a custom quote.
8. Discord
Best for: Communities that mostly hang out online
Discord is free, fast and endlessly customizable, and nothing here beats its voice channels. For a club that meets in person it was built for a different job, and its events only collect an “Interested”.
Good at
Voice channels, video and streaming
A huge ecosystem of bots
Very granular roles and permissions
Forums and threads
Watch out for
Events answer with “Interested” only - nobody can say no
Everyone needs a Discord account, and the app is gaming-first
No to-dos or file library without bots
Pricing: Free for servers, channels, voice and events. Nitro is an optional subscription each member buys for themselves.
Joyn vs Discord - the honest side-by-side, including where Discord wins.
What's not on this list
Creator platforms: Circle, Mighty Networks, Skool
These top most “best community platform” lists, and they're good software. They're built for creators who sell courses and paid memberships, priced to match - Circle starts at $89 a month billed yearly and Mighty Networks at $79 a month, both plus a fee on sales. A volunteer club rarely needs any of that.
Workplace chat: Slack and GroupMe
Slack is excellent for work, but the free plan only keeps 90 days of messages and paid plans charge per member, which adds up fast for a club. GroupMe is a capable group chat, but this list is about what comes after the group chat.
Membership systems
Tools like Klubmodul, Conventus and Wild Apricot run the back office: the register, fees and accounts. They're not where members talk or plan, so most clubs pair one with an app from this list. Joyn works next to them - see how it fits with Klubmodul and Conventus.
How to choose
The apps look alike on their front pages. Try two of them for a couple of weeks with three or four members who aren't on the board - they're the ones who'll use it every week - and run through this list:
Checklist
- Can members answer an event with a real yes or no, and do reminders go out on their own?
- Can we set up the weekly session once instead of every week?
- Do announcements reach everyone without drowning in the chat?
- Can every team and committee get its own group with its own admins?
- Can a new member find the bylaws without asking?
- Does it work in the browser and on iPhone and Android, for the least techy member we have?
- Do members join with a link, without a social media account or sharing their phone number?
- Is the free plan a plan, not a trial - and what happens when we outgrow it?
- Do we need payments in the app, or do fees already live in our membership system?
If payments and parent accounts top your list, look at Spond first. If being found matters most, keep a Facebook page whatever else you pick. If the club has outgrown the chat, that's the gap Joyn was built for.
Common questions
What is the best free app for a club?
It depends on what your club does. For a sports team that tracks attendance and collects fees, Spond is free and very good. For a small group that mostly chats, WhatsApp is hard to beat. For a club with several teams or committees that needs events, channels, to-dos and files in one place, Joyn is free for the first 100 members.
What's the difference between a club app and a membership system?
A membership system handles the register, fees and accounts - the back office the treasurer uses a few times a year. A club app, or community platform, is where members find out what's happening, answer events and talk to each other every week. Most clubs end up with one of each.
Is WhatsApp good enough for a club?
For a small group that mostly chats, yes. It starts to strain when you have several teams, recurring events, documents people need to find again, or members who don't want their phone number shared with everyone.
Do members have to pay for any of these apps?
No. On every app here, members join for free. Where there's a cost, the club pays it - as a plan, a fee on payments, or in BAND's and Discord's case an optional purchase members make for themselves.
Can we use more than one app?
Plenty of clubs do: a membership system for fees, Facebook to be found, and one app where the club actually runs. What hurts is having two places for the same job, like events in one app and the chat about them in another.
About Joyn
Joyn is a community platform for clubs, churches and teams, made in Denmark: events with real RSVPs, channels, to-dos, boards and files in one place, with no feed, no algorithm and no ads. It's free for your first 100 members. Start for free or see pricing.