A SportMember alternative with no per-member fee
SportMember has a free Basic tier and a PRO tier at £0.16 per member per month, with a £22 a month minimum, plus 35p + 1% on payments. Here is what that works out at against ClubPal, including where SportMember comes out ahead.
The difference is how you get charged
Both platforms let a club manage members, run sessions, and take payments. The meaningful difference is the pricing model. SportMember offers a free Basic tier and a paid PRO tier at £0.16 per member per month, billed at a minimum of £22 a month however small the club, and either tier charges 35p + 1% on payments taken. ClubPal has one tier, every feature included, and charges nothing at all unless money moves through the platform.
That matters most for the thing a club is usually trying to do, which is grow. On a per-member subscription, a successful beginners intake raises your software bill. On ClubPal it does not, because there is no per-member charge at any club size.
The rest of this page is the detail, including a worked cost comparison and the case where SportMember is the cheaper option.
Worth saying plainly before any comparison. If these are the things your club needs most, SportMember may well be the better fit.
The distinction is the charging model rather than the feature list. ClubPal has one tier and no per-member cost, so what you pay tracks activity instead of headcount.
ClubPal and SportMember, point by point
| ClubPal | SportMember | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | None, at any club size | Free tier, or £0.16 per member per month on PRO, minimum £22 a month |
| Feature tiers | One tier, everything included | Basic and PRO, with features split between them |
| Per-transaction fee | 20p + 3.5% | 35p + 1% |
| Card processing | Included in the one fee | Not published, payments run on Stripe |
| Fee when you refund a member | Returned, in proportion to the amount refunded | Not published |
| Cost of growing | Unchanged, no per-member charge | Rises with member count on PRO |
| Cost if you take no payments | Free | Free on Basic, subscription still applies on PRO |
| Session capacity and waiting lists | Per session, with automatic promotion | Available |
| Contract | None, and no notice period | No commitment on PRO |
The numbers, including where we lose
The honest version, because a comparison page that only shows favourable numbers is not worth reading. Figures are per member per year and include the PRO subscription at £0.16 per member per month. They assume a club big enough that the £22 a month minimum does not bite, which is roughly 138 members or more. Below that, SportMember PRO costs more per member than these rows show.
| Scenario, per member per year | ClubPal | SportMember PRO |
|---|---|---|
| Membership only, £30 a year | £1.25 (cheaper) | £2.57 |
| Membership only, £50 a year | £1.95 (cheaper) | £2.77 |
| Membership only, £100 a year | £3.70 | £3.27 (cheaper) |
| £40 sub plus 30 sessions at £5 | £12.85 (cheaper) | £14.67 |
| £20 sub plus 40 sessions at £3 | £13.10 (cheaper) | £17.67 |
The pattern behind those numbers: ClubPal has the lower fixed fee per transaction and the higher percentage, so it wins on small, frequent payments and loses on large, infrequent ones. Session-based clubs sit firmly in the first group. A club taking one annual payment above roughly £83 and nothing else all year is better off on SportMember PRO, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. One caution on the whole table: SportMember publishes 35p + 1% but does not say whether Stripe card processing sits inside that or on top, so read its column as a floor. Ours is all in.
SportMember pricing checked against their published rates on 29 August 2026. Rates change, so verify before making a decision on cost alone.
What switching actually involves
More detail on the process is on the switching page, or talk to us about your club before you decide.
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