Tendencivs
Wild Apricot
Wild Apricot: Far easier to run, hosted, with published pricing
Tendenci
Open-source association management system for nonprofits
As of 30 August 2026, Tendenci is free to use. The only genuinely open-source association management system in common use, which matters for organisations that must own their member data outright. Softwr lists it under Nonprofits. Tendenci is available on Web, Linux, Self-hosted.
Overview
What Tendenci does
Tendenci is an association management system released under an open-source licence, covering membership, events, donations, a content-managed website, email and a member directory. It is built in Python and Django, and can be self-hosted or bought as a managed service from the company behind it. Being open source is its entire distinguishing property, and it is a real one for a specific kind of organisation. A nonprofit whose board requires that member and donor data remain under its own control, or one operating where data residency is a legal question rather than a preference, cannot resolve that with a proprietary hosted platform. Tendenci can be run on infrastructure the organisation chooses, and the code can be inspected. The corresponding cost is that self-hosting is a real technical commitment. Someone must run the server, apply updates and hold responsibility for security. Organisations that assume open source means free usually discover that the licence cost was the smallest part of the total.
What people use it for
- Nonprofits whose boards require member and donor data to stay under their own control
- Organisations with data residency obligations a hosted platform cannot satisfy
- Groups with technical capacity wanting to avoid per-member subscription costs at scale
- Associations needing to customise workflows beyond what a proprietary platform allows
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Tendenci.
- Self-hosting is a real operational commitment, and organisations without technical capacity should not treat the free licence as a free system
- The community is small compared with mainstream open-source projects, so answers are harder to find and contributors are few
- The interface is dated against the commercial association platforms and this is the most common user complaint
- Fewer integrations than commercial competitors, and building them is a development task rather than a configuration one
- Feature depth in events and continuing education is behind the specialist commercial systems
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Tendenci
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- TendencivsMemberClicks
MemberClicks: Commercial association management for professional bodies
- TendencivsOdoo
Odoo: Open-source alternative if broader business management is also needed
Pricing
What Tendenci costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Self-hosted
Free
- Full source code
- No per-member licence
- Community support
- Own infrastructure
Managed hosting
On request
- Hosted and maintained
- Updates applied
- Support included
- Migration assistance
Capabilities
Features
Open-source licence
Source available, self-hostable, with no per-member licensing
Membership management
Types, applications, renewals and member directories
Events and registration
Event pages, registration and payment collection
Donations
Online giving with recurring donation support
Content-managed website
Pages, news, files and forms in the same system as the member data
Email
Newsletters and member communications from within the platform
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Tendenci really free?
The software is, under an open-source licence with no per-member fee. Running it is not: hosting, updates, backups and security are the organisation responsibility unless managed hosting is purchased.
Who should choose it?
Organisations with a genuine requirement to control their own data, and the technical capacity to act on it. Choosing it purely to avoid subscription cost usually ends badly.
Can I move my data out?
Yes, entirely. That is the point. Data lives in a PostgreSQL database you control, and there is no vendor holding it.
How does it compare to Wild Apricot?
Wild Apricot is easier, better supported and better looking. Tendenci is the answer when data ownership is a requirement rather than a preference.
Is it actively maintained?
It is developed openly on GitHub with a small team and community. Check recent commit activity before committing, as with any small open-source project.
Keep looking
Where to go from Tendenci
- Tendenci alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Tendenci pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Tendenci badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Nonprofits softwareThe full category
- Best Nonprofits softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Nonprofits software for
Compare Tendenci with
- MemberClicks
- CiviCRM
- Glue Up
- Submittable
- Blackbaud Raiser's Edge
- Bloomerang
- NeonCRM
- DonorPerfect
- CharityEngine
- GrantStation
- Little Green Light
- Salesforce for Nonprofits
- Salsa CRM
- Virtuous
- CommCare
- Wild Apricot
- Submittable
- CharityEngine
Other Nonprofits software
Association management for professional bodies and trade associations
Pricing on request13 researched notesOpen source constituent relationship management for nonprofits, with no per contact or per donation fee
Open source12 researched notesMembership, events and engagement software with strong Asia-Pacific presence
Pricing on request13 researched notesApplication, review and grant management for funders running open calls at volume
Pricing on request12 researched notesNonprofit CRM with its own in-house payment processing rather than a third-party gateway
Pricing on request12 researched notesA low-cost grant opportunity database sold on annual membership, usually at a heavy standing discount
From $199/yr11 researched notesAffordable donor management for small nonprofits
Free, then $45/mo13 researched notesOffline-first case management and mobile data collection for frontline health and development programmes
From $100/mo13 researched notesApplication, review and grant management for funders running open calls at volume
Pricing on request12 researched notesNonprofit CRM with its own in-house payment processing rather than a third-party gateway
Pricing on request12 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Tendenci, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Tendenci
Tendenci alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Tendenci pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Tendenci
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Tendenci badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Nonprofits software alternatives
Offline-first case management and mobile data collection for frontline health and development programmes
Per month by mobile user count
The rolled-up parent of EveryAction, Apricot, CyberGrants and Network for Good, sold as three product lines
quote
Grants management for foundations and corporate givers inside the Blackbaud ecosystem
quoteNonprofit CRM with its own in-house payment processing rather than a third-party gateway
quote
Funder and nonprofit data subscriptions from the organisation formed by Foundation Center and GuideStar
Per user per month by tier