How to Migrate from Hivebrite

Migrating off Hivebrite is one of the most consequential infrastructure decisions a community organization can make. Get it right, and your members, events, dues and giving land on one record per person. Get it wrong, and you lose member engagement, trust, and data integrity in the process.

This guide is written for organizations that have already decided to migrate, or are seriously considering it. We cover the full migration in six steps: data export, checking the new platform covers what you use, setup, import, parallel running, and cancellation. It’s the same care we took to move a client off One Church Software.

Before you start: three things to know

1. Migration is not a lift-and-shift. Don’t just copy your Hivebrite community into a new home. Use the move to drop workarounds and set things up the way your members actually use them, with your Hivebrite data as the foundation.

2. Your contract controls your timeline. Your Hivebrite contract sets how much written notice you must give to cancel. Check it before setting any migration dates. Budget for 1–3 months of platform overlap costs during the parallel running period.

3. Member communication is as important as technical execution. Plan member communication as a first-class project, not an afterthought. Members who understand why the platform is changing, and who feel the transition is an upgrade, are far more likely to follow you to the new platform.

The 6-step migration process

1. Step 1

   Audit and export your current data

   • Export full member directory (all profile fields, custom attributes, membership tiers)
   • Export event history, past events, attendance records, registrations
   • Export content library, documents, resources, media files
   • Export communication history where possible
   • Document all active integrations (CRM, email marketing, payment systems)
   • Identify which members are actively engaged vs dormant

   Note: Hivebrite provides CSV exports for member data. Export everything now, even if you don't use it all. Data you don't export today may be harder to recover once you begin the transition.

2. Step 2

   Check the new platform covers what you use

   • List every feature currently used in Hivebrite, honestly, not aspirationally
   • List the tools you run alongside Hivebrite (membership, events, courses, email, forms) and what each one costs
   • Map your community's engagement model: what do members actually do?
   • Define admin workflows: who manages what, how often
   • Check each item against the plan you'd be on, during your trial
   • Note anything no plan covers, and decide whether it's a must-have

   Note: Most of what an association or alumni network runs on is in the Community plan. If something you need isn't, that's when a custom build is worth a conversation.

3. Step 3

   Set up your new home

   • Your own domain, your branding and your public website
   • Roles: who manages what, at headquarters and in each chapter
   • Chapters under one roof, if you're on the Complete plan
   • Membership types, dues and renewals
   • Groups, events and courses you'll carry across
   • Giving and payments, connected to your own Stripe account

   Note: Set things up the way you want them now, not the way Hivebrite made you work. A move is a chance to drop the workarounds.

4. Step 4

   Import and check your data

   • Import members from your Hivebrite spreadsheet export
   • Confirm the column mapping the Assistant suggests
   • Review likely duplicates, with a person deciding every merge
   • Ask givers to set up recurring gifts again on your giving page
   • Move resources, documents and media you still need
   • Test every member-facing flow with real data, more than once

   Note: Data migration is not a simple CSV import. Member records need cleaning, de-duplication and mapping. Plan for 2–4 weeks of data work, and don't squeeze it.

5. Step 5

   Parallel running and member onboarding

   • Soft launch with your most engaged members (10–15% of community)
   • Gather feedback and resolve any outstanding issues
   • Prepare member communication, frame this as an upgrade, not a disruption
   • Send phased invitations to migrate by member cohort or group
   • Run old Hivebrite and new platform in parallel for 4–8 weeks
   • Set a clear sunset date for the Hivebrite platform

   Note: The parallel running period is critical. It gives members time to acclimate, surfaces any missing features before the hard cutover, and allows your team to resolve issues without the pressure of a single launch date.

6. Step 6

   Hivebrite cancellation and post-launch

   • Final data export from Hivebrite (belt-and-suspenders backup)
   • Notify Hivebrite of cancellation, honor any contractual notice period
   • Archive Hivebrite account (don't immediately delete, keep it accessible for 60 days)
   • Compare engagement on the new platform with your Hivebrite baseline
   • Train your team on the admin and the Assistant's weekly list
   • Plan first post-launch community initiative to drive engagement

   Note: Hivebrite contracts set a notice period for cancellation. Check yours before setting your migration timeline. Budget for overlap costs during the parallel running period.

Planning risks to design around

These are the risks worth planning for in any platform migration, including one off Hivebrite:

Underestimating data quality work. Expect your export to need work before it can be imported: duplicate records, incomplete profiles, inconsistent field formats. That's what the 2–4 weeks of data work in step 4 is for; don't squeeze it. During import, the Assistant suggests how your export's columns map and finds likely duplicates, and nothing is merged until a person says so.

Hard cutover without parallel running. Turning off Hivebrite on the new platform's launch day leaves members no time to adjust, and risks losing the ones who don't make the switch straight away. Plan to run both platforms in parallel for at least 4 weeks.

Replicating Hivebrite's workarounds. A move is an opportunity to fix what wasn't working, not just replicate it somewhere else. Spend meaningful time in step 2 challenging your current engagement model.

Treating migration as a technical project, not a community project. The technical work is the smaller half of a successful migration. Framing, communication, and member experience during the transition are what determine whether engagement goes up or down after launch.

Goals to set before you start

Agree what the migration is for before the work begins, so you can tell afterwards whether it worked. Goals worth setting:

• Stronger member engagement after launch, driven by a better experience and staff who know who needs them each week
• Less admin, with members, events, dues and giving on one record instead of several tools
• A lower, published bill: the Community plan is $299 a month for up to 750 active people, with no platform fee on dues, gifts or tickets
• Data you can take with you: you keep ownership of what you add, and can export it any time

Migration is a significant undertaking. For organizations that have outgrown Hivebrite, it’s worth doing well. If you need something no plan does, such as your own app or a program nobody else runs, that’s a custom build.

Before you commit, add up Hivebrite and the tools around it. The calculator puts the tools you pay for today beside one plan, and treat the result as an estimate, not a quote. Then compare it with the plans, and use your trial to run a test import.