Professional Associations & Membership Organisations
Build the Membership Platform
Your Association Controls
Socio Connect builds custom community platforms for professional associations, trade organisations, and membership bodies — a fully owned alternative to Higher Logic, Mighty Networks, and YourMembership for associations that need infrastructure that reflects their brand and belongs to their organisation permanently.
Why Associations Outgrow SaaS
Professional associations run on member relationships. Your credibility, your revenue, and your mission depend on your ability to create genuine value for members — value that keeps them renewing year after year.
That value increasingly lives in digital community. The industry forums. The working groups. The annual conference community that stays active year-round. The certification and continuing education programs. The job board and career resources.
Most associations are trying to deliver this value across a patchwork of tools that don't talk to each other. A community platform here. An LMS there. A job board somewhere else. A member database that none of them are fully connected to.
Meanwhile, your members experience a fragmented digital relationship with your association — not the integrated, branded home your dues revenue should be funding.
An Owned Platform Changes the Economics
When you rent from Higher Logic or Mighty Networks, you pay forever and own nothing. When you build with Socio Connect, you invest once and own everything.
The economics look different at scale. A mid-size association paying $30,000/year for a community platform has spent $150,000 over five years — with zero equity to show for it. A Socio Connect Community-tier build at $95,000 is owned outright at launch. By year three, the numbers are comparable. By year five, ownership has cost significantly less.
Higher Logic / SaaS — 5-Year Cost
$150K+
- ×$30,000+/year in platform fees
- ×Zero equity — you own nothing at year 5
- ×Subject to price increases and acquisition risk
- ×Member data on a vendor's servers
Socio Connect — One-Time Investment
From $85K
- Owned outright at launch — no ongoing platform fees
- Member data in your database
- No vendor pricing risk or acquisition exposure
- Optional stewardship: from $12,000/year
More importantly: you are no longer a hostage to a vendor's pricing decisions, feature roadmap, or acquisition events.
Built for Association Structure
Professional associations have structural complexity that generic community platforms weren't built for:
Chapter and regional networks
Local chapters with their own leadership, events, and member lists — all connected to a national view
Special interest groups and committees
Working groups with private collaboration spaces, document sharing, and member-only discussion
Membership tier access
Different content, features, and tools by dues level — automated by your AMS integration
Certification and CPD tracking
Continuing education with verifiable completion records and certificate issuance
Job board and career hub
Exclusive to members, visible to employers — a high-value retention driver
Annual conference community
An always-on community that amplifies your flagship event and keeps it alive year-round
Sponsor and partner visibility
Integrated sponsorship display within the member experience — a revenue-generating asset
Board and governance tools
Secure spaces for board communications, document management, and governance workflows
One platform that maps to how your association actually operates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your members' dues fund their experience.
Make it one worth renewing.
Apply for a strategy call and we'll walk through your association's specific needs, your current technology stack, and whether a custom build makes sense for your organisation.
Apply for a Strategy Call