ACTIVE Network Review: Stop Operational Headaches in Community Management

Registration and facility headaches slow everyone down.

If you’re managing activities or events, finding software that actually makes your job easier is a struggle. That’s why you might be looking into ACTIVE Network.

The reality? Most days, you’re stuck dealing with fragmented systems that waste hours and make participant experiences worse.

ACTIVE Network takes a different approach by centralizing registration, payments, membership, and facility management into one ecosystem. From intuitive sign-ups and payments to actionable data and communication tools, it’s designed for real-world efficiency—especially if you’re tired of manual, error-prone processes.

In this review, I’ll break down how ACTIVE Network helps organizers reclaim their time and boost participation, plus what you can realistically expect from its main modules.

You’ll find out in this ACTIVE Network review how it stacks up for features, pricing, support, and what sets it apart from alternatives—so you can make the right call for your team.

You’ll get the clarity and feature insights you need to confidently decide.

Let’s get started.

ACTIVE Network Overview

ACTIVE Network has been connecting people with activities since 1999. From their Dallas headquarters, their entire mission is helping organizers like you manage registrations and effectively grow participation.

They specifically target community-based organizations—think sports races, summer camps, and city recreation departments. What truly sets them apart is their deep focus on activity and participant management, not generic corporate event planning.

Their acquisition by Global Payments seriously enhanced their payment systems. For full transparency, it’s important I mention the 2022 CFPB lawsuit through this ACTIVE Network review.

Unlike generalist competitors that can feel overwhelming, ACTIVE feels built by people who actually run events. Their key differentiator is the integrated marketplace on ACTIVE.com, helping you find new participants instead of just managing them.

They work with a huge range of clients, from major marathons and national YMCAs to municipal parks departments managing thousands of members and incredibly complex facility schedules year-round.

From what I’ve seen, their strategy is providing a complete, unified ecosystem. This directly addresses your frustration of patching together separate tools for registration, marketing, facility booking, and membership management into a single, cohesive platform.

Now let’s examine their core software.

ACTIVE Network Features

Struggling to manage all your activities and participants?

ACTIVE Network features an integrated suite of cloud-based solutions designed to manage various aspects of activity and participant engagement. These are the five core ACTIVE Network solutions that streamline operations for activity-based organizations.

1. ACTIVENet (Recreation Management)

Tired of fragmented recreation management?

Manual processes and disconnected systems can lead to massive inefficiencies. This means frustrated staff and unhappy participants.

ACTIVENet centralizes everything from program registration to facility scheduling, helping you streamline operations. What I love about this is how it provides a modern, customizable online registration experience that’s available 24/7. This solution helps simplify how community members sign up for programs and activities.

This means you get increased efficiency for your staff and better customer satisfaction through convenient online access.

2. ACTIVEWorks Camp & Class Manager

Managing camp registrations feels like chaos?

Keeping track of attendees, payments, and waivers for youth programs is incredibly complex. This often wastes valuable administrative time.

Camp & Class Manager offers an all-in-one platform for online registration, marketing, and attendance tracking. From my testing, the automated reminders for waivers and documents really stand out, making compliance easier. This feature streamlines form tracking and allows for flexible payment plans.

So you can free up your staff from administrative burdens and focus more on delivering quality programs.

3. ACTIVEWorks Endurance (Event Management)

Organizing large-scale events becoming overwhelming?

The administrative burden of managing registrations, marketing, and volunteers for endurance events can be immense. This can hinder participation growth.

ACTIVEWorks Endurance simplifies mass participant events with online registration, custom websites, and social media integration. Here’s what I found: its integration with ACTIVE.com exposes events to millions of potential participants. This solution includes volunteer management and comprehensive data insights for better decision-making.

This means you can drive increased participation and simplify the entire event management process.

4. Facility Management Software

Double-bookings and lost revenue from facilities?

Inefficient facility booking and resource allocation can lead to frustrating scheduling conflicts. This often results in lost revenue and dissatisfied customers.

This solution helps you manage facilities, resources, and rentals online, preventing those painful double-bookings. What I found impressive is the interactive resource calendar with drag-and-drop functionality for real-time booking. This feature helps automate approval processes for third-party permits and track rental equipment.

So you could increase your revenue and customer satisfaction by offering real-time, hassle-free bookings.

5. Membership Management Software

Struggling with scattered membership data?

Fragmented membership information makes tracking engagement and managing renewals incredibly difficult. This can lead to decreased member participation.

This feature allows you to link membership sales with facility usage and access, simplifying transactions and gaining insights. The software supports creating and selling various membership types and generating customized ID cards. This solution helps you gain a 360-degree view of each member.

This means you can enhance member service, improve operational efficiency, and better understand member behavior for targeted offers.

You’ll appreciate how these ACTIVE Network features work together as an integrated ecosystem for activity management, simplifying complex operations.

ACTIVE Network Pricing

Unsure about unexpected software costs?

ACTIVE Network pricing is primarily custom, often relying on transaction fees rather than fixed subscriptions, meaning you’ll need a direct quote for specific costs.

1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors

Their pricing can be tricky.

ACTIVE Network’s pricing model often leans on a transaction-based fee, with a stated maximum of $4.95 per transaction, though it varies. What I found regarding pricing is that specific solutions like camp management lack monthly fees, which is unique. For comprehensive solutions like ACTIVENet or large organizations, custom quotes are necessary.

From my cost analysis, this means your total spend heavily depends on your transaction volume and chosen platform.

2. Value Assessment & ROI

Is this pricing worth it?

What stood out about their pricing is the integrated payment processing, which saves you the hassle and cost of a separate vendor relationship. This direct handling means your finance team sees streamlined fund collection every 7-14 days, a significant operational benefit. However, be wary of the “Active Advantage” auto-enrollment that can add a hidden $95 charge.

Budget-wise, this approach helps you avoid third-party payment processing fees, simplifying your financial ecosystem.

3. Budget Planning & Implementation

Consider all potential charges.

While some platforms boast no monthly subscription, the transaction fees can accumulate significantly, especially with high participant volumes. From my research, it’s crucial to factor in these per-transaction costs, and potential “junk fees” from deceptive memberships like Active Advantage. Always confirm what’s included and what’s extra.

So for your business, you can expect variable costs tied directly to your activity and registration volume, requiring careful monitoring.

My Take: ACTIVE Network’s pricing varies widely by product, making it crucial to get a custom quote and understand all transaction fees and potential hidden charges for your specific needs.

The overall ACTIVE Network pricing requires careful inquiry to match your specific operational needs.

ACTIVE Network Reviews

What do actual customers think?

This section analyzes real ACTIVE Network reviews to provide balanced insights into user experiences, helping you understand what customers actually think about the software.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

User sentiment is mixed.

From my review analysis, ACTIVE Network’s ratings vary, with Camp & Class Manager scoring 3.7/5 and ACTIVENet 5.5/10. What I found in user feedback is satisfaction often depends on specific use cases and expectations. Some find it highly effective, while others encounter significant issues.

This suggests your experience will depend on your specific organizational needs.

2. Common Praise Points

Users love the streamlined registration process.

Many ACTIVE Network reviews consistently highlight the user-friendliness of online registration for participants. Customers say, “Active Network is easy to use!” and appreciate how it simplifies sign-ins and attendance tracking. The comprehensive features covering registration and payment are also frequently praised.

This means you can expect a smooth setup for your participants.

3. Frequent Complaints

Deceptive charges are a major concern.

A recurring complaint in ACTIVE Network reviews revolves around the “Active Advantage” membership, which users report being deceptively enrolled in. What stands out in user feedback is how this issue often leads to unexpected charges, sparking legal actions and widespread frustration. Limited customization and complex reporting are also mentioned.

These complaints are significant and warrant careful consideration before committing.

Overall, ACTIVE Network reviews reveal a mix of genuine utility alongside serious concerns about billing practices and some functional limitations.

Best ACTIVE Network Alternatives

Seeking better alternatives for your activity management?

The best ACTIVE Network alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business situations, organizational sizes, and specific feature priorities you might have.

1. Cvent Event Management

Handling large-scale, complex corporate events?

Cvent excels when you manage extensive conferences or trade shows requiring in-depth attendee engagement, advanced marketing automation, and comprehensive reporting. What I found comparing options is that Cvent offers robust event lifecycle management beyond ACTIVE Network’s activity-specific focus.

Choose Cvent if you need an enterprise-grade platform for intricate event logistics and marketing at scale.

2. WildApricot

Focused primarily on membership for smaller organizations?

WildApricot is a strong alternative if your core need is robust membership management for a small association, non-profit, or club. Alternative-wise, WildApricot simplifies membership databases and communication for member-centric groups, offering predictable pricing.

Consider WildApricot when your priority is straightforward membership management over complex event facility scheduling.

3. Daxko Operations

Are you a YMCA or similar community wellness center?

Daxko Operations provides a highly specialized solution for YMCAs and similar community wellness organizations, deeply understanding their unique operational needs. From my competitive analysis, Daxko offers integrated solutions tailored for YMCAs, including membership and program management designed for their model.

Choose Daxko Operations if your organization specifically aligns with the unique operational model of a YMCA.

4. Regpack

Do you need highly customized, flexible registration forms?

Regpack shines when your main challenge is creating intricate registration forms with complex conditional logic and diverse payment options. I found that Regpack offers granular control over registration flows and pricing rules, which can be crucial for unique programs.

Consider this alternative if customizing your registration process with detailed payment plans is your top priority.

The best ACTIVE Network alternatives depend on your organization’s specific focus and operational scale, not just feature counts.

ACTIVE Network Setup

Worried about software setup and adoption?

This ACTIVE Network review section provides realistic insights into its deployment, helping you understand the time and resources needed.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Expect a dedicated setup process.

While ACTIVE Network aims for user-friendliness, its comprehensive nature means initial setup and configuration can be involved, especially for multiple modules. What I found about deployment is that larger organizations will face more complexity in integrating features like facility and membership management.

You’ll need to allocate dedicated time and effort, planning beyond just quick wins for full system leverage.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Minimal technical headaches here.

ACTIVE Network is cloud-hosted and web-based, accessible from any browser without hardware installation, simplifying deployment for you. From my implementation analysis, this eliminates significant IT overhead as data is centralized and accessible remotely, fitting various organizational sizes.

Your technical team will primarily ensure internet connectivity and manage user access, rather than complex infrastructure changes.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption requires focused effort.

Given ACTIVE Network’s breadth of features, new users will need training on modules like registration, marketing, and reporting. From my analysis, successful adoption hinges on leveraging available resources like live online sessions and video guides to ensure staff efficiency.

Plan for comprehensive training programs to help your team fully leverage the system’s capabilities and streamline daily operations.

4. Support & Success Factors

Reliable support is key.

ACTIVE Network offers 24/7 support via chat and phone, plus a knowledge base, crucial for promptly addressing implementation issues. What I found about deployment is that proactive engagement with support resources is vital for overcoming challenges and ensuring a smooth transition.

For your implementation to succeed, you should plan to utilize their multi-channel support for timely assistance and guidance.

The overall ACTIVE Network setup requires focused effort for successful adoption, particularly for larger organizations integrating multiple modules.

Bottom Line

Is ACTIVE Network right for your organization?

My ACTIVE Network review shows it’s a robust solution for activity and participant management, especially for sports, recreation, and community sectors.

1. Who This Works Best For

Event organizers, camp directors, and league managers.

ACTIVE Network is ideal for parks & recreation departments, YMCAs, and endurance event organizers needing integrated online registration, payments, and participant management. What I found about target users is that organizations leveraging the ACTIVE.com marketplace for promotion gain a distinct advantage.

You’ll succeed if your organization values an all-in-one platform for managing diverse programs and participant engagement.

2. Overall Strengths

Integrated solutions simplify complex activity management.

The software excels in offering a comprehensive suite for online registration, secure payments, and specialized modules for camps, facilities, and memberships. From my comprehensive analysis, its ability to integrate with ACTIVE.com boosts event visibility and participant reach significantly, helping you grow.

These strengths mean you can streamline operations and enhance participant engagement, driving efficiency across your programs.

3. Key Limitations

Customer complaints and transparency concerns.

While powerful, a notable limitation involves user reports of deceptive enrollment in the “Active Advantage” membership and associated hidden fees. Based on this review, some users also find reporting depth lacking, hindering precise effectiveness measurements for their programs.

I’d say these limitations are significant concerns that you must carefully weigh, potentially impacting your overall satisfaction.

4. Final Recommendation

ACTIVE Network is a strong contender for specific uses.

You should choose this software if you’re a medium to large organization in recreation or sports seeking an integrated solution for participant and activity management. From my analysis, your success hinges on accepting its fee structure and navigating potential complexities, focusing on its core strengths.

My confidence level is high for its target audience, but I suggest exploring alternatives if your needs are simpler or unique.

This ACTIVE Network review provides clear guidance for your software decision, helping you understand its fit and potential challenges.