Congressus alternative: how 4planning differs

Q: Is 4planning cheaper than Congressus?

From about a hundred members onwards, and the difference grows along with your number of members, because Congressus charges per member and 4planning per package. With 250 members it makes a difference of about €24 per month, with 1,000 members about €53. Current amounts can be found on the pricing page.

Who a Congress alternative looks, almost always looks in response to the bill: ten cents per member per month is not noticeable with a hundred members and is with a thousand. 4planning has existed since 2016 and is used by more than 200 organisations.

Congressus combines membership administration and finances with a member website and charges a fixed amount plus ten cents per member; 4planning charges per package with no costs per member. The larger your association, the further apart those two models drift.

Tailored to the type of association you are

A brass band holds rehearsals, a civic guard unit exercises, a football club plays matches. 4planning is tailored to what kind of organisation you are: for a musical society, “rehearsal” appears in the menu and in the reminder on your members' phones.

Congressus gives your association a website that members visit. 4planning gives it an environment where members reside. What you get in return instead of a site:

Members sign in and out for activities in the app, pay their subscriptions via Direct Debit or iDEAL, claim a bar shift and show their digital membership card at the door. Surrounding this are: training sessions or rehearsals with attendance tracking per member, ticket sales with scanning, news, polls and surveys, sponsors with packages and free tickets for them, Club TV for the screen in the clubhouse, a club shop, family accounts allowing a parent to manage everything for their child, and voice notes that transcribe your general meeting with the decisions and votes listed below. Committees are managed as groups, with their own documents and a dedicated group chat.

Compare ten association software packages side by side.

Why are associations looking for a Congressus alternative?

First the honest story: these are not replacements for each other. Congressus combines member administration and finances with a members website, and is strongly represented in study associations and student societies. Your website, your members and your administration all come from a single provider.

4planning does not have a website builder. It is an environment that members use themselves: calendar, attendance, communication, membership fees, bar duty shifts and ticket sales, via an app under the name of their own club.

The overlap is in the membership administration, the membership fees and the events. That is where they sit side by side, and that is the reason for this page.

The pricing model: fixed plus per member

This is the most important difference to calculate, because the two models diverge as growth occurs.

Congress charges a fixed amount plus €0.10 per member per monthStart € 29, Plus € 44, Pro € 54 and Enterprise € 124 per month, each plus those ten cents per member. On top of that come separate costs: € 0.095 per sent SMS and € 0.10 per payment.

4planning charges a flat fee per day with no per-member costs: Start £1.00, Plus £1.75 and Pro £2.50. That is £30.42, £53.24 and £76.04 per month. The packages run up to 250, 750 and 1,250 members respectively.

Prijzen gecontroleerd op 21 augustus 2026, exclusief btw.
Association	Start Congress	4planning
100 members	€ 39,00 p/m	€ 30,42 p/m (Start)
250 members	€ 54,00 p/m	€ 30,42 p/m (Start)
500 members	€ 79,00 p/m	€ 53,24 p/m (Plus)
1,000 members	€ 129,00 p/m	€ 76,04 p/m (Pro)

All amounts excluding VAT, from the pricing pages of both providers, checked on 21 August 2026. For Congressus, the costs per SMS and per payment are in addition to this.

The pattern: the larger your association, the further apart the models diverge. With 100 members, Congressus Start costs €39.00 per month compared to €30.42 for 4planning Start. At 250 members, that is €54.00 versus €30.42. At 1,000 members, €129.00 versus €76.04 for 4planning Pro, almost double. With Congressus, an additional €0.095 per text message and €0.10 per payment are charged on top of that. That is because Congressus charges per member and we charge per package.

Run the numbers with your own number of members and how many payments you process per year, because those ten cents per payment really add up with a membership fee collection of a thousand members.

What the first year really costs

Kosten van het eerste jaar bij een vereniging van 250 leden, prijzen per 23 augustus 2026, exclusief btw.
What you pay	Amount
Congressus Start, large amount	€ 348,00 per jaar
Congressus Start, 250 leden × € 0,10 per maand	€ 300,00 per jaar
Congressus Start, first year	€ 648,00
4planning Start, 9 months paid (3 months trial)	€ 273,78
4planning, first year	€ 273,78

On top of this, there is something else that is not included in any package price: €0.10 per payment and €0.095 per text message. For an association with a thousand members and two collection rounds per year, that is €200 in transaction costs. With 4planning, the member pays the service charges and the association keeps its full membership fee.

What Congressus has and we don't

One thing in particular, because it's a real asset: a member website. Congressus builds and hosts your association website in the same system as your member administration, including photo albums and forums. If you want your site and your administration with a single provider, that is a good reason to stay with Congressus. 4planning does not build websites, but does integrate with the site you already have, including WordPress: an enquiry submitted via your contact form arrives directly in your environment.

4planning doesn't have that. 4planning integrates with your existing website; we don't build it.

What you get with 4planning that’s a bit different

January 4planning app with your club's logo and colours, and on Pro, the club logo as an app icon on your members' home screen
Agenda and attendance, where members register and deregister themselves
Bar shifts and volunteer scheduling, where members claim a shift themselves
Ticket sales where members automatically see their member price
Membership fee by direct debit and iDEAL, with no per-payment fees incurred by us
A link to Sportlink for members, teams and matches

What it can earn back

Congressus charges €0.10 per payment. For an association with a thousand members and two collection rounds per year, that amounts to €200 in transaction costs, year after year.

At 4planning, the member pays the service charge and the association keeps its full membership fee. For the club, there are no transaction costs, regardless of how many members you collect from or how often.

In addition, ticket sales pay for themselves quickly. A club night with three hundred tickets yields more than an annual subscription costs, and you sell those tickets in the same environment where your members already are — including free tickets for your sponsors.

What moves with you when switching?

Your membership base moves with you. 4planning reads an export from Congressus via Excel or CSV, including your own fields. Request a demo to do that import with your actual export from Congressus rather than a sample file, and you will immediately see which columns are brought over and which ones you need to set up again.

Your groups will move with you, and are immediately usable: document permissions, messages to a single committee or team, and private tickets that are visible only to that group.

Your contribution moves along too, but your members will sign a new SEPA direct debit mandate. That is a single evening's work and it is unavoidable: a mandate is in the name of the collection agency.

What remains is stated below under “when Congressus is the better choice”. Take that into account before you decide, not after.

When is Congressus the better choice?

You want your website with the same provider. This is the clearest case. If you're looking for your website and administration in one, you are better off with them.
You are a study association or student society. They are strongly represented there and their offering is built around that, including things like commission structures and directories.
You have few members. Below a hundred members their joining fee is low, and then the difference is small.
You need forums or photo albums as part of your member site.
Your committee operates from the computer and members have to do very little themselves. Then with 4planning you're paying for an app that nobody opens.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for a single place that members can access themselves, with a fixed price that does not grow with your number of members, then that is precisely what 4planning has been built for. The larger your association becomes, the more difference that makes: in money and in the time your committee spends on registrations, reminders and payments.

Where your data is stored and who we help

Where the data is located. Data is stored on European servers, in an ISO 27001-certified hosting environment, and is not shared with systems or AI models outside Europe. Sensitive data is stored encrypted, with daily backups.

What happens to your member base. All club and member data remains the property of the organisation that enters it. It will not be sold, shared or used for commercial purposes.

If you get stuck. For ticketing, 4planning is available 24 hours a day, including on the evening of your event itself. For the app and other questions, on working days from 08:00 to 18:00. Outside of these hours, the assistant in the app explains the step and takes you to the right page. The app includes an assistant that views your own environment along with you.

Compare further. If the members' website plays a role, also compare with e-Captain, I write, AllUnited, Congress, Society, SportEasy and Sportlink. Or view compare association software packages side by side.

More about the features themselves: Membership administration, Contributions and payments, tickets en toegang, events, communication and branding and personalisation. Or view the prices and question one demo aan. Terug naar het overzicht van alle vergelijkingen.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good alternative to Congressus?

For Congressus there are two types of alternatives. If you want your member website and your administration with a single provider, you stay with Congressus. If you are looking for a fixed price without an amount per member, 4planning is an alternative: for 1,000 members £76.04 per month compared to £129.00, and without the £0.10 per payment that Congressus charges.

How much does Congressus cost per month?

Start £29, Plus £44, Pro £54 and Enterprise £124 per month, each plus £0.10 per member per month, excluding VAT. In addition, they charge £0.095 per SMS and £0.10 per payment.

Is 4planning cheaper than Congressus?

From about one hundred members onwards, and the difference grows alongside your number of members, because Congressus charges per member and 4planning per package. With 250 members it makes a difference of about €24 a month, with 1,000 members about €53. Current amounts can be found on the pricing page.

Does 4planning also build my association website?

No. 4planning links to your existing website, but does not build or host it. Anyone who wants a site and administration with a single provider is better off with Congressus.

Can members get their own club app?

Members download the 4planning app and see their own club's name, logo and colours inside it. On the Pro and Business packages, the club logo appears as the app icon on your members' home screens, making the club's app easily recognisable amongst their other apps. 4planning does not provide a separate listing per club in the App Store or Google Play. There, they manage their attendance, their membership fees and their tickets.

Can I take my member database with me when switching?

Yes. 4planning imports an existing member database via Excel or CSV, including custom fields. Request during a demo to perform that import with your actual export from Congressus rather than a sample file, and you will immediately see which columns are brought across.

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The prices and product information come from Congressus' own public pages, checked on 21 August 2026: their pricing page. If anything isn't quite right, let us know and we'll adjust it.

Would you like to see what it looks like when your members are in the system themselves? View the scheduling system for associations of compare ten association management software packages.

Is 4planning GDPR-compliant and where is the data stored?

Yes. 4planning data is stored on European servers, in an ISO 27001-certified hosting environment, and is not shared with systems or AI models outside Europe. It is stored encrypted and there is a daily backup. You determine yourself who sees which data per member and per group.

What kind of support do you get with 4planning?

For ticketing, 4planning is available 24 hours a day, including on the evening of your event itself. For the app and other queries, on working days from 08:00 to 18:00. Outside of these hours, the assistant in the app explains the step and takes you to the right page, and the knowledge base is available at help.4planning.nl.

Looking for a Congressus alternative?