My client is a non-profit and has a website and membership database on WildApricot. They pay to become a member and then have access to members-only content. The members can also view each others profiles and interact with each other there.
We would like to move that entire collection over and operate the website fully from Wix. I am not sure how to begin to migrate this database over. I want to be able to migrate login information as well.
I have scoured these forums and I can’t find much information about how to do this.
A lot of coding is involved to register users, etc.
I have migrated 3 wildapricot clients in my entire Wix code career and all 3 went right back to wildapricot after 8-12 months. (Due to limited functionality that WildApricot did offer, that Wix does not. So in the end the value of the WildApricot subscription ended up being worth it.)
Thanks for the reply. Can you give me more details about why your clients went back to WildApricot? What services did they need that Wix did not support?
Thanks, I am looking into it by following the links you shared. Did you ever come up with any soluion? I am thinking of calling wix to discuss with someone there.
Wildapricots member management is more robust and easier to maintain. Everything is unified where as in Wix every app or function is separate. Meaning there isn’t a singular dashboard to view and mantain everything.
One client assumed there would be custom branded admin app and member app on Wix. There is not. Not really. You can purchase the Branded App from Wix at $200 per month but not all the sections of the website are visible via the app, especially any coded or custom pages because they are not compatible.
Another client assumed their members would receive unlimited emails and notifications. Again, not the case. Wix only provides up to 200 email notifications per month then you have to purchase a package to send more. And even after purchasing any package the emails are not fully custom branded because the name Wix will still appear in different places, such as the sender details.
And my last client wanted to continue offering their members the ability to reserve tickets for their community events. Wix only offers the Wix Events App to assign tickets, allow check ins, etc. But Wix takes a 2.5% comission cut from each ticket sale.
Anyway, there is absolutely zero way to simply upload members and login information. The only way is to code something robust to handle this automation. And you need an experienced coder to oversee the process in case the code glitches or stops in the middle of registering each of your members.
The only thing you can import are Contacts. But if you import the list as a Contact instead of a Member then the moment that person attempts to sign up as a new member, Wix stops the registration process and forces the user to validate their email address. So if the user was in the middle of paying for a membership or reserving an Event Ticket, Wix breaks the sale, sends the email to verify their email address and then sends the person to the Home page. This is an expected behavior according to Wix and is not customizable.
In my years of experience, the absolute best way is to simply have members register themselves again. They were going to log onto your website anyway ——- might as well have them enter their own email and password to create a membership. Then it would be so much easier to code Wix Paid Plans API to trigger a paid membership plan and assign it to the user the first time they login.
Hundreds of thousands of membership sites get created on Wix. A lot of them come from WordPress. Same problems. No import ability.
In all the membership sites I have coded it is so much easier to import their files and details onto custom databases, have the user Register as a member, then use code to “match up” their info to their corresponding account.
This is especially helpful if there is more than 1 person that handles the account membership info ……. like …. Parent, Spouse, Child situation. Or Company, Agent and Employee situation.
Plus …. it always a good idea to change a password often. So might as well use the opportunity that you get to sign up again. If the person had forgotten their password to begin then they would have had to go through the reset process, see the Wix branding that is not changable in the reset, etc.
I’ve being doing this too long to know what visitors like and don’t like, what works efficiently in code and what doesn’t, etc.
I spoke to Wix and they said that I will have to import existing members via a CSV and then they will get email prompting them to change their email addresses. I can only import 50 at a time, but my client’s membership is only around 500, so that won’t be too agonizing.
I’m hoping the cost of any additional plugins to give them the functionality they need will offset the cost of their WildApricot subscription, but I am going to propose to them that we switch fully over to Wix. I’ll have to set all existing members that I import up as “members” through the end of this year and then when the new billing year for memberships starts in 2025, I will assign them all a “pricing plan” and they will pay for their new subscription in order to have access to the member’s only area. It seems do-able but…we’ll see what they say!
For anyone else that comes here looking for this answer, here are the links that the Wix representative sent me about my issue (I can only post two links at a time so I’ll post the other two links right after this):
So back to what I originally mention, you can import as Contacts.
Why are you going to try to convince them to switch over completely to Wix? Is there something they are missing or needing that Wix can provide? Or is it just to save on their monthly membership fees?
When they receive that notification to confirm their email address and invite them to register on the site, be sure to disclose your o your client that there will be Wix branding.
Yes, you advised correctly at the beginning, I just had so much more to learn to understand that. I am more of a designer than a developer, so some of this takes me more time to understand.
Thank you for that tip about the wix branding.
The reason I advise they switch is that the design of WildApricot is so out-dated and my client was very frustrated with the lack of customization ability. They hated the design and wanted something more modern. Their current site has been untouched for almost a decade (!!!) so they wanted a total overhaul. The database of members is pretty straightforward and not too large so I think they won’t have the issue like you said your clients had with difficulty handling the account membership or anything. I also don’t think that they will send more than 200 emails per month. I hope they don’t mind the wix branding, but if they do, we will just stay with WildApricot.
I think the biggest reason is that WildApricot, to them, is aesthetically dated and too rigid in regards to design.
Funny, it sounds exactly as we both where having the same client @Ruby.
Wildapricot is absolutely outdated.
But it works!
My client has nearly 500 members, what means the next pricing-steps will increase the monthly payment from 140 to 240$ and the would like to avoid that.
But the main thing is the poor design quality.
Did you think about inserting CSS to redesign inside the existing system?
Or go completly oldschool and use images to “design” inside. shivvvver
