Custom vs white-label
Your members' whole year in one app, with your association's name on it
Association platforms sell the branded app as an upgrade, often inside their own shared app or under their own developer account, on contracts with built-in increases and long notice periods. Baal builds the member app around your organisation and publishes it under your name: a deposit to start, released in stages, the balance monthly, no contract that renews itself, and a team you reach directly on WhatsApp or Telegram.
Flexible payment on every project: a low entrance fee, then monthly payments that suit a growing business, delivered in phases. We agree the terms around your budget.
Where your app is published
- Published under your Apple account
- Published under your Google account
- Bots, notifications and enquiries
- Cards and wallets worldwide
Store accounts are opened in your name and stay yours. Names and marks belong to their owners. We build with these tools; no partnership, endorsement or certification is implied.
Everything your members and your office need, in one place
This is what the association platforms sell, and what your members have come to expect. We build it around how your organisation actually works, connected to the systems your office already runs.
Member directory and profiles
Searchable by name, grade, region and expertise, with privacy settings members control.
Renewals and dues
Reminders, one-tap renewal and payment through your own gateway, reconciled to your finance system.
Events, tickets and check-in
Programmes, tickets, QR check-in, speaker pages and the recordings afterwards.
Chapters, committees and groups
Regional and special-interest spaces with their own news, files and discussion.
CPD and certificates
Courses, attendance, credits and certificates issued from real records.
News, messaging and announcements
Push notifications and messages that reach members where they are, not in an inbox they ignore.
Mentoring and member matching
Connect members who can help each other, by interest, career stage or location.
Donations and sponsorship
Campaigns, sponsor visibility and payments through your own accounts.
Resources and member benefits
Documents, discounts, partner offers and job boards behind the member login.
Connected to your office systems
Membership database, CRM, accounting and email working together rather than re-keyed.
Roles, permissions and audit
Staff, volunteers and chapter leads each see what they should, with a record of who changed what.
Reporting for the board
Membership, renewals, attendance and engagement in reports you can put in front of the committee.
And whatever your association does that no platform has thought of: awards, elections, accreditation, a members' marketplace. It is built for you, so it fits.
Want an app like these?
Pick a well-known app and we will build the version your business needs.
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How you pay for it
The same monthly rhythm a platform would put you on, spent on something you own and can change. Ask for the terms; we set them around your budget.
A deposit to begin
A modest deposit and work starts. You are not asked for the full fee before anything exists.
Released in stages
The core goes live first and each stage adds what you asked for. Working software in the first weeks, not a reveal at the end.
The balance monthly
The rest is paid monthly as the stages land, on terms agreed in writing. When it is paid, it is yours. Nothing renews, nothing rises by contract.
Why build it with Baal instead of renting a platform
The platforms are competent. These are the things they do not offer.
A budget your committee can approve
A modest deposit starts the build and the balance is paid monthly as each stage goes live, which fits a budget cycle. No annual escalator, no contract that renews itself, and it stops one day because the app is yours.
A team your office can message any day
WhatsApp and Telegram reach the people building it. Questions answered when asked. A change your members ask for lands in days, not in a ticket queue or a quarterly release.
Built around your membership, not a template
Your grades, your chapters, your renewal rules, your CPD scheme. Nothing is "not on the roadmap"; if your association needs it, we build it.
Your listing, your data, your members. We keep none of it.
Published under your association's own developer accounts. Code handed over on full payment. Data in accounts in your name. Some platforms publish your app under their own name or delete your data when you leave; we cannot, because none of it is ours.
Custom apps for associations and membership organisations
Associations, alumni networks, chambers and federations already spend serious money on membership software. The mobile app is usually the part that disappoints — a container app shared with every other customer, or a branded one published under the platform's developer account and sold as an add-on whose price is never printed.
Meanwhile the contract renews, rises, and hands your data back as a spreadsheet. A custom member app costs a comparable amount and removes every one of those.
Member app for iPhone and Android, with the web portal and admin tools behind it. Connected to the membership database, CRM or accounting system you already run rather than replacing them, and published under your own Apple and Google accounts. Dues, tickets and donations go through your gateway.
A deposit starts the work. The balance is paid monthly as each stage goes live — which fits a budget cycle better than a contract that renews and rises by itself.
How the association and event platforms compare, in their own documents
One fact per platform from its own contract, pricing page, blog or app-store listing on the date shown. In this category the branded-app upgrade is almost never priced publicly, so the contract terms matter more than the headline.
| Platform | Who owns the app listing | What their own material says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hivebrite | Your own store accounts; the mobile app is a paid extension. | Its Master Subscription Agreement makes subscription fees subject to a 6% increase per year, makes payment obligations non-cancelable and non-refundable, renews automatically unless 90 days' notice is given, and returns your data on written request within 90 days as a CSV or Excel file. |
|
| Glue Up | Shared "My Glue" app by default; branded apps published under Glue Up's developer account. | Customer-branded apps on Google Play list Glue Up as the developer. Its organisation agreement says that once an account is terminated Glue Up may permanently delete the account and all data associated with it. |
|
| Bizzabo | Shared attendee app by default; custom-branded app listed as an add-on. | Its pricing is per user with a three-user minimum, billed annually, and the custom-branded event app appears among the add-ons rather than in the plan. |
|
| Whova | Shared container app only. | Whova argues against white-label apps as a category. Its blog says most white-label event apps see download rates under 30% against 70% to 90% for its shared app, and presents the container app as the better buy. |
|
| Baal | Your own Apple and Google accounts, both platforms. | Built around your membership structure and connected to the systems you already run. A deposit to start, the balance monthly as stages go live, no annual increase, no auto-renewal. Code, accounts and data are yours on full payment. | Our terms, and every quote we send. |
Every statement about another company is taken from that company's own published material on the date shown, and is written in our own words. Platforms change their plans and terms often; if you find a row that is out of date, tell us and we will correct it. No prices appear here: every job is quoted individually.
Why trust us with it
No borrowed logos. A team you can reach in a minute, decades of understanding how systems fit together, and everything agreed in writing before we start.
A team with decades between us
Baal is a growing team of around ten, in one office and expanding, with decades of collective experience across the internet, advertising, code and connecting systems. Generating code is easy now. Knowing what to build, and what breaks when it is wrong, is not.
We connect the whole thing
Apple and Google developer accounts, payment gateways, hosting, APIs and the platform you already run, set up in your name and joined together properly.
Everything in writing
Scope, fee, timescale and payment terms before work starts. Stages you can see and test. Code, accounts and data handed over on full payment.
Instant contact, fast changes
WhatsApp and Telegram go straight to the team. A question is answered when you ask it, and a change you want lands in days: not a ticket answered in three days and an upgrade scheduled seven weeks out.
Where the platforms are genuinely good
The same documents show real strengths, and a fair comparison says so.
Hivebrite
Its agreement is unusually open: the increase, the notice period and the data-return terms are all in a public document rather than a signed order form, and the app-store accounts are the customer's own.
Glue Up
It is a complete association management system, with membership, events, finance and email in one product, which is more than an app on its own.
Bizzabo
Its plan covers unlimited events and registrations, with an open API listed for building your own connections.
Whova
Its point is fair: a shared app that attendees already have from other events is easy to adopt. Our answer is an app your members use all year, not only at the conference.
How we work
- 01
Talk
You tell us what you need, on WhatsApp, Telegram or the form, and you are talking to the team from the first message. We ask questions until we understand the problem properly — usually the same day.
- 02
Quote
We put the scope, the fee and the timescale in writing before any work begins, with payment terms that fit your budget: staged, monthly or spread over time. No surprises later.
- 03
Build
We build in stages and show you working software as it progresses, not only at the end.
- 04
Support
After release we stay on for updates, fixes and changes as the business moves. Ask for a change and it lands in days, not a ticket answered next week and scheduled for next quarter.
Frequently asked questions
They will if it does something they need all year: renewals, the directory, chapter news, CPD records, event tickets. A shared event app is opened during the conference and forgotten. Where part of the audience prefers the browser, the same backend serves a web portal too.
Yes. We document the architecture, hosting, data residency, access controls and backup arrangements for the system we build, in writing, and design to the standard your sector requires. Because the system is yours, the answers are about your infrastructure, not a vendor's shared platform.
Yes, and often you do not need to leave it. The app can connect to your existing membership database and CRM, so the office keeps its tools and members get a proper app. If you do want to move, migrating members, records and history is part of the project.
Platforms rarely publish the upgrade price, and the contract usually adds an annual increase and an auto-renewal. Our quote is a fixed project fee and an optional support plan, in writing: a deposit to begin, then monthly payments as the stages land, sized to your budget cycle. Put the two side by side over three years and decide.
You do. The app is published under your organisation's own developer accounts, the code is yours on full payment, and data lives in accounts in your name. If you stop working with us, everything keeps running and any developer can take it on.
The timescale is agreed in writing with the quote. A first release with the directory, renewals and events is usually weeks rather than months, with further modules staged after it.
Other comparisons
Ready to build something?
Tell us what you need. WhatsApp and Telegram reach the team directly, we reply with questions, then a written quote — no obligation, nothing to buy here. Good work is priced properly, and paying for it is flexible: a low entrance fee, then monthly payments that suit a growing business.