The app Grandma Suzy the treasurer can run from her phone. Members sign themselves up, pay by card on autopilot, book parties in three taps. You only get a buzz when there's something genuinely worth your time.
Same Saturday. Different number of "did the Andersons pay yet?" texts.
→ Open a real working club · or start your own free in a minute
Plain English. No "modules" or "add-ons" you have to upgrade for. Every feature works on every plan — tiers only differ on how many households fit.
The big one. Card on file, charged each year automatically. ~85% of members set this up and you never chase them again. Stripe deposits to your bank — we never touch the money.
Families who can't drop $500 in March can split into 4 monthly chunks. Each installment auto-charges. You'll add members who'd otherwise say no.
When someone's late, the app texts + emails them on a schedule — 3 days, 7 days, 14 days. After a final warning, their gate code stops working and their account goes inactive. You only chase the 2–3 people who actually want to talk.
Member requests Saturday → you tap Approve → they pay → the day locks on the club calendar. Members can't double-book a date that's already taken. Auto party-rules acceptance built in (you write them once).
No passwords for Grandma to forget. Member types their phone → gets a 6-digit code → they're in. iOS and Android even auto-fill the code from the text.
Install Poolside on your phone (like a real app). Treasurer gets payment alerts. Party chair gets party requests. Gate manager gets gate alerts. Nobody gets buzzed about things that aren't theirs.
Members visit yourclub.poolsideapp.com — live the second you sign up. Put it in your email blast, your Facebook, on a flyer with a QR code.
They sign their own waivers. They add their kids. They update their phone number when it changes. They submit photos. They pay their dues. You stop being IT support.
Members tap their phone to unlock the gate. Full audit log. $250 setup + $25/mo. Works with the MENGQI-CONTROL panel; others case-by-case. (Skip this if you have a key-from-the-board manual gate.)
Stripe's optional. Stick with Venmo and the app still tracks who paid, sends reminders, and runs the rest of the club — just with a manual "yes I got the Venmo" tap from the treasurer. No lock-in.
Every signed application gets a PDF in your Drive. Master roster as a Sheet. One-way — even if you cancel Poolside, your records are still yours.
Photo gallery (admin-approved), donation thermometer, anonymous feedback inbox, sponsor logos, swim lessons, snack-shack tabs, guest passes — all included on every plan.
For real. We timed it.
Pick your name, your URL (yourclub.poolsideapp.com), your email. Done. No credit card. Your subdomain is live before you put your phone down.
Onboarding checklist walks you through dues prices, Venmo handle (or connect Stripe), invite your treasurer + secretary. Skip whatever doesn't apply.
Paste your apply link in your email blast / Facebook group / club website. Members do everything else themselves. Go swim.
Built for the volunteer treasurer who'd rather be at the pool. Tested by 150-household neighborhood clubs. Free for the 18-house HOA pool that just wants to stop sharing a Venmo password.
Every feature on every plan. The only thing that changes between tiers is how many households fit. Outgrowing the free tier means your club is growing — that's a good problem.
Stick with Venmo / check and these never apply — you only pay the subscription. Stripe transactions get a small fee on top of Stripe's 2.9%:
| Membership dues | 0.5% |
| Programs, swim lessons, snack-shack tabs | 1.5% |
| Parties, ticketed events | 2.0% |
| Donations | 0% — always |
| Late fees, reactivation | 5% |
Yes. No credit card needed to sign up, no time limit, no feature paywalls. If your club stays at 20 or fewer households forever, you stay free forever. We'll cover the ~$5/yr it costs us to keep your club running because (a) tiny clubs become loyal advocates and (b) when you grow past 20, we'd like to be the ones you upgrade with.
Annual dues are a chunk. A family looking at "$500 in March" might say no when "$125 per month, March–June" would be fine. Payment plans let you offer both. Each installment auto-charges the card on file. Most clubs see membership grow 10–20% the year they turn this on.
The app texts AND emails them on a schedule — 3 days late, 7 days, 14 days. After your final warning (configurable), their gate code stops working and their member home shows "renew to come back." You don't lift a finger except for the 2–3 people who actually want to talk it through.
Yep. Stripe is optional. With Venmo: members pay your @clubname handle, click "I paid" in the app, your treasurer confirms with one tap. The app still tracks who paid, sends reminders, and runs the rest of the club. Just no auto-recurring (Venmo doesn't support it). Most clubs offer both and let members pick.
That's literally the design brief. Admin pages avoid jargon ("slug," "endpoint," "JWT" — banned). Setup is a checklist on the dashboard, not a manual. Help articles substitute your real club name + URL. When something breaks, plain-English error messages tell you what to do next, not stack traces.
No app store. Members open yourclub.poolsideapp.com on their phone, tap "Add to Home Screen" once, and it looks and feels like a real app with your club's icon. No App Store delays, no Apple/Google fees, no install friction. Same for board members on the admin side.
Install Poolside on your phone, turn on push. Each board member has a role (treasurer, party chair, gate manager, etc.) and only gets buzzed about things matching their role. The party chair sees party requests; the treasurer sees payment alerts. The president can opt into everything or nothing.
Paid add-on. Members tap their phone at the gate, the app pings a compatible keyfob panel, gate opens. $250 setup + $25/mo. We've certified MENGQI-CONTROL panels; others case-by-case. Most clubs skip this for year 1 — manual keys still work fine, and the rest of Poolside is plenty without it.
Your data lives in our Supabase Postgres database AND is mirrored to your Google Drive folder as PDFs (signed waivers) + a Sheet (roster). You own the Drive folder. If you cancel, you keep all of it. The mirror is one-way — deleting in Poolside never deletes from your Drive.
New treasurer signs up, old one gets deactivated, every record is exactly where the old treasurer left it. No "where did Karen save the spreadsheet" archaeology. No fighting over Venmo passwords.
Not happy in the first 30 days of a paid plan? Email doug@poolsideapp.com — full refund, no forms, no exit interview. We'd rather you find the right tool than feel stuck.
Built by a pool board member who got fed up. Every feature in Poolside came from a "wouldn't it be nice if…" from a real volunteer. Got an idea? A pet peeve? A workflow we missed? Tell us — we read everything.
Name your club, pick your URL, send your members the link. Free up to 20 households, paid above. No card required to start. Cancel anytime — your data is yours.