Why Membership Software Isn’t the Same as a Membership System

When practices compare membership software, the conversation often starts and ends with price.

That’s understandable. Software is easy to compare. Systems are not.

But after working with thousands of practices and watching membership plans grow from zero to thousands of active members, one thing has become very clear:

The practices that scale don’t buy low cost tools. They invest in systems (Like BoomCloud™).

 

I have data from thousands of practices in the USA. The practices that spend less than $350/month on their membership software stall out at 15 member patients (just 15, that is weak!) Practices that invest over $350/month reach 100 active patients and beyond (I want to spend my time with practices that invest for scale).

Wood River Dental is a practice that has used BoomCloud™ for 5 years. They have just over 1,000 patients paying $55/mo. That is over $55,000/mo whether they do dentistry or not. Another optometry clinic just hit 300 active members paying $35/mo per member, that is over $10,500/month in predictable recurring revenue.

Since adopting BoomCloud, our practice grew from 30 to 400 members in 12 months.” — Dr. Nelson

Here’s why the “System” distinction matters.

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Onboarding, Adoption, and Customer Success Matter More Than Software

Yes, I said it. I don’t really care about software features, all I care about is that practices have SUCCESS on the BoomCloud™ Platform. Most membership software platforms focus on features:

• Feature #1 that helps your practice set up memberships plan

• Feature #2 that helps you attract patients
• Feature # 3 blah blah blah

They often give you a software tool then peace out! Then you’re on your own.

BoomCloud takes a very different approach.

We invest heavily upfront to help practices succeed:

• Guided onboarding and system setup

• Unlimited coaching on pricing, positioning, and rollout

• Continued monitoring and optimization – We literally are proactively reaching out to practices daily to help them succeed. 

• A customer success team focused on adoption, not just support tickets

Why? Because a membership plan that isn’t adopted doesn’t matter how cheap the software is or what features a software may have.

Execution is what drives outcomes and execution requires people, process, and systems working together.

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ROI Is the Metric That Actually Matters

The real question isn’t:

“How much does the software cost?”

It’s:

“What does the system produce?”

Across our customer base, we consistently see:

• Membership patients spend 2×–4× more than PPO patients

• Recurring revenue compounds month over month (Top practices have thousands of patients and millions in recurring revenue)

• Software costs become a shrinking percentage of revenue as plans grow

At scale, the conversation naturally shifts from cost to return.

*Attracting high quality patients that say yes to treatment is how sustainable practices think not in terms of expense, but in terms of ROI.

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Scale Changes Everything

As membership plans grow, complexity grows with them.

More members means:

• More billing activity

• More renewals and expirations

• More refunds and edge cases

• More operational risk

This is where the difference between a “software tool” and a system becomes obvious.

BoomCloud is built to scale:

• More members = more support from our team

• More volume = more coaching and optimization

• More complexity = continued product investment

Lightweight tools may work at small scale.

Infrastructure is required at real scale.

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Innovation Is a Collective Advantage

As practices scale individually and collectively, BoomCloud™ reinvests that success back into the platform.

This is how innovation happens:

• Patient Marketplace: A listing site that uses SEO to attract patients and direct them straight to your membership plan (Yes, this is live today!)

• B2B outreach tools: An AI system that automatically Identifies and contacts small business owners in your zip code & educates/invites them and their employees to join your membership plan (Yes, this is live as well)

• New integrations and workflows: We are constantly analyzing what we have built and enhancing existing systems within BoomCloud™
  

• Patient Financing Automation: BoomCloud will automatically identify patients that have treatment but have not accepted it and will invite them to a payment plan that covers their treatment
• AI Integration & Workflows: AI is moving fast and our team is using it every day to improve BoomCloud™
• Team Rewards Program: A system that we developed that uses psychology and gamification to motivate your team members to help you grow your program – Coming Soon!
• BoomCloud Desktop Buddy: A desktop app that shows you the uninsured patients on your schedule and allows you to send them a text or email to educate/invite them to join your plan – Coming Soon

• Continuous improvements based on real-world use at scale

Software innovation isn’t free or cheap.

It requires ongoing development, infrastructure, and support funded by sustainable economics.

That investment benefits every practice on the platform. Pretty cool huh?

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Why Cheap Software Struggles Long Term

Lower-priced software can survive early stages. I have watched dozens of my competitors come and go because they charged too little and couldn’t support their customers at scale. BoomCloud™ has been in business for over 10 years and you don’t survive that long and continue innovating and scaling practices with cheap pricing.
Cheap pricing also attracts practices that don’t adopt or become successful. We are all business owners and we all have to spend time or money on marketing to attract new customers, Why would you invest financial & marketing resources on practices/patients/clients that don’t adopt or don’t say yes to treatment? Pricing often attracts the wrong or right customer type.

I have analyzed thousands of practices and one data point remains the same after 10 years of business. Clients that pay for cheap software get cheap results, Clients that pay for quality software, systems and people, get top results. Our top practices have thousands of members generating millions in recurring revenue.

As user bases grow, reality sets in:

• Support costs rise

• Infrastructure demands increase

• Engineering requirements expand

Without sustainable pricing, platforms stall, stagnate, or disappear.

BoomCloud™ is priced intentionally to:

• Support a growing customer base

• Invest in long-term innovation

• Be a stable partner as practices scale

This isn’t about being the cheapest option. It’s about being the option that’s still standing when growth actually happens.

Your ROI with BoomCloud™ as Your Scale:

 

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The Bottom Line

Membership software helps you manage a plan with low volume.

A membership system like BoomCloud™ helps you build & scale one with thousands of members and a lot of recurring revenue.

BoomCloud isn’t priced like a tool, it’s priced like infrastructure for scaling predictable, recurring revenue  and for practices serious about long-term growth, that distinction makes all the difference.

P.S.

If you’re a BoomCloud™ client reading this and you have 100+ membership patients, congrats — you did exactly what the system was designed to do. Nice work.