Compare
How RootParks compares to
the vendors you’re using today.
We try to be honest about where the incumbents do well — most of the time, the same gaps show up at all of them. Here’s where they land.
Jump to a vendor
ActivityReg (DaySmart Recreation)
Mid-market parks-and-rec vendor with a long install base. Most useful in mid-size cities running heavy childcare + after-school programs.
Where they win
- +Strong scholarship + sliding-scale fee flows
- +Mature attendance + pickup-authorization for day camps
- +Decent staff reports + Form 2441 export
Where they fall short
- −Per-transaction surcharge passed to residents (~2.95% + $0.50)
- −Dated UI on both the resident catalog and the staff dashboard
- −Mobile catalog browse is rough — residents end up calling
- −No native pavilion-rental flow — paper waivers + manual booking
- −Refund workflow is a staff email queue, not self-serve
Why depts switch to us
- →Residents complain about surcharges every season
- →Council asks why the website looks like 2003
- →Staff are typing the same family info into three systems
CivicRec (CivicPlus)
Cleanest-looking incumbent. Often bundled with a CivicPlus government website contract, so the buy is from the city IT side rather than parks-and-rec.
Where they win
- +Modern resident UI relative to peers
- +Tight integration with the CivicPlus website CMS
- +Decent league + facility booking modules
Where they fall short
- −Catalog filtering is shallow — residents struggle to find the right program
- −Household accounts are partial — multi-payer breaks
- −Per-transaction surcharge (~3.5% + $0.50)
- −Tied to CivicPlus contract — hard to leave just RecManagement without leaving the whole bundle
Why depts switch to us
- →Catalog UX scores poorly with residents — Net Promoter is low
- →IT-driven procurement leaves parks-and-rec without product input
- →No memberships/passes outside of leagues
WebTrac (Vermont Systems)
Government incumbent. Used by a huge swath of US municipal parks departments. Dense, customizable, technically powerful, visually dated.
Where they win
- +Extremely deep configurability for unusual program structures
- +Best-in-class rentals + memberships modules
- +Reliable POS integration for rec-center front desks
- +Customer for life — switching is rare because data lives deep in their schema
Where they fall short
- −Resident UI is from another era — dense, slow, not mobile-friendly
- −Per-transaction fee passed to residents
- −Staff training is a multi-day commitment for new hires
- −No modern API or webhooks
Why depts switch to us
- →New parks director arrives and finds the resident catalog embarrassing
- →Modernization mandate from council or city manager
- →Staff retirement — institutional knowledge of WebTrac leaves with them
Active Network
Big-bank vendor. Aggressive surcharge model. Strong in adult sports + endurance events, less common in classic municipal parks-and-rec.
Where they win
- +Reach + name recognition for adult-sports events
- +Integrated timing + race-day services for endurance + tournaments
- +Decent payment processing
Where they fall short
- −Highest resident surcharges in the category (5–7%)
- −Catalog is event-list-shaped, not parks-and-rec-shaped
- −Reporting requires their analytics tool as a separate purchase
- −Customer complaints about hidden fees
Why depts switch to us
- →Surcharge anger from residents finally outweighs vendor inertia
- →Council wants a single platform for programs + rentals + leagues
Switching is easier than you think.
We’ll model your current vendor against RootParks side-by-side, including resident-surcharge savings and migration timeline.