How payments work

This is where the platforms differ in a way that affects every dues cycle.

GrowthZone payments run through GZ Pay, which is built on Stripe. GrowthZone offers an optional "fee recoupment" feature that uses a Stripe Connect pass-through model to add a platform service fee to each transaction — shifting that cost to the payer instead of having the association absorb credit card fees. GrowthZone itself distinguishes this from a "surcharge" in its support documentation; it's a gateway add-on fee at the platform level. The relevant detail for buyers is that GZ Pay is GrowthZone's own integrated payment processor, and credit card fees are a real line item to think through.

Chamber Operations supports multiple payment methods directly: Square and ACH bank transfer for automated, recurring payments, plus CashApp, Venmo, and Zelle. Members can pay through the method that's easiest for them, and recurring options work across the supported gateways without routing everyone through a single proprietary processor.

Neither approach is universally right. If your membership skews toward card payments and you want platform-level fee handling, GZ Pay's integration is genuinely tight. If your members already pay through methods like Venmo and Zelle and you want them to keep using those, Chamber Operations' broader payment-method support is the better fit.