Website for clubs and associations: what you need and what it costs

A good website for a club or association answers three questions within seconds: who are we, what is happening when and where, and how can people join or support us? You need neither an agency nor a large budget for this. With your own .ch domain, simple hosting and WordPress, a typical association spends around CHF 150 to 160 per year. More important than the technology is that the domain and all logins belong to the association, not to a private person.

What belongs on an association website?

Visitors are usually members, prospective members, parents, sponsors or the local council. Plan for this content from the start:

• Association details: name, purpose, registered office, contact address and, if available, the UID number.
• Board and contact persons, with role-based addresses instead of private email addresses.
• Dates: training sessions, rehearsals, events and the general meeting, with place and time.
• Getting involved: how to become a member, fees, trial sessions or a sign-up form.
• News and reports, so the site stays alive.
• Downloads: articles of association, annual report and forms as PDF.
• Donations and sponsorship: bank details, QR-bill or TWINT and a list of sponsors.
• Legal notice and privacy policy.

Tip: Start with a few pages you can reliably keep up to date. An outdated list of events does more damage than a short but current website.

Events, members’ area and donations

Events and registrations

In WordPress, a calendar plugin or a simple page with a list of dates is enough for a club calendar. Collect event registrations with a form plugin. Only ask for what you really need, such as name, email and number of people.

Members’ area

Minutes, member lists, training plans and internal documents do not belong on the public web. WordPress can protect pages with a password or show them only to logged-in users; for larger members’ areas with profiles there are specialised plugins. If your association already uses software for member management and invoicing, it is often easier to keep the login there and link to it from the website.

Donations

In Switzerland, three options usually cover donations: bank details with IBAN, a QR-bill as a PDF download (the old red and orange payment slips have no longer been valid since October 2022) and TWINT, if your association has an account for it. Do not store any payment data on the website. Whether donations are tax-deductible depends on whether the cantonal tax authority has exempted the association from tax because it serves the public good. Only say so if it applies.

Domain: .ch, .li, .org or .swiss?

The domain is the name people use to find your association and the basis for all email addresses. Short, without umlauts and easy to spell is better than complete: «fc-musterdorf.ch» rather than «fussballclub-musterdorf-und-umgebung.ch».

The .swiss extension is allocated by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM). For an association, the UID number given must belong to the association, and there must be a clear link between the association’s name and the domain. The holder must be the association itself, not its web agency. Every application is checked and then published for 20 days; only then is the domain allocated. An association that is not in the commercial register does not automatically have a UID. The Federal Statistical Office (FSO), which keeps the UID register, can tell you how to get one. According to OFCOM, market prices for .swiss are around CHF 115 to 170 per year (as of October 2026).

For most associations, .ch is the simplest and cheapest choice. Check who is registered as the holder: it should be the association, not the board member who happened to order the domain.

Email addresses for the board

With your own domain you get addresses such as president@your-club.ch or treasurer@your-club.ch. Set them up by role, not by person. When the treasurer changes, the address stays; only the password and forwarding change. That way neither correspondence nor access to the bank, federation or local council is lost.

• info@ for general enquiries, delivered to two people.
• president@, treasurer@ and secretary@ as separate mailboxes for the roles.
• Aliases or forwarding for coaches, group leaders or committees that only receive occasional mail.
• Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC in the DNS so the invitation to the general meeting does not end up in spam.

Roles and handover when the board changes

The most common problem with association websites is not the technology but a change on the board. Suddenly nobody knows where the domain is registered, who has the password or whose credit card pays for the hosting. A few rules prevent this:

1. Open the customer account with the provider in the association’s name, with a role address such as admin@ or treasurer@ as the login.
2. At least two people have access to hosting, domain and WordPress administration.
3. Store logins in a shared password manager, not in private notes.
4. In WordPress, every volunteer gets their own user account with a suitable role, for example Editor instead of Administrator. No shared logins.
5. Have invoices sent to the association’s address and pay them from an association account.
6. Keep a short handover record: change passwords, remove old user accounts and set up two-factor login again.

Tip: Put the expiry dates of the domain and hosting in the club calendar. A domain that is not renewed is deleted after a grace period and can then be registered by anyone.

Data protection: what associations should keep in mind

The revised Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) has applied to associations as well since 1 September 2023. As soon as your website processes personal data, for example through a contact or registration form, analytics tools or embedded services, explain this in a privacy policy. Some practical principles:

• Member lists with addresses, phone numbers or dates of birth only in the protected area, never public.
• Publish event photos only with the consent of the people who can be recognised, and for children with their parents’ consent. Many associations cover this when members sign up.
• Keep forms short and delete registration data once the event is over.
• List external services such as videos, maps or analytics tools in the privacy policy.
• Serve the website only over an encrypted connection (HTTPS).

The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) publishes information on the FADP on its website. These notes are general information, not legal advice; for specific questions, please consult a specialist.

Low-cost options compared

For many associations, WordPress on simple hosting is a good middle ground: the content belongs to the association, you can change provider at any time, and many volunteers already know the system.

Maintenance by volunteers

An association website is usually looked after alongside work and family. Set it up so that it stays secure with little effort:

• Turn on automatic updates for WordPress, plugins and themes, and use only a few widely used plugins.
• Choose a lightweight theme that works with the block editor. Then non-technical volunteers can change text and images too.
• Use the provider’s daily backups and make your own backup before larger changes.
• Keep a short guide in the members’ area: how to add an event or publish a report.
• Check once a quarter: are events, board members and contact details up to date?

Example budget for one year

This is what the budget for a small to medium-sized association with WordPress can look like. Prices are HostOn prices including VAT (as of October 2026):

The hosting renews at the same price. If the association only runs a single WordPress site, WordPress Säntis at CHF 10.90 per month is a cheaper alternative. Add costs for premium plugins, image rights or printed material if you need them.

At HostOn you install WordPress in a few clicks, and with a staging copy you can test changes before they go live. This lets the board keep the website current and secure with little effort.