Quick answer
Yes — Roster is a one-time-purchase alternative to Glue Up. It costs $19 once, while Glue Up runs ~$125+/mo — about $1,500 per year, every year. Self-hosted searchable directory with custom fields, chapters, CSV round-trips, renewal tracking and magic-link editing. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside Glue Up's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to Roster if you are an individual or small team paying Glue Up ~$125+/mo for work your own machine can do. One year of Glue Up runs past $1,500 — Roster pays for itself before lunch.
Stay with Glue Up if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. Roster does not try to replicate those.
Head to head
| Roster | Glue Up | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19 once | ~$125+/mo |
| Member data | Your SQLite file | Their cloud |
| Custom fields | Unlimited, free | Plan-gated |
| Members | Unlimited | Priced per contact tier |
| Self-serve profile edits | Yes | Yes |
| CSV import/export | Yes | Yes |
| Works offline / desktop | Yes | No |
| Source code | MIT, yours | Proprietary |
| 5-year cost | $19 | $7,500 |
Where Glue Up still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into Glue Up's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. Glue Up is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where Roster wins
- Price, permanently. $19 once versus $1,500/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- Member profiles. Photo, contact info, bio, status (active / pending / lapsed), and join and renewal dates.
- Custom fields per organization. Text, select or URL fields that appear on cards, in the table, in search and in CSV round-trips.
- Real search and filtering. Full-text search across names, emails, bios and every custom field, with filters by status, chapter or exact value.
The math
One year of Glue Up runs past $1,500 — Roster pays for itself before lunch.
- After 1 year: Roster has cost you $19 total — Glue Up has cost $1,500.
- After 3 years: Roster is still $19 — the subscription is at $4,500.
- After 5 years: Roster is still $19 — the subscription is at $7,500.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — Roster is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/member-directory-mvp. The $19 buys the packaged installer and 1-click setup; building from source is free.
Where does my member data live?
In a SQLite file you can copy, on your own server or in your user profile in desktop mode. Zero telemetry, zero external auth providers.
Is this a subscription in disguise?
No. $19 once, unlimited members and custom fields, no renewal.
Try Roster — $19, one time
Or get Roster plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.