According to the 2026 MemberWise Digital Excellence Report, 79% of membership bodies now offer online learning or CPD, while more than half run formal assessments online. Yet the proportion of member apps offering CPD or eLearning functionality has fallen sharply, dropping by 18 percentage points to just 9% – a decline the report’s authors describe as surprising.
Demand for digital CPD is growing, but fewer member apps appear to support it. MemberWise suggests that some members prefer to complete CPD in person or on a desktop machine. That may be true in some cases. But it is also worth asking whether CPD-only apps, especially those lacking integrations, ever delivered a genuinely useful CPD experience in the first place.
A member app can make CPD easier by bringing learning resources, CPD tracking, events, payments and member data into one connected experience. When integrated with an organisation’s CRM, AMS or learning management system, it can automatically record activity, reduce manual administration and make it easier for members to discover and purchase relevant learning. When delivered in the context of an organisation’s fuller content estate, this discovery is expanded to the articles, blogs, podcasts, and documents that confirm the organisation as essential far beyond credentialling.
The question isn't whether an app should replace desktop or in-person CPD. It's whether the app can remove friction from wider CPD and membership journeys to help members discover learning, access it when appropriate, record progress and understand what to do next. Where CPD is often a key revenue centre, organisations have significant incentive to facilitate speedy completion so that the next learning opportunity might be purchased.
For members, CPD friction looks familiar: resources scattered across a website, a learning portal and a separate events calendar; no simple way to record what's been completed; a scramble before a compliance deadline to prove a year's worth of activity happened.
For the membership body, it looks different, and costs more. Completions get logged manually or not at all, so compliance reporting relies on spreadsheets and chasing people. There's little visibility into what members are actually engaging with, which makes it hard to know what to build more of. And every point where someone has to leave the app, find a card and fill in a checkout form is a point where a CPD course, an event ticket or a membership upgrade doesn't get bought.
This is also an important distinction when thinking about member value. The MemberWise 2026 Ultimate Guide to Member Value confirms that member value comes from the outcomes enabled by member benefits. Applied to CPD, the value isn't simply having a CPD log in an app. It's making professional development easier to access, complete and evidence as part of the wider member experience.
Built properly, a CPD experience can do much more than make it easier to log learning.
More CPD purchased: When resources, courses and progress tracking sit in one place, the moment a member completes one activity becomes a natural opportunity to recommend the next without waiting weeks to include it in a generic email. Members who complete a course are ready to purchase the next one.
More events and memberships sold alongside it: A member actively engaging with CPD is also a relevant audience for related events, additional resources or an upgraded membership tier.
Useful data without manual input: The MemberWise Digital Excellence Report found that 85% of membership bodies use AMS- or CRM-linked automation – the highest proportion recorded for any system. However, much of this automation still focuses on basic processes such as subscription non-payment. Fewer than one in ten organisations use more sophisticated automation connected to areas such as engagement scoring or course completion.
That gap is where a properly connected CPD app can earn its place. Together, these capabilities create both a commercial channel and a reliable flow of member data – a much stronger case to take to the board than CPD logging alone.
The Chartered Institute of Building's app, CIOB Connect, built on Cantarus’s MemConnect member app platform, is a working example of CPD delivered as part of an integrated system. Members access CPD in the app through an LMS integration alongside news, policy updates, events and a searchable member directory, all from a personalised dashboard. A dedicated CPD log sits among the app's menu tiles, and a digital membership card with wallet support removes friction from renewals.
The results speak for themselves. CIOB Connect has passed its original 20% member uptake target, with over 18,000 downloads. As Kate Macbeth, CIOB's Director of Marketing and Customer Experience, put it, the app has become "a one stop shop for news, events, CPD content and member discussion."
CIOB is now exploring richer CPD journeys building on this foundation. That is the direction worth planning for from the outset: CPD as one part of a connected member experience, rather than a standalone feature competing for attention within an already crowded app.
We chose Cantarus because they understood the unique challenges of a membership body like ours. The MemConnect platform gave us the flexibility we needed without the time, cost, or complexity of a full bespoke build.
A few structural decisions can make a significant difference.
Log CPD automatically: When completing a resource, course or event in the app writes the activity directly back to the AMS or CRM, members no longer need to remember to record it themselves. Compliance reporting becomes less dependent on manual entry too.
Maintain one resource library: Content should be drawn from a single, well-maintained source rather than managed separately across the website, member portal and app. Members can find what they need more quickly, while internal teams have only one library to update.
Recommend the next step at completion: Immediately after someone completes a CPD activity is a natural time to surface a relevant course, resource or event, while they are already engaged. Where member data, interests and previous activity are connected, those recommendations can become increasingly relevant and personalised rather than relying on the same promotion being shown to every member.
Make payment as simple as possible: Apple Pay, Google Pay and other streamlined payment options can reduce the number of steps involved in purchasing a course or event. This is particularly valuable for the lower-value, higher-frequency transactions often associated with CPD.
Send data where it is needed automatically: Completion records, attendance information and payment data should flow into the CRM or AMS without anyone re-entering them. This gives teams more reliable information for compliance reporting, engagement analysis and renewal targeting.
Yes. When a member app is integrated with an LMS, CRM or AMS, completed learning, events and other eligible activity can be written back to the member’s record automatically.
Yes. When a member app is integrated with an LMS, CRM or AMS, completed learning, events and other eligible activity can be written back to the member’s record automatically.
By bringing learning, progress tracking and relevant recommendations into the same experience members already use for events, content and membership services, organisations can reduce friction around finding and recording CPD.
By bringing learning, progress tracking and relevant recommendations into the same experience members already use for events, content and membership services, organisations can reduce friction around finding and recording CPD.
Yes. A connected app can pass completion, attendance, payment and engagement information into the CRM or AMS, reducing manual reconciliation and creating a more complete picture of member behaviour.
Yes. A connected app can pass completion, attendance, payment and engagement information into the CRM or AMS, reducing manual reconciliation and creating a more complete picture of member behaviour.
A CPD experience that helps sell more courses, events and memberships – while giving your organisation reliable data without constant chasing – offers much more than a digital record of completed learning.
Build CPD as a connected part of the wider member journey, rather than a feature bolted on in isolation, and it has a far better chance of becoming something members value and the organisation continues to invest in.
Whether you're reviewing an existing member app or considering what a future app should deliver, the starting point isn't simply adding CPD functionality. It's understanding how learning, events, payments, member data and your CRM or AMS can work together as one connected journey.
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