Whether you want to build a community or earn money by launching courses, a feature-riched membership WordPress plugin can help you increase engagement.
By allowing visitors to become members, you enable customers to engage with your brand in exchange for perks, access to post pages, exclusive content, discounts, courses, coupon codes, and more. The membership site also adds extra revenue if you charge your customers or members a subscription fee.
A membership site is an add-on for creators who don’t want to operate an eCommerce store; instead, they can sell online courses or online coaching using a membership site.
Building a membership site might seem complicated, but using the right platform, you can easily create one using a dedicated membership website builder or a CMS that offers functionality or membership plugins.
Thanks to User-friendly platforms such as WordPress, helps you easily create one using membership plugins.
This post will discuss some of the best WordPress membership plugins for building a membership site. Let’s dive in.
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What is a WordPress Membership Plugin?
A WordPress membership plugin is a tool that allows you to turn your WordPress site into a membership site. A membership site is a site that will enable only registered members to access certain premium content or features. This could include anything from premium articles and downloads to private forums and selling online courses to member-only event listings.
A membership plugin will usually include a range of features to help you manage your membership site, such as the ability to accept payments, create member profiles, and restrict access to content. Many WordPress membership plugins are available, so choosing one that meets your needs is essential.
This article will give you an overview of some of the best WordPress membership plugins on the market.
Why should you add a Membership Plugin to WordPress Membership Site?
WordPress membership plugins help you share exclusive content with your premium followers. The plugins for WordPress help make it easier to make paid member subscriptions, create email lists, and collect information from your customers.
It allows you to create different membership levels, from free to paid member subscriptions. You can sell online courses or products with recurring or one-time access to post pages, digital content, and more.
There are many benefits of adding a membership plugin to your WordPress site. Some of the benefits include:
- Creating a Stream of Recurring Revenue: A membership plugin can help you create a recurring revenue stream by charging users a recurring subscription fee to access your content or features.
- Set User Permission: You can publish exclusive content for restricted members based on their membership levels.
- Remainder Automation: It sends an auto reminder to all the members to renew their membership, saving you time to contact them manually individually.
- Control Drip content: It allows you to restrict the release of a specific amount of content to retain members.
- Distribute coupon codes for discounts: It helps to improve your brand’s marketing and encourage members to purchase by influencing their decisions with values for a limited period.
- Multiple membership levels: You can create unlimited membership levels and offer a free trial plan for the new user.
What do you look for in a Membership WordPress Plugin?
With thousands of membership plugins available for your WordPress membership websites, picking the right one can initially seem overwhelming. A few factors must be considered before picking the right WordPress membership plugin.
Ease to Use
Membership plugins should be packed with features and be easy to use, even for beginners. Further, the plugin should also be compatible with other plugins and themes installed on your WordPress website.
It should also offer a proper guide to help set up and excellent customer support to solve any technical issues.
Payment gateways
One of the goals of building a membership site is to generate revenue. Thus, the membership plugins need to accept payments online.
As each membership plugin provides different payment gateways, consider the popular payment gateways your customers prefer to make it easier for their payment.
If you plan to reach an international audience, it’s best to pick WordPress membership plugins that support payment gateways such as Paypal, Stripe, and Authorize.net to collect payments quickly.
In addition, if your membership site targets local audiences, allowing local credit card acceptance can be the best feature for you.
Customer Support
Integration of plugins with other plugins is a common issue many site owners encounter while setting up their plugins. Choosing one that provides reliable customer support is essential to guarantee smooth installation and integration.
In addition to having good product knowledge, customer support should be reachable via multiple channels and available whenever needed. As downtime might cause financial loss and member dissatisfaction, you’d certainly avoid it.
Further, choose one with customer support included in the purchase price and not sold separately. As support plays an important role, it is important to choose the membership plugin that provides premium customer support 24/7.
Content Restriction Options
You can choose to display content based on the membership levels of your users. The membership plugins allow you to hide content on posts, pages, custom post types, media, coupon codes, discounts, and other content.
For example, if you provide free membership levels that only allow access to certain content and pages, paid member subscriptions allow access to the content on your website.
In addition to the above, you want an intuitive and user-friendly plugin so you can quickly set it up and make any necessary changes.
Next, consider the level of customization the plugin offers. Look for a plugin that allows you to customize membership levels, payment options, access control, and user profiles. Additionally, make sure the plugin is secure.
Check for built-in security features such as two-factor authentication, password protection, and data encryption.
Finally, look for a plugin that offers helpful customer service and technical support. This will ensure you get any help you need in case of any issues.
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List of 13 Best Membership WordPress Plugins
We’ve narrowed down the best WordPress membership plugins based on their functionality and features. To decide the best membership plugin, here is the list of best WordPress membership plugins for your membership sites-
1. MemberPress
MemberPress is a premium membership plugin that generates revenue from your paid member subscriptions by selling online courses, digital downloads, and other exclusive content.
The plugin has a professional support team, is easily set up, and integrates with other WordPress plugins like bbPress for creating p
assword-protected membership sites. You can set up multiple membership levels and customize the pricing page.
In addition, it also has a content restriction feature to limit access to post pages, custom post types, files, downloads, and categories according to membership levels. The automated billing system sends the easy remainder to your members to renew their plans, and it automatically revokes or renews the membership based on customer payments.
Features:
- Easy integration with popular plugins like Mailchimp, AWeber, GetResponse, Elementor, Memberpress courses, MonsterInsights, and more.
- Built-in support with popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and more.
- Customizable checkout options
- Unlimited coupon generation, control when they expire, and customize your coupon codes.
- Create dynamic pricing pages for your membership sites.
Pros:
- Allow content restriction access to posts pages, content, menus, tags, categories, and more.
- Allow creating unlimited membership levels with customized pricing.
- Built-in advance reporting and relevant health of your business.
- Powerful Learning management system to create online courses.
- Easy setup with Wizard and ReadyLaunch page maker.
Pricing: The basic plan starts at $359 per year.
2. WiserNotify
Wisernotify is a premium WordPress plugin and one of the best popup notification marketing tools.
A WordPress membership site requires users to generate revenue and sales. That’s where Wisernotify comes in. While Wisernotify isn’t a membership plugin, it can help to increase members for your membership website.
You can use WiserNotify to showcase notifications, real-time users, and many more that capture visitors’ attention. The addition of social proof notification increases sales and trust among visitors and influences their decision to purchase your courses or digital downloads.
You can showcase recent courses purchased, recent courses viewed and live members count, the live member making purchases, and the conversions count of your course. In addition, you can showcase the notification in popups, Inline text, feed, and more.
It can be integrated with 200+ business tools, including payment gateways, emails, platforms, software, and more. Further, it has 50+ pre-made templates, advanced reporting, supports 30+ languages, and more.
Features:
- Set Clickable CTA and Inbuilt data collector form.
- Notification level settings and A/B testing of multiple variants.
- Advanced reporting to track goals and notification performance.
- Connect with 200+ Business tools and auto-capture conversions.
- Get branded dashboard and manage your clients.
Pros:
- 50+ Template designs
- 30+ Language Support
- Target new visitors and notifications on multiple websites.
- Set delay between notifications and display time.
- Scroll and exit intent-based targeting.
Price: The free version provides basic features, but the plan costs $16 monthly if you need advanced features.
3. WooCommerce Memberships
WooCommerce is one of the best WordPress membership plugins that provide essential eCommerce functionality like storefront creation, product listing, and order management.
It allows acceptance of payments from popular payment gateways, credit cards, and bank transfer payments. In addition, it can easily integrate with 140 specific- payment gateways.
The setup is easy and quick, using a wizard that guides every step and answers all the questions with details to set up your store to make it stand out. The plugin is easy to use, and managing your store is easy as it integrates with the WordPress dashboard.
In addition, it allows you to create different membership levels, like stand-alone product purchases, monthly subscriptions, and yearly subscriptions. It allows you to offer coupon codes, discounts, and free shipping to reward loyal customers.
It is one of the feature-riched membership plugins available outside.
Features:
- Drip content to control access to how users can view content.
- Create unlimited membership levels.
- Easy to manage membership website and their details.
Pros:
- Integrate with WooCommerce.
- Reward loyal customers with gifts.
- Simplify communication with members.
- Integration with constant contact.
Price: The pricing starts at $199 per year.
4. aMember Pro
aMember Pro is one of the powerful WordPress membership plugins that accept subscription payments, collaborate with other sites and forums, manage users’ profiles, and even work for an affiliate program.
It is a perfect plugin for selling digital products, making membership management easy, and integrating with leading content management services. It comprises numerous features and characteristics, including customization, organizing, and managing management.
aMember Pro helps you to sell online courses quickly and without creating any separate membership plan. Content protection is the main feature of the plugin, along with drip content, protect files, access sharing prevention, flexible access control, drill-down content access, and more.
In addition, it has multi-language support that helps you talk with your customers in 22 languages.
Features:
- Members-only area to create customizable pages for your customers.
- Support unlimited membership levels with different subscription plans and terms.
- Advance reporting with 50 pre-configured reports.
- Accept payments by choosing over 200 payment systems.
Pros:
- Send Opt-in Newsletters,
- Automated signup systems.
- Automate subscription status remainders using email,
- Free Installation Included
Price: The one-time price is $149 with lifetime access and six months of support.
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5. MemberMouse
Membermouse is a powerful membership plugin that allows you to easily create and manage online memberships, subscriptions, and digital products. It is a SaaS, cloud-based option.
It has various features that allow you to customize your membership experience, such as setting up payment gateways, offering discounts, setting up automated emails, and more. The plugin is easy to install without using a single code.
The MemberMouse integrates seamlessly with other plugins and is exceptionally easy to use. Setting up memberships through the plugin is pretty simple; subscribers are directed to the in-site checkout feature once they begin signing up.
Features:
- Upselling, Analytics, Coupon creation, and cancellation prevention can help attract new members.
- There is no limit to scaling up and no additional fees.
- It provides many payment gateway options, including Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net.
- Email integration, including Convertkit, Drip & Active Campaign.
Pros:
- Easy Installation and Fast Activation.
- Protect member-only content with a variety of access controls.
- CRM tools to track member info.
- Automate member management support, engagement, and marketing.
- Robust reporting tools.
- Excellent video tutorials for a long journey.
Price: The builder plans start at $289 per year.
6. WP-Members Membership WordPress plugin
WP members membership plugin is a free membership plugin designed to create and scale a membership website on WordPress. With the video tutorial and user guide, it’s very easy to set up for any WordPress user to install and configure.
It allows you to restrict content as restricted or hidden, limiting access to registered users. It also lets you create a custom registration page and approve member registrations manually. The free version offers a limited extension to enhance the membership management experience.
The plugin offers premium extensions like Mailchimp, Download Protect, and Salesforce integration. It is one of the best WordPress membership plugins for beginners and those who want to start risk-free.
Features:
- Content Restriction for Members.
- API Function Library.
- Premium Extension likes MailChimp Email Marketing Integration.
- Integrate member profiles into the installed WordPress theme.
- Create custom registration pages and approve member registrations manually.
Pros:
- Allows you to restrict posts, pages, and custom post types.
- A range of premium extensions is available to extend the plugin’s power.
- Allows you to display an excerpt of restricted posts and pages automatically.
Price: Free wordpress membership plugin
7. LearnDash
LearnDash is one of the best Learning management system plugins for WordPress membership websites, making it easier to sell courses and create seamless learning experiences. It has plenty of premium features to create a unique learning experience for your members.
For example, “Focus Mode” is a premium feature that develops a distraction-free user environment. You can create various course types with an easy drag-and-drop builder and pre-built templates.
It offers subscriptions as stand-alone products; you can sell courses as a one-time purchase or for recurring payments. Managing your membership site with LearnDash is hassle-free, as it is integrated with tools like group management and detailed reporting. It lets you assign, comment, and grade assignments, drip-feed courses, and more.
It integrates with popular plugins, apps, and platforms like PayPal, Slack, Digital Downloads, MailChimp, bbPress, WooCommerce, and more.
Features:
- Premium features like Automated notifications, video progression, badges & certifications, and profile dashboard.
- Easy drag-and-drop course builder, advanced quizzing, flexible prerequisites, onboarding wizard, and dynamic content delivery.
- 100+ Developers have created add-ons to extend the flexibility of your membership site.
- Integration with popular apps, platforms, and payment gateways.
Pros:
- Easy to use and very initiative.
- Scalable for any number of students.
- Free, premium and third-party add-ons are available.
Price: The price for 1 website starts at $199 per year.
8. Restrict Content Pro
With over 10k+ downloads and easy-to-use tools, it is the best WordPress membership plugin worth checking out. It also provides a free version with limited features.
The tool is an excellent membership plugin for WordPress membership sites and offers the best possible experience. It provides a customer dashboard to display members’ accounts, including invoices for each payment they make.
It gives extra access to premium members for the website and creates unlimited membership levels and free, trial, and paid member subscriptions. It also supports premium integration like WooCommerce and payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout.
In addition, the proration feature makes it easier for customers to pay prices if they want to change their membership levels. It helps build a strong relationship with members as you only charge for the content they consume.
Features:
- Customized content restriction messages.
- Create Unlimited membership levels with customized prices, duration, access level, and more.
- Auto-generate member pages, including Registration, Success, Account, Edit profile, and Update billing card.
- Prevent password sharing by limiting the number of simultaneous connections.
- Easy to use and elegant reports to see the monthly performance or any other period.
Pros:
- Allow restriction to pages, custom post types, navigation menus, tags, and more.
- Support popular payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and more.
- Generate printable invoices with customization.
- Membership email customization.
- Fast and friendly customer support.
Price: A free version is available, while the pro version costs $99 annually.
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9. S2Member
S2member is a free membership plugin that provides essential features and helps you create full-fledged membership, such as content restrictions and recurring subscriptions.
The plugin offers free subscriptions and synchronizes user roles with the new membership system. Users who own a business can use S2member’s file protection feature to sell and download digital content.
The premium version supports Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, and ClickBank integration via one-step checkout. It offers a trial period for paid member subscriptions and drip content for a limited time.
The plugin provides numerous setup options, which might confuse non-tech savvies. However, the plugin allows the site owners to configure their membership site per their requirements. It allows integration with leading payment options, including PayPal, Stripe, ClickBank, Authorize.net, and more.
This WordPress membership plugin seamlessly integrates with MailChimp, AWeber, and GetResponse.
Features:
- Ultimate customization control.
- Shortcodes library for multiple scenarios.
- Unlimited membership levels.
- The free version provides all the essential features.
- Content Protection and Drip content.
Pros:
- One-step registration/checkout via Pro-forms.
- Easy setup and integration with popular software, apps, and plugins.
- Set up Custom membership options, login welcome pages, custom post types, and more.
Price: A free version is available, and the premium version starts at $89 one-time.
10. Simple Membership
Simple membership is an easy-to-use WordPress membership plugin for WordPress sites packed with powerful features and a user-friendly interface. It is one of the free WordPress membership plugins to help newbies and beginners create a hassle-free membership site.
It allows unlimited membership levels for free and paid membership plans. The simple membership billing features allow you to sell digital content, restrict user access, unlimited subscription packages, and create membership subscriptions, and it is a complete membership system.
Simple membership provides an email confirmation feature to activate free memberships, and the paid ones directly get access to the membership payment logs, where you can monitor all purchases.
The plugin is beginner-friendly, experienced web developers, and with shortcodes, add additional functions and customization. In addition, the other features include WordPress theme compatibility, member filter, translation ready, and
custom post types protection.
Features:
- Unlimited Access levels and Easy User Management.
- Manually approve members and offer a free trial.
- Content protection, creating different restricted access, and premium add-ons.
- Integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree gateways.
Pros:
- Translation ready,
- create unlimited subscription levels,
- logs all membership payments in the dashboard,
- Customized the plugin using shortcodes and Developer API.
Price: Free WordPress membership plugin
11. Paid Memberships Pro
Paid Membership Pro is one of the premium membership plugins with over 100k downloads and has been around for over 10 years.
With Paid Memberships Pro, you can create unlimited membership levels with flexible and customized pricing. You can also offer custom discounts, coupon codes, drip content, and more.
The core functionality allows you to provide a sneak peek to encourage subscriptions with all the features needed to create the best possible membership experience. Paid memberships pro provides you control to drip feed access to your exclusive content based on the starting date attributed for each membership level.
Paid memberships pro allows you to create customized pricing for each level and offers child account capabilities linked to a parent account for organizations. Paid Memberships Pro offers flexible membership pricing, making it easier to offer paid membership subscriptions for a one-time or recurring payment.
Paid Memberships Pro integrates with multiple payment gateway options like Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, Braintree, 2Checkout, and more. Paid Memberships Pro allows you to add members manually, import and export members, manage membership roles, and more. In addition, you can manage affiliate programs with add-ons or third-party systems.
Paid Memberships Pro has a core plugin that is 100% open source and a GPLv2 license that allows you to customize it according to your website.
Features:
- It can show a Sneak peek of the content.
- Personalized member homepages.
- Restrict custom post types such as forums, communities, products, podcasts, etc.
- Set up offline communities.
- Flexible membership level pricing, recurring payments, and multiple payment options.
- Seamless membership experience with frontend login and password reset, frontend user profiles, limit post views, and advanced levels page.
Pros:
- Integrate with top plugins for WordPress.
- Developer-friendly and Debugging tools.
- Fully localized frontend and admin strings.
- Bulk update Scripts and Tools.
Price: A free version is available; the standard plan costs $247 per year.
12. WishList Member
The wishlist member plugin is one of the oldest WordPress membership plugins in the market, trusted by 100k+ membership sites. It offers a robust and trustworthy membership management system integrated with most WP plugins, themes, and page builders.
It gives you total control over the membership levels, creates targeted promotions for specific paid member subscriptions, and helps set up trigger actions to increase efficiency. It allows you to restrict access to post pages, content, and archives to encourage subscriptions.
It allows for unlimited membership levels and trial or paid memberships quickly. It also allows ‘Pay per post’ style products, and the members can be part of multiple membership levels. In addition, it allows the ‘Sneak Peek Content’ feature that makes non-members sign up before reading the rest of the post.
The ‘content control’ option provides far more flexibility and is the most versatile option for different content release options. The setup wizard helps you get started, allowing users to set up the basic settings quickly and easily and create multiple membership levels.
Features:
- Seamless integration with email marketing providers, payment gateways, and other tools.
- Developer tools like REST API and WP template tags.
- Advanced features like Content Control, Content Scheduler, Content Archiver, Content Manager, Email Broadcast, Data privacy, and more.
- Create multiple payment setups and unlimited membership levels.
Pros:
- Archive content and protect your valuable content.
- Collect payments with multiple payment setups.
- Access to 2000+ additional integrations with Zapier.
- Easy member management with customization options.
Price: The plan starts at $149.50 per year.
13. Magic Members
The simplicity and intuitiveness make the Magic members a popular WordPress membership plugin with vital features. It allows the building of a membership site and supports various integrations with WordPress autoresponder plugins.
The plugin lets you limit non-members’ access to content. Additionally, it allows the ‘pay-per-post’ and ‘pay-per-viewer’ features that allow non-members to consume the content without buying a subscription plan.
It provides a personalized experience for each member using the Magic members login redirection feature and customizes several welcome pages to greet different membership levels.
It includes a built-in subscription expiration reminder feature to retain members and generate unlimited coupons to attract new members. The plugin is user-friendly and doesn’t need even a single code to use it.
Features:
- Customize widgets
- Integrate with payment options like 1Shoppingcart, PayPal, CheckOut, CCBill, ClickBank, eWay, Stripe, SagePay, and more.
- Built-in Sequential Course Delivery System to create delays before your members can see particular content or articles.
- Import and export Users with .xls and .csv files.
- ‘Pay-per-view’ and ‘pay-per-post’ access features allow members to make a purchase.
- Custom Error pages and Guest purchases.
Pros:
- Schedule content delivery.
- Automation expiry email reminder.
- Secure RSS tokens and partial content display.
- Integrate with WordPress site and S3 Amazon support.
- Flexible membership options.
Price: The single-site license starts at $97 for a one-time purchase.
Which is the best Membership Plugin for WordPress?
There are a lot of membership plugins out there for WordPress, and it can be challenging to choose the right one for your site.
All plugins offer different features, including creating member profiles, restricting content, selling courses and unlimited membership subscriptions, and more. They also vary in price; some are free membership plugins, while others are paid.
The premium membership plugins might provide some advanced features, but it still depends upon the features you need to run your membership site. You might not need some advanced features as you are just starting, and go with the free version with limited features.
On the other hand, if you want to create advance online courses for your membership site, the premium membership plugin with premium features can be your best choice.
While most of these membership plugins are all-purpose, packaged with features, and provide high-quality services, it’s good to be clear with how you plan to manage your membership site.
If you are looking for a starting point, Memberpress, WiserNotify, LearnDash, Restrict Content Pro, and Paid Memberships Pro can be
the best choice. At the same time, for a budget-friendly solution, consider Simple Membership. The WP Member membership plugin can be a great choice.
But remember, every membership plugin has weaknesses and strengths, so we recommend using this article as a diving-off point to find the plugin.
So, which is the best WordPress membership plugin for a membership site? It depends on your needs and budget.
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Conclusion
A membership site can be a great way to generate revenue by selling online courses, ebooks, exclusive content, and many more to build your community and increase your networking with other creators.
There are a lot of great WordPress membership plugins available, and the best way to pick the right one is to do extensive research and consider your needs and budget.
In this article, we provided a list of 13 of the best WordPress membership plugins, all of which are great choices for different reasons. We hope this article helped you narrow your options and find the perfect plugin for your website.
