Last Updated on March 13, 2024 by Kundan Sharma
Do you want to build a WordPress membership site? Then you will need a WordPress membership plugin using it to lock your premium content that paid members can only access.
You can set up an easy payment to get paid and content dripping allows to send timely content when users are enrolled in membership.
In this article, I have covered some of the best and popular membership plugins that are available for the WordPress platform.
Good membership software helps to sell online courses, generate recurring income, and build a member email list. Now, You might be thinking about how to pick a membership plugin. The following guide will help you.
How to Choose a WordPress Membership Plugin?
Choosing the right membership plugin is crucial. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while picking a WordPress membership plugin for your site.
Easy to use
If you are non-tech savvy and don’t want to hire a developer then you should choose an easy-to-use plugin that has a less complicated setup option.
There are a lot of lightweight plugins out there, some of them were listed in this article. In case you need more features. You will be able to install addons offered by some plugins.
Compatible
It’s very easy to find a plugin compatible or not, simply install and test it in your local WordPress. If it’s working properly with a theme and other plugins then now you’re good to go and install it on the main website.
Features
You need to allow your customers easy checkout options like PayPal, Authorize.net and etc. So pick one that has multiple payment gateway integration options available.
Here are some features you should also look for.
• Content dripping
• Third-party Integration with marketing tools
• Unlimited membership level
• Priority customer support
1. Restrict Content Pro
Restrict Content Pro is also a powerful WordPress membership plugin and a close competitor of MemberPress. It’s a very easy-to-use plugin and offers helpful documentation to get started. You will get full package features that make it a complete membership plugin.
You can easily manage members by getting data of members, active, pending, canceled, expired, and free users.
Wants to create different subscription plans you can easily create free, trial, and premium packages.
Restrict Content Pro has built-in Integration features for collecting easy payments, you can set up credit cards, 2checkout, authorize.net, and more that make it easy for your audience to make a payment from their favorite payment method.
If you still don’t know how it can help you. Get a live demonstration of Restrict Content Pro from its site.
Key Features of Restrict Content Pro:
★ Create an Unlimited Package
★ Unlimited Members
★ Members can view and manage their account
★ Sell limitless digital products
★ Content dropping
★ Set membership levels & group membership
★ Support & Update
Pricing
There are 4 pricing plans Personal, Plus, Professional and Ultimate. All plans come with 30 days of the money-back guarantee.
Personal plan costs you $99/year for 1 website including 13 official free addons, plugin updates, email support, and core features. Discover all plans to Restrict Content Pro.
2. MemberPress
MemberPress is a well-known plugin for WordPress plugin and it has all the features that you ever needed to build and manage a membership site.
You can simply create a membership site on an existing WordPress site. All you have to do is install and activate the MemberPress plugin, then enter your payment gateways and set up some products that are it.
Memberpress allows you to generate coupons that make it easy to promote your product effectively. If would you like to create multiple product category pages, then MemberPress got to cover you.
It has offered some ready-made pricing page themes, which do not need to use HTML and CSS.
Well, like other membership plugins it has a content dripping feature that is the most important feature for any MemberPress plugin to deliver content timely to members.
Memberpress plugin integration with 3rd party plugins and tools such as ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, Convertkit, PayPal, Stripe, and more.
Key Features of MemberPress:
★ Allow selling digital products on WordPress
★ Restrict access to pages, child pages, posts, categories, and more.
★ Offer content dripping
★ Integrated payment options PayPal and Stripe.
★ Generate dynamic pricing pages
★ Sell unlimited digital products
★ Premium support
Pricing
Memberpress comes with 3 different plans depending on site requirements.
Basic: $149/year for 1 website
Plus: $249/year for 2 website
Pro: $349/year for 5 website
If you want to start a one-membership site the basic plan is enough, comes with all available features.
3. MemberMouse
MemberMouse is another popular membership WordPress plugin that offered a lot of customization options. It was founded in 2005 and still served customers up to 15,000.
You can set up MemberMouse in few minutes and can easily create important membership site pages like Dynamic Checkout Page, Login & Logout Page, Customizable Confirmation Page, Member Home Page, and more.
MemberMouse allows you to sell any kind of digital product on the WordPress site. Simply protect your premium contents via password protection, so only Pro members can view PDFs and download contents.
It has integration options to add your favorite payment getaways such as Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net, and Email Marketing Tools MailChimp, GetResponse, Aweber, Convertkit, and more.
Key Features of MemberMouse:
★ 7 payment getaways support PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, Braintree, and more
★ Multiple payment options on a single page
★ Lock contents
★ Coupon codes to sell membership plans
★ Personal content with smart tags
★ Content dripping better access of content
★ Set free & paid membership plans
Pricing
MemberMouse has 3 pricing plans Starter, Advanced, Premium with 14 days free trial.
Starter: $19.95/Mo for up to 1000 active members including core features.
Advanced: $99mo for 50,000 active members including advanced reporting, social log, and priority email support.
Premium: $299/Mo for up to 100,000 active members including sticky.io integration and phone support.
4. Paid Member Subscriptions
Paid Member Subscriptions is a complete membership plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce sites.
You can use their basic version for free but you don’t get features like content dropping so sooner or later you have to upgrade it to any of their paid plans.
It’s very easy to set up, you need to install and activate the plugin then add your PayPal add-on in setting and create membership subscription plans.
Now, you need to create a sign-up form through visitors enrolling in membership. Next, you have to protect your content individually Page, Posts, Categories, Tags, etc.
Paid Member Subscriptions can integrate with eCommerce platforms like WooCommerece that helps you to restrict the product view and purchase.
Key Features of Paid Member Subscriptions:
★ Pro Member Subscriptions
★ Integrate with WooCommerece, PayPal, and WordPress
★ Restrict contents from viewing and purchasing
★ WooCommerce add ons
★ Global content restriction
★ Discount code
★ Email reminders
Pricing
Paid Member Subscriptions has 2 types of paid plans Hobbyist and Pro. A free version is also available on WordPress.
Hobbyist: $69 for 1 website including all features and 1 year of updates & priority support.
Pro: $149 for unlimited sites including all features support free trial and sign up and 1-year updates & supports.
Go To Paid Member Subscriptions
5. S2Member
S2Member protects your WordPress content to convert into a membership site. You can lock posts, pages, tags, categories, URLs, and many more things.
It’s a free plugin you don’t need to invest a single dollar to start your first membership site.
Like other plugins, S2Member integrates with payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, and Clickbank.
There’s a free version plugin framework you can create a simple membership site with login & registration, custom pages, and with PayPal standard button that lets you accept payments.
In the premium version, they offer all additional features One page registration, Integrate with PayPal Pro, Authorize.net, Clickbank, Coupon Code, and Unlimited Members.
Key Features of S2Member:
★ PayPal standard & pro integration
★ Content restriction options
★ File load restrictions
★ Custom email template
★ Coupon code configuration
★ Custom membership options
★ Authorize.net integration
Pricing
S2Member comes with 2 premium plans except for the free version.
Pro (single site license): $89 one-time payment including lifetime access.
Pro (unlimited site license): $189 one-time payment with lifetime access and updates.
6. Paid Memberships Pro
It’s a free WordPress membership plugin that helps to create and manage membership sites. You are easily able to manage member subscriptions, restrict content, and accept recurring payments.
Content protection features enable restriction of content like pages, categories, posts, events, downloads and etc.
Paid Memberships Pro integrated payment options give different payment options to choose from such as Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, 2checkout, and more, You can add one or more payment methods that you think would be easy for customers to pay.
It also integrates with third-party services WooCommerece, MailChimp, Zapier, Unbounce, Elementor, Beaver Builder, and more.
The membership plugin lets you create multiple pricing options one-time payment, recurring subscriptions, custom trials, and discount codes.
Key Features of Paid Memberships Pro:
★ Create multiple membership levels
★ Payment gateways integration with PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net
★ Flexible pricing for members
★ Drip content to release content on time
★ Other third-party integration Zapier, MailChimp, Beaver Builder, Divi, and more
Pricing
Paid Membership Pro has 2 paid plans with 30 days of the money-back guarantee.
Plus: $297 support up to 5 websites including 65 plus addons, 15 free add-ons, unlimited support tickets, and more.
Unlimited: $597 for unlimited websites including all features of the Plus plan.
7. aMember Pro
aMember Pro is a built-in PHP online service for running a membership site.
Although, there is a WordPress plugin available, so you can easily integrate it with your WordPress site. It comes with all the features that are required for building a membership site.
aMember Pro supports over 200+ payment integration few of them are PayPal, CCBill, JVZoo, ClickBank, 2Checkout, Stripe, Authorize.net, and others.
It can be translated into different languages Spanish, German, French, Greek, Russian, and Chinese.
aMember Pro has a built-in help desk module that helps you to keep and track customer’s requests and responses.
Key Features of aMember Pro:
★ Unlimited members level and items
★ 200+ payment integration getaways
★ Translate support up to 6 languages
★ Protect your site folders, files, posts, forum, and more
★ Content dripping
★ Content coupon and discount codes
It has been working for 18 years that indicate aMember Pro is the most trusted membership plugin.
Pricing
aMember Pro Plan starts at $149.36 for a lifetime license.
Bonus: OptimizePress
OptimizePress is one of the best landing pages and sales funnel builder tools for WordPress. It has also a feature to build a complete membership site from scratch.
It comes with a number of templates for membership sites using it you can create and design sign-up forms, product landing pages, deals pages, pricing pages, and more.
If your focus is not only on creating a membership site and wanting a landing page builder but also to customize pages for your site.
Then definitely, OptimizePress is a WordPress plugin you can use. You will also get the content dripping feature to deliver content to members.
Key Features of OptimizePress:
★ Create landing pages, sales pages, and membership site
★ Content drip to timely release content
★ Multiple payment gateways option
★ Email marketing tools integration like MailChimp, Convertkit, Aweber, GetResponse, and more.
Pricing
The best plan costs you $199/year for unlimited sites including all features.
Conclusion: Which is The Right Membership Plugin?
There are a lot of WordPress membership plugins in the market. Here in this post, I have listed some of the best membership plugins that I found online.
Now you might be thinking about which one you should choose. It totally depends on your needs and the budget for running a membership site.
If you want my opinion, then I highly suggest you pick MemberPress. It’s one of the most powerful membership software that all the features will need to keep it running a membership site on WordPress.
The basic plan starts at $149 for a year including 1 Website, At the same price you can get OptimizePress which allows you to create Membership sites as well as Landing Pages, Sales Pages, and Funnels.
Want a free plugin for building a membership site? S2Member is good for you.
