A membership plugin allows you to set up your content behind a paywall. It restricts access to your content only to paying customers, which is crucial to anyone who sells their products or services online such as courses, building community forums, and more.
But which WordPress membership plugin should you use on your membership site?
Picking the right WordPress membership plugin for your site will make a huge difference when it comes to making money online and growing your business. But not all of them have the same features. While some are excellent for selling subscriptions on a single level, there are others that offer multiple membership levels and subscription management features. Some of these plugins allow drip content features, allowing you to release content to the user slowly. There are others that will offer only hidden content later to the members. You will also have to decide on the payment gateway you wish to use, so you pick a membership plugin that supports your preferred payment gateways.
Here is a list of the best WordPress membership plugins on the market. Most of them offer a wide range of features and can be customized according to your business. The list covers a range of different budgets from free to premium, and is ideal for beginners and even those looking for advanced professional solutions.
Our Top Picks For Best WordPress Membership Plugins
Keep reading to discover some of the best WordPress membership plugins to get your site up and running –
MemberPress
MemberPress is one of the most popular and powerful membership plugins out there. You can create unlimited membership levels and even categorize different membership levels into Groups to create an upgraded path for the users. It is easy to use and has tons of features, making it an excellent tool for people of all experience levels.
The plugin works seamlessly with all WordPress themes, and you have complete control over all your content. Apart from creating dynamic pricing pages, you can also send emails to your members directly to advertise flash sales or holiday promos. You can create coupons, decide on the discount percentage or certain amount, select expiration dates, products the coupons apply to, and much more.
Key Features
- Integration with other applications such as AWeber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, Get Response, and others possible.
- Email notifications with member information.
- Allows content restrictions for the protection of pages, posts, images, videos, and others.
- Allows content dripping and contact access expiration.
- Efficient LMS tools for online courses.
- Easy to use payment gateway integration with PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net.
- Option to personalize the checkout area.
Pricing Plans
| Plan | Price | No. of Sites | Features |
| Basic | $149 | 1 | Basic Features |
| Plus | $249 | 2 | Some Advanced Features |
| Pro | $349 | 5 | All Advanced Features |
Paid Membership Pro
Paid Membership Pro is perfect for those looking to create a feature-rich subscription site. The free versions come with a good set of features, but with the paid versions, you get extendable add ons. You can also set up unlimited access levels along with different pricing to create a membership site. You can offer discount coupons and codes, recurring billing cycles, drip content, and much more.
Paid Membership Pro has some unique features, including a display of excerpts of restricted content, allowing you to rank in SERPs even with restricted content. It also allows you to display ads to certain membership levels while hiding the same from other members. There are also plenty of integrations, such as email marketing services and also payment gateways.
Key Features
- Create unlimited membership levels with unique pricing and content access for your users.
- Integration with up to 6 different payment gateways, including PayPal, Authorize.net, Braintree, Stripe, 2Checkout, and even offline payments such as checks.
- Easy to secure pages, blocks, posts, videos, courses, downloads, and more.
- Create members-only directories and profiles for a community or a listing site.
- Get customized admin reports such as new signups, cancellations, member visits, views, revenue reports, and others.
Pricing Plan
| Plan | Price Per Year | Updates and Support |
| Free | Free | 19 Free Add Ons |
| Plus | $297 | Support and Updates for 1-5 sites, 65 Plus Add Ons |
| Unlimited | $597 | Support and Updates for Unlimited Sites, 65 Plus Add Ons |
Restrict Content Pro
If you are a beginner and unsure where to start, Restrict Content Pro might be the best fit for you. It is a lightweight membership plugin for WordPress and guides you through the entire setup process. The user interface area is well designed and fits perfectly with the WordPress admin area.
Restrict Content Pro comes with a number of features that allow you to regulate the content access is given to the users. You can restrict the access based on the membership levels or use different categories for the users. It comes with built-in integrations with many other plugins and payment gateways such as MailChimp, PayPal, CSV export, email manager, MailPoet, and others.
Key Features
- Allow creation of multiple subscription levels.
- Simple customer dashboard to view and manage account details.
- Permit selling of an unlimited number of digital products through its platform.
- Flexible and versatile content restriction schedules such as restrict access to content, content dripping, an option to hard sell, putting expiration date, and more.
- Easy customizable coupons.
- Allow members to create their own network sites using WordPress multisite.
Pricing Plans
| Plan | No. of Sites | First Year Price | Renewal Price |
| Personal | 1 | $91 | $129 |
| Plus | 5 | $154 | $219 |
| Professional | Unlimited | $245 | $349 |
| Ultimate | Unlimited | $525 for Lifetime | No Renewals |
MemberMouse
MemberMouse is another membership plugin with some great features designed for startups and SMEs. It lets you create multiple membership levels and bundles. While membership levels are quite common among membership plugins, bundles allow you to sell individual pages/posts on a one-off basis to premium members.
There is a widget that allows members to check out the content they have access to and also the restricted ones. The plugin also has built-in optimization allowing you to split test prices and even test upsells with your members. You can easily offer multiple coupons and integrate your site with several payment gateways and email marketing services.
Key Features
- Easily set up different pricing and split-test.
- Protect the premium content from members with an auto-lock feature and deliver unique home pages for each membership level.
- Create member dashboards that show order, activity history, access rights, cancellation, refunds, and more.
- Automate common tasks and notifications like sending welcoming emails, fulfilling orders, managing subscriptions, and more.
- Create upsell or down-sell offers based on the unique actions of the individual members.
- Get advanced analytics and reporting to help keep a check on your community.
Pricing Plans
| Plan | Price per Month | No. of Members |
| Builder | $29 per month | Up to 5,000 Members |
| Advanced | $79 per month | Up to 50,000 Members |
| Premium | $199 per month | Up to 100,000 Members |
WooCommerce Memberships
WooCommerce Memberships plugin is not just for WooCommerce sites; it can be easily used to create any type of membership website. But, if you are already using WooCommerce, this plugin comes as a huge bonus. You can easily sell memberships as standalone products or in bundles.
Like many other plugins, you can drip out the restricted content over time to the users. You can add new discount coupons to lure new customers. However, you might not be able to bill members on a recurring basis in the basic version and will have to purchase another add-on for $199.
Key Features
- Create an unlimited number of membership plans.
- Create purchasing club for the eCommerce website where the users need to sign in to make a purchase.
- Integrates with marketing plugins to email notices to the members about sales and loyalty discounts.
- Simplified communication with the members.
- Access to a number of payment gateways.
Price Plan
WooCommerce Membership itself will cost you $199 yearly. In addition, for other key functionality, you will need to purchase extensions separately. For example, recurring subscription memberships for your site will cost you $199 a year.
OptimizePress 3
OptimizePress 3 is not a membership plugin itself, but it integrates with other membership plugins on the list for added functionality. Apart from restricting pages and posts, you can also restrict certain content inside the page and even display different content to different members at each level. It also supports drip content but is restricted to premium members only.
Key Features
- Works as a landing page builder and funnel creator to help launch your site quickly.
- Comes optimized for fast page loading.
- Accept payments through different gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and others.
- Allows email marketing services integration.
- Add real time sales notifications to your website.
Price Plans
| Plan | Price | No. of Sites Allowed |
| Essential | $99 | 1 |
| Business | $149 | 5 |
| Suite | $199 | 20 |
Wishlist Member
Wishlist Member is one of the oldest membership plugins in the market but is still one of the best membership plugins in the market. The developers keep on updating the plugin to add new features to it ever since it came into existence in 2018. Recently, the plugin undertook a facelift and looks quite modern.
Like other plugins, it allows you to create unlimited membership levels and restrict content such as categories, pages, posts, files, and more. Wishlist Member comes with a number of documentation options such as guides, tutorials, videos, and more. There are plenty of features for you to explore, including settings, expansive menu systems, and more. If you are a beginner, so many different options can get overwhelming.
Key Features
- Offer unlimited membership levels along with flexible membership options.
- Restrict content and allow setting price with a couple of steps.
- Allow integration with many other 3rd party plugins and also other software.
- Integrates seamlessly with popular payment gateways like PayPal. Stripe, ThriveCart, 2Checkout, and others.
- Allow drip content.
- Comes with developer tools such as WP template tags and REST API.
Price Plans
| 1 Site Package | First Year – $147 | Renews at $147 |
| 5 Sites Packages | First Year – $297 | Renews at $147 |
| 20 Sites Packages | First Year – $397 | Renews at $147 |
Zippy Courses
Zippy courses are not just for generic membership sites; they are focused on online courses. This plugin was built for those looking to create and sell online courses. It helps remove all the issues that often come with online course delivery. You will spend more time creating content for your students than working with technology.
Zipper Courses uses an easy interface, including a drag and drop editor and content scheduler. You can release your courses based on a flexible schedule. You can also group different courses together and offer specific pricing for the same.
Key Features
- Easy to use drag and drop courses and lesson creator.
- Accept payments via PayPal, Stripes, Infusionsoft, and others.
- Allows an unlimited number of courses and unlimited students.
- Allows self-directed unlocking where students need to complete a quiz to unlock the next lesson.
- Allows integration with email service providers such as MailChimp, ConvertKit, Constant Contact, Ontraport, AWeber, and more.
- Easily track students based on different metrics such as courses purchased, orders, tier purchased, quiz results, worksheet responses, and more.
Pricing Plans
| Plans | Price Per Month | Features |
| Standard | $99 | 1 admin user and 10,000 emails per month |
| Professional | $199 | 10 admin users and 50,000 emails per month |
Takeaway: The Best Membership Plugins for WordPress
Using any of the above options, anyone can offer restricted content on their websites to the members. Whether you are building a premium online course or wish to create a private community, these WordPress membership plugins should help you set up your website in a short period of time.
These are just a few of the best WordPress membership plugins out there in the market for WordPress sites. But there is no one size fit all membership plugin. While all of the above are extremely popular, they have their own strengths and weaknesses, not to mention different price tags.
Before picking a membership plugin for your WordPress website, it is important to determine how you want to plan the member’s area, the features you want to add, such as course delivery, payment options, content dripping, custom landing pages, and more. Once you know what you are looking for, making the right decision will become much easier.
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