Finest membership plugins for WordPress
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A powerful membership plugin will help you control the content of your WordPress website with maximum flexibility and ease.
Although many companies use restricted content membership plugins that sit behind a paywall, these plugins can do a lot more if you find the right one.
Membership plugins help you with restricted content and membership fees, but are also useful for automated tasks, course or lecture creators, managing discount codes and much more.
I'm sure you've come across a variety of membership plugins specifically for WordPress, right? Well, I'm here to make it easy for you by narrowing down the top five options to help you choose the right option for your business needs.
All of the tools in this list offer unique capabilities that are suitable for a number of the most common business needs.
# 1 – MemberPress – The best all-in-one membership plugin for WordPress
MemberPress is the best all-in-one membership plugin because of its powerful and easy-to-use features. Not only does the plugin do what it says it is by creating member portals for content, but it also offers helpful tools for all skill levels.
First, MemberPress works seamlessly with any WordPress theme, including custom themes that you have created. The ease of use is not an understatement, as the plugin only takes three easy steps to install and set up everything, which is incredibly inclusive for beginners.
In terms of membership tools, MemberPress has you covered. This plugin gives you 100% control over all of your content and who can view it based on the membership level purchased. You can restrict access to pages, posts, tags, files, and anything else you can think of on your WordPress website.
With MemberPress, your business will grow endlessly when you use tools such as:
- An add-on that allows you to create and sell courses
- Generate as many coupons as you want
- Premium community forums
- Scheduled content publication (i.e., drops of content)
- Subscription and member management
- Payment integration
As the most powerful plugin on the internet, MemberPress offers three pricing plans that take different preferences into account, including:
- Basic: $ 249 per year for single site use
- Plus: $ 399 per year for use in up to two locations – this is the most popular plan
- Pro: $ 549 per year for use in up to five locations
Unfortunately, MemberPress doesn't offer free trials, but they do offer a 14-day money-back guarantee on all plans for a full refund. Try it out today.
# 2 – LearnDash – The best Course Builder membership plugin for WordPress
If your primary business is selling courses, LearnDash is a great option to easily create and sell them. With its extensive functions such as focus mode, the plugin allows you to create comprehensive online courses without restrictions.
Focus Mode is a customizable learning portal that you can implement into your courses with LearnDash to create a distraction-free environment for learners after purchase.
Creating courses has never been easier with the drag-and-drop feature that saves you time while creating an organized layout for your clients. Not only is your content and layout organized, it's impressively dynamic with drip feed lessons, adjustable video options, and linear or open progress activities.
Not only can you create high quality courses for your customer base, but you can also freely manage them together with your students. LearnDash provides a group management feature that allows you to divide users into online groups and then allow those users to manage their own group.
With LearnDash you can benefit from important functions, including:
- Automated notifications to keep you updated
- Badges and certificates for clients taking a course
- Place one-time purchases for courses
- More than 20 integrations for functionality
LearnDash is focused on course creation and is quite affordable for an annual price – and I think the benefits outweigh the total cost. LearnDash offers three pricing plans including:
- Basic: $ 199 per year for a site license with unlimited courses and users
- Plus Package: $ 229 per year for 10 site licenses
- Pro Package: $ 369 per year for 25 site licenses
All of the above pricing plans come with a bonus demo website template and a 30 day money back guarantee.
# 3 – Restrict Content Pro – The best for membership management
When you own a larger company that creates more content for a larger audience, these memberships can be difficult to manage and monitor. This is where Restrict Content Pro comes in and is a great option to manage all of your memberships in one place.
With Restrict Content Pro, you can track your memberships, including active, expired, canceled, pending, and recurring membership levels, through an intuitive user interface. Each membership can be added manually and changed in bulk. You can even ask team members to join the board to increase moderation.
Does a customer decide to cancel their membership? No problem! Restrict Content Pro allows you to manually change any membership status to keep things professional and confusing.
In addition to member management, this plugin offers a number of additional functions, such as
- Member emails to greet new members
- Unlimited subscription packages
- Performance reports
- Data exports
- Payment integrations with Stripe, PayPal, Braintree and Authorize.net
- Extensive support
Restricted Content Pro offers four pricing plans that are great value for money. These include:
- Personal: $ 99 per year for a website and 13 free add-ons
- Plus: $ 149 per year for five websites and 13 free add-ons
- Professional: $ 249 per year for unlimited websites and 18 pro add-ons – this is the most popular plan
- Ultimate: One-time payment of $ 499 for unlimited websites and 18 pro add-ons
All pricing plans include core features and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
# 4 – S2Member – The best free membership plugin for WordPress
Looking for a membership plugin but not sure where to start or how much to invest? S2Member is an excellent option. With its extensive free version, this plugin is great for protecting and managing your content for paying members.
WordPress shortcodes power S2Member almost entirely, so complicated integrations are now easy to install and use. Even if the installation process gets confusing, the plugin gives you an open community forum, extensive documentation, and video tutorials that you can read and follow during setup.
With S2Member you can not only offer users premium content, but also a secure checkout solution that seamlessly integrates with WordPress functions. While the free version doesn't offer an easy one-step registration and checkout, it is still a great tool that just includes additional steps for verification.
While the plugin is free, S2Member still has a plethora of basic features that can help improve your business, including:
- Standard PayPal button integration
- Content restriction options
- Security encryption key
- Manual account creation
- Changes to the member profile
- Affiliate program integrations
- Customizable email templates
There are 20+ unique features that come with the free version of S2Member. This makes it easier for you to learn the basics of plugins while improving your business for free.
Speaking of costs, S2Member has two Pro pricing plans for one incredibly low price. These include:
- Pro Version 2: One-time payment of $ 89 for a single site license
- Pro Version 3: One-time payment of $ 189 for an unlimited site license
Both pricing plans include lifetime access to newer versions of the S2Member plugin and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
# 5 – Paid Memberships Pro – The best for customization
Paid Memberships Pro is a great option for anyone looking for a plugin that offers more flexibility and customization. This plugin prides itself on bringing a wide range of tools and features to its users that will allow you to expand and maintain your member WordPress website at the same time.
Customization options start with limited standard content pages. Paid Memberships Pro allows you to create a custom message for non-members when they try to access restricted content on your website.
Another great customizable feature is the personalized content add-on. This tool allows you to offer each paying member a unique page for direct communication with you. This is a great way to create more intimate content for your users. The personalized content also includes a custom home page for different membership levels and customizable menus to highlight important links.
Additionally, Paid Memberships Pro gives you the ability to customize your email account with a variety of email templates to change the look and feel of your system-generated emails to members.
If that's not enough, Paid Memberships Pro has a comprehensive list of features that you can meet any need including:
- Contents dripping
- Multi-tier membership levels
- Offline communities
- Adjust renewal dates
- Membership Manager role
- Integrate with several top plugins like MailChimp, WooCommerce and Zapier
Paid Memberships Pro is the most expensive plugin on this list. However, they do offer a free version if you want to try it and aren't ready to commit to full price.
There are three pricing plans for businesses of all types:
- Free: This plan has five features and includes the plugin download, 19 free add-ons, and six payment gateways
- Plus: $ 297 per year with support and updates for up to five websites
- Unlimited: $ 597 per year with support and updates for unlimited websites
Both the Plus and Unlimited pricing plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What I looked at to find the best membership plugin for WordPress
Now that I've narrowed down the top five points, several key elements will go into finding the right membership plugin for your WordPress website. These elements are critical to finding the right membership plugin and you need to weigh the following criteria against your personal needs in order to make the right decision for your business.
Business goals
Your overall business goals are important when trying to find the right membership plugin for you. Simply put, each membership plugin serves different goals. Hence, it is important to know what yours are.
If you want to transform your business by creating and selling courses to your customer base, a plugin like LearnDash is an excellent option. This is because it is the best course maker online and has a range of comprehensive tools available.
If your ultimate focus is on creating restricted content for members, your best bet is to install Restrict Content Pro. There you have access to suitable tools and functions to achieve this goal.
Once you find out what your business goals are, you can figure out which membership plugin is best for you.
Flexible payment integration
One important feature to look for in a membership plugin is a flexible payment integration option that gives your customers a range of payment options. Not everyone enjoys putting their credit card information on a website without added security.
For example, the S2Member plugin has a standard PayPal button built into your download. This means that your customers can pay for your content through PayPal. Proper payment security is paramount to making sure you have a returning customer base.
Some other popular payment integrations are Stripe and Authorize.net. Multiple payment options give customers another reason to continue their membership.
Member administration
This is a particularly important function for larger companies that have a large number of memberships. By integrating a specific membership management system into your plugin, you will save a lot of time on manual management.
MemberPress and Restrict Content Pro are great plugin options if you need additional help with managing your memberships. Without a dedicated management system, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage your memberships while maintaining a certain level of professionalism in your company.
Don't be afraid to ask for help from time to time. Running a membership site can be tricky, but the right plugin makes it easier and less complicated.
Summary
Finding the best membership plugin for your WordPress website depends on several key elements, such as business objectives, payment integration, and member management. What makes the five best options so great is that they either meet all of the criteria or have a mix that can fully support your business.
I recommend MemberPress and LearnDash to almost anyone if you want to transform your business with a member site. MemberPress is an all-in-one plugin that may seem generic. However, it offers every tool a business owner needs under one platform. LearnDash is also great for anyone creating and selling courses – which seems to be a common goal on member sites. Both are affordable options for a company that knows their goals and needs a plugin to help them achieve those goals.
Aside from that, the other three plugins are also great options for everyday tasks.
The top 5 membership plugin options for WordPress:
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