Do you want to create a membership website with WordPress? If you have no coding skills, the only way to do so is by using a plugin. As you already know, WordPress is a very flexible, customizable CMS. You can use it to create any type of website, including a membership website like the one you want to create with the help of a membership plugin.
A membership plugin allows you to control the access to the content on your website by your users. You can, for instance, require your users to upgrade to a certain membership level to access the exclusive content you offer. Some membership plugins come with a payment feature to allow you to accept membership payment without installing an extra plugin.
If you need a page builder to style up some pages of your membership website, such as the registration page, you can use Elementor, Divi Builder, or Beaver Builder. Here are some of the best plugins you can use to create a membership website with WordPress.
Best WordPress membership plugins
1. ARMember
ARMember WordPress Membership Plugin is a robust WordPress Membership Plugin that offers all the advanced level of impressive features along with many free and paid Add-ons with the use of which you can build a membership website where you can count upon recurring payments from the members of your membership website rather than just having a passive income source.
A positive side of ARMember WordPress Membership Plugin is that it allows you to build your desirable membership website without even worrying about the coding stuff.
Let’s jump to the features list!
Classic Features of ARMember:
- Content Restriction: It offers the gated content for different membership plans. Setting the content protection rules for WordPress posts, pages, or for the custom posts can be easily done.
- Multiple Payment Cycles
- Membership Setup Wizard
- Pay Per Post
- Eye-catchy feature built-in form builder.
- Provides in-built support for most prominent payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, Bank Transfer, and 2Checkout.
- Offers Opt-ins integrations of most popular Email marketing software like Aweber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, and others.
- Can access around 21+ free and paid Add-ons integration.
- Allows custom automated “Email Notifications”
- Supports Third-Party Plugins (BuddyPress, ARPrice, VisualComposer, WooCommerce, etc.)
What about pricing?
When it comes to pricing, the ARMember WordPress Membership plugin comes with affordable pricing of just $59 for its regular license usage with life-time FREE update facility from the author of this amazing WordPress Membership plugin. You can also try the free version of ARMember for trial experience.
2. MemberPress
MemberPress is arguably the most popular WordPress membership plugin. It is one of the membership plugins that comes with the most complete features. One of the key features offered by MemberPress is the ability to restrict access to content on your website based on membership level or the product your users bought. Want to offer coupons? MemberPress also allows you to do so. In MemberPress, you can create coupons. Each coupon can have an expiration date and number of uses.
To accept payment on your membership website, you can integrate MemberPress with PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.net. You can also integrate MemberPress with popular email marketing tools like Mailchimp, AWeber, GetResponse, and so on. Other key features offered by MemberPress include:
- Drip content
- Affiliate program (Pro plan only)
- Reporting
- Subscription management
You can use MemberPress on any WordPress theme. You can also integrate it with BBPress. MemberPress itself is a paid plugin. The cheapest plan offered by the plugin costs $149 per year.
3. MemberMouse
Sometimes — when looking for the best paid plugin — you want to try it first before making a purchase. MemberMouse offers a 14-day trial period, allowing you to try the offered features for free before you make a decision whether you want to buy it or not. Same as MemberPress, MemberMouse is also a feature-rich membership plugin. The core features of this plugin include:
- Member management
- Content protection
- Payment integrations
- Reporting
- Drip & scheduled content
MemberMouse allows you to accept free and paid members and manage them via an intuitive enough dashboard. MemberMouse also offers a built-in CRM tool that you can use to track your members’ info, activities, and transaction histories.
MemberMouse offers 3 plans you can choose from according to your needs:
- Builder (5,000 active members)
- Advanced (50,000 active members)
- Premium (100,000 active members)
4. Restrict Content Pro
Restrict Content Pro is a great solution if you want to create restricted content on your website in which only selected members are able to access it. In general, the features offered by this plugin are not much different from the first two plugins above. You can manage your members via its member management feature. The plugin allows you to easily create free, trial, and premium subscription plans for aspiring members. About the payment, Restrict Content Pro supports PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, 2Checkout, and Authorize.net. Features like discount creator and reporting are also available.
You can enrich the Restrict Content Pro features by installing an add-on. You can, for instance, create an affiliate program using AffiliateWP integration. Same as MemberPress and MemberMouse, Restrict Content Pro is also a paid plugin with the cheapest plan costs $99 per year. The plugin offers no trial version.
5. Paid Memberships Pro
Despite its name, Paid Memberships Pro is a freemium membership plugin. Meaning that you can use it for free although with limited enough features. The core of the plugin itself is basically free. What makes it different between Paid Memberships Pro versions is the included add-ons. The free version of the plugin offers 19 free add-ons while the paid versions offer more add-ons.
In general, the features offered by Paid Membership Pro are not much different from MemberPress, MemberMouse, and Restrict Content Pro. You can restrict content to your users based on their membership level. Crucial features like member management, drip content, and payment gateway are available.
6. WooCommerce Memberships
Unlike the first four plugins above, WooCommerce Memberships is not a standalone WordPress plugin. Instead, it is a WooCommerce extension. So, to use it, you need to have WooCommerce installed and activated on your WordPress site. You can also use WooCommerce Memberships to create content and make it exclusively available for your site members only. You can even restrict product viewing to members, meaning that the products will only be visible by the members.
7. Paid Member Subscriptions
Paid Member Subscriptions is another plugin you can use if you want to turn your WooCommerce store into a membership site. The features offered by this plugin are not much different from WooCommerce Memberships above, but you can get this plugin at a cheaper price. The cheapest plan of Paid Member Subscriptions costs $69. With this plugin, you will be able to:
- Restrict product viewing
- Restrict product purchasing
- Restrict access to entire WooCommerce Shop
- Add member discounts per subscription
- Add member discounts per product
8. WP-Members
If you are looking for a free solution of a WordPress membership plugin, WP-Members might is the one you are looking for. WP-Members is a very simple membership plugin that you can use to restrict content to your site members only.
Being a free plugin, WP-Members comes with limited enough features. There is no feature to monetize your site by default. You need to install an add-on to accept payment for a paid membership. You can visit this page to learn and get WP-Members add-ons.
9. Magic Members
Magic Members is another feature-rich WordPress membership plugin. It is is also probably the oldest membership plugin in the market. The plugin has been around for over 11 years and has powered over 80,000 WordPress-based membership website. Magic Members is a paid plugin. The good thing is, you can try it for free during the 7-day trial period. You can also use Magic Members to create restricted content to members based on the membership level. Features like coupon creator, reporting, payment, and member management are available in Magic Members.
10. s2Member
Looking for a free WordPress membership plugin? s2Member is a great item you can try. Unlike WP-Members which doesn’t allow you to monetize your content with the free version, s2Member allows you to do so. You can protect your content and require your users to make a purchase (via PayPal) to access the content. Since s2Members offers a free version, you can learn how it works without spending a dime. If it suits, you can upgrade to the pro version to unlock more features.
