Looking for the best WordPress membership plugins to create an awesome membership site?
With the right membership plugin, you can create a thriving membership community on WordPress that brings in revenue. However, there are a ton of membership plugins to choose from. How can you know which one will work the best for your site?
We’re here to help! We’ve created a list of the best membership plugins for WordPress to help you choose the one that’ll help you create the best membership site for your business.
How to Choose a WordPress Membership Plugin
There are a few things you’ll want to look for in a membership plugin. A few of the most important considerations are:
- Membership levels: Does the plugin offer multiple membership levels, and can you customize them the way you need? If you only need one membership level, this can be less of a consideration.
- Payment gateways: Do you already have a payment gateway chosen? Is there a certain one you’re planning to use? Make sure the membership plugin you pick can connect with your gateway.
- Look & feel: How much can you customize the look and feel of the membership area? How do you want it to look? Make sure you know what to expect for the design before choosing your membership plugin.
- Cost: What’s your membership plugin budget? Does your budget match your needs for all the features you need in a membership plugin? Some will cost more than others, but they typically have more advanced features.
- Content drip and other advanced features: If there’s something really specific you want your plugin to be able to do, like provide content on a drip schedule, make sure you’re taking note of those advanced features.
Awesome Membership Plugins for WordPress
Now that you’ve thought about what you need from your membership plugin let’s take a look at our top 9.
1. MemberPress
MemberPress is an easy-to-use, powerful, and popular membership plugin for WordPress. It helps you build an awesome WordPress membership site to start monetizing your content quickly and easily. MemberPress has a lot of really great features, so you can customize your site and your membership plans in just the ways you need.
Some of MemberPress’s features are:
- LMS (Learning Management System) platform for building online courses
- Powerful paywall rules for creating your custom memberships
- Coupons that are completely customizable
- Easy-to-create pricing pages that look great, plus templates you can choose to start from
- Drip content capability for timed content releases and content access expiration
- Easy Affiliate integration for creating an affiliate program
- The three most popular payment gateways to choose from
- Subscriptions and automated billing make membership management easy
- Email marketing integrations so you can stay in touch with your community
- And more
There’s a lot that you can do with MemberPress to really create the website and membership program of your dreams.
MemberPress starts at $179.50 per year for their basic license.
Get started with MemberPress now!
2. LearnDash
LearnDash is one of the most popular WordPress LMS (Learning Management System) plugins on the market. It’s geared specifically toward those wanting to create online courses, so it has a lot of features that are pretty cool for LMS users.
Some of LearnDash’s features are:
- Course content is structured using leading online learning principles to maximize your content delivery and increase completion rates
- The most powerful quizzing engine in the industry
- Use any pricing model, including one-time sales, subscriptions, memberships, or bundles
- Connects with just about any payment gateway
- Automatic renewal notifications
- Drip content that will automatically deliver content according to a predefined schedule
- Lots of integrations, including email marketing providers, Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, and more
LearnDash starts at $199 per year.
Get started with LearnDash now!
3. ARMember
ARMember is one of the top WordPress membership plugins that comes with a free version. It supports many different membership and pricing models, so it works for many different types of online businesses.
Some of ARMember’s features are:
- Almost any content restriction rules you can think of – rules for individual pages, categories, URLs, or any content area of your choice
- A number of community building tools, such as public member profiles, directory templates, badges and achievements, and more
- Built-in form builder
- Drip rules for scheduled content
- Customizable member profile and directory design templates
- Coupon management system
- Email notifications
- Many integrations and addons
ARMember is a free membership plugin for WordPress, although the free version doesn’t include all of the features. For all features, you’ll want to upgrade to the paid version for $69 for 6 months of support.
Get started with ARMember now!
4. Paid Memberships Pro
Paid Memberships Pro is another membership plugin for WordPress that has a whole list of features. Paid Memberships Pro also has a free version with a limited number of features that you can use to get started or use forever if your needs are simple.
Some of Paid Memberships Pro’s features include:
- Restrict default content, including pages, posts, blocks, and categories
- Restrict custom post types like forums, communities, courses, downloads, and more
- Use content dripping to drip feed access to a series of content according to a schedule based on their membership level start date
- Member communication emails to stay connected with your community
- Unlimited membership levels with unique content and pricing
- Recurring payments and subscriptions
- Multiple payment gateway options
Paid Memberships Pro has a free version or starts at $247 per year for more features.
Get started with Paid Memberships Pro now!
5. Ultimate Member
Ultimate Member is a free WordPress membership plugin used by over 200,000 websites. While the core plugin provides the basics of a membership website for free, you can upgrade to their Extensions Pass to get more features via extensions.
Some of Ultimate Member’s features include:
- Front-end user registration, login, and profiles
- Custom form fields and conditional logic for forms
- Drag-and-drop form builder
- Member directories
- Send out email messages to your users
- Content restriction to restrict access to parts of your website
Ultimate Member is free, or you can purchase their Extensions Pass for more features for $250 per year.
Get started with Ultimate Member now!
6. Teachable
Teachable is another popular LMS membership plugin for WordPress. Built specifically for websites offering courses, it has a lot of great features just for teachers.
Some of Teachable’s features include:
- Intuitive drag-and-drop builder to create your courses
- Built-in, fully customizable sales page builder
- A checkout page with full e-commerce capabilities—no third-party payment system needed
- Powerful integrations with Mailchimp, Zapier, ConvertKit, and Google Analytics
- Multiple ways to earn more with order bumps, bundles, memberships, upsells, and coupons
- Easy tax management
- Intuitive reporting on sales and student engagement
You can start for free with Teachable, then upgrade to Basic for $39 per month.
Get started with Teachable now!
7. Restrict Content Pro
Restrict Content Pro is another popular WordPress membership plugin that promises to be easy to manage and lightweight.
Some of Restrict Content Pro’s features include:
- Content restriction settings by membership level, access level, WordPress user role, and more
- Get an unlimited number of membership levels and plans
- Use content paywalls and display a preview of the content along with a customizable message
- Easy member access controls
- See all your members in a simple member dashboard
- Customizable member emails for payment receipts, welcome emails, and reminders
- Lots of integrations and addons to make your site exactly what you need
Restrict Content Pro starts at $99 per year.
Get started with Restrict Content Pro now!
8. WooCommerce Memberships
WooCommerce Memberships is a WooCommerce extension that turns your WooCommerce store into a membership site. Install it to get access control and member discounts.
Some of WooCommerce Memberships’ features include:
- Memberships are not a specific type of WooCommerce product; instead, membership plans are created independently from products
- Drip content capabilities so you can send your members content at the right time
- Create a free trial period
- Create members-only products
- Give members certain perks, like free shipping or special discounts
- Import or export members in a CSV file
WooCommerce Memberships is $199 per year.
Get started with WooCommerce Memberships now!
9. S2 Member
S2Member is a popular membership plugin for WordPress with over 1.4 million downloads. There’s a free version or you can go Pro for more features. While this is a great one to start with, it does lack some of the features of the other plugins on our list, like content dripping.
Some of S2Member’s features include:’
- Tons of different content restriction options
- File download restrictions
- Custom registration and login design with custom fields
- Customizable emails, including signup confirmation, modification confirmation, and more
- Custom login welcome page and membership options page
- Many integrations with other plugins and tools, such as email providers and affiliate programs
S2 Member is free, but you can upgrade to the Pro version for a one-time charge of $89.
Get started with S2Member today!
That’s our list of the best membership plugins for WordPress. We hope you found the best one for your site!
Want to learn how to send push notifications out to your members/subscribers? Check out How to Set Up Push Notifications in WordPress (Step by Step).
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