Three Best Membership Plugins for WordPress Website You Should Know in 2023

If you’re running a WordPress website and looking to monetise it by offering membership plans, you’ll need a robust membership plugin to handle the task.

Finding the best membership plugin for a WordPress website can be challenging with so many options available.

However, a reliable membership plugin is essential for creating and managing different access levels to your content, protecting your premium content, and controlling your membership subscription fees.

In this article, we’ll explore three top-rated membership plugins for WordPress that can help you create a thriving online community while generating revenue from your content.

What are the must-have features of a WordPress membership Plugin?

When choosing a WordPress membership plugin, it’s essential to consider the features that make it the right fit for your website. Some must-have features include:

• Various membership tires: The membership plugin must allow you to set up different membership tiers, each with its pricing, access levels, and perks.
• Flexible payment and integration option: There should be flexible payment options and integration with popular payment gateways. You could offer your members various payment options, such as one-time or recurring payments, and should integrate with popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.
• Content restriction and protection tool: The plugin must offer Robust content protection and restriction tools for controlling page, post, or category visibility. This feature enables you to protect your premium content by restricting its access to specific membership levels, groups, or individuals.
• Member-only forums and discussion boards: This feature lets you set up exclusive forums or discussion boards for your members to connect and interact with each other.
• Management of email lists and newsletters: This feature allows you to collect email addresses and send newsletters or updates to your members, keeping them informed about your latest content or offerings.
• Detailed reports for tracking site performance and member activity: This feature provides analytics and reports that allow you to track your site’s performance, such as the number of members, sign-ups, and revenue.
• User-friendly interface and easy-to-use setup process: This feature ensures that the plugin is easy to use, even for non-technical users, and offers a smooth setup process.
• Excellent customer support and documentation: This feature provides reliable and timely support and clear documentation or tutorials to help you troubleshoot issues and maximise the plugin’s features.

Let’s explore the best Membership plugins for your WordPress website.

MemberPress

MemberPress is a popular WordPress membership plugin that enables website owners to easily create and manage membership sites, online courses, and digital products.

Pros of using the MemberPress WordPress plugin

• Setting up a membership website with WordPress is a breeze with MemberPress! The plugin takes care of everything, from pricing and login to account and thank you pages, all automatically set up for your users. Plus, adding new membership plans is a straightforward process.
• With MemberPress, you’re not limited to a certain number of membership levels. You can create as many membership levels as you want and set the price and premium content included for each level.
• Control who can access your content with MemberPress s powerful access control feature. You can restrict access to anything on your website, including posts, pages, custom post types, categories, tags, files, and more.
• One of the most remarkable features of MemberPress is content dripping. You can gradually release restricted content to members over time, which is great for selling online courses and learning materials.
• MemberPress makes creating and selling online courses easy, providing users an interactive learning experience focusing on completion rates.
• MemberPress also integrates with popular email services like Aweber, MailChimp, GetResponse, and MadMimi, Amazon Web Services, Blubrry for podcast hosting, and BuddyPress for building an online community.
• Payment options are a breeze with MemberPress, as it has built-in support for PayPal and Stripe. The developer plan even adds Authorize.net support.

Other notable features include a built-in membership management dashboard, customisable coupon codes, email notifications, frontend pricing and user registration pages, custom widgets and shortcodes, and Rest API for developers.

Cons

• Limited design customisation: MemberPress offers only basic design customisation options, which can be limiting for users who want more control over the look and feel of their membership site.
• No built-in affiliate program: MemberPress doesn’t offer a built-in affiliate program, which may be a drawback for users who want to incentivise their members to promote their site and drive more sign-ups.
• A deal-breaking limitation for most website owners can be that it supports only the three most popular payment gateways; if you’re a site owner living in a country not supported by the three most popular payment gateways, you might be disappointed.       

Pricing:

MemberPress offers three pricing plans: Basic, Plus, and Pro.

The Basic plan starts at $179.50 per year and includes one site license, access to all the essential features, and basic email support.

The Plus plan starts at $299.50 annually and includes two site licenses, access to all the essential features, and priority email support.

The Pro plan starts at $399.50 per year and includes up to five site licenses, access to all the essential features, advanced features like course management, and priority email support.

All MemberPress plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee, and you can upgrade or downgrade your plan anytime. Additionally, you can purchase add-ons to extend the functionality of MemberPress further.

LearnDash

LearnDash is a powerful and user-friendly learning management system (LMS) plugin for WordPress that allows you to create and sell online courses. It has a robust interface, advanced membership modules, and many integrations for creating and managing your e-learning platform.

Pros of using LearnDash

• Easy Setup: LearnDash is easy to set up and use, even for beginners. You don’t need any coding or technical skills to get started with creating and selling online courses.
• Content Protection: With LearnDash, you can easily hide and restrict access to any content on your site, including posts, pages, and even entire courses.
• Course Creation: LearnDash makes it simple to create and sell online courses. You can easily add multimedia content like videos, images, and audio to your courses, and you can even create quizzes and assignments to help students learn more effectively.
• Drip Content: LearnDash is a powerful drip content feature that allows you to release course content to students over time. LearnDash is a great way to keep students engaged and motivated to continue learning.
• Membership Sites: LearnDash has tools to create highly engaging membership sites, with features like gamification, social learning, and certificates to reward students’ progress.
• Integrations: LearnDash offers fantastic integrations with tools like WooCommerce, Stripe, and Zapier. LearnDash makes it easy to connect LearnDash to your existing website and tools and to automate tasks like enrollment and payments.
• Payment Gateways: LearnDash supports a variety of payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout. LearnDash makes it easy to accept payments from students all over the world.

Cons

• Cost: LearnDash is not a free plugin; the cost can add up if you need to purchase additional add-ons or extensions.

Pricing

LearnDash plugin is available for $199/ year for a single site with one year of support and update.

Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads is a plugin that enables you to sell digital products such as eBooks, Pdfs, videos, or audio through a WordPress site, with features like a built-in shopping cart, payment options, and unlimited file downloads.

Pros of using Easy digital downloads

With Easy Digital Downloads, you have the power to sell any digital product under the sun. The sky’s the limit, whether it’s eBooks, audio files, videos, or PDFs!

• Maximise Your Profits – Built-in shopping cart system means that customers can easily purchase multiple downloads, and automatic recurring payments enable you to accept payments easily.
• Unleash the Power of Unlimited Downloads – You can offer unlimited file downloads to your customers or restrict them based on time and attempts.
• Secure and Versatile Payment Methods – Get paid quickly and easily with multiple payment gateway options like Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Braintree.
• Customisable Functionality – With a wide range of add-ons, you can extend your site’s functionality to include features like Purchase Rewards, Wish Lists, Multi-Currency, Conditional Emails, and more.

Cons

While it’s an excellent plugin for selling digital products, some may find it lacking in the membership department. It can’t hide WordPress posts and pages from non-members. Plus, although it integrates with AffiliateWP, other popular services may not be so lucky.

Pricing: The pricing plans for the premium version start at $99 per year for the Personal Pass, $179 per year for the Extended plan, for the professional plan, $269 per year, and $399 for the All-Access Plan. The pricing varies depending on the number of sites and the required features.

Conclusion

After thorough research and testing, we consider MemberPress the most comprehensive WordPress membership plugin, offering all the necessary features for creating a membership site and selling online courses. Additionally, it provides excellent documentation and support for users.

However, for those seeking an alternative to MemberPress, LearnDash is a strong contender. It offers an intuitive and potent membership and online course-building platform.

For those looking to sell digital products on their membership website, we suggest using Easy Digital Downloads, which provides powerful features designed to create and sell digital downloads.

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