10 Best WordPress Membership Plugins Compared in 2023

Adding WordPress membership with a plugin is a great way to monetize your website. By creating restricted content for paying customers or registered users, you create oneness. Of course, to do that, you need a proven name among your audience. This does not happen overnight. However, once you have set yourself as a “name” in the industry, people will want to pay for the services you provide. They will also want to become members of your exclusive club. Enter memberships.

In WordPress, everything is done by adding plugins, and memberships are no exception. Our article covers the best WordPress membership plugins. There is something for everyone. No matter how deep your pocket or how big your website is, you will find something interesting in this piece. Let’s dig into the world of WP membership plugins!

FixRunner’s Choices For The Best WordPress Membership Plugins

1. MemberPress – WordPress Membership Plugin

Price: Starts at $179.50 per year for a single site license.

MemberPress is one great membership solution for WordPress. It is easy to set up and use, but very powerful. It gives you all the tools to restrict access to posts, pages, and categories of your choice. Also, it gives options to manage subscription both to you and your customers. You can create affiliate programs, and also drip content on a schedule you create. MemberPress is compatible with just about any WordPress theme.

It was tested a lot of times. It also merges with other services that you probably already use, such as MailChimp and Amazon Web Service. This is a premium plugin, not exactly cheap since you have to pay for it monthly/annually.

The developer edition is even more costly, as it lets you use unlimited WordPress sites, as well as a few other advanced features. Still, if you have the budget, MemberPress is a proven choice, and we approve it.

2. Restrict Content Pro – WordPress Membership Plugin

Price: Starts at $99 per year for a single site license.

Another popular choice is Restrict Content Pro. This is a very well-designed plugin. It has a clear user interface, and you will not need much introduction if you are already familiar with WordPress. Still, it has vast documentation, and you will have no trouble finding instructions. It will give you options to restrict premium content only to your members, but also to create different access levels. You can categorize and tag everything, to fine tune your memberships.

You can create an unlimited number of memberships and subscription packages, as well as sell digital products. Creating dripping content for your members is also possible. You can give your customers a chance to upgrade or downgrade their membership plans. You can also use many popular payment gateways such as Paypal, Stripe, Braintree, and others.

As you can see, Restricted Content Pro offers a lot. This is a premium plugin, but it has four price plans. You are more likely than not to find something that fits your budget. It is a powerful and useful plugin, and it will be worth the stake if you are looking for a content restriction solution.

3. MemberMouse – WordPress Membership Plugin

Price: Starts at $289 per year for a single site license.

MemberMouse lets you create different membership levels for your customers. It also has a content widget that will display not only products that are available at the moment but also those that are not yet released. That will create hype, and draw in new members.

The MemberMouse plugin has a unique way of sorting and displaying content through SmartTags, which is a simple system of shortcodes. With it, you can create promotions and thank you messages. On the confirmation or “thank you page” you can display more products related to the one purchased.

There are also options to share coupons, as well as social media sharing, prorated upgrades, and handling of overdue payments. MemberMouse supports seven payment gateways. You can use them to sell physical and digital goods, as well as memberships.

It is a premium plugin and it’s quite costly. Still, if you run a serious business and are looking for a reliable membership solution, you will find it very useful.

4. WooCommerce Memberships

Price: Starts at $199 per year for a single site license.

WooCommerce is the best eCommerce plugin for WordPress. It gives you everything you might need to sell your products. No surprise, it also has an extension that gives a tone of options to create memberships. WooCommerce Memberships will let you create a whole membership system for your online store.

With it, you can make member-restricted content that drips on a pre-created schedule. You can create membership plans solely of the physical/digital products your store sells.

That means you can tie memberships to specific products or product groups, or sell them on their own. With WooCommerce Memberships you can create promotions and discounts.

You’ll be glad to hear that it fully integrates with WooCommerce Subscriptions. Still, if you run a WooCommerce store and want to create memberships for customers, it is an automatic choice.

Since WooCommerce is a potent, but complex tool, you might find yourself stuck. If you lack patience, or technical knowledge to solve problems on your own, contact FixRunner. We have a loyal team of WooCommerce experts, ready to get your website back on track.

5. Paid Memberships Pro – WordPress Membership Plugin

Price: Free. Premium plan starts at $247 per year for a single site license.

If you are not that tech-savvy, you will like Paid Memberships Pro. It has ample documentation, and a video guide to assist and introduce you to this great plugin. You can first start with their free plan. With its limited options, you will have a feel about what this plugin offers and how it works.

The Pro version lets you create unlimited membership levels and set them for individual posts and pages. You can set flexible pricing as well as free trial periods, and accept recurring subscriptions.

Also, setting up custom notifications and email messages is an option, as well as creating coupons and promotions. You can schedule content dripping over time to keep the users engaged. You can even expand the functionality of this plugin by adding both free and paid extensions.

Paid Memberships Pro is a must-install, especially if you are on a budget. Even the free version gives you plenty of features. You can always upgrade later when your situation improves.

6. WP-Members – WordPress Membership Plugin

Price: Free. The premium bundle costs $125 per year to access all paid addons.

WP-Members is a free solution, perfect for those with pockets not so thick. Still, it is a handy membership plugin, with a nice set of features. You can block off pages, posts, create user logins and registrations in custom fields, and it has a neat sidebar login widget.

The plugin does not hide everything from unregistered users. Instead, it shows “teasers” that make users want to register. Still, you can’t expect too much from a completely free solution.

Although the basic plugin is free, you’re limited in terms of functionalities. when you buy the premium bundle it comes with features such as WooCommerce support, PayPal subscriptions to accept payments on member registrations.

7. WishList Member – WordPress Membership Plugin

Price: Starts at $149.50 per year for a single site license.

If you want a plugin that gives you a vast amount of different membership options, WishList Member should be first on your wishlist! Jokes aside, this is a great plugin. With it, you can create different membership levels, as well as create free, trial and paid memberships and free previews.

Also, you can set auto-upgrades on membership levels, and deliver content by sequences. There is also an option to set auto-expiration dates for your subscriptions.

WishList Member integrates directly with WooCommerce using the integration system built into the plugin. But if you want to accept recurring billing, you will need the premium WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin.

You can also install several other addons to broaden the functionality and give you more control.

WishList Member is a premium WordPress plugin – you pay an annual fee to enjoy all features.

8. Ultimate Membership Pro

Price: $59.

Ultimate Membership Pro is an affordable premium plugin. You can find it on the CodeCanyon market. For the price, it offers a lot indeed. It lets you create many levels of memberships for your customers, giving them with exclusive content.

You can protect pages, posts, products, categories, or specific URLs, restricting access only to a targeted member club. You can create both free and paid memberships as well as trial periods. To your members, you can drip content over time, and offer coupons either by % or fixed price discounts.

Ultimate Membership Pro supports social logins for more ease. It also has many payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net. In addition, it has WooCommerce integration. That means you can sell membership through that popular platform. It also works with 9 email marketing platforms.

As you can see, Ultimate Membership Pro has everything you might need from a membership WordPress plugin. With a price tag this cheap, it is probably the best value for money of all plugins on our list.

9. PrivateContent – WordPress Membership Plugin

Price: One-time payment of $35.

As the name suggests, PrivateContent lets you restrict content access to your website. You can block pages, posts, but also comments, widgets, and there is even an option to lock your whole membership website with a click. However, PrivateContent has some unique features too.

It lets you track your WordPress user’s activity and target them with ads as it has native Google Analytics integration. On the other hand, PrivateContent takes care of user privacy.

You can create multi-level memberships, free and paid. Once registered, your users will have their private area, where they can even send messages. PrivateContent integrates with WordPress and WooCommerce. You can use one login for everything.

It also has a form-creating and skin-building tool. And best of all, this great plugin is very cheap, and you only need to buy it once for your Membership sites.

10. Ultimate Member – WordPress Membership Plugin

Price: Free. Premium plan starts at $249 per year.

Last but not least, we have Ultimate Member, the most popular membership plugin on the WordPress market. With it, you can create memberships for your users, displaying private content only to those who register and login. It also encourages social media activity.

The plugin allows users to share their Instagram photos, follow each other and send private messages. Ultimate Member lets you create a notification system on your website, which will alert your visitors in real time.

For more comfort, social login is enabled. Users can use their Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Instagram profiles to log in to your website. MailChimp and WooCommerce integrations are there too. Ultimate Member is completely free, and if you don’t need anything too fancy, this plugin will do a great job for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are WordPress membership plugins?

WordPress membership plugins are tools that allow you to create membership websites or add membership functionality to your existing WordPress website. They provide features like membership levels, content restriction, payment gateways, and user management, which help you create a professional and secure membership site.

What are the benefits of using a WordPress membership plugin?

Using a WordPress membership plugin can offer several benefits, such as creating a steady revenue stream, establishing a loyal community, providing value to your users, and better managing user access and permissions.

What are the best WordPress membership plugins?

The best WordPress membership plugins include MemberPress, WooCommerce Memberships, Restrict Content Pro, Paid Memberships Pro, LearnDash, Memberful, and Ultimate Member. Each plugin has its own set of features and capabilities, so it’s important to choose the one that best suits your needs.

How do WordPress membership plugins work?

WordPress membership plugins work by providing features that allow you to create membership levels, restrict content, manage users, and accept payments. You can set up different membership levels with different access levels and permissions, and create membership plans with different pricing and billing options. Users can sign up for your membership site, access the content and features according to their membership level, and manage their account information and billing details.

WordPress Membership Plugins – Conclusion

That was our list of top WordPress Membership Plugins. As you can see, we tried to add something for everyone. We suggest you check our WP College Blog. There, you will find other popular plugin categories, as well as solutions to common WordPress issues so you can fix them on your own.

If you find that too complex, or time-consuming, contact FixRunner. We will provide professional WordPress help, and solve any issues you have with your website.

10 Best WordPress Membership Plugins for Your Website Compared

Contents: