WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems because it’s easy to use and highly customizable. It also offers a range of membership plugins that allow you to create private areas on your website where only members can access certain content. These WordPress membership plugins are essential for any business or organization that wants to build an online community, offer exclusive features, or even sell digital products.
In this article, we’ll discuss the best 11 WordPress membership plugins in 2023 and how they can help you grow your business. We’ll cover features like user profiles, payment gateways, member directories, and more so that you can find the right plugin for your needs.
So let’s get started!
Why Should You Use a WordPress Membership Plugin?
WordPress membership plugins are perfect for any business or organization that wants to increase engagement and loyalty among its members. In addition to allowing you to restrict access to certain content, these plugins often offer powerful features such as user profiles, membership directories, payment gateways, and more. You can even restrict content.
With a WordPress membership plugin, you can create a private area on your website where only members can access the content. You can also create exclusive membership sites. This allows you to give exclusive offers, host private events, or even sell digital products.
What to look for in a WordPress Membership Plugin?
When selecting a WordPress membership plugin, there are several key features you should look for. These include:
1. Payment gateways: Look for a plugin that supports multiple payment options such as PayPal, Stripe, and credit cards. This will make it easier for members to pay their membership fees or purchase digital products.
2. Features: WordPress membership plugins should offer features such as user profiles, member directories, content restrictions, free memberships, private forums and groups, and email notifications. These features will help you create a more engaging membership experience.
3. Compatibility: Make sure the plugin is compatible with your theme and any other plugins you’re using. This will ensure that everything works together seamlessly.
4. Ease of Use: The plugin should be easy to set up and use, even for beginners.
Once you’ve chosen your membership plugin in the list below, you can add it to WordPress by checking our article on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Top 11 WordPress Membership Plugins
MemberPress is a powerful WordPress membership plugin that allows you to create membership websites. It provides powerful features such as content dripping, access control, recurring subscriptions, and more. With MemberPress, you can quickly and easily set up multiple levels of memberships with different permissions for each level, allowing you to offer exclusive content or discounts for your higher-tier members.
You can also restrict access to specific posts or pages, providing a great way to monetize your content and give an extra incentive for people to sign up for premium membership plans. MemberPress integrates with popular payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe, making it easy to collect payments quickly and securely.
Additionally, the WordPress plugin includes detailed analytics so that you can track how your membership website is doing and make adjustments as needed. With its powerful features and easy setup, MemberPress is definitely one of the best WordPress membership plugins, the perfect solution for anyone looking to create a successful membership website.
Features that Make MemberPress a Good Membership Plugin:
- Create multiple levels of membership with different permissions
- Content dripping
- Customizable coupon codes
- Access control
- Recurring subscriptions
- Restrict content
- Integrate with payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe
- Detailed analytics to track website performance
- Easy setup and use.
Pricing:
- Basic: $179.50/year
- Plus: $299.50/year
- Pro: $399.50/year
Ultimate Member is a WordPress membership plugin you can use to build a membership site or an online community on your WordPress site. With this plugin, you can effortlessly build user profiles, restrict content to members only, enable recurring payments, and provide paid membership levels.
The Ultimate Member plugin is also highly customizable, so you can tailor it to fit the look and feel of your website. Plus, Ultimate Member integrates with popular payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe to collect payments for memberships or digital products.
The free version of Ultimate Member is considered the best free WordPress membership plugin.
Features that Make Ultimate Member a Good Membership Plugin:
- Create user profiles
- Content restriction to members only
- Create unlimited subscription levels
- Enable recurring payments
- Highly customizable
- Integrates with PayPal and Stripe
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Extensions Pass: $249/year
- Extensions + Theme Pass: $299/year
WP-Members Membership Plugin is an easy-to-use WordPress membership plugin that lets you quickly set up a membership platform. It provides features such as content restriction, user registration, email notifications, and more.
You can also use the membership plugin to customize your registration forms. Plus, WP-Members is compatible with most themes and plugins, ensuring a smooth integration.
Features that Make WP-Members Membership Plugin a Good Membership Plugin:
- Content restriction
- User Registration
- Customizable registration forms
- Email notifications
- Compatible with most themes and plugins
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Premium extensions available
Paid Member Subscriptions, by Cozmoslabs, is a premium WordPress membership plugin with beautiful features and an easy-to-use interface. With this plugin, you can also create multiple membership sites and membership levels with different permissions for each level.
You can create coupon codes, collect payments through popular payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and more. Plus, the membership plugin integrates with popular email services like MailChimp and offers detailed analytics so that you can track how your membership website is doing.
You cannot go wrong with Paid Member Subscriptions.
Features that Make Paid Member Subscriptions a Good Membership Plugin:
- Multiple membership levels
- Access control
- Create coupon codes
- Recurring payments
- Restrict content
- Integrate with payment gateways
- Integrate with email services
- Detailed analytics
Pricing:
- Free: €0
- Basic: €69
- Pro: €149
Another WordPress membership plugin is LearnDash. As one of the best WordPress membership plugins, it lets you set up an online learning platform. With this plugin, you can create courses, assign assessments, track user progress, and more.
LearnDash includes advanced features such as content dripping (the ability to release content over time), multimedia support, and advanced quizzing options. Plus, LearnDash integrates with popular payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net
LearnDash also provides a wide range of membership website templates and themes, so you can quickly get your sites up and running. With these templates, you can create stunning websites with just a few clicks. Moreover, the templates are fully customizable to fit the look and feel of your brand.
These are some of the features that make LearnDash one of the best WordPress membership plugins.
Features that Make LearnDash a Good Membership Plugin:
- Create courses and assign assessments
- Content dripping
- Multimedia support
- Advanced quizzing options
- Integrate with payment gateways
Pricing:
- LearnDash LMS: $199
Still want to find the most incredible membership plugins? Let me talk about MemberMouse. The plugin enables users to create, manage and monetize their online memberships. With MemberMouse’s drag-and-drop interface, creating stunning membership sites that unlock exclusive content, products, and services is easier than ever before.
MemberMouse also offers advanced marketing automation tools, such as upsells and downsells, as well as comprehensive analytics and reporting to help businesses make informed decisions.
With MemberMouse, businesses can offer memberships and products online (like paid member subscriptions) and generate recurring revenue. Additionally, it provides a secure platform that ensures all customer data is kept safe and secure.
MemberHouse is really a membership plugin for WordPress.
Features that Make MemberMouse a Good Membership Plugin:
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Restrict content
- Create and manage memberships
- Advanced marketing automation tools
- Comprehensive analytics and reporting
- Secure platform to keep customer data safe
Pricing:
- Builder: $29/month
- Advanced: $79/month
- Premium: $199/month
ARMember is one of the best WordPress membership plugins. It comes with content restriction, user registration, and payment integration. With this plugin, you can create members-only areas on your website and restrict access.
ARMember is one of the best WordPress membership plugins. It comes with content restriction, user registration, and payment integration. With this plugin, you can create members-only areas on your website and restrict access.
ARMember is the best WordPress membership plugin for thousands of business owners.
Features that Make ARMember a Good Membership Plugin:
- Restrict Content
- Create multiple membership levels
- User Registration
- Payment integration
- Subscription management system
- Integrate with payment gateways
Pricing:
One-time payment: $59
I cannot talk about the top WordPress membership plugins without mentioning Restrict Content Pro (RCP). This excellent plugin allows you to restrict content, and make subscription-based products or services. It also lets you set up unlimited memberships, charge recurring payments, control user access to content, and much more.
Additionally, Restrict Content Pro makes it simple to manage your customers, track sales in real-time, run reports, and more. With RCP, you can create a powerful membership website in minutes to help generate ongoing revenue for your business.
Features that Make Restrict Content Pro a Good Membership Plugin:
- Unlimited membership levels
- Restrict Content
- Charge recurring payments
- Control user access to content
- Manage customers and track sales
- Run reports
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Pro: $99/year
Thrive Apprentice is another top plugin. With this membership plugin, you can create and share online courses. Its intuitive drag-and-drop course builder makes creating stunning online courses a breeze.
Thrive Apprentice also includes content dripping, multimedia support, quiz creation, and in-depth analytics. Plus, it can be integrated with popular payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal for easy payments.
Features that Make Thrive Apprentice a Good Membership Plugin:
- Intuitive drag-and-drop course builder
- Content dripping
- Multimedia support
- Quiz creation and assessment tools
- Integrate with payment gateways
- In-depth analytics
Pricing:
- Thrive Apprentice: $149/year
Ultimate Membership Pro is a powerful and feature-packed WordPress membership plugin. It lets you create unlimited membership levels, set up subscription plans, restrict content access, accept payments through multiple gateways, and more.
The plugin includes user profile pages, coupon code support, drip content protection, advanced security options, and integration with bbPress and BuddyPress.
It’s one of the most bought membership plugins on Themeforest, with 35k+ sales. Creating a WordPress membership site is easy with this membership plugin.
Features that Make Ultimate Membership Pro a Good Membership Plugin:
- Create unlimited membership levels
- Set up subscription plans
- Content restriction
- Accept payments through multiple gateways
- User profile pages, coupon code support
- Drip content protection
- Advanced security options
- Integrate with bbPress and BuddyPress
Pricing:
- One-time payment: $59
Paid Memberships Pro is one of the most popular free WordPress membership plugins. It’s packed with features that help you create your own membership site with content restriction, multiple membership levels, member management tools, and more.
Paid Memberships Pro also integrates with PayPal and Stripe for easy payments. WordPress users can even accept global payments in multiple currencies. It also includes features such as coupon codes, email management, and content dripping.
Features that Make Paid memberships Pro a Good Membership Plugin:
- Content restriction
- Multiple membership levels
- Member management tools
- Integrate with PayPal and Stripe
- Accept global payments in multiple currencies
- Coupon codes, email management
- Content dripping
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Standard; $167.00/year
- Plus: $267.00/year
- Builder: $467.00/year
Increase Engagement with WordPress Membership Plugins
WordPress membership plugins are an excellent way to create and manage a membership website. Whether you want to monetize your online content, provide exclusive access to products or services, or simply generate recurring revenue for your business, there’s a WordPress plugin perfect for the job.
Now, it’s your turn. What membership plugin will you choose for your website? Let me know in the comment section below!
