Did you ever consider creating a membership-based website? Here are some best WordPress membership plugins that would make the process easier for you.
It is indeed a great idea to create a membership site and earn recurring revenue. You can offer a platform to learn something new and useful or you can create a platform where users can showcase their services while you charge them to use your site.
If you go for custom development of a membership site, it will cost you hundreds of dollars.
These WordPress membership plugins will save a lot of time and money for you, you can install any of these plugins and get started with your membership site.
Generally, BuddyPress comes into our mind when we talk about a community kind of site on the WordPress platform.
But if you don’t want to create a BuddyPress-based website, you can use these membership plugins to bring in those features.
Let’s look at the best WordPress membership plugins that you can use to create your membership-based WordPress site quickly.
Top Membership WordPress Plugins
1. MemberPress
Thinking about professional WordPress membership plugins, the first one that comes to mind is MemberPress.
This plugin lets you restrict access to absolutely everything on your WordPress website unlike free or other cheap membership plugins
Top Features
- No limit to member management
- Complete control over members’ access
- No limit on custom access rules for members
- Works perfectly with bbPress as well as other forum plugins
- Paypal express checkout option
- Automated member permission management
- Premium support
This plugin without a doubt gives you all the features for your bucks, guaranteed to meet the expectations of professionals even for creating big business platforms.
2. SureMembers
SureMembers is a power-packed membership plugin designed to help you create amazing websites with minimal effort. Whether you’re creating an exclusive community, eLearning website, premium news portal or something else, SureMembers can help.
Top Features
- User-friendly navigation with simple controls
- Unlimited membership tiers
- Drip content controls
- Custom access rules and full control over memberships
- Works with leading learning management systems
SureMembers has been designed to be simple to use and to provide the tools you need to offer free and premium memberships. You can control everything, track everything, and make sure every member feels welcome.
3. MemberMouse
MemberMouse is another comprehensive membership plugin for the WordPress platform. It’s a premium membership and eCommerce plugin that lets you create a membership-based site in minutes.
The plugin is built keeping non-coders & designers in mind and makes it easier for them to use.
Top Features
- Custom member area and detailed stats of engagement
- Smart Tags for displaying dynamic content
- Different membership levels
- Member and subscription management
- Integrated with popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, etc
- Customer Management
- Premium support
Still, all these features do come with a hefty price tag. MemberMouse is a professional and expensive plugin, but if you are building a professional online and eCommerce business platform, this is the best membership plugin money can buy.
4. Ultimate Membership Pro
One of the top-selling premium membership WordPress plugins, the Ultimate Membership Pro plugin offers you all the important features that you will need on your membership site.
Creating a subscription-based membership plugin is a great business model that will help you to receive regular traffic and earn recurring revenue.
The Ultimate Membership Pro plugin offers you the option to create free as well as paid membership packages and you have the option to create a multi-level membership subscription option.
You can link your site with the top online payment systems such as PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, 2Checkout, etc. You also have the option to receive bank transfers, so everything is sorted as far as receiving payment from your member is concerned.
The Ultimate Membership Pro plugin gives you complete control to restrict the important pages on your site. You can restrict any specific URL if you need to get that done for any reason.
Top Features
- Amazing security and restriction
- Multi-level membership options
- Custom currencies for members
- Email verification
- Content and specific URL locker
- Membership Badges & Cards
The Ultimate Membership Pro plugin offers you a beautiful modern design for your membership plugin and the kind of options and features it offers; you will never have to look at any other plugin.
5. Simple Membership
One of the most popular free membership plugins helps to create protected content for different membership access levels that could be set according to the administrator’s needs.
Top Features
- Very user-friendly interface for content protection
- No limit on membership access levels
- Member register/login widget on the website’s sidebar
- Member payment logs
- Customizable free and paid membership options
This plugin may not have all the features that meet your expectations but it’s available for free with a lot of common features that would help any user not willing to spend extra bucks on every plugin for his WordPress website.
6. WP-Members
Probably one of the most popular free membership plugins that anyone would consider without taking any risks involving compatibility with your theme as this does not mess up with it at all while providing close to almost all the features that a paid membership plugin would.
Top Features
- Integrated user log-in, and registration option
- Member register/login widget on the website’s sidebar
- Customizable free and paid membership options
- Customizable membership profile fields
- Admin approval option for new sign-ups
- Customizable specific display fields
- More than 100+ different filter and action hooks
Even with all these useful features, its functionality can also be increased by installing other plugin extensions!
7. s2Member
Another very popular free membership plugin comes to mind with more than 30000+ active installs with the standard features any membership plugin would provide.
Top Features
- Member register/login widget on the website’s sidebar
- Buy or sell now options depending on the user’s requirement
- Content protection for pages, posts, products, etc
- Popular payment gateways like PayPal, Skrill, Stripe, etc. (Only on the paid version)
- Integrated ClickBank, coupon codes & unlimited membership levels
s2Member is no doubt a plugin with a lot of features, however not have such a user-friendly interface but if you mess around with it for quite a while, this might meet all your needs!
If you wish to create serious business with your membership site, I would recommend you to have a look at the pro version of the s2Member plugin.
The pro version of the plugin is loaded with amazing features that will surely take your membership business to the next level.
Some of the important features that you get only on the premium version are
- You can integrate your site with Authorize.Net, PayPal Pro, as well as Stripe
- Option to create an unlimited number of membership levels
- Strong anti-spam security on your membership site
- Coupon code configuration to offer special discounts
- Gift redemption option
- WordPress multisite network support
8. Restrict Content
Again one of the most popular premium plugins that puts everything you need for managing members in a very organized way with the most well-designed user interface at your command.
Top Features
- Option to create unlimited membership packages
- User-friendly customer dashboard
- Paypal express checkout option
- Advanced group-level memberships
- Premium updates and support
- Comprehensive statistics of your membership site
If you are willing to spend some hefty bucks on some professional-grade plugin that would meet your expectations then Restrict Content Pro should be no doubt your plugin of choice.
9. Paid Member Subscriptions
When thinking of versatile WordPress membership plugins, the one to be considered the best is Paid Member Subscriptions with great flexibility and an easy-to-use user interface.
Top Features
- Unlimited memberships
- Free and Paid subscriptions
- Content restriction
- Member and subscription management
- Payment management
- Email Templates
- Basic reporting and Premium support
If you are looking for a great membership plugin that gives you great flexibility and content dripping, then Paid Member Subscriptions is a very good choice.
10. Magic Members
If you are looking for a plugin to allow a specific part of your premium content available to your users, then Magic Members beats all others.
Sure there are other plugins that do this as well, but Magic Members still stays on the top spot for doing it in the best possible way.
Top Features
- Unlimited memberships
- Free and Paid subscriptions
- Content restriction
- Member and subscription management
- Payment management
- Email Templates
- Basic reporting and Premium support
In the end, if you are looking for a plugin that excels at dripping content & organized course delivery, as well as having every other feature required for running a membership site, then Magic Members is a highly recommended plugin.
11. aMember Professional
A top-of-the-line premium membership plugin which is a PHP script service that can be used on other platforms except for WordPress as well.
Top Features
- Unlimited memberships levels
- Free and Paid subscriptions
- Content restriction for the members
- Member and subscription management
- Payment management
- Email Templates
- Basic reporting and Premium support
aMember Pro certainly seems to have all the required features to manage a fully featured membership site. Although the user interface looks quite outdated, you might need to think twice before spending your bucks on this one.
Conclusion
The above-shortlisted plugins are considered to be the most efficient plugins for managing membership on a personal or professional business website.
Plugins like MemberPress, and Restrict Content Pro which provide the user with more than adequate features but come with a hefty price tag.
On the other hand, there is Simple Membership & WP-Members which provide essential functions that can be used without thinking about your wallet.
This article has helped you find the membership plugin that meets your expectations. Leave your comments below and let us know your experiences with the membership plugins that you have used from our mentioned list.
