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15 Best WordPress Membership Plugins for 2024 (Compared)

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Best Membership WordPress Plugins

Are you looking for the best WordPress membership plugins? In that case, you’re on the right page.

Membership sites are one of the popular types of websites that contain exclusive content for their members only. In simpler terms, those contents aren’t accessible to the public. For example, Udemy is a membership site that provides premium courses for its members.

So, if you want to create such a site, then you need a good WordPress membership plugin. Using a membership plugin lets you create multiple membership levels and allocate them with different types of access to premium content. 

In WordPress, we’re lucky that many powerful plugins are available for membership sites! But choosing one from many is tough at the same time. 

So, we’re here with the selected best WordPress membership plugins for you. Let’s begin!

Quick Overview of Our Top Picks

Want to decide quickly, then check out our top picks from the list of the best membership plugin WordPress.

PluginsMain FeaturesInitial Pricing
MemberPressLMS features, control over what content your users can see, customizable coupons, etc.$179.50/year
SureMembersUser role sync, menu item visibility based on user access, drip content, etc.$69/year
Paid Memberships Pro47+ add-ons included country-wise sales tax facility, drip content, etc.$174/year
ARMember 47+ add-ons, country-wise sales tax facility, drip content, etc.$69 for Six Months
Restrict ContentUnlimited subscription package, content restriction, 34 pro add-ons, etc.$99/year

With that, let’s move forward!


Why You Need a WordPress Membership Plugin?

First things first, 68.8% of websites are running memberships in the Business-to-Consumer space (B2C). And with the most popular B2C niches being education, arts & crafts, and religion & spirituality.

Membership Site Market
Membership Site Market

So you see, the membership site is the new strategy for monetization today.

Besides, the common motivator for starting a membership is the stability in recurring revenue, which is 82.8%.

And, if you have a WordPress site, and want to create a membership site now, use the WordPress membership plugin to create a fully functional membership site.

So, let’s briefly discuss what a membership website is. 

A membership website is a site that lets you offer gated content to your subscribed users only. In those sites, access to premium content is protected from non-registered users. So, you need to be a registered member of the site to view its contents. 

Also, you can create different membership levels with exciting pricing packages. And, the members can access various content based on their level. 

To know more, check our article on membership site examples

So, there are various membership sites of different niches. For example, the Smart Passive Income Courses provides online training and courses to create successful online businesses. Similarly, Netflix is a subscription-based service that provides unlimited movies, TV shows, etc. 

Membership Site Example

In contrast, SiteSaga.com is not a membership subscription site. Because any internet user can access all of its content whether or not they’re registered.

Now, let’s check out some major benefits of a membership site.

  • Monetization: You can generate a consistent income by making your visitors pay to access premium content. 
  • Grow email list: By creating free plans, you can quickly and easily grow your email list. And, you can reach out to more users. 
  • Deliver valuable content: You can create and deliver your members more valuable content. This encourages them to pay continuously for membership to access that content. 
  • Control access to content: All the membership plugins give you full control over your content access. You can decide whether to display or restrict a specific portion, post, page and so on, based on membership levels.

How We Picked Membership Plugins?

Not all the plugins provide specific features you’re searching for your membership site although there are several membership plugins. 

So, here’s how we picked and made the list of the best membership plugin WordPress for you:                  

  • Drip Content: We made sure that the plugin allows drip content to make your users curious. So, you can release your content gradually rather than giving it all at once.
  • Coupons and discounts: Below listed plugins will let you generate coupons and discounts. So your user wants to purchase your membership.
  • Subscriptions: We made sure that the plugin allows to create different types of subscriptions like one-time, recurring (weekly, monthly, yearly), and more.
  • Payment gateways: We also checked whether the plugins offer various payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, etc. They’ll also support currencies from different countries to subscribe to your site.
  • Email marketing tools: Plus, these plugins allow integration of a selected plugin with email marketing tools. This will help to grow your email list and active members. Some popular tools like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, etc.

If you want detailed information on selecting WordPress plugins, then check our article on how to choose the best WordPress plugins.

With that, let’s move on to our list of best membership plugin WordPress for 2024.


15 Best Membership Plugin WordPress 2024

Here, we’ve handpicked some of the best WordPress membership plugins with detailed descriptions, features, and pricing. So, go through each plugin to determine which is suitable for your membership site.

1. MemberPress

With an excellent 4.5 stars out of 5 on Trustpilot, MemberPress is probably one of the most popular all-in-one membership plugins for WordPress. It’s an easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder, combined with powerful features for membership and LMS (Learning Management System). 

MamberPress WordPress Plugin

You can grant membership to your users right from the website and allow them to upgrade, or cancel their membership. Also, it allows you to approve the membership to groups and organizations rather than individuals. In that case, one member can pay for a group of people.

Additionally, it gives you control over what content your users can see depending on the membership or digital product they purchase. You can limit a single page to certain membership levels or protect everything within a specific category. 

Pros

  • Scheduled content release and content access expiration.
  • Create an unlimited coaching program with CoachKit by MemberPress.
  • Restrict VIP forum access based on things like plan level or membership duration.
  • Generate as many coupons as you want along with expiration dates and number of users.
  • Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net integration lets your users pay for their memberships from your website.
  • Create beautiful pricing pages for your membership products with templates.

Cons

  • No BuddyPress integration with the basic plan.
  • Only the highest plan users can add gifting to their site.
  • Nee to buy the highest pricing plan for Quiz & Assignment Gradebook.

Pricing: 

MemberPress has only a premium version where there are 3 different pricing plans:

  • Basic Plan: $179.50/year for 1 site, unlimited members, unlimited courses, Stripe & PayPal integration, powerful content protection, Coupon Codes, etc.
  • Plus Plan: $299.50/year for up to 2 sites, advanced marketing integrations, sell podcast memberships, forums add-on, communities add-on, etc.
  • Pro Plan: $399.50/year for up to 5 sites, sell corporate accounts, two-factor authentication, 3 months free of OptinMonster, etc.

Why We Recommend Using It?

MemberPress stands out as the top WordPress membership plugin available. It offers unlimited membership levels, an intuitive interface, seamless integration with popular payment gateways, and powerful content restriction features. An excellent all-in-one solution for membership sites.


2. SureMembers

Trusted by over 4,800+ businesses, SureMembers made it to the top list of this best membership plugin WordPress. It’s from the same trusted team that brought you some of the most iconic WordPress products, like Astra, Spectra, Ultimate Addons for Elementor, etc.

SureMembers Best Membership Plugin WordPress

Using this plugin, you can schedule content releases to enhance engagement and drive steady traffic with drip feed capabilities. Also, you can control and secure your content effortlessly with flexible access rules. As well as restrict access to posts, pages, categories, and custom post types.

Pros

  • Create unlimited membership levels with varying access permissions
  • Supports major payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal for easy and secure transactions.
  • Build and customize registration forms with ease.
  • Protect your sensitive client documents by creating custom areas on your website.
  • If you have podcasts, monetize it by offering exclusive, members-only episodes.
  • You’ll get a 14-Day money-back guarantee.

Cons

  • Even in the highest plan, the number of sites to use is limited.
  • This plugin does not have a free plan.

Pricing: 

SureMembers is a premium premium plugin that comes with different pricing plans.

  • Pro: $69/year for usage on 1 site.
  • Business: $99/year for usage on 5 sites.
  • Agency: $149/year for usage on 10 sites.

Why We Recommend Using It?

If you’re just starting a membership site, we have to say, that SureMembers is an excellent choice for you. It’s incredibly beginner-friendly and will make the whole process feel much more manageable.


3. Paid Memberships Pro

Paid Memberships Pro, with over 12 years of experience working with creators like you, offers everything you’ll need to start, manage, and grow your membership site. It’s designed for premium content sites, online courses, or LMS and members-only products, subscription box products, and more.

Paid Membership Pro WordPress Membership Plugin

Similar to MemberPress, you can create an unlimited number of membership levels with flexible pricing. Such as free trials, recurring payments, subscriptions, one-time payments, and more. 

In addition to that, your users can choose a membership level, complete checkout, and become members of your site right away. And, your members can log in, view payments, update billing information, or cancel their accounts directly on your site. 

Pros

  • Restrict custom post types like events, courses, downloads, and WooCommerce products.
  • Manage entire membership data, import/export members, and view the reports on sales, revenue, cancellation, expiration, and signups.
  • Manage affiliates with add-ons or 3rd party tools like AffiliateWP.
  • Offer members-only events with all major WordPress event plugins.
  • Create discount offers, view sales and revenue, build landing pages, and manage affiliate programs.

Cons

  • Although it has a free plan, but features are limited.
  • It can be overwhelming for beginners.

Pricing: 

Paid Memberships Pro offers a free version that you can download from the official WordPress plugins directory. Or, also from its original website.

However, you can also upgrade it to the premium version to unlock more features. Its pricing plans are:

  • Standard Plan: $174/year for 1 site, advanced customization recipes, premium support, 20 add-ons etc.
  • Plus Plan: $299/year for 2 sites, all Standard Plan features, 29 add-ons, and more.
  • Enterprise Plan: $5000+ for usage on 50 sites, it’s best for membership sites operating at scale.

Why We Recommend Using It?

You can try its free version if you’re not sure about purchasing this plugin and know about its user interface. Also, if you decide to buy this plugin, it comes with all the basic features you’ll need to start your membership site.

For a complete review, check our article on Paid Memberships Pro review.


4. ARMember 

ARMember is yet another top-rated membership plugin for WordPress with over 12,000 happy users. This plugin will help you to build a fully functional membership site with much better performance. 

ARMember Best Membership Plugin WordPRess

The content access rule management feature lets you enable or disable various types of content based on membership plans and levels. Also with a single click, you can set access rules for posts, pages, categories, custom posts, tags, and more.

Besides ARMember has an in-built module for periodically dripping, and scheduling the release of your site content for entire pages, individual content, or custom blocks.

Pros

  • Your users can upgrade, downgrade, renew, or cancel their membership.
  • You’ll get email marketing software such as AWeber, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact.
  • Your users can postpone their next payment due date and the expiration date.
  • Integration with different payment gateways like Mollie, PayPal, Pagseguro, PayFast, PayStack, and more. 
  • You’ll get a built-in form builder that allows you to create all the necessary membership forms.

Cons

  • Drip content is not available in the free version.
  • You’ll only get access to 2 in-built payment processors in the free version.

Pricing: 

ARMember is a freemium plugin that comes with both free and premium versions. You can download the free version from WordPress.org. 

Meanwhile, you can purchase the premium version for $69 with 6 months of support from the CodeCanyon.net marketplace.

Why We Recommend Using It?

We recommend ARMember for its easy content control and seamless integration with top payment gateways. It’s perfect for growing your fully functional membership site without the hassle!

For detailed information, check our article on ARMember review.


5. Restrict Content

Are you looking for a content restriction membership plugin? If yes, then we recommend you Restrict Content plugin which is a product of StellarWP a company behind the reknown theme Kadence.

Restrict Content Best Membership Plugin WordPress

This plugin allows you to restrict content and monetize your site to access exclusive content. It gives you full control over who can and can’t view content. Also, it makes it simple to limit access to posts, pages, media, and custom post types based on membership levels.

Moreover, you can easily keep track of your memberships via an intuitive interface. It lets you quickly view active, expired, canceled, and pending memberships. Furthermore, you can manually add memberships in bulk, edit, and search to locate a specific record.

Besides, it also provides free demo site to see how it looks on live site. If you wnt to check, then click here.

Pros

  • Customize the message shown to users who do not have permission to view the content.
  • Collect payment via Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net, etc.
  • Let your customers decide when to renew their membership.
  • Offer special promotional codes to your visitors that give them a discount on membership purchases.
  • Restrict access to WooCommerce products as well.

Cons

  • Limited access to features on the free plan.
  • Also, the free version comes with the plugin branding, you’ll need pro plan to remove it.

Pricing: 

You can download the free version of the Restrict Content plugin from the official WordPress plugins directory. And it’s even possible from its original website.

If you want to unlock more features, then you can upgrade to its pro version where the pricing plans are:

  • 1 Site Plan: $99/year, with 34 pro add-ons, plugin updates, and private, ticketed support, etc.
  • 5 Sites Plan: $149/year, 34 pro add-ons, plugin updates, and private, ticketed support, etc.
  • Unlimited Sites Plan: $249/year, 34 pro add-ons, plugin updates, and private, ticketed support, etc.  

Why We Recommend Using It?

If you’re looking to build a membership site, then this plugin is a solid pick with its awesome content restriction options, strong access controls, and smooth WordPress integration.


6. Ultimate Membership Pro

Ultimate Membership Pro is another powerful plugin that has over 39K sales on the CodeCanyon.net marketplace. This plugin allows you to create and work with multi-level access for your members. You can create free, recurring, date range membership access where users can access between specific dates, etc.

Ultimate Membership Pto

Along with that, it allows you to generate as many discount codes as you want with flat or percentage discounts. You can validate the discount code for a specific period or unlimited. 

Additionally, this plugin gives you complete control over what valuable content your members may access based on their subscription. You can restrict pages, custom post types, categories, files, navigation menus, or any other content.

Pros

  • Get access to 41 add-ons.
  • Allow each member to renew their membership without losing access to valuable content.
  • Allow users to log in to your site with 7 different social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, VKontakte, Tumblr.
  • Supports over 11 payment methods, including PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2CheckOut, and Braintree.
  • Limit the number of comments your users can submit based on the subscription level.

Cons

  • There is no free version.

Pricing: 

Ultimate Membership Pro is the premium plugin that costs $59 for its regular license. It comes with 6 months of free support and updates. You can extend support and updates for 12 months for an additional $20.25.

Why We Recommend Using It?

We love Ultimate Membership Pro for its flexibility in creating multi-level memberships and offering tons of customization options. It’s perfect if you’re looking for full control over member access and payments without any limitations!


7. MemberMouse

Founded in 2009, MemberMouse has since served 18K+ its customers. And with 12M+ members supported it’s another incredible plugin that lets you quickly manage your members. You can view and edit members’ account details and access permission. Also, you can view each member’s engagement statistics using comprehensive member search options. 

MemberMouse - MemberPress Alternative

Moreover, it allows your members to access self-service for their accounts. They can easily reset their password, view purchase history, update their account information, and more. 

Additionally, if you have an existing membership platform, then import your member list to this plugin. With that, you can manually add members as well. 

Pros

  • Display different content on any post, page, categories, based on membership level. Plus, upsell access to restricted content to generate additional revenue.
  • Create sales strategies with various pricing options for each/any product with free and paid subscriptions.
  • No need to worry about overdue accounts and failed payments, this plugin auto handles it.
  • Your users will get a recommendation to downgrade the membership level option when they try to cancel their subscription.
  • Schedule your content to release a little at a time such as one module per week, based on the user’s purchase date.

Cons

  • Although it has a 14-day free trial, but does not have a free version.
  • Limited integration options for payment gateways.

Pricing: 

MemberMouse being a premium plugin, offers 4 different plans.

  • BasicPlan: $199/year, email support, staging license, all payment integrations, all email integrations, purchases and upsells, etc.
  • Plus Plan: $299/year, priority email support, staging license, full analytics, and reporting suite, social signup & login, managing billing dates, etc.
  • Pro Plan: $399/year, phone and email support, staging license, Sticky.io integration, along with all Core and Advanced features.
  • Elite Plan: $1,199/year, includes everything from the pro plan, social signup & logins, editing assigned affiliate commissions, etc.

Why We Recommend Using It?

If you’re serious about boosting your business, especially in coaching or memberships, MemberMouse is the go-to plugin. It’s designed to help you grow without missing any issues!


8. Paid Member Subscriptions

Paid Member Subscriptions is another robust membership plugin with 10,000+ active installations and has 4.7 stars out of 5 on WordPress.org. This plugin lets you create an unlimited number of hierarchical subscription plans such as free, silver gold. And get an overview of all members and their subscription plans. 

Paid Membership Subscriptions

Moreover, the plugin lets each member choose a subscription plan during their registration process. Also, the existing users can purchase the subscription plan or upgrade their plan along with renewing, canceling, or abandoning their subscription.

If you’d like, then you can also get the demo of this plugin to see how it looks on a live site from here.

Pros

  • Display another template for non-members for the restricted posts.
  • Keep track of all member payments, status, purchased subscription plans, and access to detailed payment logs.
  • Offers a discount for special product prices to members based on their active subscription.
  • Create a series of automated email reminders to be sent to members before or after certain events take place. Such as subscription expiration, activation, cancellation, etc.
  • Prevent users to access their accounts from multiple locations at the same time.

Cons

  • The content dripping feature is not available on the basic plan.
  • No PayPal Express for the basic plan.

Pricing: 

Paid Member Subscriptions plugin offers both free and premium versions. You can install the free version from WordPress.org.

For the premium version, there are different pricing plans:

  • Basic Plan: €99/year for 1 site, unlimited PayPal standard and free subscriptions, account management, WooCommerce integration-8 Basic add-ons, priority support, etc.
  • Pro Plan: €169/year for 3 sites, supports free trial and sign-up fees, WooCommerce integration-8 Basic and Pro add-ons, and more.
  • Agency Plan: €299/year for usage on unlimited sites, file restriction, content dripping, pro rate, tax & EU VAT, etc.

Why We Recommend Using It?

We recommend Paid Member Subscriptions because it’s easy to use and lets you set up flexible membership plans. It’s perfect for managing memberships and giving your users access to exclusive content without any hassle.


9. WooCommerce Memberships

WooCommerce Memberships has a whopping 4.1 stars out of 5 by its users. So, this isn’t just any other plugin for restricting your site’s product and membership. Rather, it lets you determine how access is granted for maximum flexibility. 

WooCommerce Membership

This plugin lets you assign zero or more products to a membership plan for several types of memberships. Like, creating products for membership, access to purchase products, access to the same membership from multiple products, inviting only members, etc.

Moreover, you can set up a schedule to let your members view content. For example, your members won’t immediately access the content. It’ll require you to be a member for at least 1 week to access certain products, content, posts, etc.

Pros

  • You can sell membership as a product once you integrate WooCommerce.
  • Provide free shipping to members while requiring non-members to meet requirements like having coupons or minimum order amount.
  • Let your members access all the sections along with the list of accessible products, contents, discounts, future accessible content, etc.
  • You can export and import members and add or create new members, users, bulk-update by merging with existing data.

Cons

  • No free plan.
  • If you don’t use WooCommerce, then it’s not for you.
  • Limited integrations are available.

Pricing: 

Being the premium plugin, you can purchase WooCommerce Memberships at $199/year with a 1-year extension update, support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Why We Recommend Using it?

This plugin is ideal for you if you have a Woocommerse store and plan to sell courses, subscriptions, or memberships.


10. LearnDash

LearnDash is probably the best LMS plugin that is trusted by popular plugins like Yoast SEO. Since 2012, this plugin has offered everything you need to start building your online courses. Along with that, it comes with full features of membership similar to the MemberPress and Paid Memberships Pro plugins. 

LearnDash Best Membership Plugin WordPress

You can create various memberships that contain access to multiple courses instead of selling access to individual courses. So, whenever someone purchases access to the membership, they can get access to all the courses associated with a certain topic.

Pros

  • Allows you to sell the access for one-time prices or on a recurring basis.
  • Send automatic renewal membership notifications to your members. If users won’t renew on time, then you can choose to remove the access.
  • Built-in payment feature available using Stripe, PayPal, and 2Checkout.
  • Sell your membership access using a shopping cart (like WooCommerce) as well.
  • Offer free samples of your content to encourage customers to purchase a membership.

Cons

  • There’s no free plan.
  • This is not exclusively for WordPress membership plugins, so its features might not be useful if you’re not selling online courses.

Pricing: 

LearnDash plugin is premium packages that offer 3 different plans:

  • 1 Site Plan: $199/year, with drag and drop course builder, course content protection, drip-feed lessons, advanced quizzing, free integrations, and more.
  • 10 Sites Plan: $399/year, including ProPanel, certificates & badges, course forums, email notifications, and more.
  • Unlimited Sites Plan: $799/year, with demo site template, and all features of both Basic and Plus Plans.

Why We Recommend Using It?

We recommend LearnDash if you’re looking to offer a complete membership experience with online courses. It’s super easy to set up, manage memberships, and handle payments, so you can focus on creating great content for your members.


11. s2Member

s2Member is one of the best freemium WordPress membership plugins with over 1.62 million downloads and still counting. Using this plugin, protect your WordPress content with a secure checkout solution to get access. You can protect your entire site, just certain areas, or even just parts of pages.

s2Member-WordPress plugin for membership site

Moreover, you can just sell specific posts or pages, file downloads, and access capabilities to your visitors via subscription. Also, include the “buy now button” to let your users purchase your site’s content with a single payment or recurring payment.

Pros

  • Integration with PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net payment standards to facilitate users to purchase from your website.
  • Offer coupon codes and gift/redemption codes to attract more users to purchase a membership or upgrade their levels.
  • Create custom email messages to send customers for checkout, signup confirmation, transactional, and so on.
  • Provides Mailchimp, AWeber, and GetResponse mailing services to send emails to your customers, subscriber list, campaigns, etc.
  • Manage your affiliate programs with iDevAffiliate or ShareAsale for promotional campaigns.

Cons

  • Only limited features with the free plan.
  • No multisite network support in the basic plan.

Pricing: 

You can download the free version of the s2Member plugin from WordPress.org. And you get to download it from its original site as well.

To unlock more features, you can upgrade it to a premium version:

  • Single Site License Plan: $89, One-time Payment, one-step registration, pro-forms, integration with Authorize.net, unlimited membership levels, coupon codes, etc. 
  • Unlimited Site License Plan: $189, One-time Payment, perfect for site owners with multiple domain names, one-step registration, integrates with Authorize.net, unlimited membership levels, etc. 

Why We Recommend Using it?

We love s2Member because it lets you protect everything from posts and pages to specific content like downloadable files and streaming media. It’s perfect if you have a video membership site.


12. WP Membership

Another on our list of the best membership plugin WordPress is WP Membership. This plugin allows you to create different types of membership like free account, one-time payment, recurring payment, free trial, paid trial, and variable payment package.

WP Membership WordPress Plugin

Additionally, it offers 7 different templates for pricing tables similar to other plugins. So, you can beautifully showcase your pricing plans along with the details of memberships.

With this plugin, you can grant your members access to their privacy settings, change passwords, social profiles, and so on. Moreover, your members will be free to upgrade, downgrade, or even cancel their subscriptions. 

Pros

  • Get 2 different sign-up styles and customize them to look attractive.
  • Able to view the complete payment history.
  • take advantage of 5 different types of user public profiles.
  • Send automatic subscription reminder email messages to members.
  • Get reports in 3D pie charts or line charts.

Cons

  • Only the premium version is available.
  • Limited payment integrations.

Pricing: 

The regular license of this premium WP Membership plugin costs $35 with 6 months of support from the CodeCanyon.net marketplace. You can also get an additional 12 months of support for an extra $11.25.

Why Recommend Using It?

We recommend WP Membership for its design flexibility in creating various membership types and attractive pricing tables. It’s a great option if you want to offer customizable subscription options and easy account management for your members.


13. WP-Members

WP-Members is one of the first and free membership plugins of WordPress that continues in active development to keep pace with current WordPress. With over 60,000 active installations and 4.6 out of 5 stars, it’s still the best membership plugin for WordPress.  

WP-Members Membership plugin

Its initial concept is to keep it simple to set up and install while providing a standard interface for customization. Most importantly, you get to restrict or hide the specific content, posts, pages, & custom post types. However, you can grant access to only registered members or based on membership levels.

Unlike other plugins, it integrates the registration process within your content rather than the default WP login page. Also, you can create your registration page to make users register and subscribe for the membership.

Pros

  • Limit the access to menu items based on the user’s active status.
  • Set up the invitation code, validate them, and invite the selected members.
  • Enable the admin approval for new registration.
  • Protect your forms from spam bots using a honey pot.
  • Allows you to add a Mailchimp list subscription to your registration form.

Cons

  • Need to buy a PayPal subscription as a premium extension.
  • Also, user tracking is not available in the free version.

Pricing: 

WP-Members plugin is free to use and can be downloaded from WordPress.org. 

However, it provides several premium extensions to add different functions and features. But you can purchase its premium priority support with 2 different pricing plans: 

  • WP-Members Priority Support Plan: $59/year, including email support, premium site access, and forum access.
  • WP-Members Pro Bundle Plan: $125/year, including all priority support features, premium extension bundle, and plugin extension updates. 

Why We Recommend Using It?

If you have a limited budget we recommend this plugin. Because even with the free version you can create a functioning membership site with all the basic features required. And even if you opt for the premium plan, it’s quite affordable in comparison to other plugins.


14. Simple Membership 

Simple Membership has over 50K active installations and free-to-use. It’s an easy-to-use plugin, so when editing a post or page in the WordPress editor, select to protect that post or page for your members. So, when users try to view the premium content, they’ll be prompted to become a member page.

Simple Membership

Furthermore, you can set up unlimited membership levels such as free, silver, gold, etc. Also, it allows you to configure free or paid membership. Besides, all the payments from your members are recorded in the plugin. So, view them anytime by visiting the payments menu from the admin dashboard.

For the free membership, you can enable email confirmation or activation. Meanwhile, you get to accept payments via PayPal, Stripe, or Braintree payment gateways for the paid memberships.

Pros

  • Automatically disables the commenting section on your protected posts.
  • Show teaser content for non-member users.
  • Automatically logout the members when they close the browser.
  • Filter the member list by account status and membership level.
  • Easily customize the content protection message for non-members.

Cons

  • No drip content feature.

Pricing: 

Simple Membership plugin is completely free to use and is available in the official WordPress plugins directory.

Why We Recommend Using It?

First thing it’s 100% free to use, second thing, it offers most of the features you’ll need to create a membership site, and it’s super beginner-friendly.


15. Restrict User Access

Restrict User Access is another WordPress membership plugin with over 20,000 active installations and 4.3 stars out of 5-star ratings. This plugin allows you to quickly set up a membership site. You can create different levels of memberships with affordable prices such as platinum, gold, and free. 

Restrict User Access-Membership plugin for WordPress

Moreover, you can restrict access to posts, pages, custom post types, categories, etc. You can even set certain access conditions such as protecting all posts that are tagged with “premium”. Also, it allows you to restrict content written by selected authors.

Pros

  • Display the certain nav menu items for only users with authorized levels.
  • Full control over whether a membership level lasts for days, years, or indefinite.
  • Option to show your users excerpt and hide the remaining content instead of redirecting to a different URL to unauthorized users.
  • Tie your membership levels to WooCommerce products and make users purchase your membership to view and checkout with certain products.
  • You can even hide any widget area created with Content Aware Sidebars.

Cons

  • You’ll need a premium Time Lock addon to enable or disable select Access Conditions.
  • You cannot hide content from blogs, search results, archives, etc without a premium visibility control add-on.

Pricing: 

Although the Restrict User Access plugin is available for free in WordPress.org, you can also download it from its original site.

Also, you get to purchase its premium add-ons which mostly cost $39 per add-on. It also provides bundle packages for add-ons where the pricing plans are:

  • Essentials Plan: $99/year, for 1 site, standard email support, free plugin updates, Date Restriction, Timelock, URL Restriction add-ons.
  • Plus Plan: $199/year for 5 sites, standard email support, free plugin updates, ACF restriction Date Restriction, Timelock, URL Restriction, Visibility Controls add-ons.
  • All Access Plan: $399/year, for 50 sites, VIP email support, Meta Box Restriction, all future add-ons including all add-ons of Essentials and the Plus plans. 

Why We Recommend Using It?

Being a free membership plugin, it has every feature you’ll need to create a fully functioning membership site. And if you’re a small business or just starting out, it’s the ideal one for you.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Now, let’s go through some of the common questions related to membership site and plugins.

1. Is WordPress good for membership sites?

Yes, WordPress is ideal for membership sites due to its flexibility, wide range of plugins, and ease of customization. You can easily manage content access, payments, and user roles.

2. What is the difference between a subscription site and a membership site?

A subscription site charges recurring fees for access to content, while a membership site provides exclusive access to content, services, or community based on membership plans, which could be free or paid.

3. Do membership sites make money?

Yes, membership sites can generate a steady income through subscription fees, paid content, and exclusive offers. The more value you provide, the more likely members are to stay and pay.

4. Are memberships good for business?

Absolutely! Memberships build a loyal customer base, provide recurring revenue, and create long-term relationships with customers. Which is beneficial for sustainable business growth.


Conclusion

That’s all folks! We’ve arrived at the end of this article. We’ve discussed the 15 best membership WordPress plugins along with their features and pricing. 

Among the listed plugins, we would like to recommend you MemberPress plugin if you’ve got an LMS site and want to grow it. As the membership feature on your LMS site increases more members, students, trainers, etc.

However, to sell and grow your WooCommerce products, you can go with WooCommerce Memberships. This allows you to categorize your product among the public for all the visitors and users and private for members only.

We hope this article helped you to find the best membership plugin WordPress in 2024. If you’re using any of these plugins for your website, then please share your experience below in the comment section. 

In case you’ve any more queries, then feel free to ask us. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Also, share this article with your friends and colleagues. 

You may also like our article on the best and must-have WordPress plugins and the best community plugins.

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Some of the links on this article/page are affiliate links. If you click on such an affiliate link and purchase the product, we’ll earn a specific percent commission from the seller. But it won’t at all affect the price you’ll pay.
Written By SiteSaga Editorial
SiteSaga Editorial is a team of highly experienced writers, marketers, and web developers led by Sunita Rai. We're here to help beginners get online with their self-made websites or blogs and succeed.

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