Many websites keep certain content locked behind a paywall that only members can access. You can do this in WordPress as long as you install a membership plugin, and there is no shortage of options when it comes to them.
Over the years, these plugins have evolved beyond just locking content behind a membership. For instance, if you think about online courses, they utilize these types of plugins. Some even exist for member-specific coupons.
As you can imagine, it’s all about finding the right plugin to fit your website’s needs.
Today, I will share the best membership plugins for WordPress you should use in 2024.
What Is A Membership Plugin?
In its most basic form, a membership plugin is one that allows a website to deliver exclusive content to certain visitors. For most cases today, this is referred to as pay-to-click, but it doesn’t always need to cost the user anything.
In many cases, some websites just require a user to sign up for a free account, but it really depends on the site and the tool you use.
So, what kind of content can you make exclusive? Well, just about anything. This includes blog posts, video content, or access to a members-only store. You really don’t have any limits.
Of course, as these plugins have become more advanced over the years, they do far more than just restrict access to content. Instead, many nowadays provide you with additional creator tools to help create content worthy of that membership.
For instance, a tool that may focus on online courses will typically include an online course builder.
Thus, you’ll need to find the best membership plugin to fit your WordPress website.
1. MemberPress
When it comes to building a membership website, there is no better plugin than MemberPress. It is by far the easiest plugin you can use to build a membership site and is accessible to all skill levels.
Most importantly, it’s an all-in-one plugin. So, regardless of what kind of website you run, it will have tools to help.
In terms of restricting users from accessing content, you have complete control and can set up multiple membership levels. It’s also not just for content as you can actually restrict users from accessing specific tags or categories entirely.
It also gives you a variety of options when it comes to monetizing your website. With it, you can set up one-time payments, subscriptions, and other options. You’ll have control over every aspect and can customize it as you see fit.
Benefits of Using MemberPress
- Includes a course builder to create custom courses for members
- Includes drip content control to help make your content feel exclusive
- Has a variety of templates for pricing pages that work on any theme
- Create an unlimited number of coupons that can be sent to members
- Accepts most major payments gateways with options for cash and check
2. WooCommerce Memberships
Are you looking to build a members-only store? If so, you probably are already using WooCommerce, so you might as well take advantage of the WooCommerce Memberships add-on plugin.
It allows you to build a membership system that is tied directly to your WooCommerce store seamlessly.
Membership plans are created separately from products, but you’ll have no trouble with it if you are familiar with WooCommerce already. You’ll be able to limit access to products or set up recurring payments with ease.
You’ll also gain a variety of options and perks you can grant members. This includes special shipping options, discounts, further emailing options, and much more.
If you plan on using WooCommerse, no plugin can do a better job.
Benefits of Using WooCommerce Memberships
- Allows members to invite others to become members to help the site grow faster
- Create different membership levels to fit your store needs
- Generate expiration and renewal emails for all member levels
- Makes it easy to directly communicate with members
- Drip content based on how long a visitor has been a member
3. Ultimate Member
The Ultimate Member plugin makes it incredibly easy to set up a membership for your website, and it is completely free to use. And while it may be a free plugin, it is not lacking when it comes to features.
In fact, it even includes a free drag-and-drop form builder that you can utilize to build sign-up forms.
With the base plugin, you’ll be able to restrict user access to content, create membership directories, and even create conditional navigation menus. And that’s just scratching the surface.
Now, while the plugin is free to use, it has a variety of premium extensions that you purchase. For instance, you can use the Private Messages add-on to add a private message system for members to take advantage of.
Benefits of Using Ultimate Member
- Premium add-on support to work with WooCommerce
- Integrates with the ForumWP plugin for free
- Protects your website from bots with reCAPTCHA-protected forms
- Create a front-end user login area for your website
- Includes a variety of blocks for the Gutenberg editor
4. Restrict Content Pro
Keeping track of your membership content can become a real hassle as your website grows in size. That’s where the Restrict Content Pro plugin comes into play. It can help you manage and track what members are doing with that exclusive content.
Just to be clear, you can create memberships for your website and modify them using bulk selection tools.
The end result is a seamless experience that gives you an amazing amount of control over your memberships and gives you access to detailed information on how those memberships are being used.
You’ll also gain access to multiple payment gateways like PayPal or Stripe to accept payments for the memberships. Then, Restrict Content Pro gives you access to automated emails for new members and reminders to existing ones.
Benefits of Using Restrict Content Pro
- Offers a variety of plans for your website to choose from including a limited free plan
- Create discount codes for your members with no limits
- Create multiple membership levels and restrict content based on them
- Integrates with a wide range of plugins and tools like MailChimp or WooCommerce
- Includes a variety of template forms that you can use to save time
5. Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin
Are you a fan of the user roles in WordPress? If so, you might have been inclined to think you could use them to create a membership for your website. And you can do just that with the Members plugin.
This plugin is created and maintained by the MemberPress team but is a separate plugin that is free to use.
With this installed, you are able to assign users multiple user roles and restrict viewable content for those specific roles. This is all done by adding a shortcode to the content in question, which makes it very beginner friendly.
To be clear, you can achieve the same features of this plugin by modifying the code of your WordPress install. However, that might be beyond many users’ capabilities, which is exactly why this plugin was created.
Benefits of Using Members
- The interface is extremely simple and utilizes the user role system in WordPress
- Works well with other plugins that create unique user roles
- Gain access to a long list of free add-ons to expand the capabilities of the base plugin
- Supports a multisite environment, but only the Super Admin can edit the roles
- Integrates with WooCommerce stores
6. LearnDash
If you plan on offering online courses as part of your main business, there’s no better plugin than LearnDash. Not only does it provide you with some of the best course creation tools, but it also handles everything you’ll need in terms of memberships and subscriptions.
You’ll even be able to create quizzes with eight unique question types (multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, etc.).
In terms of memberships, you’ll be able to enlist students into courses and group them accordingly. Each course can be priced on its own and you can even bundle them. Thus, you’ll have full control over the monetization.
One of the most unique features that your members can take advantage of is Focus Mode. This is a learning portal that you can utilize and customize to create a distraction-free course. It’s great for helping your members and students focus on the material.
Benefits of Using LearnDash
- Supports over 300 payment gateways when utilizing WooCommerce
- Send out automated reminders when membership is running out
- Give users unique badges for completing courses
- Integrates with many plugins in the WordPress directory and other third-party tools like Slack
- Helps gamify your course content to encourage users to keep going
7. s2Member – Membership Plugin for All Kinds of Memberships
Are you looking for a membership plugin that can grow with your website? If so, look no further than S2Member. This plugin offers a great free plugin that is perfect for new membership sites.
However, as your site grows, the premium version will be able to keep up and provide the support and features you need.
You’ll be able to restrict access to your content or restrict access to file downloads with this plugin. At the same time, you’ll be able to utilize a variety of payment gateways like PayPal with secure checkout.
In terms of usability, the plugin utilizes shortcodes to make setup easy. The plugin provides all of the shortcodes itself, so it really comes down to copying and pasting them into the desired location, which makes it easy for beginners.
Benefits of Using S2Member
- You’ll be able to manually create an account for your users if needed (works well with physical locations)
- Includes a variety of email templates that you can customize to welcome or alert members
- Create coupons or discount codes for members
- Create multiple membership levels to fit the needs of your website
- Supports a multisite network
8. Simple Membership
As the name implies, Simple Membership is easy to use, it’s actually targeted at more advanced users by offering a large number of filters and hooks for developers to utilize.
That said, if you are just after basic content restriction, the process is quite simple at any skill level.
With it, you’ll be able to create a front-end login for users, create profiles for each member, and choose which membership levels get access to what content. It’s quite simple, but that’s to be expected from a free plugin.
In terms of content restriction, you can utilize it on any kind of content from blogs to photo galleries. More advanced users can utilize the customizable hooks to really make the plugin work for them.
Benefits of Using Simple Membership
- All membership payments are logged in the dashboard for easy viewing
- Apply content restrictions in bulk across pages and posts
- Supports a large number of languages
- Lets you use reCAPTCHA to protect your membership sign-up forms
- Setup login redirections for members when they access a members-only page
9. Thrive Apprentice
Thrive Apprentice is another excellent membership plugin that focuses on building online courses for your visitors. This can work for training programs, online learning courses, or just about anything else you can think of with this format.
It is intuitive to use thanks to a simple drag-and-drop editor that makes it perfect for any skill level.
In terms of onboarding, Thrive Apprentice gives you all of the tools you’ll need to make user registration a breeze starting with a ton of design options to choose from. It even has several templates you can select.
You’ll also gain access to powerful analytics that allow you to see how members are interacting with your content to help you identify what is working and what isn’t. Overall, it’s a terrific tool that offers a lot.
Benefits of Using Thrive Apprentice
- This tool dynamically adds users to classes or membership tiers
- Build certificates for completing courses
- Create members-only blog posts
- Translate your content into other languages
- Show progress bars for students to see their course progress
10. Paid Memberships Pro
Paid Memberships Pro is another wildly popular membership plugin for WordPress with over 100,000 active installs. This plugin provides all of the tools you’ll need to run a membership website and makes it easy to do.
This plugin is suitable for paid content access, online course, monthly subscriptions, and more.
The plugin is also incredibly easy to use. Just about everything is done through a selection of simple settings or through the host of Gutenberg blocks you get access to. All you’ll need to do is add the blocks to the right post or page.
Other key features include access to the most popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe. This ensures that users will never have trouble paying for the content you are offering.
Benefits of Using Paid Memberships Pro:
- Users can customize their profiles to better represent themselves
- Make it easy for visitors to recover their passwords
- Supports one-time payments, weekly, monthly, and yearly subscriptions
- Accept donations
- Integrates with email marketing tools like Mailchimp
11. WP-Members Membership Plugin
WP-Members is one of the first membership plugins available for WordPress and it still works well today. It is a free plugin that makes it easy to make a membership website in WordPress by restricting your content based on membership status.
The plugin is a bit simpler than the other entries on this list, but that is definitely a strength and not a weakness.
The user registration form is very simple and just consists of some test box entries where users can enter their data. When it comes to accepting payments, you will need the Pro version of the plugin, which gives you access to PayPal.
The registration and login areas can be placed anywhere by using a shortcode, which makes the plugin great for beginners. Content will appear as hidden for unregistered users, where they will be prompted to register today.
Benefits of Using WP-Members Membership Plugin:
- The Pro version supports selling memberships through WooCommerce
- Prevents concurrent logins to limit account sharing
- Includes free spam protection
- Send out test emails to view them before they are sent to users
- Extensive documentation is available to answer your questions
12. Wishlist Member
Are you looking for a membership plugin that fully supports customization options from start to finish? Then look no further than the amazing Wishlist Member plugin for WordPress.
It is compatible with most of the popular themes and website-building plugins to give the most design freedom of any plugin.
It has the core features you need from creating an unlimited number of membership tiers to accepting payments. No matter what you are doing, its easy to build, but it is worth saying that the number of options can be a bit intimidating.
Another powerful feature you will find in this plugin is the analytics. Creating a membership site isn’t easy, which is why you need to monitor how successful your content is to determine if it is priced correctly. This plugin lets you see how users engage with it.
Benefits of Using Wishlist Member:
- Integrates with most major tools to provide more options
- Easily mark pages as “protected” for members only
- Includes a great setup wizard to help introduce you to the tool
- Includes spam protection to guard your registration forms
- Drip feed your content to members to extend subscriptions
13. MemberMouse
Closing out this list of incredible membership plugins for WordPress is Membermouse. This plugin makes it easy to sell your content to users by supporting most subscription types from hourly to yearly.
It also accepts one-time payments and even generates your own coupons, so anything is possible with this plugin.
This plugin is suitable for just about any kind of membership program from fitness to online courses. The tools available are flexible and can help you build any kind of membership structure from scratch.
It also has integration options for most major tools like Mailchimp. Thus, replacing an existing membership tool will be a seamless process thanks to the long list of compatibility options.
Benefits of Using MemberMouse:
- Drip and schedule content
- Create free membership options
- Accepts international currency
- Includes a custom login page
- Automatically send out welcome emails to new subscribers
FAQ
Even with the right plugin in hand, you may still have some lingering questions. Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions related to membership websites.
How Long Does It Take For A Membership Website to Grow?
Unfortunately, there is no exact answer.
While membership websites can be extremely profitable as they grow in size, it could take months or even years for websites to grow that large. It takes a dedicated marketing team to reach the right audience.
One of the best ways to speed up growth is to incentivize your existing members to spread the word and recruit their friends and family. This can be accomplished by providing a referral program that rewards those users.
It’s also important to consider the type of content your website is producing and the competition you may face.
All of these factors can dramatically change how fast your website grows.
Is It Possible to Build A Membership Website Without a Plugin?
Absolutely, but you will need to know your way around HTML, PHP, and CSS code.
If you remember, the Members plugin that we highlighted above uses the built-in user role system in WordPress. That can be accomplished by re-coding the system for your own use and could take hundreds of lines to achieve.
While you can do it without a plugin, most WordPress membership sites do use a plugin because they reduce the amount of setup time and provide helpful tools to enhance member-specific content.
Should A Membership Site Include Free Content?
Absolutely, after all, you need to get people to sign up in the first place.
There are multiple ways to go about this, but the most popular option is usually a free trial. It will allow users to sign up for an account and view some or all the content to see if it is worth the money.
This has the advantage of having the individual already enter all of their information, including billing, into your system. Of course, you’ll also need to be sure to create pages anyone can access to highlight what’s included on your site.
Obviously, it’s pretty hard to even sell a free trial if they have no idea what the website is about, so make sure you show off what’s included.
Videos samples really work well in these situations.
Should I Include Ads on My Membership Website?
While there is no right or wrong answer to this question, generally speaking, you should not include ads.
The user has already paid to access the content and most likely does not want to see intrusive ads on the side of that premium content. And in general, most membership websites do not include ads, so that expectation is already an expected mindset.
In fact, many websites are beginning to include a low-cost membership for users that do not like ads. This allows them to view the content in an ad-free environment while allowing the website to earn money.
That said, there are exceptions, and some websites do choose to run limited ads on a membership site. They will generally refrain from putting ads on the premium content but will include them on the forms when signing up.
Some sites will instead opt to utilize affiliate marketing for additional revenue as it can be done in a less intrusive way that can add value to some content. Overall, the user is already paying for the content, so it’s a bit redundant to run ads.
Build Your Membership Website Today
Membership plugins are a great way to build a strong community around premium content. However, it must be properly marketed to your target audience.
After all, a membership website isn’t going to do well without members.
Since a user is being charged to access the content, they are already expecting it to be better than the free options, which is getting more challenging to do.
Especially when you consider the millions of quality blogs and free resources that exist online.
The quicker you set up your membership site with a great plugin, the faster you can start focusing on growing your members and delivering excellent content to them.
Which membership plugin did you install in WordPress? How long did it take for your website to become profitable?