Want your WordPress site to work as a real membership site? A membership plugin is the piece that makes it happen. It lets you build a library of premium content and lock it so only registered members can reach it.
Pick this plugin with care. Once your members and content live inside it, switching to another one later is painful.
Maybe you want steady monthly income. Maybe you sell online courses, or you just want a loyal base of signed-up members. Either way, this guide walks you through the WordPress membership plugins that fit those goals best.
Building a Membership Site With a WordPress Membership Plugin
Only signed-in members get through the door. Everything else, from files to download and support to forums and other content, stays hidden from the public.
A few reasons for creating a membership site are:
- Create a highly engaging email list: Put a content library behind registration. Everyone who signs up can also join your email list, which gives you the addresses of your most active, engaged visitors.
- Demonstrate your authority: Strong content behind a paywall shows people you know your niche. It builds trust with your members over time and can turn them into a loyal customer base.
- Earn recurring income: Get visitors to pay for a subscription, and the income repeats each month.
How to Choose a WordPress Membership Plugin for Your Site
With so many options, picking a membership plugin can feel overwhelming. Keep these points in mind before you commit to one for your site.
Ease of Use:
No developer on hand? Then ease of use comes first. Some plugins pack every feature in from day one. That sounds great, but it often means a crowded settings screen full of options you will never touch.
Lighter plugins take another route. They ship with just the core features, and you add extra ones through addons when you actually need them, so the interface stays clean.
Compatibility:
Do not install a new membership plugin straight on your live site. Try it first on a local WordPress copy to confirm it plays well with your current theme and plugins. Once it all runs smoothly there, move it to production.
Design and Features:
Many membership plugins include pricing page templates and design extras that help your site stand out. List the features your site really needs, then check whether each plugin on your shortlist covers them.
Below are the top WordPress membership plugins side by side, to help you pick the right one for your site.
| Product | Best for | Price | Rating | Active installs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MemberPress | A complete membership site | Paid | ||
| LearnDash | Selling online courses | Paid | ||
| Paid Member Subscriptions | Member-only products and prices | Free + paid | 4.7/5 | 10,000+ |
| Teachable | Courses hosted outside WordPress | Paid | ||
| Restrict Content Pro | A lightweight membership plugin | Free + paid | 3.1/5 | 8,000+ |
| WooCommerce Memberships | WooCommerce stores adding memberships | Paid | ||
| aMember Pro | Memberships across several sites | Paid |
MemberPress
MemberPress is the most complete option here. It has every feature a serious membership site needs and is simple to set up. Where many plugins expect a fresh start, MemberPress turns the site you already have into a full membership site with little fuss.
Setup is short: add the plugin to your current site, connect a payment gateway, create your products, and then invite visitors to sign up as members.
You decide what regular visitors cannot see: specific pages, posts, custom post types or existing files. It also connects smoothly to well-known email marketing tools such as AWeber, MailChimp and GetResponse.
PayPal, Stripe and Authorize.net work out of the box as payment gateways. Building dynamic pricing pages is quick, and a set of pricing page templates helps give yours a distinct look.
A single-site license costs from $129 a year.
Get started with MemberPress today.
Pros
- Restricts pages, posts, custom post types and files
- PayPal, Stripe and Authorize.net built in
- Pricing page templates and email marketing integrations
Cons
- No free version
LearnDash
Teaching is what LearnDash is for: it lets WordPress build and sell courses.
Your members get a solid learning experience, with support for current trends like gamification, social learning and bite-sized micro-content.
LearnDash makes course sales simple. You can sell your courses in a few different ways:
- Memberships: Members get the classic all-access pass to every course you offer
- One-time price: Add a shopping cart so visitors pay for single courses.
- Subscription: Bring in repeat payments by selling subscriptions.
Learners collect points as they finish courses, and those points can unlock new ones. That keeps students coming back and more involved. Based on how well someone performs, you can hand out highly customized certificates and badges. Members can also get front-end profiles to follow their own progress.
A single-site license costs from $199 a year.
Get started with LearnDash today.
Pros
- Memberships, one-time prices or subscriptions
- Points, certificates and badges
- Front-end learner profiles
Cons
- No free version
- Built for courses rather than general memberships
Paid Member Subscriptions
Paid Member Subscriptions shines when you want to limit who can view or buy products, or give certain members special prices. Picture an Amazon Prime-style shopping experience for your own users.
You can manage member subscriptions and open or close access to posts, pages, categories and custom post types, all tied to the plan each user is on.
A big plus: it does not push a fixed structure on you. It fits right into your existing WordPress site and content.
Setup is very simple. Enter your PayPal address to take payments, create your subscription plans, then protect content from a metabox shown on every post, page or custom post type.
A single-site license costs from $69.
Get started with Paid Member Subscriptions today.
Pros
- Restricts posts, pages, categories and custom post types by plan
- Member-only product prices
- Simple setup with a protection box on each post
Cons
- Advanced features need a paid plan
Teachable
Teachable runs separately from WordPress as a complete course platform. Courses made there look polished, and you can keep them on a Teachable subdomain or tie them into the website you already run.
Its strong page editor helps you build and launch eye-catching sales pages that turn visitors into paying customers.
Below are a few features that set Teachable apart from its competitors.
- Learning tools: Students can earn a certificate when they finish. Quizzes and discussion forums are simple to add to the site.
- Integrations: Pull in content from Google Drive, Dropbox or One Drive. Any online tool that works with Zapier can connect to your site too.
- Marketing tools: Coupons, affiliates and flexible pricing options are all on hand, among other extras that help you sell more.
Pros
- Quizzes, forums and certificates
- Sales page editor
- Coupons and an affiliate program
Cons
- A hosted platform, not a WordPress plugin
Restrict Content Pro
Lightweight but complete, Restrict Content Pro gives you a proper membership site without the clutter. Extra features come as optional addons, so you only load what you use.
The people who make the popular Easy Digital Downloads plugin built this one too.
Payments are well covered. PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Braintree and 2Checkout all connect without extra work.
Here are some of the ways you can put Restrict Content Pro to work:
- Club memberships: Build a premium content library that only members can open.
- Magazine subscriptions: Sell online magazine subscriptions to premium readers and earn recurring payments.
- Private forums: Set up private forums and keep those communities closed to outsiders.
- Member blogging: On a multisite network, paying subscribers can start blogs of their own.
- And a lot more…
Starting out free? Grab the lite edition from WordPress.org. It handles custom sign-up and login forms, and a shortcode lets you hide content from non-members.
Premium plans cost from $99 a year for one site.
Get started with Restrict Content Pro today.
Pros
- Light core with add-ons for extra features
- Stripe, Braintree, 2Checkout, Authorize.net and PayPal
- Free lite version on wordpress.org
Cons
- Now sold as Kadence Memberships
WooCommerce Memberships
WooCommerce Memberships is an addon for WooCommerce for members-only content, so just your registered users can see it. It suits shops that already sell digital goods on their site and now want to offer memberships on top.
Note that this is not a one-plugin setup. It needs the free WooCommerce plugin, and to take recurring payments you also need the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin.
Its biggest strength is member-only products: you can set WooCommerce items so only members can buy them. Premium members can also get special discounts across the whole site.
Not happy after buying? A 30-day money back guarantee covers you.
A single-site license costs from $149 a year.
Get started with WooCommerce Memberships today.
Pros
- Members-only products
- Site-wide member discounts
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Needs WooCommerce
- Recurring payments need WooCommerce Subscriptions too
aMember Pro
aMember is a full-featured membership tool that has existed for more than ten years. One thing to know first: aMember Pro is not a native WordPress plugin. It is standalone membership software written in PHP that can be connected to WordPress.
Because it was not made for WordPress in the first place, it may clash with some other WordPress plugins.
The feature list is what you would hope for. Membership levels have no limit, member management is thorough, and more than 200 payment systems are supported, PayPal, Stripe and Authorize.net among them.
It costs $149.36. One purchase lets you use it on as many sites as you like.
Get started with aMember today.
Pros
- Unlimited membership levels
- 200+ payment systems
- One price for unlimited sites
Cons
- Not a native WordPress plugin
- Possible conflicts with WordPress plugins
Paid Member Subscriptions and Restrict Content have free versions on wordpress.org. MemberPress, LearnDash, WooCommerce Memberships and aMember Pro are paid.
LearnDash is built for selling courses inside WordPress. Teachable is a hosted course platform you can link to from your site.
WooCommerce Memberships adds member-only products and discounts to a WooCommerce store, and Paid Member Subscriptions can set member-only product prices.
How easy it is to set up, whether it works with your theme and plugins (test it on a staging or local copy first), and whether it has the payment gateways and features you need.
