Anybody remembers the days when WordPress was meant for blogging? When it’s main function was to login, post your next article or blog post, publish it and then read and reply the readers’ comments?
WordPress, thanks to being open source and having gathered a huge and amazing community, has progressed far more than that. It is now a full-fledged CMS, with plugins that allow for media management, e-commerce, and even forum functions and multi-user communities. WordPress can even be your CMS of choice for your membership site, thanks to a plethora of plugins, both free and commercial, that can help you build your new user website.
We have tested 8 free WordPress membership plugins and ranked them according to an array of criteria. Also, we read a big number of reviews of a number of paid plugins and we present our thoughts on them.
FREE MEMBERSHIP PLUGINS
The plugins We compared:
- Users Ultra Membership Plugin
- Ultimate Member
- Paid Member Subscriptions
- Simple Membership
- WP-Members
- Paid Memberships Pro
- s2Member Framework
- Groups
The comparison was focused on three points:
- EoU: Ease of use (ease of configuration, intuitive interface, documentation, shortcodes, theme integration). Max score: 3.
- Fea: Features (membership and groups hierarchy, payment forms integration). Max score: 4.
- Func: (Popularity, user reviews, compatibility with WordPress 4.7+). Max score: 3.
Comparison Table
| EoU (max:3) | Fea (max:4) | Func (max:3) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users Ultra | 2.5 | 2 | 3 | 7.5 /10 |
| Ultimate Member | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 /10 |
| Paid Member Subscriptions | 1.5 | 2 | 3 | 6.5/ 10 |
| Simple Membership | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 /10 |
| WP-Members | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 /10 |
| Paid Memberships Pro | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 /10 |
| s2Member Framework | 1 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 6 /10 |
| Groups | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 /10 |
Users Ultra Membership Plugin: 7.5/10
EoU: 2.5 – Fea: 2 – Func: 3
Users Ultra Lite offered to create automatically for me the sample pages to get started, while offering the shortcodes and the option to choose the page slug. It plays nicely with the twenty- themes that I tried, as well as with a few free themes with more complex visuals.
The documentation is pretty exhaustive, and their user forums seem active.
It offers plenty of features, and all of them customizable. There is Mailchimp and Woocommerce integration, protected content for different membership plans, users media galleries and many more features.
On the flip side, it only uses PayPal integration and, at least in the free version, there is not an intuitive way to use social login.
Ultimate Member: 5/10
EoU: 2 – Fea: 1 – Func: 2
I have to say that, upon activating this plugin, I got put-off by the fact it automatically installed 7 top level pages in my WP site. I understand it is done with ease of use in mind, however I would have appreciated been given a choice – something other plugins reviewed here pulled off.
The plugin offers many features to build a community – your members can build profiles, media directories, view content on a per-membership basis. However, paid subscriptions is not the main focus of this plugin and, as such, paid options are not integrated at all. While membership brings to mind forums and users community, the focus of membership plugins has clearly steared towards the paid subscription side. And Ultimate Member clearly lacks on this field.
Paid Member Subscriptions: 6.5/10
EoU: 1.5 – Fea: 2 – Func: 3
The “Paid Member Subscriptions” plugin doesn’t get enough love. Of the 5000+ active installs in 15+ languages, it only has about 30 reviews. It might be due the unfortunate choice of a name, very similar to another very popular free membership plugins (also reviewed in this article).
Adding a membership/subscription group
Assigning post access to a group
This plugin has a robust interface, with all the important information concentrated in one page. After you create membership plans, you can charge your users (only through PayPal), restrict content, create new user roles based on the membership name. One thing that this plugin does not, is create the necessary pages for login/register. The user has to manually create the pages and insert the shortcodes that give them the necessary functionality.
Simple Membership: 9/10
EoU: 3 – Fea: 3 – Func: 3
Another plugin that doesn’t get enough love. With over 20000 active installs, it only sports a bit over 100 reviews in the WP plugin directory and it is barely ever mentioned in comparisons between membership plugins.
With this free plugin you get unlimited number of membership levels, content restriction by post/page and by category. It also offers payment through PayPal and Stripe. Everything is configurable, most of the options you would expect it to have are there and it plays nicely with the tested themes.
WP-Members: 6/10
EoU: 2 – Fea: 2 – Func: 2
The free version of the WP-Members plugin allows you to request your users to subscribe so that they can see your full content. Everyone else can only see excerpts of your posts (and your pages, if you so choose). The idea is simple and works! While not as versatile as other membership plugins examined here, it certainly does let you build a site with premium content.
This plugin does not offer different membership levels, or the option to only hide some posts from non-subscribed users. It also does not allow you to charge for access to your site – you need the Premium version of the plugin to do this. And if you wonder how is it like to deploy the Premium version of this plugin on a large content site, all you have to do is to check the very extensive documentation of WP-Members. By subscribing to their site as a member, you get access to plenty of extensions that will add almost every possible functionality to WP-Members.
Paid Memberships Pro: 9/10
EoU: 2 – Fea:4 – Func: 3
The first thing to jump out when I searched for the Paid Memberships Pro, was the amount of extra addons for integration with systems such as bbPress, Woocommerce, Mailchimp, etc. You can see the full list, after installing Paid Memberships Pro, in the “Add Ons” tab.
The amount of things that this plugin can do with the extra add-ons is almost overwhelming; every possible feature you’d imagined you want from a membership plugin is there, and several things you never imagined. Including content delay; this is a feature also known as content dripping and, apparently, it is very sought upon in membership sites.
Many of the extra add-ons – such as the content delay – are paid, however the amount of features offered in the free version is still on the overwhelming side. Membership levels, payment by PayPal, Stripe and even by check, discount codes, as well as the free extra add-ons to integrate your WordPress site with Mailchimp, bbPress forums, as well as KISSmetrics to track user activity; it is, without a doubt, a very feature-rich plugin.
s2Member Framework: 6/10
EoU: 1 – Fea: 2.5 – Func: 2.5
The s2Member plugin redirected me to an overview/help page immediately upon activation.
This is positive, implying that the developers have a well thought-out documentation, nevertheless it is a bit off-putting for a non-technical user, because it says that it might have a learning curve. Does it, though?
The features are comprehensive, with detailed options and plenty of different restriction options, content download options (including even content hosted on a CDN), notifications, and more. Out of the box Mailchimp and bbPress integration, as well as PayPal payment are certainly on the plus side.
However, it’s interface is not as intuitive as other plugins reviewed here and it might be intimidating for a non technical user. Also, I was slightly disappointed that only 5 membership types were supported; it is highly unlikely that any kind of setup will need more than 5 membership levels, however most other plugins offer unlimited levels and I’ve come to expect this as a feature.
Maybe the most interesting feature that s2Member Framework offers is a very exhaustive list of options for content restriction. It really allows you to control every part of your web and only give access to the users you want, with category and tag restriction options, sell individual posts with a “Buy now” options and even only restrict part of the post or page content.
Groups: 8/10
EoU: 2 – Fea: 3 – Fun: 3
Groups is a robust, feature-rich plugin that, together with the recommended extensions, free and pro, it can cover most needs of a membership site owner.
The first thing you want to do upon installing this plugin, is to check out the capabilities offered. There are many capabilities, aptly named, and extensive, allowing you to offer any combination of access rights to your users.
Supporting an unlimited number of groups, you will really find there is no limit to how many group/capabilities combinations you can have, to define different membership levels.
Integration with PayPal, Woocommerce and Gravity forms with their free extensions, as well as a custom newsletter and forum capability, and , additionally, access control with shortcodes, there is a reason that over 20000 users use this plugin.
Thank you for reading our review; please note that the above mentioned ranking are based on personal opinion, after individually testing the above free WP plugins.
PAID MEMBERSHIP PLUGINS
Here are the plugins we are examining here:
- MemberPress
- Membership Add-on for iThemes Exchange
- Restrict Content Pro
- WP Membership
- Paid Memberships Pro
- WP eMember
- Digital Access Pass
- MemberMouse
- Magic Members
- s2Member Pro
- PrivateContent
- Ultimate Member
MemberPress
MemberPress is one of the most popular premium plugins for membership sites. It is also one of the most acclaimed plugins, considered as the number one of its niche by many reviewers.
While it does not offer a demo, the MemberPress offers enough screenshots and information to get a good idea about it. I would say it is clear that it is packed with features, comprehensive, and intuitive enough to be easy to set-up.
Theme-neutral, easy to integrate with any forum software, plays nicely with WooCommerce, works with 12 different email marketing systems, content delay features, payments through PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net. Also, a praising review from Chris Lema and other blogs and sites focusing on WordPress; I can certainly see why MemberPress is considered the number one plugin for membership sites.
Membership Add-on for iThemes Exchange
This plugin is brought to you by the same guys who created BackupBuddy and it is an additional plugin you buy on the top of their e-commerce system, Exchange.
Having, again, no access to the back-end, I can simply say that, based on the features they offer and the back-end screenshots, it seems amazing. The fact that it is integrated on an e-commerce system gives a multitude of possibilities for your membership site. You want to sell a physical product only to your gold members? Want to have your e-shop for everybody and only offer discounts/special prices to your subscribers? It looks perfectly possible with this setup.
The Membership Add-on for iThemes Exchange gets overall very good reviews and the company behind it is reputed for their quality customer service. This plugin is probably one of the best out there.
Restrict Content Pro
Before I start looking the features of a plugin, I do a quick search to find the online documentation and whether there is a demo or not. The Restrict Content Pro had both. You can see what the registration form looks like and browse through their amazingly detailed documentation.
Is Restrict Content Pro a good solution for your particular setup? Find out in the Use-case pages. Wonder how intuitive is the interface? Loads of screenshots for you to get an idea.
Restrict Content Pro offers a robust membership management, with out of the box integration with MailChimp, PayPal and Stripe, as well as members dashboard, discount codes system, and more. It is also extensible; with the extra addons you can add content delay support, group accounts and more.
WP Membership
Code Canyon’s WP Membership is one of the most affordable membership plugin options, at $34. It offers a demo of the logged-in user dashboard.
WP Membership – Categories visibility
First thing to notice upon logging in, is that the demo uses an older WP version (version 4.5.3). The information page claims that it is compatible with WP 4.6.x and 4.7.x, however the last update was on May 2016.
This plugin offers PayPal and Stripe payment, MailChimp integration, several predefined membership types and pricing tables and a coupon system. It is an affordable solution for a simple subscription site.
Paid Memberships Pro
Did you read our Free Membership plugins article? If so, you might remember me being very impressed with the free version of the “Paid Memberships Pro” plugin and giving it a score of 9/10.
My main point about the free version was how you get loads of features and extra add-ons that can cover most needs. Here is what you additionally get if you buy the PMPro Plus version. To name only a few, you get content dripping, social login, WP Affiliate Platform integration and so many more!
WP eMember
The eMember plugin has been around for a long time. It is mature, solid and powers plenty of subscription sites.
It includes many options, such as unlimited membership levels, content access levels, MailChimp and WooCommerce integration and use of the Google First Click Free feature.
Actively developed, compatible with the 4.7 WP version, with extensive documentation, user dashboard demos and having almost all the main features you would expect from a membership plugin, it is certainly a worthwhile solution.
Digital Access Pass (DAP)
DAP has also been around for a long time. Over 8 years of active development, it is a plugin made specifically for WordPress, but that also works for plain PHP/HTML web sites. The documentation brings you to an outdated-looking site with frames, however the documentation itself is up-to-date and comprehensive. Still, the content might feel a bit too technical to the average WP site owner of 2017.
DAP claims that they invented content dripping – and all the reviews I’ve found on DAP agree on one thing: It does content dripping right. The “Tru-Drip” feature is meant to allow you to manage the content delay in any way you want; you also can delay all types of contents, by posts, categories, even media files. It also offers plenty of options for upsells, unlimited membership levels, teaser content and much more.
MemberMouse
MemberMouse is a plugin following the SaaS (Software as a Service) model, so it comes with a monthly subscription and different packages according to the number of members you want to manage.
It has more than enough features to justify the high pricing, such as unlimited membership levels, content protection, content delay, support for affiliate programs, upsells, coupon systems and much more. It supports PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net payment, integration with MailChimp and other mailing list providers and their API seems to be quite versatile. They have import wizards for easy migration from a number of other membership plugins as well; this can mean that many people migrate to MemberMouse.
Overall, MemberMouse is feature-packed, but comes with a higher price tag than other plugins with similar features.
Magic Members
Another “oldie” of the available membership plugins, Magic Members has been around for 7 years and is still actively developed.
I checked our their online demo; and you should, too, if you are considering using it! Unlike the demos offered by some other plugins on this list, this gets you directly to the admin’s control panel, not just a user’s dashboard.
Regarding features, it has everything you’ve come to expect from a membership plugin. Unlimited membership levels, content protection and delay, pay per post or pay per view features, integration with MailChimp and other autoresponders, integration with forum, such as SimpleForums and WP Mingle and a long list of supported payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, and several more.
s2Member Pro
The pro version of the guys who developed the free s2Member Framework, reviewed in the first part of this article.
One of the things I pointed out reviewing the free version was the limited membership levels. Well the Pro version comes to remedy that, offering unlimited paid membership levels. It also offers PayPal, Stripe and Authorize.Net integration, content dripping with the use of shortcodes, coupons and gift/redemption codes and more.
It still stays incompatible with WooCommerce and, as I said in the free Framework review, it might be intimidating to set up and configure for the non-technical user.
PrivateContent
Another affordable option from the codecanyon guys, PrivateContent is here to let you create membership levels and assign them access to your content.
That’s all. That’s all it does, and it seems to be doing it really well.
There is something I personally like very much about doing one thing and doing it well. PrivateContent seems to be doing this, and it is extensible, while still affordable, for those who want more features. You want to charge for your content? WooCommerce integration? Mailing lists with MailChimp? You can buy extra add-ons to add this functionality.
Ultimate Member
My impression of the free version of Ultimate was not great. I was not happy that it created pages to use for registration, logging in, etc, without giving me a choice to opt-out and create my own pages instead. I was not happy with the warning I got that the automatically created pages cannot be deleted.
I was also not impressed with the set of features offered. However, the paid version – which is not really a version but an extension bundle with 18 additional addons adds several features that can be useful for a community building. MailChimp, bbPress and WooCommerce compatibility, social login, friends and followers functionality and more.
The focus is still on the community building, rather than the membership/subscription function. However, if that is what you need, and you need to base your community on WordPress, Ultimate Member might be what you need.
