Best WordPress Membership Plugins – 2024 – Free and Paid

Are you looking for a membership plugin for your WordPress site? Do you want to accept recurring payments for content, podcasts, or video? Do you want to sell online courses for your members (e-learning and digital course-ware)?

There are plenty of membership plugins for WordPress in 2023. But not all of them may have what feature you need. Choosing the membership plugin which suits all your needs is crucial because it is not easy to switch from one membership plugin to another.

Things to look for in a Membership plugin

The main things to look for in the plugins are the built-in payment gateways, drip content feature, user-friendliness, WordPress multi-site network compatibility, affiliate platform integrations, email marketing integrations, and their pricing plans. We have researched them for you and given you clear details.

With the plugins listed below, you could create Club memberships like photography club, fitness club, etc.,  Magazine subscriptions, Private forums, and much more.

Membership Vs. Subscription

Membership is a relational term. It means that contents are exclusively available to members. It may be paid or free. You could have different levels of memberships like Gold, Silver, etc.,

Subscription is a financial term. It means that you are paying regularly, maybe weekly,  monthly, or yearly (maybe even through recurring payments). You may be paying for a product, service, or in this case selling memberships.

So you need plugins that can create multiple membership levels and collect payments from members regularly. All of the plugins listed below are capable of unlimited membership levels and recurring payments.

Best Paid WordPress Membership plugins – 2023

If the sole purpose of your WordPress membership website is to sell memberships and earn from your loyal members, then a paid membership plugin would be the best option because they give you premium integrations and multiple payment gateway options.

Note: All of the plugins listed have bbPress integration to give forum functionality for starting discussions and BuddyPress integration for social networking functionality.

MemberPress

MemberPress is the best WordPress Membership Plugin. It has an intuitive and user-friendly design. It is easy to learn, and you could launch your membership site in just a few hours. If you are a beginner, it is the go-to plugin for you.

Best Features of MemberPress Plugin

• It allows you to restrict access to all of the content on your WordPress website including pages, posts, categories, tags, and files.
• You could easily handle thousands of members.
• Also, you can restrict content for Memberships plans and even for individual members.

Payments: PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net

Affiliate System: Affiliate Royale integration available on the top-tier plan. Also 3rd party integrations available for iDevAffiliate and AffiliateWP.

Email: For email marketing, it can be integrated with MailChimp, AWeber, Campaign Monitor, Churn Buster, Constant Contact, Mail Relay, Mail Poet, Mailster, and Sendy.

Other integrations: It has many other integrations available like Monster Insights, ActiveCampaign, Zapier, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Convert Kit, Corporate Accounts, Get Response, GravityPress (from GravityForms), Helpscout, Learndash, ThriveCart, WP Courseware and more. These integrations can be built-in, add-ons, or 3rd-party.

Pros:

• Has a good tax handling system integrated with Quadreon and can also integrate with Avalara
• It has PowerPress by Blubrry integration for podcasts.
• It supports WordPress multisite network.

Cons:

• The payment gateway options are good but limited.
• It doesn’t have User profiles and Member directory features.

Pricing

The ideal plan could be Plus plan which is $299/yr give you 2-sites license. It has all of the integrations expect for Affiliate Royale integration.

The basic plan – $179/yr has all the membership features you need but lack integrations.

The Pro plan – $399/yr gives you 5 site license with Affiliate Royale integration. This plan could be very profitable if you are an agency.

Use the Coupon ” 10OFF “ to get 10% discount on your Memberpress purchase

Get started with MemberPress

LearnDash

LeanDash is a Learning Management System (LMS) for WordPress. Though it is not purely a WordPress membership plugin, you create a membership site for selling online courses with LearnDash LMS.

Best Features of LearnDash Plugin

It is very easy to create courses with course categories, lessons, topics, assignments, and quizzes. It has a drag & drops Course Builder that allows you to create courses easily.

Payments: It has integrations with PayPal, Stripe, or 2Checkout

Shopping cart Integrations: could be integrated with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and iThemes Exchange.

Membership plugin Integrations: It has free add-ons for integrating with free Paid Memberships Pro and paid plugins  MemberPress and Restrict Content Pro.

Pros:

• You could create a course selling marketplace like Udemy with LearnDash
• It has Drip-feed content feature
• Multisite network capability is available
• User Profiles and Group management is available
• There’s a lot of free, paid and third-party integrations

Cons:

• MailChimp integration is paid
• It doesn’t have any Affiliate plugins integrations. But you could integrate it with AffiliateWP plugin using LearnDash’s Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce add-ons
• Since it is an LMS, it is excellent for membership sites selling online courses.  LearnDash is not right for another type of membership sites

Pricing

The basic plan is $159/yr which has all the features except for some paid add-ons. Other multiple site license plans are also available.

Get started with LearnDash

MembershipWorks 

MembershipWorks is a hosted all-in-one membership software that has a directory, events, groups, donations, associations, professional, networking, and many other useful features.

It is a SaaS product for which you have to pay a monthly subscription. It can be integrated into your WordPress site using the free MembershipWorks plugin. 

Best Features of MembershipWorks

• Can have multiple secondary administrators and access levels
• You can limit access to folders, events, forms, dashboard, and financials
• You can generate invoices using Xero or QuickBooks.

Payments: Can accept all major credit cards using Stripe, PayPal Pro, or Authorize.net.

Email: Can be integrated with MailChimp for sending emails to members.

Pros

• There is a free plan up to 50 members with basic membership and directory features.
• Since it is a SaaS product hosting and maintenance will be taken care of by the company.

Cons

• May not be suitable for non-monetized sites because you have to pay a monthly subscription
• It does not have any affiliate tracking software integrations.

Pricing:

The pricing depends on the number of member accounts which starts from $29/month up to 300 members.

Get Started with MembershipWorks

ARMembers

ARMembers has a modern and intuitive design. Handling member profiles is very easy. There’s a lot of options and settings but will take some time to setup your membership site, but it is not tiring.

It takes some time to understand how access rules work, but page by page restriction for different memberships is very easy with this plugin.

It is one of the best-paid options for a simple membership site. Premium add-ons are available for AffiliateWP and other affiliate plugins.

Payment options: It gives you decent payment options such as PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net and more

Pros:

• It is the most affordable paid membership plugin, just $ 59 for lifetime updates.
• Member profiles can be created.
• It has paid add-ons for payment gateways such as Mollie, PayPal Pro, PagSeguro, and other creative integrations which is generally not found in other membership plugins.

Cons:

• Doesn’t have Multisite support.
• Customizing your membership site will need a developer’s help.
• It may not be the best option for a membership site with complex rules.
• Though there is no limit in several members, there have been complaints when handling a huge number of members.

Pricing

You can get the ARMember plugin for $59 (one-time) from Codecanyon, and other paid add-ons $25 to $40.

Get started with ARMember

Restrict Content Pro

Restrict Content Pro is another useful WordPress membership plugin. It is very feature-rich and also has good integrations and add-ons. But the design is as user-friendly as MemberPress, and it takes a little longer to learn and to launch the membership site.

Best Features of Restrict Content Pro

If you are selling downloadable products for your members, then it is your best option because it has the best integrations with Easy Digital Downloads. It also allows for WordPress user role-based memberships.

Payments: PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Braintree, and 2Checkout. It also has API that allows building custom payment gateways

Pros:

• If you are planning to use AffiliateWP or Easy Digital Downloads with your Membership site better go with Restrict Content Pro because they are all created by the same author and so you can expect best integrations with them
• It has a free WP Job Manager add on which could help you to restrict jobs posting to members who have paid subscriptions
• It has many valuable free add-ons

Cons:

• Drip-feed content and other useful features are only available on pro-add-ons
• The design could have been more user-friendly
• Affiliate integration is limited to only AffiliateWP. But there are third-party integrations like the iDevAffiliate add-on.

Pricing

There are 4 pricing plans, which start from $99. Personal and the Plus plans do not include pro-add-ons.

There is a 5-sites plan that is $149 and a Professional plan is $249 per year with all pro-add-ons with an unlimited site license.

If you are building many number of membership sites multi-site plans will be very helpful for you.

Get started with Restrict Content Pro

Best Free WordPress Membership Plugins – 2022

For creating a simple membership site, there are lots of free plugins. When you want to add more functions to your membership site you may have to upgrade. But when you’re upgrading if the plugin doesn’t suit your need then it could be tough for you. So it is essential to consider the premium features before using the free membership plugins.

Paid Memberships Pro

Paid Membership Pro is a free WordPress membership plugin. The core plugin is feature-packed and has most of the membership features. It has an user-friendly dashboard and gives you detailed reports and stats.

Best Features of Paid Membership Pro

It will take some time to setup your membership because it is jam-packed with options, but it’s not hard. Customizing your membership site using Paid Membership Pro for the desired results might need the help of a developer.

Affiliate: It has a Lightweight Affiliate Tracking add-on and Post Affiliate Pro and WP Affiliate Platform integration add-ons are available.

Payment Gateways: PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Braintree, 2Checkout, and CyberSource.

Multisite Support: Two Multisite add-ons are available.

Pros:

• Good Customer Support
• The core plugin is free and powerful
• It has many subscription options
• Many numbers of valuable add-ons (78 add-ons till today) both free and paid are available

Cons:

• Drip content is only available on premium
• The Plus plan gives you all the add-ons, but there is no way to buy a single add-on. If you need only one or two premium add-ons paying $297 could prove to be a big ask.
• Adding many add-ons may need extra effort to get desired functions

Pricing

The basic plugin is free with 31+ free add-ons. Plus plan $397/yr gives you 2-site license with all 64 pro-add-ons and Unlimited plan $697/yr gives you unlimited site license with the same.

Get started with Paid Membership Pro 

Get the Plus plan with all the add-ons

WP-Members

WP-Members is a simple but solid plugin that does the job which it says in its description. It may not fit for all types of membership sites. It is easy and simple to use.

Best Features of WP-Members

It has very limited integrations such as MailChimp, Salesforce, and PayPal. If you only need these three integrations, then it is okay for you. There are limited, but they work fine without causing any troubles. If it fits your needs, you can go at it without any second thoughts.

It is ok for creating a membership site with few numbers of users and limited content. It is not for building a large membership site.

Pros:

• It is simple and easy to use
• It is a beginner’s plugin
• The Invitation Code add-on is unique.

Cons:

• Very few add-ons
• No drip content feature in free or pro
• Multisite not supported
• Limited payment options, only PayPal as a paid add-on is available. Has to be integrated with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads for payments.

Pricing

Add-ons can be bought individually starting from $29/yr.

There is a Pro-bundle for $125/yr includes all the 16 add-ons. This is just for a single site. No multiple site license is available.

If you are satisfied with the free plugin but you require support for setting up your membership site there is a $59 Support plan.

Get started with WP-Members

Get Support and Paid add-ons

S2Member

s2Member is an old plugin, and the design is not user-friendly. It is a very flexible and powerful plugin. Setting it up will take time, and if you know some basic coding, it could really help. If you know what you are doing, you can create a stunning membership site. But it is not for an average user.

Best Features of S2Member Plugin

It could handle thousands of members at ease. It is fully customizable unlike many other plugins, but it takes expertise to use its full power.

The free plugin lacks payment options other than PayPal and the drip content feature is not available. You will certainly need the paid version to create a complete membership website.

Affiliate: iDevAffiliate and ShareASale integrations available on the free version.

Mailing-list: MailChimp and AWeber in free and GetResponse in Pro are available.

Payments: PayPal available in free and PayPal Pro, Stripe, ClickBank, and Authorize.net available on the paid version.

Pros:

• It is very flexible and has creative features such as Custom Capabilities.
• You can sell packages independent of membership like one-time offers to members.
• Multisite membership available in Unlimited Pro License

Cons:

• May take a bigger learning curve for beginners.
• The free plugin gives only 4 membership levels
• Drip content only on the pro version
• WooCommerce integration is not available

Pricing

Pro version is $89 for a single site and $189 for unlimited sites. The good thing is that it is a one-time payment and not an annual subscription like many other plugins. So if you find this plugin is best suited for your needs getting an unlimited site license would be a wise deal for you.

Get started with s2Member

Get the Pro version with all the add-ons

Creating an Ultimate Membership WordPress website

We have found MemberPress to be the most user-friendly and flexible membership plugin, and LearrnDash is the best WordPress solution for selling online courses.

LearnDash and MemberPress could be integrated to create membership levels for access restriction using MemberPress and associate these access levels to LearnDash courses. Customers are then auto-enrolled into courses after signing up for membership.

For example, you could create a membership site with free membership and other paid memberships. Only paying customers could see course materials and other members could have access to some restricted contents.