Do you want to create a membership site where users can sign up for exclusive benefits, restricted content, and other types of premium access?
The easiest way to create a fully-featured membership site is to use a WordPress plugin.
It will allow you to create and manage a professional affiliate program with tiered pricing, subscription levels, auto-renewals, drip content and much more.
In this guide, we’ll help you choose the WordPress affiliate plugin that best suits the type of affiliate site you want.
Before we get to the list, if you want to skip the homework and let us choose for you, you can jump straight to our step-by-step tutorial for creating your WordPress membership site with our #1 pick. Follow our simple guide: How to Create a WordPress Membership Site.
Also, if you are looking to sell digital products without creating a full membership site, then you should check out: Easy Digital Downloads .
How to Choose a WordPress Subscription Plugin for Your Website
Creating a membership website allows you to grant access to premium content only to those who register or pay a fee to join as a member.
An affiliate program is a great way to make money through your website. You can charge a one-time payment or a recurring subscription to access online courses, digital products, exclusive network/forums, and priority support for your registered users only.
Now, if you haven’t set up your WordPress site yet, you’ll need a domain name, web hosting, and an affiliate plugin to get started.
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Next, you need to choose the right WordPress subscription plugin. Before you dive in, here are a few things you need to keep in mind when choosing a WordPress subscription plugin for your site.
Ease of use :
If you don’t want to hire a professional developer to set up your membership site, you’ll need a plugin that’s easy to use. Some plugins come with a full set of features out of the box. While this may sound good at first, the downside is that the user interface will be bloated with too many options that you’ll never need.
However, there are many lightweight plugins that don’t overload the interface and only offer the important functions. And if you want additional features, you can easily install the corresponding add-ons.
Compatibility :
Before installing the affiliate plugin on your production site, make sure it is compatible with your existing WordPress theme and affiliate plugins by testing it on a local WordPress installation. If everything goes well, then you can install the plugin on the production site.
Design and features :
Membership plugins usually come with many customizable pricing page templates, member management, user role creation, and other features to make your site look unique.
A nice feature is the creation of multi-level memberships, such as basic, premium, and ultimate plans.
Take note of the essential features you will need on your egypt phone number library site and find out if the affiliate plugin you are considering can meet your needs.
Payment methods:
You’ll want to make it easy for how to get more online reviews to grow your wordpress business users to pay for memberships using their preferred payment method, such as credit card, e-banking, or e-wallets. Make sure the plugin allows you to integrate with multiple gateways to offer a variety of payment options on your site.
Now let’s compare some of the best WordPress membership plugins, so you can decide which one is the right choice for your site.
The Best Subscription Plugins for WordPress
Below you will find high-quality WordPress membership plugins. Each plugin offers unique features for creating a membership site with WordPress.
1. MemberPress
MemberPress is the most popular WordPress membership plugin and comes with all the features you’ll need to create a robust membership site with ease.
Unlike other plugins, MemberPress allows you to transform your existing website into a fully-featured membership site. It works great with all popular WordPress themes.
The plugin is also ideal for beginners because it is very easy to use: all you have to do is install the MemberPress plugin on your WordPress site, modify a few settings, and enter your payment gateway details. You can choose from payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net.
MemberPress then allows you to create multiple membership levels, add products, and create a custom pricing page with details about membership benefits.
You then have options to restrict access to content on specific pages, posts, custom post types, or any existing archives from your regular (non-member) visitors. And once users sign up, they can easily manage their membership plan through their self-service account page where they can renew, upgrade, or even downgrade their plan.
If you want to sync your website with your email service provider, the MemberPress plugin integrates seamlessly with popular email marketing services such as AWeber, MailChimp, GetResponse, etc.
And that’s not all. There’s a built-in Courses plugin that lets you create, manage, and sell online courses with MemberPress.
Using the fully visual drag and drop builder, you can quickly build your course curriculum. It comes with features like course progress tracking, quizzes/tests, and a classroom mode to automatically style your course pages.
MemberPress is also developer-friendly so you can customize australian businesses directory your site however you like. With developer tools, you get access to webhooks and a full REST API to develop mobile apps, web apps, and more.
Other notable features of MemberPress include:
- Drip of content
- Community Forums
- Discount codes
- Affiliate Program
- Zapier Integration
- Custom Integrations
Pricing: MemberPress offers three plans:
- Basic – $179/year for a single site license
- Plus – $299/year for up to 2 site licenses
- Pro – $399/year for up to 5 site licenses
Although there is no free version or trial period, MemberPress offers a risk-free 14-day money-back guarantee.
For more details, you should check out our full MemberPress review.
Get started with MemberPress today.
2. LearnDash
LearnDash is ideal for online course subscriptions.
It makes it easy to create a unique learning experience for your members. It even supports the latest trends in gamification, social learning, and microcontent.
Since this is more of a LMS (learning management system) plugin, you have multiple ways to sell your online courses. These are:
- Memberships : Create multiple levels of membership plans with different access to your online courses.
- One-time fee : Allows users to purchase individual courses or pay a one-time fee to join your platform.
- Subscription : Earn recurring payments through subscription sales
It’s also easy to use. LearnDash comes with widgets that allow you to add dynamic content to your LearnDash site. It works similarly to blocks and shortcodes.
LearnDash allows learners to unlock new courses based on the points they earn as they complete their courses. This helps increase retention and makes users more engaged in your online courses.
What really makes it look professional are the custom certificates and badges you can award based on student performance. You can also offer user profiles on the front-end, where members can track their activity.
We should also mention that this plugin supports multisite installations if you want to manage a network of online course websites.
Some of the key features of LearnDash are:
- Course creator
- Lessons and modules drip by drip
- Advanced Quiz
- Course Forums
- Email Notifications
- Free Integrations
- Automatic renewals
Price: LearnDash offers three plans:
- Basic – $199/year for a single site license
- Plus Package – $399/year for up to 10 site licenses
- Pro Package – $799/year for up to unlimited sites
There is a 15-day money back guarantee.
Here is a complete LearnDash review for more details about this WordPress membership plugin.
Get started with LearnDash today.
3rd Member Wishlist
Wishlist Member is another powerful membership plugin with over 120,000 active users. You can create unlimited membership levels and accept as many members as you need, there are no limits.
When you sign up for Wishlist, you get everything the plugin offers. There is no upselling or ads inside. Plus, it is compatible with almost all WordPress themes. So you won’t have to worry about how your site’s design will look after installing this plugin. Instead, you can focus on building and running your membership site.
Wishlist integrates with all major payment processors so you can get paid securely and quickly. You can offer free trials, recurring and one-time payments, and customize your purchase buttons.
What really makes Wishlist stand out is its custom login pages and dashboard. You can create stunning custom login pages for your members.
Plus, you can see all your affiliate stats at a glance to get an overview of your performance. You can also manage everything from a dashboard that is very easy to use and can be accessed right within your WordPress admin.
The main features of Wishlist are:
- Design your affiliate site your way
- Integration with popular payment and marketing platforms
- Create as many membership levels as you want
- Choose who can access your content
- Create specific promotions
- Enable automatic actions
- Compatibility with all WordPress themes, page builders and plugins