MemberPress Review: Is This the Best Membership Plugin?

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Have you ever wanted to create a members area for your website, blog, or even your business? I know that feeling. If you want to learn how to create an area of your own where users can access exclusive content then keep reading this MemberPress review.

When it comes to membership sites, and WordPress, all roads lead back to MemberPress. I spent the last few weeks putting MemberPress to the test with a live client project. 

MemberPress is a plugin that makes it easy for you to create your own membership site/members only area.

This plugin was designed to make it easy for non developers to quickly launch a membership site without needing to hire a developer or use any technical skills.

It allows you to add content accessible only by registered users and to set up a paid membership site that allows for multiple levels of membership.

With the affiliate program included in the MemberPress package, you can make cash on the side or even create your own product based business.

By the end of this MemberPress review, you’ll see how powerful this plugin really is for creating membership sites with WordPress.

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MemberPress Quick Review

  • Easy setup
  • Unlimited membership levels
  • Fully customizable pricing pages
  • Customizable coupons
  • Content dripping
  • Subscription management options for users
  • Ability to create paid content subscriptions
  • Easy connection to PayPal Standard, PayPal Express Checkout and Stripe
  • Comprehensive documentation
  • Detailed reporting
  • Neat, organized UI / UX
  • Plenty of add-ons for extended functionality
  • Compatible with most themes and plugins

MemberPress Detailed Overview

What is MemberPress?

MemberPress is an intuitive, easy-to-use WordPress membership plugin that lets you sell access to any part of your site, or give your members extra features to increase engagement and drive more value from your site.

With MemberPress, your visitors can register for a membership account on your website, which gives them access to premium content.

With the Pro version, you have several other options to easily monetize your site.

What to consider when looking for a membership plugin? 

There are some things that really matter when choosing a membership plugin 

Content dripping

Content dripping is an important feature allowing to schedule post launch. Post launch means the time between publishing posts and making them accessible for users. 

When content is soft-launched, it’s not yet visible on your website and users can’t access it. Instead, users get a notification in their inbox. 

After one or two days, content becomes available on your website.

Content expiration

If you decide to use a plugin to manage your membership site, one of the first functionalities you’ll come across is the ability to have password-protected content that expires after a set period of time.

Community creation

Just like with the forums, a community on a website can be a great asset. With the right plugin you can easily create an area of your site where visitors can have discussions about topics which interest them. 

This is a great way to generate community discussions about things relevant to your niche.

Subscription types

Subscription types and pricing structures are the key thing to look at when choosing a subscription plugin. There are three main ones: Recurring payments, one-off payments, and free trials. 

The best type for your business depends on what you want out of the subscription model. Do you want users to pay on a regular basis? Or would you rather offer them payment plans? What about free trials—would those be useful to you?

Subscription management

Subscription management is an essential part of every website. If you don’t have a nice system for managing your memberships, then your users can easily lose track of their payments or forget to renew their tickets.

Coupons

Coupons are a great way to reward your best members. They let you offer special deals to drive up the conversion rate and get more recurring payments. 

There are many membership plugins that offer built-in coupon functionality out of the box. But choosing a coupon plugin can be a daunting task with so many options available.

Ecommerce integration

Most of the website owners look for a membership plugin which can provide all the required functionalities and ecommerce integration at a low price. 

There are dozens of free membership plugins available in the market but not all of them have complete functionalities which will help you in building a good website.

Email marketing integration

Email marketing nowadays plays a key role in most companies and online businesses. 

Having an email list allows you to capture and engage with your leads, customers and even past clients in the future without spending a dime. 

One of the most important factors when choosing between all of the WordPress membership plugins available is how powerful they are in terms of email marketing integration.

Customization

A successful membership plugin needs to be highly customizable. It should allow users to customize most aspects of the site. 

Users would want a membership plugin that offers a wide variety of customization for creating pages, content, product variation and membership type, different levels of membership details, custom page templates, and many more options. 

Users should also be able to change the information, images and graphics associated with each level of membership.

Payment processing options

The membership plugin provides several methods to accept secure payments, and each method has its own specific advantages. 

The simplest method is to use the PayPal Standard payment gateway. This is a simple gateway for credit card transactions.  

You can also accept payments through Stripe, which accepts debit cards. Stripe will automatically convert your customers credit card purchases into revenue.  

Ease of use

When you’re looking for a membership plugin for your WordPress website you want to make sure it’s easy to use. 

Documentation and support

One of the most important elements when you’re choosing which membership plugin to use is support. 

If you run into a problem, will you be able to find the solution online? Will you be able to reach out to the team behind the plugin? 

This is just as important as having a clearly documented user manual. In fact, this is where I spend most of my time when I first start looking for a membership plugin. 

I want something that’s easy to understand and set up on my own.

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What are the features of MemberPress?

Easy setup

MemberPress is the easiest way to create a membership site. No complex installations, no database configurations, just point and click. 

MemberPress has a simple one-page installation that’s ready to go in a matter of minutes.

Unlimited membership levels

MemberPress has a powerful permission system that lets you define as many membership levels as you need. 

These levels can be assigned to any number of billing intervals, so you can have a different billing schedule for every single level.

Ability to create paid content subscriptions

MemberPress gives you the power to easily create paid content subscriptions, allowing you to sell access to private content and encouraging your members to become repeat customers.

Fully customizable access rules for all types of content

MemberPress comes with a ton of default access rules that you can use. If that doesn’t suit your needs, you can always edit them or create new ones. 

You can choose to make the entire plugin private, protected content only accessible to registered users, or keep certain posts publicly visible and charge people to read them.

Fully customizable pricing pages

MemberPress allows you to create fully customizable pricing pages, and even capture payment information right on those pages. 

You can also add upsells to your site so your leads have the option of upgrading their account to a paid version of your product. 

Customizable coupons

MemberPress coupons are customizable, meaning you get to decide how much you wish to discount your product. 

Just update the desired percentage of the coupon using the intuitive admin panel and users will be able to see the updated value on their screens.

Content dripping

MemberPress gives you the ability to create a drip content system. Drip content allows you to set up a feed that will automatically send new information and updates to your subscriber’s email inbox at a time interval that you specify. 

For example, this can be done with blogs, articles, podcasts, or other information that you want to give out on a regular basis.

Subscription management options for users

MemberPress offers several ways to manage your subscription and recurring orders, such as a recurring PayPal addon.

Whether you’re on the front-end of your site at checkout, or viewing a list of current subscribers from your WordPress admin panel, MemberPress makes it easy to view and manage your subscription products.

Easy connection to PayPal Standard, PayPal Express Checkout and Stripe

MemberPress is a membership plugin that allows you to sell memberships and subscriptions directly on your site. 

It provides a gateway for each member to pay via PayPal, PayPal Express Checkout or Stripe.

Detailed reporting

MemberPress adds detailed reporting to your WordPress membership sites. You can view dashboard statistics about site usage, registrations, and renewals without ever leaving WordPress. 

The new upgrade includes top-level reporting for all the major payment processors, and integration with PayPal Subscriptions.

Comprehensive documentation

MemberPress’ documentation is all-inclusive. You get a premium WordPress plugin that works on WordPress platforms and a comprehensive user manual for its effective implementation. 

The MemberPress membership site plugin documentation comes packaged with an email course that demonstrates you how to use the plugin in detail. 

The mailing course includes more than two dozen lessons, which makes it possible for you to take your time implementing the plugin.

See also: AAWP Review: Is It The Best Plugin For Amazon Affiliates?

MemberPress Pros

1. Easy to use intuitive setup

MemberPress is a very intuitive Membership Management System that makes it easy to set up your membership site. 

A lot of Membership Sites are difficult to use and set up, but MemberPress makes it easy for anyone to manage their business online.

2. Drip feed content

MemberPress built-in drip feed content system allows you to spread your content out over days, or even weeks. 

Your subscribers won’t be overloaded with content, and you can spend more time posting relevant content that actually has a chance of being read.

MemberPress drip feed content means that users never have to leave your website.

3. Multiple payment processors

MemberPress lists all available payment processors your merchant account can accept and allows you to select the ones you want to use with MemberPress. 

Every time your customers choose a credit card, debit card or bank transfer, MemberPress will choose the right processor for them and handle it from there.

4. Email autoresponder integration

MemberPress was designed with active community building in mind. Every site is equipped with a special email autoresponder that integrates inside of WordPress. 

This means that anyone can use the MemberPress plugin to create an email solution in their WordPress website. 

It also means that you can use your own autoresponder of choice, such as AWeber, GetResponse, MailChimp and many more.

5. Affiliate system included with higher priced plan

MemberPress includes an affiliate system so you can make money from your website as soon as business opens. 

The Affiliate program allows members to join your site for free, and it allows you to get paid a percentage of each sale on MemberPress through referrals from your website.

6. Powerful access rules

MemberPress access rules allow administrators to specify exactly the circumstances in which different users may access all modules of MemberPress. 

For example, you can ensure that all users have only a standard ability to manage content regardless of their role. 

Or, you can establish different levels of permissions for different roles in your membership site. 

You can also decide who can view and edit pages on your site, restrict access to selected pages (even more powerful than restricting an entire section), or create additional user groups with a specific permission set. 

Locked contents are concealed but still accessible by administrators using their unique access rule combinations.

MemberPress Cons

1. All front end elements look ugly and dated

Unfortunately, almost all front-end elements look kind of dated. The landing pages have a contract and old-school look, with the same color layout and everything.

It’s consistent across the board, which is good, but it gets boring.

2. No WooCommerce support

MemberPress is touted as one of the best tools for building your membership sites, but it does not have native eCommerce capabilities. 

While this is a bonus for some niche sites, many of its customers require that they integrate their memberships with a WooCommerce powered online store. 

Unfortunately, this cannot be accomplished without third party software.

3. Slow development and few improvements made over time

MemberPress provides many capabilities to create an online community using WordPress themes as their foundation. 

However, the development of new features is rarely considered and they are not adopted at all times. 

MemberPress does provide limited technical support for its users, but it mainly revolves around fixing small bugs instead of adding new functionality and improving it over time.

4. Questionable marketing tactics

MemberPress employs aggressive marketing tactics during the free trial. While I do like the fact that MemberPress is beginner friendly, it can become complex for a provider who is just starting out in this space.

In the squeeze page, you can see the timer that will end in a few seconds to become a member. It is never ending and actually doesn’t make the account go anywhere.

MemberPress Pricing Options

MemberPress includes several pricing options, allowing you to choose the option that best fits your needs and start managing your online community today.

Pro subscription

The pro subscription costs $349 per year. It comes with unlimited membership, 5 websites, includes affiliate Royale, exclusive pro add-ons.

Plus subscriptions

The plus subscription costs $249 per year. You can use 2 sites, 10 add-ons and integrations, and work with authorize.net.

Basic subscriptions

The basic subscription costs $149 per year. You can access 1 site, work with PayPal and Stripe, unlimited members and content.

See also: LearnDash Review – The Best LMS Plugin For WordPress Websites

Alternatives to MemberPress

FAQs

Can you sell physical goods on MemberPress?

No, you cannot sell physical products on MemberPress — only accessible digital downloads.

Can I use MemberPress on a client’s site?

Yes, you can use MemberPress on a Client site. You need to make sure that you are using the Client’s plan (which will have a different siteID than your own site), and not your own plan.

Does MemberPress have a free trial or demo available?

No, MemberPress does not offer a free trial or demo.

Is MemberPress compatible with any theme?

Yes. MemberPress is compatible with many of the most popular WordPress themes. MemberPress has taken great care to ensure that it works well with virtually any theme.

What happens when my MemberPress license expires?

Your MemberPress installation will continue to work but will not be updated. You can choose to renew your license at any time, and receive a discount on renewal price.

Is MemberPress free?

No. MemberPress is not free. MemberPress is a paid plugin.

Conclusion

Based on our MemberPress review, MemberPress is hands down, one of the best WordPress plugins available.

If you’re building a membership website to sell a product, service or to provide an exclusive place for your members to gather, then MemberPress should be at the top of your list.

MemberPress is a great product because it allows membership site owners to finally have all the features and benefits of WordPress without losing the flexibility of a plugin or theme.

For further articles like our MemberPress review, check our other reviews or if you are thinking of starting a blog you can check this out!