14 Best WordPress Membership Plugins (Compared) – 2025

14 Best WordPress Membership Plugins (Compared) – 2025
Choosing the right WordPress membership plugin is crucial for building a thriving online community, offering exclusive content, and generating recurring revenue. With a plethora of options available, selecting the best one for your specific needs can be overwhelming. This comprehensive comparison of 14 top WordPress membership plugins will guide you in making an informed decision in 2025.
1. MemberPress
MemberPress is widely recognized as one of the most popular and user-friendly membership plugins for WordPress. It’s known for its robust features, ease of use, and powerful access control capabilities.
- Key Features: Content dripping, coupon creation, subscription management, affiliate program integration, detailed reporting, and integration with popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.
- Pros: Easy to set up and use, strong access control, built-in affiliate program, excellent reporting, and developer-friendly.
- Cons: Can be expensive for beginners, limited styling options without custom CSS.
- Pricing: Starts at $179.50 per year.
- Best For: Businesses and individuals who want a reliable and feature-rich membership plugin with a focus on ease of use.
2. LearnDash
LearnDash is a leading Learning Management System (LMS) plugin that seamlessly integrates with membership features. It’s ideal for creating and selling online courses, training programs, and other educational content.
- Key Features: Course creation tools, advanced quizzing options, lesson timers, user progress tracking, certificate generation, membership levels for course access, and integration with various marketing tools.
- Pros: Powerful LMS features, seamless integration with membership functionality, flexible access control, and excellent for creating and selling online courses.
- Cons: Can be complex to set up for beginners, requires a separate membership plugin for advanced features beyond course access.
- Pricing: Starts at $199 per year.
- Best For: Online course creators, educators, and businesses that want to offer membership-based learning programs.
3. Restrict Content Pro
Restrict Content Pro is a lightweight and powerful membership plugin developed by the creators of Easy Digital Downloads. It offers a clean interface and a strong focus on content restriction and subscription management.
- Key Features: Unlimited membership levels, content restriction options, coupon codes, discount codes, detailed reporting, email integration, and integration with popular payment gateways.
- Pros: Lightweight and fast, easy to use, developer-friendly, strong content restriction options, and good customer support.
- Cons: Lacks some advanced features found in more comprehensive plugins, limited styling options.
- Pricing: Starts at $99 per year.
- Best For: Bloggers, small businesses, and developers who want a simple and efficient membership plugin with a focus on content restriction.
4. Paid Memberships Pro
Paid Memberships Pro is a free WordPress membership plugin with a wide range of features and add-ons. It’s a popular choice for those looking for a free or low-cost solution with the option to extend functionality with paid add-ons.
- Key Features: Unlimited membership levels, flexible pricing options, content restriction, member management, discount codes, email integration, and a large library of free and paid add-ons.
- Pros: Free core plugin with a wide range of features, flexible membership options, large community support, and extensive add-on library.
- Cons: Can be overwhelming for beginners due to the large number of options, some advanced features require paid add-ons.
- Pricing: Free core plugin, paid add-ons start at $247 per year for a Plus membership.
- Best For: Users who want a free or low-cost membership solution with the option to extend functionality with add-ons, and those who appreciate a large community support base.
5. WooCommerce Memberships
WooCommerce Memberships seamlessly integrates membership features with the popular WooCommerce e-commerce platform. It allows you to sell membership products, offer member discounts, and restrict access to products and content based on membership status.
- Key Features: Sell membership products, offer member discounts, restrict product access, offer members-only shipping options, integrate with WooCommerce Subscriptions, and drip content based on membership status.
- Pros: Seamless integration with WooCommerce, flexible membership options, powerful access control, and excellent for selling membership products.
- Cons: Requires WooCommerce, can be complex to set up, and some advanced features require additional WooCommerce extensions.
- Pricing: $199 per year.
- Best For: E-commerce businesses that want to integrate membership features with their existing WooCommerce store.
6. WishList Member
WishList Member is a long-standing and reliable membership plugin known for its flexibility and integration with various email marketing services and payment gateways.
- Key Features: Unlimited membership levels, sequential content delivery, shopping cart integration, video tutorials, email marketing integration, and integration with popular payment gateways.
- Pros: Flexible membership options, strong integration with various services, secure content protection, and easy to use.
- Cons: Outdated interface, lacks some modern features, and can be expensive for multiple site licenses.
- Pricing: Starts at $197 for a single site license.
- Best For: Businesses and individuals who want a reliable and flexible membership plugin with strong integration capabilities, but are not overly concerned with modern design aesthetics.
7. S2Member
S2Member is a powerful and free WordPress membership plugin with a robust set of features and a strong focus on security. It offers both free and paid versions, with the paid versions unlocking advanced functionality.
- Key Features: Content restriction, membership levels, custom registration forms, PayPal integration, email marketing integration, and security features like brute force protection.
- Pros: Free core plugin with a generous set of features, strong security, developer-friendly, and integrates well with PayPal.
- Cons: Can be complex to set up, requires coding knowledge for advanced customization, and the free version has limitations.
- Pricing: Free core plugin, paid versions start at $89 for a single-site license.
- Best For: Developers and users who want a free and powerful membership plugin with strong security features and are comfortable with some coding.
8. ARMember
ARMember is a comprehensive membership plugin with a focus on user experience and advanced features like social login and drip content.
- Key Features: Unlimited membership levels, content restriction, drip content, social login, email marketing integration, coupon codes, and a user-friendly interface.
- Pros: User-friendly interface, advanced features like social login and drip content, strong integration with various services, and flexible membership options.
- Cons: Can be expensive, and some users find the interface overwhelming due to the number of options.
- Pricing: Starts at $129 for a lifetime license.
- Best For: Businesses and individuals who want a user-friendly membership plugin with advanced features and are willing to pay a premium price.
9. MemberMouse
MemberMouse is a powerful and feature-rich membership plugin designed for serious online businesses. It focuses on marketing automation, customer management, and advanced analytics.
- Key Features: Content protection, membership levels, subscription management, marketing automation, affiliate program integration, customer management, and detailed analytics.
- Pros: Powerful marketing automation features, excellent customer management tools, detailed analytics, and flexible membership options.
- Cons: Expensive, complex to set up, and requires a significant learning curve.
- Pricing: Starts at $29 per month.
- Best For: Established online businesses that need a powerful membership plugin with advanced marketing automation and customer management features.
10. SureMembers
SureMembers is a relatively new but promising membership plugin focused on simplicity and ease of use. It integrates seamlessly with page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder.
- Key Features: Content restriction, membership levels, drip content, integration with page builders, easy setup, and membership cards.
- Pros: Simple and easy to use, seamless integration with page builders, clean interface, and affordable pricing.
- Cons: Lacks some advanced features found in more established plugins, and has a smaller community support base.
- Pricing: Starts at $69 per year.
- Best For: Beginners and users who want a simple and easy-to-use membership plugin that integrates well with page builders.
11. WP-Members
WP-Members is a lightweight and customizable membership plugin that focuses on restricting access to content and requiring registration for access. It’s a good option for those who want a simple and straightforward solution.
- Key Features: Content restriction, user registration, custom registration fields, login forms, and email notifications.
- Pros: Lightweight and fast, easy to use, customizable, and free core plugin.
- Cons: Lacks some advanced features, requires coding knowledge for advanced customization, and limited support.
- Pricing: Free core plugin, paid extensions available.
- Best For: Bloggers and small businesses who want a simple and free membership plugin with basic content restriction features and are comfortable with some coding.
12. Simple Membership
Simple Membership is a free and easy-to-use membership plugin that allows you to protect your posts and pages so that only your members can access the content.
- Key Features: Content protection, unlimited membership levels, one-click member registration, payment button integrations, and easy to set up.
- Pros: Easy to set up, simple interface, free, and great for basic membership sites.
- Cons: Limited features, basic design, and not ideal for complex membership structures.
- Pricing: Free
- Best For: Those looking for a simple, free solution to protect content with basic membership functionality.
13. ProfilePress (formerly WP User Frontend)
ProfilePress is a versatile plugin offering membership features, user profile management, and frontend posting capabilities. It provides a comprehensive solution for building community-driven websites.
- Key Features: Content restriction, membership subscriptions, custom profile fields, frontend post submission, social login, and user directories.
- Pros: Feature-rich, versatile, customizable, and includes frontend functionality.
- Cons: Can be complex to set up and requires learning the various features, some features require premium add-ons.
- Pricing: Free version available, premium plans starting at $79 per year.
- Best For: Those looking for a complete solution for managing users, profiles, and content with membership features.
14. Ultimate Member
Ultimate Member is a free and popular WordPress membership plugin focused on building online communities with user profiles, member directories, and social features.
- Key Features: User profiles, member directories, custom registration forms, content restriction, social login, friend requests, and private messaging.
- Pros: Free core plugin, easy to use, focuses on community building, and offers a wide range of extensions.
- Cons: Lacks some advanced membership features in the core plugin, and requires paid extensions for advanced functionality.
- Pricing: Free core plugin, paid extensions available.
- Best For: Building online communities with user profiles, member directories, and social features, and those who want a free and easy-to-use plugin.