WordPress has a huge library of plugins. And it can get overwhelming to go through them all.
In this article, we’ve covered the best free WordPress plugin for membership site. We’ve also covered some alternatives and FAQs.
So if you’re wondering how to set up a membership site with WordPress, then you’ll find this article helpful.
Best Free WordPress Plugin For Membership Site
Before installing a plugin, you may want to test the waters first. We have compiled a list of some of the best free and freemium WordPress membership plugins worth checking out.
1. Ultimate Member
Plugin Stats
- Downloads: Over 200,000
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Notable Features: Drag-and-drop form builder, member directories, and developer-friendly workspace
- Price: Freemium
Ultimate Member is a robust WordPress membership plugin with extensive features. It lets you create a personalized member registration and login page using conditional logic for its fields, easing the entire process for you and your members.
Besides taking care of the membership system, the plugin also provides forum and job board functionality via JobsBoardWP and ForumWP integration. Both of these extensions make it easier to expand your membership site’s functionality and the ways it can benefit your users.
Other free add-ons include Google reCAPTCHA and a Terms and Conditions (T&C) agreement – useful for reducing spam and protecting the rights of all parties involved.
Since this is a freemium membership plugin, you can upgrade to the Extensions Pass plan for $249/year to get premium features like real-time notifications, a private messaging system, and member bookmarks.
Alternatively, you can opt for the Extensions and Theme Pass plan for $299/year and gain the use of the Ultimate Member’s theme to create an even better experience. This theme is compatible with Beaver Builder and Elementor page builders, and it works perfectly on popular browsers and mobile devices.
This plugin is ideal for small to medium-scale websites that want to try out how a membership system can benefit them. Its free version is already packed with all the essential features, providing you with great value without committing to a payment plan.
2. ARMember
Plugin Stats
- Downloads: Over 5,000
- Rating: 4/5
- Notable Features: Unlimited membership levels, email notifications, and membership setup wizard
- Price: Freemium
If you’re planning to have multiple membership levels on your site, ARMember will help you manage them. This WordPress membership plugin lets you create unlimited membership levels with a trial period and multiple payment cycles, giving newcomers the chance to see what you have to offer before committing.
Additionally, ARMember supports dripping content out to members based on a set schedule. You can also earn revenue from guests using the content restriction and pay-per-post features, allowing you to monetize posts or courses outside your subscription plans.
The plugin supports payment gateway integrations with PayPal, Authorize.net, and Stripe. There’s also an option to receive payment via local gateways provided by WooCommerce.
Usability-wise, ARMember provides an easy member management system that lets you manage users’ membership status hassle-free. The membership setup wizard also eases newcomers’ registration process, creating an excellent experience from the get-go.
Furthermore, the plugin’s built-in security features are no less extensive than its membership functionality. All installations come with brute force login protection, CAPTCHA anti-spam mechanism, and site access restrictions.
While ARMember is free and open-source, buying its single-site license for a one-time payment of $49 will let you use premium features, like social media configurations, multiple memberships subscription, and developer API.
ARMember is a strong contender for the best WordPress membership plugin for users who want to build a full-fledged membership site but don’t have a big budget to spend.
3. Simple Membership
Plugin Stats
- Downloads: Over 40,000
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Notable Features: Unlimited member access levels, multiple payment gateways, and teaser campaigns
- Price: Free
True to its name, Simple Membership is an easy-to-use membership plugin for WordPress sites packed with essential features and a user-friendly interface. Newbies who don’t have experience in web development can still build a membership site hassle-free.
This membership site plugin can help you create unlimited subscription levels for free and paid membership plans. Simple Membership’s billing features are also flexible, allowing you to sell digital content like online courses for a one-time price or a recurring payment.
To further ease the registration process, Simple Membership provides email confirmation features to activate free memberships. As for the paid ones, the plugin gives you access to the membership payments log, where you can monitor all purchases made by your members.
While this plugin is made to be beginner-friendly, experienced web developers can still utilize it to their needs. The plugin comes with a developer API and various shortcodes to add additional functions, including adding and customizing a member login widget and content protection messages.
Other notable features include the WordPress theme compatibility, member filter, translation-ready, and custom post types protection. You can also manually approve membership registrations and import WordPress users as members.
All in all, Simple Membership is a cost-effective option for users who want to start monetizing their WordPress website using the membership system.
4. WP Private Content Plus
Plugin Stats
- Downloads: Over 5,300
- Rating: 3.5/5
- Notable Features: Multiple content restriction types, global post and page protection, and password-based global site protection
- Price: Freemium
WP Private Content Plus is an all-in-one solution for protecting your site content. This WordPress membership plugin has a robust content restriction feature, allowing you to limit users’ access to specific posts, pages, custom post types based on their login status and user role.
With the support of the User Profiles Made Easy WordPress plugin, you’re able to sell exclusive content through a personalized frontend interface. The plugin also takes care of your member profile page creations and provides a member search feature with multiple filters.
WP Private Content Plus’s free version comes with WooCommerce integration. If you want to build a members-only store, the plugin can restrict access to certain products for some members.
Consider purchasing one of the WP Pro Content Pro licenses for $69–$179/year for a more comfortable payment collection. Besides accepting multiple payment options supported by WooCommerce, the premium version allows you to create and manage unlimited free and premium membership levels.
Creating a membership site is made even easier with the private page dashboard feature, which lets you communicate privately and share files directly with a user. Other premium features include user group management and content restriction, Mailchimp email marketing integration, and premium support.
In short, WP Private Content Plus is more than capable of helping you build a professional WordPress membership site. Once you get the hang of this plugin, you can upgrade to WP Pro Content Pro for a better membership experience.
5. Restrict User Access
Plugin Stats
- Downloads: Over 290,000
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Notable Features: Unlimited membership levels, drip content, and WordPress user access control synchronization
- Price: Free
Restrict User Access is another excellent free WordPress membership plugin that is no less feature-rick than paid plugins. It has versatile user restriction features that allow you to create an unlimited number of access levels and redirect unauthorized users to a page or a custom link.
Alternatively, you can tease exclusive content and create custom messages for non-members to encourage subscriptions. Retaining members is also easier with the drip content feature, allowing you to release content periodically for new members.
If you already use custom roles for the site access control, the plugin lets you synchronize them with your subscription levels. You can control membership durations as well, making Restrict User Access perfect for selling online courses and other digital products.
Regardless of your installed plugins or themes, Restrict User Access will automatically support their taxonomies and custom post types. It also includes built-in support for popular WordPress plugins like bbPress, Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, and WPML.
While the plugin itself is free, you can expand its functionality by purchasing add-ons – prices range between $29–$79/year.
To summarize, this plugin is one of the best membership plugins for users who want to build a drip-feed membership site.
membership card wordpress plugin
How it Works
Allow members and users to view information about their Membership in a card-like format via the website or print. The card displays specific user and membership data as defined by shortcode attributes and can be extended with custom code.
- You can display one or more of the user’s membership levels on the card (v1.0+ is compatible with the Multiple Memberships Per User Add On).
- Info on the card can be customized by shortcode attributes (documented below).
- You can add an icon or logo to the card for personalization.
- The card can display a scannable QR Code, which you can update via a filter to adjust what data is returned by the QR code.
- Members will see a link to view their Membership Card from the “Member Links” section of the Membership Account page.
- Users will see a link to view their Membership Card on the “Edit Profile” page.
Installation
You must have the Paid Memberships Pro plugin installed and activated with a valid license type to use this Add On.
- Navigate to Memberships > Add Ons in the WordPress admin.
- Locate the Add On and click “Install Now”.
- To install this plugin manually, download the .zip file above, then upload the compressed directory via the Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin screen in the WordPress admin.
- Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in the WordPress admin.
Create a page and add the shortcode pmpro_membership_card.
Conclusion
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