8 MemberPress Alternatives For Your Membership Site

Seeking MemberPress alternatives? Compare top platforms on features, pricing, and ease-of-use to find the ideal membership solution for your needs.

If you are thinking about creating a membership website using the WordPress CMS (content management system), there is a good chance that you have heard about MemberPress.

It is one of the most popular WordPress membership plugins, with thousands of users over the years who have earned over $1 billion.

The platform’s popularity speaks for itself, and it's a great tool. However, it has its flaws - it relies on paid third-party add-ons for some key features and can be a bit bloated for the needs of some users.

In this article, we will explore the core features and weaknesses of the platform and highlight eight MemberPress alternatives offering unique or specialized features that may be more suitable for your needs.

MemeberPress is an all-in-one WordPress membership site plugin that gives you the features you need to sell access to your gated online communities, online courses, digital downloads, and coaching programs.

Blair Williams is the creative force behind the platform, and it was launched in 2013 to help content creators effectively monetize their membership site business. 

MemberPress makes it easy to set up membership sites, manage access to your content, and receive subscription payments securely. 

The platform comes with a ReadyLaunch wizard that will guide you through customizing the pre-designed membership templates to suit your membership site's needs.

Access to your content can be controlled using MemberPress paywall rules. You can set membership levels and decide whether to drip-feed your content to boost recurring revenues or release everything at once.

It also lets you set expiration dates for your content to generate a sense of urgency among your members.

The drawbacks highlighted below help to show why, despite its suite of impressive features, Memberpress may not be the best solution for many content creators.

Pricing starts from $359 per year, but it is currently discounted at $179.50/Yr as part of a promotional campaign. There is also a 14-day 100% money-back guarantee.

Kourses is a membership platform lets you create branded membership portals for selling and delivering access to your online courses and educational content. 

Kourses focuses on handling the very core functionality of what a course-based membership site needs: course creation, content hosting, access control, community building, and member retention.

It provides you with a powerful LMS platform for creating your courses and superfast video hosting for storing your content. You have all the tools you need to create different membership levels and schedule access to course lessons.

The platform was built from the ground up to prioritize community-building—an essential ingredient for creating a successful membership site. It lets you create course hubs for stand-alone courses with features like lesson commenting to help build engagement. 

Each hub serves as a hangout for students of that course, and there is a churn rate detection tool to help you quickly identify and reach out to members who are losing interest.

The platform is currently in closed early access. Still, you can register as an early adopter to gain access to premium features as they are released at no extra cost.

If you are planning to sell courses, digital downloads, or coaching programs on a WordPress-based site, OptimizeMentor is a WordPress plugin that lets you create, deliver, and control access to your content in a gated membership site. 

The plugin is part of the OptimizePress suite, launched in 2010 as the first WordPress landing page builder, and is the brainchild of James Dyson.

OptimizeMentor provides you with pre-designed, conversion-optimized membership templates and a drag-and-drop builder that you can use to set up your membership site.
Each template is a full-blown membership platform with a membership homepage, course homepage, and lesson module pages.

The plugin integrates seamlessly with OptimizeCheckouts, which is used to set up recurring subscriptions, accept payments, and drive sales with upsells, order bumps, and coupons.

Pricing includes the entire OptimizePress suite and starts from $179 per year, but it’s currently discounted to $129/Yr due to an ongoing promo program. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Kajabi is an all-in-one content creation platform geared towards maximizing the marketing reach and revenues of the content creator.

It is a great membership platform for anyone interested in using an aggressive email marketing strategy to attract members and build a personal brand around their membership site. 

Kajabi lets you create beautiful product pages for your branded courses, podcasts, and coaching programs.

To attract customers, you can create landing pages and sales funnels and run email marketing campaigns.

There is a 14-day free trial period, and pricing starts from $149 per month.

If you need an all-in-one WordPress membership plugin that gives you robust sales tools and supports course creation, coaching, and community building, AccessAlly lets you do all that on WordPress and also gives you the tools to run your own affiliate program. 

The platform integrates with popular email marketing software apps and provides you with features like percentage-based coupons, 1-click upsells, and order bumps to help you sell more products.

Its built-in affiliate marketing plugin lets you recruit affiliate marketers on your order forms who will help promote your membership site to new customers.

Pricing starts from $99 per month, and there is a 60-day money-back guarantee.

MightyNetworks lets you create online spaces with actively engaged communities.

It is a great platform for established influencers who need a social network with extensive content creation features under their complete control. 

The platform is centered around spaces, each of which includes a feed, chat section, events area, member directory, and online course page.

Members can find information about each other on profile pages and connect easily using built-in direct messaging tools.

Pricing starts from $39 per month, and it is free for two months with an annual purchase.

If you are looking to monetize your passion on your own terms or using a unique business model, Memberful gives you the tools to create any type of content and sell it using a subscription or payment plan that is most suitable for your target audience. 

The platform lets you offer digital downloads, podcasts, newsletters, and physical products.
You can set up a paywall and request periodic subscription fees, one-time payments, or offer group subscription plans.

You have complete access to all of the platform’s features in test mode, and there is a free Starter plan. Paid plans start from $25 per month.

The Uscreen.tv membership platform lets video content creators create white-label, Netflix-style websites that offer video catalogs and live-streamed events to an engaged community of members.

The platform is ideal for creators who want to set up their own on-demand video subscription service for their established or growing audience of fans. 

The platform provides video hosting and gives users community-building tools like member challenges, live chats, Q&As, and blast notifications that help build engaged audiences.

It also lets you sell your content via a subscription-based or PPV (pay-per-view) model.

The platform is free for 14 days, and pricing starts from $199 per month.

If you want to convert your WordPress-based site into an online forum with social networking features, the BuddyBoss theme lets you create Facebook-like online forums with public and private groups, activity feeds, direct messaging, and member profiles. 

BuddyBoss was created in 2010 by Michael Eisenwasser as a WordPress theme for building online forums. 

The platform lets you create as many groups as you want. Members can view posts on the community dashboard and add comments and likes. You can also organize live events for group members.

Pricing starts from $228 per year, and there is a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Each platform on our list has its own unique features, and the right membership site platform for you will depend on your peculiar needs and preferences. 

You will also need to decide whether you want a standalone platform or a WordPress-based solution.

Standalone platforms like Kourses offer video hosting, custom domains, and managed security, which you won’t get with a WordPress-based platform. 

However, WordPress membership plugins like OptimizeMentor compensate for that by giving you access to WordPress’ massive ecosystem of plugins that offer any additional functionality you may want on your membership site.

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