9 Best MemberPress Alternatives in 2026 (Compared)

MemberPress is one of the best-known WordPress membership plugins, but it isn't the right choice for everyone.

Its entry-level Launch plan currently costs $199.50 for the first year, renews at $399/year, and charges a 4.9% transaction fee on successful payments. You'll also need to manage WordPress hosting, security, plugin updates, and any additional tools required for your course, community, or checkout setup.

The good news is that there are plenty of MemberPress alternatives in 2026.

Some keep you on WordPress but offer lower costs or a simpler membership setup. Others, such as Kourses, move your entire membership business onto a hosted platform where courses, community, checkout, hosting, and member management are handled for you. If you're still comparing the wider market, see our guide to the best membership platforms.

We've compared the best MemberPress alternatives by price, transaction fees, membership features, ease of use, and who each platform is actually best for.

Quick answer: Kourses is our top choice if you want to move away from WordPress and manage your courses, memberships, community, and checkout in one hosted platform. If you want to remain on WordPress, Paid Memberships Pro, Kadence Memberships, SureMembers, and OptimizeMentor are among the strongest options.

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.

There are several reasons why creators look for MemberPress alternatives, despite MemberPress offering an impressive range of membership features.

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.

If the renewal cost or transaction fees are a concern, several of the MemberPress alternatives below offer lower starting prices, no platform transaction fees, or free plans.

Best for: Creators who want to replace MemberPress and WordPress with an all-in-one hosted platform

Kourses is one of the best MemberPress alternatives if you want to move away from WordPress entirely.

Where MemberPress adds membership functionality to an existing WordPress site, Kourses combines your courses, memberships, community, checkout, payments and content hosting in one hosted platform.

This means you don't need to manage WordPress hosting, plugin updates, security, compatibility issues or multiple third-party tools just to run your membership business.

Kourses is particularly well suited to coaches, course creators, consultants and membership site owners who want a simpler setup without sacrificing sales and monetization features.

Kourses currently offers three plans:

Starter — $15/month: 100 members and one published product.
Pro — $59/month: 1,000 members and up to 10 published products.
Unlimited — $99/month: Unlimited members and unlimited products.

Every plan includes 0% transaction fees, courses, communities or digital products, checkout with order bumps and one-click upsells, custom-domain support and a 14-day free trial.

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.

If Kajabi is one of the options you're considering, we've also compared the best Kajabi alternatives in more detail.

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 (owned by the same company behind MemberPress) 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.

You can also see our complete comparison of the best Mighty Networks alternatives.

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.

Considering Memberful as well? See our comparison of the best Memberful alternatives.

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.

If community is your main priority, see our full guide to the best BuddyBoss alternatives.

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

Paid Memberships Pro is one of the most direct MemberPress alternatives for WordPress users who want to create a membership site without moving to a hosted platform.

The plugin lets you create free and paid membership levels, restrict access to content, accept recurring payments, drip content over time, and manage members directly from your WordPress dashboard.

One of its biggest advantages over MemberPress is its free open-source version. This gives you access to the core membership platform without paying an annual licence fee, making Paid Memberships Pro particularly attractive for new or smaller membership sites.

Paid Memberships Pro offers a free self-hosted plan with no additional transaction fees. The Standard plan costs $49 per month or $499 per year and includes all premium add-ons and support for one website.

The fully managed Max plan starts from $99 per month or $999 per year and adds managed WordPress hosting, security, backups, transactional email, and additional support services.

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.