Best MemberPress Alternatives: Which One Is Right for You?

If you are desperately looking for MemberPress alternatives, here is your solution. I know it is one of the most popular WordPress membership Plugins with robust features. While it may not align perfectly with every expectation or budget, it still offers value to many users. However, you should look out for other top WordPress membership plugins. 

If you are new to the field of membership website creation, you should know more about MemberPress and look at its alternatives side by side. This post will provide a comprehensive analysis of MemberPress and a detailed guide to the top alternatives that support a fully functional membership site creation. 

Why Do You Need to Look for MemberPress Alternatives? 

MemberPress is a premium WordPress plugin to build memberships. It has multiple features to manage your content, subscriptions, membership levels, payment gateways, and many more. However, there are certain limitations to this tool. 

1. Subscription Based Pricing Model: With MemberPress, you need to opt for a recurring annual subscription that starts at $179.50. This price too is for the most basic plan. Thus, annual payments at this rate cannot be budget-friendly for everyone. 
2. Learning Curve: The platform is user-friendly but requires a good amount of time for beginners to get the hang of the extensive features. Advanced functions like content dripping and third-party integrations become tricky. 
3. Limited Built-In Design Options: This WordPress membership payment plugin lacks advanced designing and customization options. You need to have a knowledge of custom CSS to make the look and feel changes along with the usage of other plugins. 
4. Cost of AddOns: Apart from the core features that you get with your chosen plan, you need to pay for add ons to extend some functionality. This has the ability to increase your overall membership site cost.

Now, you might be thinking that each tool will have something or the other missing. Then, how to make a decision? Firstly, you need to consider multiple business aspects like budget, core requirements, coding abilities, and long term goals. Apart from that, here are some of the factors that you must consider. 

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Membership Plugin

These factors for picking the best membership plugin WordPress are considered by us to come up with a well researched list of memberpress alternatives. Let us explore the key aspects of evaluation for a membership site builder. 

1. Ease of Use: The plugin you choose must be easy to install and configure. Its setup process should be smooth, intuitive, and user friendly. Additionally, having a dashboard will save a lot of time and effort to go from one menu to another. 
2. Flexibility for Customization: For a membership plugin, you must be able to create multiple membership levels as well as restrict your content as needed. Further, there must be options to create different types of plans, flexible payment methods, email marketing integrations, custom redirection, etc. 
3. Pricing Plans and Value for Money: The price point of a MemberPress alternative should fit your budget. Even if it has annual recurring plans, the price should be worth the package you get. Make sure that necessary addons for your business are a part of the primary price. 
4. Integration with Payment Gateways: A membership site requires multiple payment gateway integrations like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Razorpay, etc. to cater to a wide range of audience. Make sure you have the option to pick and choose a preferable gateway. 
5. Scalability and Features: The plugin should be able to support future scalability goals of your membership site idea. Advanced functionality, third party integrations, addons, and many more as per your vision should be a part of the deal. 
6. Support and Regular Updates: The best membership plugin WordPress is the one that is updated on a regular basis. Check out its support and documentation. Choose the one that has a robust and quick support system to address your issues in a jiffy. 

Our list of WordPress membership plugins has considered all these factors and come up with the following suggestions. You can easily choose any one of these Plugins and start building your dream membership business. 

Top 5 MemberPress Plugin Alternatives for 2025

ARMember – WordPress Membership & Subscription Plugin

ARMember is a fully functional membership plugin which is loved for its user-friendly setup and an extensive set of features. It comes with 56+ free and other premium addons along with 21+ global payment gateways. It is a perfect choice to start your membership site and scale it up gradually with time. 

Key Features:

• Four different types of membership plans viz. Free, Paid (finite), Paid (infinite), and Recurring Subscription. 
• Flexible and multiple payment installments can be set to suit different members. 
• Setup support for free trial or a paid trial with subscription plan type. 
• Powerful, plan wise content restriction and support for partial restriction.
• Built in form builder for registration, login, sign up, password change, etc. 
• Drip content feature to keep your members hooked along with partial dripping. 
• Robust addons like Proration, Social Community, Affiliates, Coupon Codes, Online Courses, myCred Gamification etc. for scaling your business effectively. 
• Fully functional WordPress membership free plugin with the ARMember Lite version. 

Pricing: ARMember standard plan starts at $69/year with support of all inbuilt addons and 56+ built-in addons.

Wishlist Member – The WordPress Subscription Plugin

Wishlist Member membership Plugin has extensive content dripping and email marketing tools. If you want to start an online course or a WordPress subscription based service, this tool is a great match. It provides support to create multiple membership levels and set up different payment gateways. 

Key Features: 

• It comes with integrations and payment tools, email optins, LMS, and page builders. 
• Content restriction settings that are powerful and easy to set up. 
• Offers free and paid trial setup. 
• Simple onboarding wizard for step by step setup. 
• Easily accessible dashboard for member updates and stats. 

Pricing: The basic plan starts at $149.50/year with a select payment and email integrations. 

Ultimate Member for Building Online Communities

If you are planning to create an online community, the Ultimate Member Plugin provides great support. It helps with advanced user profile management. It also provides the facility to share member private content. For community focused websites wanting to establish internal member communication, this plugin provides a good solution. 

Key Features

• Custom user profiles and front-end registration forms for easy signups. 
• Allow user bio, user cover photo, display name, and user info for complete user information. 
• Create detailed member directories with social icons, search options, search filters, etc. 
• Restrict access to your membership site based on location or page/post-wise. 
• Custom form fields with conditional logic, tooltips, star rating, image uploads, etc. 

Pricing: Here, the core plugin is available for free with an extension pass starting at $249/year. 

Paid Membership Pro for Paid Member Subscriptions

If you want to scale your membership site gradually and in a budget friendly way, Paid Membership Pro can be one of the top MemberPress alternatives. It connects with multiple themes, page builders, and third party plugins. 

Key Features:

• Provides a workable free version with paid extensions as needed.
• Multiple customizable membership levels with payment options. 
• Content restriction features for 28+ types of different website content.
• Customizable member dashboard along with user profiles. 
• Features like recurring billing, gift membership, discount, proration and pausing membership. 

Pricing: The core plugin is available for free with 29 addons. To upgrade, the standard plan starts at $174/year. 

SureMembers for a Simple Membership Plugin WordPress

Create a WordPress membership site with custom restriction rules, drip content, and paywalled access using one of the powerful memberpress alternatives. This membership plugin supports multiple business types and niches with its extensive set of features. 

Key Features 

• Flexible content access rules with dripping feature. 
• Change menu visibility rules based on user roles. 
• Create an access group for member management. 
• Monetize content by selecting which ones to put behind a paywall. 

Pricing: SureMember’s starter pack is available at $69/year which is suitable for bloggers and individuals. 

Comparison Table of MemberPress Alternatives

If you are in a hurry, here’s a side by side comparison of each MemberPress alternative researched and listed by us. 

Are You Ready to Use MemberPress Alternatives?

There are multiple WordPress membership profile plugins that act as the best MemberPress alternatives. You get a feature rich option at lower charges than MemberPress. Thus, it is advisable to choose a tool that supports your long term goals and is under a budget set out by you. Have you explored any of these platforms? Then, let us know what worked well for you!