Best WordPress Membership Plugins for Building Subscription-Based Sites

Today, I’ll show you the highest-rated and best WordPress membership plugins that you need. Just pick up the best one for your project.

If you are running a membership website using WordPress or want to create a new one, then you already know that you need to install a good plugin. That protects your site, and makes it better than your competitors. There are thousands of tools to use, but a few ones will be your best choice.

The below list of plugins is used in WordPress membership websites to add extra functionality or to build a complete membership website, without any coding knowledge. Not all of these plugins can solve your problems, and help you in your business.

Top Membership WordPress Plugins

Ultimate Membership Pro (Number 1 selling WordPress plugin)

Ultimate Membership Pro is the most downloaded WordPress Membership plugin, it has more than 20.000 downloads already and that’s also a sign of trust and usability. Unlike other plugins for WordPress membership sites, this one does not engage you on a monthly basis or year, you pay for it once and you use it forever.

Ultimate Membership Pro: WordPress Membership Plugin

Unlike Woocommerce membership which is a very expensive solution for membership sites using Woocommerce, this tool works better and offers more options. In addition, there is always the Woocommerce plugin that anyone can install on WordPress and sell his digital products or services. Moreover, there is integration with Easy Digital Download and more.

2. InstaMember

This is another WordPress paid membership plugin. It’s a complete website building tool that lets you drag and drop content on the page directly. There is no need to save the changes and preview the site. All things happen on the same page and the plugin comes with the powerful visual builder tool that no one else offers for WordPress.

If you want to create your own membership site without coding, but you want the best tool, then, I recommend this WordPress paid subscription plugin that will amaze you, with its features and functions.

This is the only membership theme plugin for WordPress that can be used by beginners and advanced users at the same time. The plugin area itself is well designed.

2. WishList Member

This is one of the best membership plugins for WordPress sites that need an advanced management system with options and settings. However, it’s easy to use and secure to protect your business. Lots of sites are using this premium tool, and they have great designs and many payment systems, integrated directly.

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3. Icha plugin

Best WordPress Membership Plugins

This is a good WordPress subscription plugin that will secure your website with maximum settings, and give your members a good-looking login page that you can’t find anywhere else. The Incha plugin includes special features such as, sending professional emails through the contact function, password recovery at the securing level, and many other settings that you can use.

Your member will get a detailed real-time strong password guide to help them to select their passwords. At the same time, you will protect your site from risks such as multiple failed login which is, in general, an attempt to hack and bypass the login page.

This professional plugin is the best solution to secure and make your login page professional and better than other sites.

4. UserPro: User Profiles with Social Login (not available)

membership plugins

UserPro is not a regular WordPress membership plugin, all you can imagine like advanced member management and login are included on it. You can allow your members to log in with their emails or simply with their social profiles such as Twitter and Facebook. This is a very important option that you can’t find in other plugins.

We all know that logging in with a simple click-through on Facebook is better than using email and password. Think about your users and give them an option like this to choose your site from the others.

This is also a WordPress member directory plugin that’s fully integrated with WooCommerce. So, you can manage all your site with simple clicks, at the same time, you get the MailChimp integration to send newsletters to your members.

You can also add custom user avatars and set the verified accounts with a symbol. These are a few of the full features of this professional plugin.

5. WordPress IP Banner

The WordPress IP banner is a plugin that lets you ban any user with its IP address. Sometimes, websites get thousands of failed login attempts from people who want to access your site. If you think that you get the same user that plays with your login page, then you can exclude it definitely or permanently from the site, and send it to another URL of your choice.

Using a free WordPress membership plugin should cut the cost of building such powerful websites, and of course, when we talk about security, it’s always recommended to install a security plugin for your site.

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6. Private Content – Multilevel Content Plugin

Private content is another tool to restrict pages or content for some user levels, like subscription plans or others. You can decide which membership type can open, or see that content with a few clicks. It’s an advanced content access plugin that you can use to offer exclusive member access to certain website areas and content.

7. User Profiles Made Easy

This is a user management plugin to create exclusive access for members and define their page’s look and features. This plugin supports Woocommerce functions. You get over 350 professional icons to customize your website and also allow your users to access your site in different languages.

How to choose a good WordPress membership plugin?

To build a fast and secure WordPress membership site, you need a trusted plugin first, it should be well coded, and maintained. That way, your site gets the plugin updated regularly and follows the latest Google guidelines when it comes to SEO and site schema markup.

Second, it’s better to choose the WordPress membership plugin that offers what you need in your business model, you don’t have to buy an expensive plugin just because it offers a long list of features. Instead, focus on the main membership options, plan packages, and payment options that your users need.

Next, combine that with what you want to do on the site and the way you list your members and their profiles, the same things apply to other areas that every paid membership site offers. Think about that, and make a list of all the features that you want to have in the membership plugin. That way, you’ll choose the right plugin to use and build a professional membership site on WordPress and sell your plans the way you want and make users happy.

Build your membership site with a WordPress membership plugin

WordPress comes with lots of features and thousands of plugins and themes to choose from. So, in terms of flexibility, it’s the best platform to build a membership website, that being said, WordPress is also a PHP and MySQL-based software that uses lots of server resources and consumes a lot of bandwidth. So, technically speaking, when someone wants to create a paid membership site using any of the above WordPress membership plugins, he’ll struggle with Memory limits, CPU, and web hosting limitations with shared servers.

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That’s why, I recommend choosing a VPS plan for your WordPress subscription-based sites, that way, the site gets dedicated RAM, resources and will work faster and better.

I’ve used lots of VPS providers and the only one that works well for membership sites is Liquid Web, it offers all that a membership WordPress platform needs, and best of all, the service is fully managed by expert web hosting engineers.

In the second place, WP Engine is also a recommended web host for membership sites using WordPress, there are dozens of premium themes from StudioPress, and security is always a priority with their hosting. So, by using one of the best web hosting providers fOr WordPress membership websites, users get faster page loading time, better user experience, and the site and get the best performances and higher levels of security which help to rank better in search engines.

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About Fathi Arfaoui

Fathi Arfaoui is a Physicist, Blogger and the founder of Trustiko.com. He shares Business, WordPress and Blogging tips to build a better blog and succeed online.

Disclosure: The recommendations on this page are my own based on my tests and analysis. We may earn a small commission from web hosts and other partners if you use my referral link to make a purchase. That’s what helps us to maintain the site and add fresh content, Thanks for your support.

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