Follow Me On Twitter for more great technology stuff!Update: Some of these plugins have been updated since I wrote this but WishList is still at the top of my list. However, I’ll be revising this review before too long to update the others.
If you have an interest in starting a membership based website and don’t know where to begin the options can be daunting. I’ve been tasked with this a couple of times researched the options pretty thoroughly. All of the following options have one dependency, WordPress is the platform. Beyond that I was looking for flexibility, extensibility, a robust feature set and overall ease of use. While there are more options than what I’ve listed here, these were the WordPress membership plugins which kept coming to my attention and would likely come to yours while doing a search. If you know of more and have experience with them let us know in the comments.
#1. WishList Member: While a little pricey A total steal at $97 and definitely the best of breed among the reviewed plugins and if you are running a serious membership site it’s well worth the price. Additional features included strong member management, highly flexible membership levels, an import tool with template and broadcast e-mail/newsletter features. If you want all the bells and whistles fully integrated into your WordPress install this is the plugin for you. SPLURGE!
#2. WP-Member: A close second at $44.99 (converted from Euros) this plugin has a great feature set, good member management and protection for digital downloads which can be valuable if you are trying to protect downloads like whitepapers, WordPress themes or other downloadable content. Excellent buy at that price. If you don’t need/want the email integration and import tool or if digital downloads are a big thing for your site this is a good choice. GOOD BUY
#3. Memberwing: Very good plugin but a little less robust and usage is less intuitive than those mentioned above. Comes with a free version but you have to pay if you want the payment integration. If all you are doing is protecting content but not charging for it this could work well for you. The $79.95 price to get Paypal and membership automation seems steep compared to some of the plugins above particularly when those are pretty essential features for most membership sites. Honorable mention.
#4. WP Membersite: A decent plugin but a little light on features for $47 price tag.
#5. Synergy Software Group WP Membership: A sold basic plugin but I found it to be lacking in overall features, flexibility was acceptable but not exceptional. The prices is decent at $29.97.
#6. Suma: A good basic plugin with good support for multiple payment types but a little less robust and extremely hard to justify the $199 price tag given the other options.
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Thanks for mentioning MemberWing!
Working on improvements as we speak…
Just launched affiliate program few days ago.
Recently added free feature – First Click Free (as per Google suggested specs).
Adding Gradual Content release feature (also known as dripping content or bleeding content) within couple days. Lot more stuff coming….
Gleb,
MemberWing
Gleb – Keep up the good work and let us know when improvements and new features come out. The Gradual Content release sounds interesting.
*Publishers Note: Anirudh is expressing is disappointment specifically with the Memberwing Plugin*
This plugin does not do what they promise!
Seriously, If youre looking to buy a plugin for membership blogs this plugin does only the half of what they say on their site.
I purchased this plugin at $99 a few days ago, and here is what I discovered. I needed a plugin for membership blog and like everyone else I was blind sighted by the promises that I saw on this plugin website about USER SUBSCRIPTION AUTOMATION. Now they are dependent on PayPal for this feature. So, here is what they replied to me on my request:
I choose the 3rd option and did everything by books but heres what I found when testing it! When users Subscribe and checkout on PayPal its MANDATORY that they create a PayPal account unless they have one, fair enough and understood because PayPal is responsible for managing user subscriptions so it needs to keep a record of user information their subscription date etc. Seriously No offense, but I think this process should have been integrated into the plugin itself, which is not the case and here’s what I get in another reply from my support request:
Pretty comforting thought, now I have client who needs this system up and running before this guy pulls off his sleeves and finishes up with the 2checkout.com integration. Screw them! I can’t wait for that long and neither does my client, so here’s what I did I purchased another plugin hopefully which has all the promises they make!
IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO BUY THIS ILL-COOKED PLUGIN THEN DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. STAY AWAY AND TRY ANOTHER PLUGIN. THESE GUYS ARE PROBABLY LAZY AND NAIVE SINCE THEY HAVE TO DEPEND ON PAYPAL FOR SUCH FEATURES
Anirudh,
To be clear, you are disappointed with the Memberwing plugin correct? Not any of the others..
Anirukh, all your concerns were addressed,
I even implemented the feature that you asked for (2Checkout integration that supports recurring payments without force signups) and then gave you refund you requested.
If you still have any concerns – please contact me and they will be addressed and I do support free users as well.
I also want to add that digital download protection and digital content theft protection features are now implemented in MemberWing 4.
No more problems with link sharing and every membership site owner will have power to discover who is leaking your premium content on internet. These powerful features are now part of MemberWing 4 Professional.
Gleb
If you want to start a full-blown, full-featured membership site using WordPress, then you should definitely check out DigitalAccessPass.com (DAP).
- Ravi Jayagopal
Developer of DAP
Ravi- Looks interesting.
Interesting that your #1 and #2 choices are affiliate links that you get a cut from. Coincidence?
Doug, not coincidence but not subversive either. I don’t hide the fact that I use affiliate links sometimes and make a conscious effort to be transparent about doing so. I promote products that I believe in and won’t promote products I don’t.
Hopefully the fact that I make a little beer money off the effort I put into this site doesn’t bother anyone but if it does it’s easy enough to avoid the links.
To answer your question more directly with regard to #1 and #2, I didn’t rank them at the top so I could add affiliate links to them. I took an honest look at all of the plugins I reviewed and made my recommendation based on my best judgment and experience.
In particular I’ll stand firmly behind what Stu and Tracy have done at WishList, they built a helluva plugin that I use on many sites and have implemented for clients as well.
Best, Scott
Hi, I found your web site when i was searching Google for web sites related to this content. I must tell you, your site is good. I like the theme too, its pleasing. I don?t have the time now to fully read your web site but I have bookmarked it and I also signed up for your RSS feed. I will be back in a night or two. Thanks for an informative blog.
Ahmed, thank you! Those are very kind words! I really appreciate that. I’m glad you find it useful. I hope I can continue to do it justice!
How about the Justin Tadlock's membership Plugin?
I'm going to revisit this review soon and will definitely include Justin's plugin. It's a very good plugin that does a lot, but it doesn't have some of the features that some of the others have like delivering sequential content (at least at last check). Keep your eyes open for the update!
Dave, I've updated and would love to provide a discount code to my readers if you have something to offer. Just let me know.
thanks for the info. I am trying to figure out how integrate wishlist member with user generated content. http://drivingonlinesales.com/?p=387
I had the worse experience with digitalaccesspass.com (DAP). I found it to be very buggy, the developer Ravi claimed it was a wordpress theme issue, even though I use the 4th most popular WP theme according to the wordpress.org site. I won't even get into the support issue, just horrible. Looking for an alternative.
Jim,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'll likely include DAP in a forthcoming update of this post.
As I mentioned up top my #1 recommendation is WishList Member. This post is well over a year old and I continue to make WishList my #1 recommendation. I've used it now on several client sites as well as my own and it's held up very well. Further, their support is second to none. Highly recommend it.
Thanks for this update Scott. Good to know it is still your recommendation.
I think that it makes a person easier for understand. I like it.
I've been following WishList Member for a while but I need the sequential content drip feature, which they currently don't offer. I've recently been looking at MagicMembers.com and it seems promising. Support is very responsive to pre-sales questions anyway. Do you think you might review this plugin in the future?
Bill, I'm planning a new and much more comprehensive review of membership plugins in the near future so I'll be sure to include MagicMembers if I can. You can achieve dripping content with wishlist as well though through the utilization of membership levels. Just something to think about.
Thanks for the Information!
I got my answers through your Blog…
Gengis
http://Blog.GengisCoutou.com
Gengis, you are very welcome!
Hi Scott, do you think Wordpress is strong enough to handle a membership site with tens of thousands members or say an Answers.com type site? I am looking forward to hear back from you.
WordPress is absolutely strong enough to handle it, though I would offer a couple of things to consider. 1) Pick a VERY solid membership plugin (assuming you need one), as always I like WishList Member not only because it’s good but because they have phenomenal support and that might matter if your scale is that size. 2) Go with rock solid hosting, if you’re doing that much membership traffic a $5-$10/month hosting package will do you more harm than good.
Look at wpengine.com or some options with VPS.net. It’ll cost a little more but is well worth the stability. In addition, make sure your theme is well optimized and you should be fine.
WordPress itself will scale just fine, it’s the peripheral stuff that is more likely to get you into trouble. Good luck, what is your site?
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