A free WordPress membership plugin is used to convert a simple website into a membership site. It is used to create memberships and allows the website members to access the restricted content and other premium functionalities of a website.
You can also run a membership site with WordPress by using free WordPress membership plugins, as there are several ones available. You can install a free plugin to make your WordPress website a fully functional membership website.
However, you can never say that one plugin is better than the rest. It completely depends on the functionalities you are looking for. To assist you, we have rounded up the 6+ best free WordPress membership plugins in this article, so that you can start using them on your website today.
Membership plugin: Must-have features
It is important to understand that there are several factors that must be there in a free membership plugin. Such factors include:
- User-friendly interface – Before installing a membership plugin, make sure that it is simple to use.
- Thoroughly check the payment gateway options – Check the features and functionalities of the plugin thoroughly. Check the payment gateway features the plugin is offering such as Paypal, Stripe, Payment, or others.
- Check the compatibility – Check whether the membership plugin is compatible with the WordPress theme installed on your website.
- User-friendly interface – Before installing a membership plugin, make sure that it is simple to use.
- Thoroughly check the payment gateway options – Check the features and functionalities of the plugin thoroughly. Check the payment gateway features the plugin is offering such as PayPal, Stripe, Payment, or others.
- Check the compatibility – Check whether the membership plugin is compatible with the WordPress theme installed on your website.
Also, every membership website has different requirements, and the features of a plugin that you should consider must depend on the type of membership website you are building. Let’s explore a few types of membership sites and their requirements.
Different Types of WordPress Membership Websites
1. Online course websites – The membership websites that offer online courses or e-courses contain documents such as interactive projects and PDFs. For an online course website, you have to create memberships on the basis of services. Here, students/members pay a fixed amount to access the course documents or tutorials for a specific period of time, say six months or one year.
2. Product-based membership websites – These types of membership websites are created to send physical products directly to registered members on a recurring basis.
3. Online Forum websites – Forum-based websites comprise live chats, and articles. Such functionalities of a forum website are not accessible to new or unregistered users. To create a forum-based WordPress membership website, you have to make a login form to allow the new users to access the articles and other features of your website.
4. Fixed-term membership websites – Fixed-term membership websites are those where members can access the premium content for some time, and so on.
Apart from the above-mentioned information, it is also true that most of the free WordPress membership plugins in 2021 can help to create whatever you want. After extensive research, we’ve summed up the best 5+ free membership plugins for WordPress for you.
Best WordPress Membership Plugins for 2021
1. ProfileGrid Memberships
Number one on our list is ProfileGrid Memberships. It is an easy-to-use WordPress membership plugin available that offers several functionalities that you can integrate with your WordPress website. It will also help you convert your normal WordPress website into a powerful membership website. The best part is, you don’t require any coding skills.
Plugin Highlights:
- Easy to Use – To use the plugin on your WordPress website, simply download and install the plugin. Now, create a group and start adding members to it. After that, create membership levels, add a few products, and integrate payment gateways.
- Content Restriction – With this simple plugin, you get the authority of restricting the content of your website, depending on their membership status.
- Payment Gateways – You can easily integrate Stripe and PayPal payment gateways both on your website using ProfileGrid Memberships.
- Email Integration – You can easily integrate the ProfileGrid Memberships plugin with email marketing services such as MailChimp. You can use this feature to create a forum, send newsletters or bulk emails to the group members.
- Extra Features – ProfileGrid Memberships plugin also offer features like coupon generation, content dripping, members discount, Google map, detailed analytics, and more.
Cost:
- Core features – Available for free.
- Advanced features – $79 with a license of one website.
- Premium+ features $159 with unlimited sites license along with unlimited support
2. s2Member
Second on the list is s2Member. It is another popular WordPress membership plugin that is available for free with several features.
Plugin Highlights:
- Allow Easy Registrations: s2Member membership plugin allows free subscribers to register and create accounts for free.
- Email Marketing Integration: The plugin also integrates easily with popular email service providers such as GetResponse, Mailchimp, and AWeber.
- Content Restriction: With this plugin, you can easily restrict access to categories, posts, tags, pages, and more.
- Different Membership Levels: Using the free version of s2member, you can create four membership levels whereas, with the pro version, you can have access to create multiple levels.
Cost
- Core Version – Available for free.
- Pro version – $89 for 1 site license and to access additional features.
3. Simple Membership
As suggested by its name, ‘Simple Membership’ is a simple-to-use, flexible, and easy-to-use membership plugin with all the features in one package that you need for a membership site.
Plugin Highlights
- Free and paid memberships – It offers free/paid memberships, along with unlimited membership levels.
- Content Restriction – You can either hide the premium content, or you can show small teasers to prompt users to log in or register.
- Payment Gateway Options – Simple Membership works with PayPal only. But, with PayPal, you can accept any major credit or debit card. And, for most of us, this is all that we need.
- 20 Language translations – The membership plugin comes with 20 language translations, which makes a difference, especially when you want a non-English membership site, and more.
Cost
- Core Version – Available for free.
- Pro version – Available to access additional features.
4. Mini Membership
If you don’t need a complete package of a membership site solution and looking for a quick solution, then you should go with the Mini Membership plugin. If you don’t need anything beyond the basic locking of content restrictions for website members and non-members, this plugin is just for you.
Plugin Highlights:
- Quick solution for basic locking of content for non-members
Cost
- Core Version – Available for free.
- Pro version – Available to access additional features.
5. Restrict Content PRO
Next, on the list is Restrict content pro membership plugin. Use this plugin to quickly set up a membership site where your users can get distinct levels of membership such as Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The plugin allows getting exclusive access to drip content over time. This allows you to create an unlimited number of membership levels using the plugin and override user’s roles and their capabilities. To use this plugin, you don’t require any coding skills.
Plugin Highlights
- Offers unlimited access levels
- Allows to add membership durations
- Permits to unlock (drip) content for new members
- Hide navigation of menu items
- Redirect unauthorized users to a page or customized link
- Show content teasers to unauthorized users and show a custom message
Cost
- Core Version – Available for free.
- Pro version – Available to access additional features.
Conclusion
WordPress membership plugins come with various benefits especially when you are looking to create a new WordPress membership website. After collating the data of the 5 best free membership plugins, we’ve concluded that ProfileGrid is one of the most comprehensive solution. Not only, it provides various functionalities such as multiple payment gateway options, email integration services, content restriction feature, but also helps to add advanced forms to your membership website, and more.
