MemberPress vs Paid Memberships Pro: These two stand out as top contenders among WordPress membership plugins, offering powerful features for managing memberships and subscriptions.
In this comparison, we’ll explore their key differences in features, pricing, and usability to help you decide which is the better fit for your website.
Have you tried the User Registration plugin? It combines user registration, profiles, and member management in one versatile solution, often surpassing MemberPress or Paid Memberships Pro.
MemberPress vs Paid Memberships Pro At a Glance
Before we start comparing these two membership plugins, let’s have a quick glance:
MemberPress
MemberPress is a premium membership plugin designed to help creators, educators, and businesses easily monetize their websites.
It enables you to build membership sites, sell online courses, offer digital downloads, and control access to your content—all while securely accepting payments via credit cards and digital wallets.
Paid Memberships Pro
Paid Memberships Pro is a freemium membership plugin that offers a robust solution for setting up your unique membership program.
It’s flexible for managing members with features like content restriction, recurring payments, custom profile fields, and more.
Plans and Pricing
Memberpress is a premium plugin, while Paid Memberships Pro offers free and premium versions. Let’s look at their pricing differences.
MemberPress
MemberPress offers three flexible pricing plans backed by their risk-free 14-day money-back guarantee.
Plans | MemberPress | Benefit |
---|---|---|
Basic | $179.50/year | 1 site license Basic LMS features and Membership features Standard Support |
Plus | $299.50/year | 2 sites license Standard LMS and membership features Priority Support |
Pro | $399.50/year | 3 sites licenses Premium LMS and membership features Premium Support |
Paid Memberships Pro
Paid Memberships Pro has a free plan that gives you basic features with free add-ons.
As you upgrade to their higher plans, you’ll get additional add-ons, features, and site licenses for up to 50 sites. It also offers a 100-day money-back guarantee.
Plans | Paid Memberships Pro | Benefit |
---|---|---|
Free | $0 | Entire plugin with 29 free addons |
Standard | $174/year | 50+ Sites Phone Support Other Plus + Enterprise features |
Plus | $299/year | 2 sites license Priority support 30 Plus Addons Other plus + Standard features |
Enterprise | $5000/year | 50+ Sites Phone Support Other Plus + Enterprise features |
Paid Memberships Pro wins in case of pricing due to its free entry point, competitive pricing, extensive add-ons, and scalability for agencies and large organizations.
What’s more interesting is that User Registration also has a free plan, while the premium version starts at just $69.10/year. That’s a huge difference!!
Top Features: MemberPress vs Paid Memberships Pro
Let’s compare the top features that are critical for membership plugins:
Ease of Use
After installing each plugin, a unique setup wizard guides you through the initial configuration process.
The setup wizard of Paid Memberships Pro helps you configure your site, payment gateways, membership levels, and advanced settings.
MemberPress’s setup wizard covers basic settings and emphasizes configuring content security to protect your membership site effectively.
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro |
---|---|---|
Setup Process | Quick & Easy to Setup | Detailed Process |
User Interface | Intuitive Dashboard & Easy Navigation | Comprehensive, Can Make New Users Easy |
Both the plugin has easy user interface and that guides you through the setup process.
Members Management
Membership plugin is not only about registering members but also serving them effectively. Assigning user roles and growing the membership base becomes difficult without robust member management.
Let’s look at the features offered by both the plugin.
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro |
---|---|---|
Unlimited Levels | ✅ | ✅ |
User Roles & Permissions | ✅ | ✅ |
Member Profiles | ✅ | ✅ |
Reporting Tools | ✅ (Advanced) | ✅ (Basic) |
Member Email Communication | ✅ | ✅ |
Here, MemberPress and Paid Membership Pro seems to be quite competitive offering the required member management features.
Content Protection
Content protection is the core foundation of any membership business – if you can’t effectively control who sees what content, there’s no point in having a membership site at all.
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro |
---|---|---|
Access Control Levels | ✅ | ✅ |
Custom Post Types | ✅ | ✅ |
Content Drip | ✅ | ✅ Limited |
Post/Page Restriction | ✅ | ✅ |
MemberPress has more robust content rules and protection. On the other hand, Paid Memberships Pro has basic protection with expandable features.
Note: Know more about content restriction and how it works.
Admin Capabilities
For a smooth, secure experience, admins must have full control over user approvals, memberships, and content.
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro |
---|---|---|
Member Listing | ✅ | ✅ |
Sales Report | ✅ | ✅ |
Signup & Cancellation | ✅ | ✅ |
Order Management | ✅ | ✅ |
It’s a tie for MemberPress vs Paid Memberships Pro in case of admin capabilities.
Member Experience
Member Experience features shape how your users interact with and navigate through your membership site, directly influencing their satisfaction and likelihood of staying subscribed.
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro |
---|---|---|
Login and Password Reset | ✅ | ✅ |
User Profile | ✅ | ✅ |
Account Dashboard | ✅ | ✅ |
Limit Post Views | ✅ | ✅ |
Social Login | ❌ | ✅ |
Paid Memberships Pro offers better user convenience with social login integration, reducing registration hassle.
Integration Capabilities
Let’s look at the other integration capabilities for the plugins:
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro |
---|---|---|
LMS Features | ✅ | ❌ |
Email Marketing | ✅ | ✅ |
WooCommerce | ✅ | ✅ |
Affiliate Systems | ✅ (Built-in) | ✅ (Add-on) |
Both plugins cover the essentials when it comes to integrating other features or addons. But the LMS features make MemberPress the winner.
Payment
Both MemberPress and Paid Memberships Pro offer an extensive set of payment gateways.
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro |
---|---|---|
Supported Gateways | Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Stripe, Authorize.net, Cash App, and Integration with other payment platforms. | PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, Braintree, Payfast, Paystack, TakBull, and Integration with other payment platforms. |
Recurring Payments | ✅ | ✅ |
Discount or Invite Codes | ✅ | ✅ |
Trial Membership | ✅ | ✅ |
Again, it’s a tie for the plugins in case of payment.
Support and Documentation
Both MemberPress and Paid Memberships Pro offer similar core support features.
Meanwhile, the Paid Memberships Pro’s Slack community indicates a more developer-focused, professional environment where technical issues can be discussed more effectively.
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro |
---|---|---|
Support Ticket | ✅ | ✅ |
Documentation | ✅ | ✅ |
Live Chat | ❌ | ❌ |
Video Tutorials | ✅ | ✅ |
Community | ❌ | Slack Community |
Lack of live chat support is a significant drawback, especially for urgent issues. Both rely heavily on ticket-based support which can mean slower response times. In case of support, User Registration plugin is ahead by a great margin, which also offers live chat support.
Before You Make a Decision
The decision on the best membership plugin should also be considered based on various aspects like search engine visibility controls, user data privacy, backup and restore, and more.
Hence, choose MemberPress if you need a built-in LMS feature with robust content protection. You can go with Paid Memberships Pro for the free start and developer-friendly option.
If you want to get the best overall value and modern features, the best option is User Registration Pro without any doubt.
Not convinced yet? Dive into this comparison table to see how these three plugins stack against each other.
Features | MemberPress | Paid Memberships Pro | User Registration |
---|---|---|---|
Ease of Use | 4.5⭐ | 4.5⭐ | 5⭐ |
Members Management | 4.5⭐ | 4.5⭐ | 4.5⭐ |
Content Protection | 5⭐ | 4.5⭐ | 5⭐ |
Admin Capabilities | 4.5⭐ | 4.5⭐ | 5⭐ |
Member Experience | 4.5⭐ | 5⭐ | 5⭐ |
Integration Capabilities | 5⭐ | 4.5⭐ | 5⭐ |
Payment | 5⭐ | 5⭐ | 5⭐ |
Support and Documentation | 4⭐ | 4⭐ | 4.5⭐ |
Pricing | 4⭐ | 4.5⭐ | 5⭐ |
Want to see User Registration in action? Give it a try with its free demo—see the powerful feature and member registration experience yourself.