15 Best Membership Website Builders and Platforms in 2023 [+Examples]

Creating a membership site is one of the easiest ways to increase user engagement. By allowing visitors to become members, you encourage them to continue engaging with your brand in exchange for perks, access to exclusive content, discounts, and more.

This all increases the likelihood of repeat visits to your site, longer session times, and more purchases. Memberships also add lines of revenue if you charge subscription fees.

Offering memberships may seem difficult, but you can easily create a membership site of your own, either with a dedicated membership website builder, a content management system that offers built-in membership functionality, or a plugin.

In this post, we’ll cover:

Membership websites are often conflated with subscription websites, but they offer different experiences. Let’s take a closer look at the key differences.

Membership vs. Subscription Websites

Membership and subscription websites are similar, but not the exact same: A membership website allows customers to become part of a group, while a subscription site lets customers pay to use a product or service for a set period of time. A subscription website is defined by the financial contract it requires. A membership site, on the other hand, can require a subscription, but it doesn’t need to.

You subscribe to Netflix, for example, paying a monthly fee in exchange for unlimited access to the TV and movies on their site.

On the other hand, you can become a member — or a “Beauty Insider” — on Sephora.com. As a member, you get access to beauty classes, exclusive trial-size products and sets, and special promotions (e.g., a free birthday gift). Though you do get rewarded for spending more, you don’t need to pay a fee to be a member. You simply provide your contact information and use your unique login credentials to access your perks.

To put up a gate for members or subscribers on your site, you can use a dedicated membership website builder or a multi-purpose CMS with the required features and extensions. Many of these platforms can also automate or simplify other tasks, like registering new subscribers or members, processing recurring payments, updating member profiles in one place, and delivering newsletters and other communications.

To learn more about subscription websites, check out What’s a Subscription Business Model & How Does It Work?

Now, let’s take a look at how you can create a membership website so you can reap the benefits.

How to Create a Membership Website

1. Decide on your membership model.
2. Create members-only content.
3. Choose a membership platform or plugin.
4. Publish your members-only pages.
5. Announce your new membership offering through social media and email.

There are several ways to create a membership website, which will vary depending on the platform.

First, be sure to have a site up and running. If you don’t, you can set up a website with WordPress or build one from scratch using a tool like CMS Hub, Wix, YourMembership, or Morweb.

The benefit of building a site on an out-of-the-box platform is that the members’ area is usually integrated into your setup. With CMS Hub, for example, you can easily gate content for members without needing to install an external plugin.

Once you have a website, you can offer memberships in five steps.

1. Decide on your membership model.

Before ever installing a platform or plugin, you’ll want to create a membership model where you decide what you’ll offer and how much you will charge per year. When your business runs on this model, you charge a recurring fee to customers and provide access to services, perks, information, events, networking opportunities, classes, or facilities in return.

To create your membership plan, you’ll need to answer three questions:

• What will you offer to your members?
• What membership levels will you offer, if any?
• How much will you charge, if at all, and how frequently?

First, brainstorm offerings for members. Audit your products, services, and messaging to decide on the value that you’ll bring to your customers. In this stage, it’s helpful to examine your buyer personas and brainstorm what they’d enjoy having exclusive access to.

Some of these offerings may come naturally. For example, a gym offers access to its facilities, a chamber of commerce offers access to its networking events, and an educator offers access to courses and exclusive material.

For other businesses, offerings aren’t as obvious. If you’re a sole proprietor or a successful freelancer, you can offer courses to other freelancers hoping to get into your field. The Art of Proofreading course is an excellent example of this.

If you’re an e-commerce brand or online retailer, you could follow the example of giants such as Amazon and offer free shipping to your members. Other things you can offer include exclusive access to perks, points, product samples, website pages, blog posts, PDFs, events, webinars, ebooks, and discounts. Barnes & Noble’s famous membership model offers 10% off on all purchases.

Next, decide on your levels of membership, if any. Depending on the level they join, members can get additional access to more content and more deals. Costco, for example, offers two levels: Gold Star and Gold Star Executive. Alternatively, it might be worth starting with one uniform level that everyone can join. Amazon, Ulta, and Barnes & Noble have only one membership offering, making it simple to join.

Last, decide on pricing, if any. Sometimes, it’s worth making membership free, as it can help you create a long list of marketing qualified leads. If you decide to charge, it’d be worth looking at your competitors to see their pricing. Choose the frequency as well — annual to biannual to monthly are great options, though an annual frequency is most common.

2. Create members-only content.

Now that you’ve created a robust membership model, it’s time to create the gated content, pages, courses, events, and other items you plan to offer to your members. Creating the content before ever publishing your new membership option will ensure that you delight, not frustrate, your customers.

Perk-based membership models might not require the creation of gated content. However, creating exclusive resources may be just what entices users to join. Member-only emails are a great option. In these emails, you can hand out discount codes that only your members or subscribers have access to.

This step would also include creating a pricing page and a sign-up form. However, don’t publish any membership pages just yet. Before you do that, you’ll choose a CMS or install a membership plugin, which we’ll cover in detail below.

3. Choose a membership platform or plugin.

Now that you’ve brainstormed your membership model, established pricing, and created the content, it’s time to choose a platform or plugin.

If you’re on WordPress, compare membership plugins and choose the one that best meets your needs. If you’re on another platform, integrate a membership offering by toggling the platform’s already-integrated settings or choosing a third-party provider. If you’re on Squarespace, for example, you have options such as MemberSpace and Membership Works that can integrate seamlessly with your website.

Regardless of the option you choose, a great membership plugin or platform will have the following features:

• Contact segmentation: Your chosen platform should allow you to segment your contacts into members and non-members, and offer further capabilities for segmentation if needed.
• Gated content: For any membership model to work, gating content is essential. It will differentiate your website visitors from your members. A membership platform should give you the option to selectively gate content based on membership status.
• User and member pages: Your platform should allow you to create membership-related pages and forms.

Some nice-to-have, but not required, features include:

• Automated workflows: Whether it’s used to send welcome or renewal emails, an automated workflow feature can help you save time.

• Payment provider integrations: You might not need this integration if you’re offering membership for free. If you are, this is an important capability to look out for.

• Engagement analytics: This might not be required because you might be tracking engagement using another tool such as Google Analytics. However, some membership platforms can give you even more granular data. YourMembership and Bold Memberships both offer this feature.
• Third-party integrations: You won’t need third-party integrations if you choose an out-of-the-box option such as Subhub or CMS Hub. But if you’re using a plugin or an extension, it should integrate seamlessly with your other marketing tools. MemberPress, which is a WordPress plugin, integrates with Zapier so you can connect it to your other tools.
• Membership levels: If you’re offering different membership levels, you’ll need a plugin or platform that supports different levels and price points.

Knowing what you should look for should make it a little bit easier to make a choice. Now that you’ve set up your platform, it’s time to bring it all together by publishing the content you created for your members.

4. Publish your members-only pages.

Remember the gated pages and posts that you created earlier? It’s time to publish those and mark them as members-only. For some platforms, you can do this with one click. For others, you might have to navigate to the page you want to protect and select “members-only” from a drop-down menu.

In this step, you’ll also want to publish a pricing page. This should be public, as it will help users make a purchasing decision. If your membership platform doesn’t come with a pricing page option, or you don’t want to build a pricing table from scratch, consider installing a pricing table plugin.

You can also create a community forum that’s accessible only to members.

5. Announce your new membership offering through social media and email.

You have your membership model, exclusive offers, membership platform, and pricing page set up. Now, it’s time to get people to join!

Announce your new membership to your social media followers, email contacts, and blog subscribers. To boost conversion rates, consider offering a limited-time reduced membership price. You can also follow Amazon’s example and offer reduced pricing for students. Another thing to consider is offering discounted fees to seniors and veterans.

Now that you’re ready to set up your membership site, it’s time to explore some of the best membership website builders and platforms that can help you do that.

Best Membership Website Platforms

1. CMS Hub
2. Uscreen
3. MemberPress
4. Wix
5. SureMembers
6. MemberSpace
7. Wild Apricot
8. YourMembership
9. Morweb
10. Weebly
11. Subhub
12. Membership Works
13. WishList Member
14. Memberful
15. Bold Memberships

Below are a variety of different membership website builder solutions for creating a membership site. There are CMS platforms with out-of-the-box features for creating member-only content. There are extensions for creating membership-based content that are compatible with different CMS platforms and website builders. And there are dedicated membership website builders.

We’ll cover all these solution types so you can pick the one that best meets your needs and goals.

1. CMS Hub Enterprise

Pricing: CMS Hub is available on three tiers but only Enterprise offers the membership feature ($1,200 per month).

CMS Hub is a proprietary content management system that’s fully integrated with HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and service tools and CRM. With CMS Hub, you can leverage HubSpot lists to allow only specific groups to access a section of your site.

Get Started With HubSpot’s CMS

Whether you’re giving product updates to your current customers, pricing offers to prospects, or web pages in different languages to a global audience, you can create all types of membership-based content with HubSpot. That way, you can provide every visitor a unique experience on your site — without installing a plugin or any additional software.

2. Uscreen

Pricing: Ucreen’s pricing starts at $149 per month with their Growth plan, followed by a Pro plan available from $499 monthly, and a Plus plan with custom pricing.

Uscreen is an all-in-one membership platform built for video creators. With Uscreen, you can create paid memberships that include a Netflix-like on-demand video library, live streaming features, and built-in community space, all in your own branded site and OTT apps.

Image Source

In addition to maintaining full ownership of your audience and their data, you can use Uscreen’s marketing, sales, and analytics tools to help you grow, retain and upsell members.

3. MemberPress

Pricing: MemberPress has three tiers: Basic ($179 per year), Plus ($224 per year), and Pro ($299 per year).

MemberPress is a premium WordPress plugin that makes it easy to create and manage membership subscriptions and sell digital download products. With MemberPress, you can grant (or revoke) access to your posts, pages, videos, categories, tags, feeds, communities, and digital files to members based on their membership status.

Image Source

In addition to advanced user flow options, content dripping, and other out-of-the-box features, this plugin also supports integrations with Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, and marketing tools like MailChimp.

4. Wix

Pricing: Wix plans range from free for basic websites to $500 per month for enterprises.

Wix is a hosted website builder that offers a limited free plan and several premium plans. On any of these plans, you can create a member’s area and let visitors register and get access to exclusive content. If you upgrade to one of the premium plans, you can also sell paid subscriptions without installing any third-party integrations.

Image Source

Wix is limited in functionality, however. You can’t personalize a registration email or create a multilingual membership site, for example. You’ll also have to download several Wix business and social solutions, like Wix Chat, to improve your members’ experience.

5. SureMembers 

Pricing: SureMembers starts at an introductory price of $69/year for 1 site. Upgrades are available with the Business Plan ($69/year for 5 sites) or the Agency Plan ($149/year for 10 sites).

SureMembers is a premium WordPress plugin that will make protecting your website content as simple as choosing a name for your membership and selecting which articles, pages, or categories you want to protect.
You can easily schedule the content drip and add downloads to these memberships.

Image Source

SureMembers manages the members and content protection, but to sell your memberships you will need to use SureCart or WooCommerce.

6. MemberSpace

Pricing: A MemberSpace subscription costs $29 per month, plus a 4% transaction fee per member.

MemberSpace is a third-party tool for creating membership-protected content on Squarespace, Webnode, WordPress, and other sites. With MemberSpace, you can gate any of your pages and then decide what members have to do to ungate it. It can be as simple as signing up for your newsletter or paying a subscription fee, like on Follower to Fan Society’s website.

Image Source

7. Wild Apricot

Pricing: Pricing plans range from free to $720 per month.

Wild Apricot is a website builder designed especially for membership sites. Using Wild Apricot, you can create multiple membership levels with benefits that scale up at each price point. In addition to member management, Wild Apricot offers features to help you manage your events, email marketing, and online payments.

Image Source

Since Wild Apricot comes with website building tools, you can build your site from scratch or use an existing WordPress site.

8. YourMembership

Pricing: You must request a custom quote from YourMembership.

YourMembership is a membership website builder that offers everything you need to create and run a site. In addition to being able to manage members and events in one dashboard, you can view analytics about your site’s growth, set up automated workflows, and publish blogs, polls, and surveys.

Image Source

Building a site on this software can get pricey, however. While there’s no pricing information available on YourMembership’s site, its competitor Wild Apricot estimates that YourMembership charges $2500 in set-up fees and $6000 in total in the first year.

9. Morweb

Pricing: Morweb offers three plans: Start ($99 per month), Grow ($149 per month), and Engage ($199 per month).

Morweb is a CMS designed specifically for nonprofits and associations. Offering a drag-and-drop editor, responsive themes, and highly customizable modules, you can create and customize a basic membership site without coding. You can also accept donations online, password-protect your pages, and create events on your Morweb site.

Image Source

Since Morweb is a software company and design agency combined, you can even hire them to help design your site.

10. Weebly

Pricing: Weebly offers four plans: Free, Personal ($6 per month), Professional ($12 per month), and Performance ($26 per month).

You can set up a membership site out-of-the-box with Weebly. You can add a simple signup form to your homepage, offer one-click login to members, and create membership tiers. You can also add buttons or links to your login/register window in any of your pages, email newsletters, and social media posts to get more sign-ups.

Image Source

While Weebly does offer a limited free plan and multiple premium plans, membership features are only available at the Professional and Performance tier.

11. Subhub

Pricing: Subhub is available on three tiers: Starter ($47 per month), Pro ($97 per month), and Premium ($147 per month).

SubHub is a simple solution for building and running a membership site. You can create multiple membership levels, accept credit card payments, set up recurring subscriptions, offer promo codes, and drip content on your Subhub site.

When designing your site, you can start with one of Subhub’s templates or you can hire SubHub’s customer success team to build a custom design for you. Below are some sites built using SubHub’s Speedy Set Up service.

Image Source

12. MembershipWorks

Pricing: Depending on the number of users, the cost of using the plugin ranges from free to $239 per month and the cost of the hosted solution ranges from $39 to $249 per month.

MembershipWorks is a membership software that’s compatible with WordPress, Squarespace, Weebly, and HTML static sites. You can either download it as an extension on your site or sign up for the hosted version.

With MembershipWorks, members can sign up and renew and update their profiles on your website. You can use labels and folders to organize them into groups and send an email at any time to all or a specific group of them.

What sets MembershipWorks apart from other dedicated membership solutions is its timeline feature. You can see a member’s whole history — from notes to payment history to donations to the events they’ve attended — all in one place. Timeline is integrated with MembershipWorks’s billing and event systems so payments, membership renewals, and event registration is automatically recorded.

Image Source

13. WishList Member

Pricing: The WishList Member plugin starts at $147 per year for use on one website.

WishList Member is a premium plugin for transforming your WordPress site into a fully functional membership site. Once the plugin is activated, you can protect your content with one click, integrate with any of the 20 supported payment providers, and view membership statistics and data in your dashboard.

Image Source

You’ll also be able to create an unlimited number of membership levels and make each level a free, trial, or paid membership.

14. Memberful

Pricing: Memberful has three tiers: Starter (free), Pro ($25 per month), and Premium ($100 per month).

Memberful is membership software designed to help you create a community while driving revenue. You can view your member activity, offer free trials, create coupons, and more.

You can easily integrate Memberful on a WordPress site using the Memberful WordPress plugin. You can also use Memberful with other website builders but, because they don’t support single sign-on, it’s not possible to create members-only web pages. That means, you’ll be able to sell memberships on your site but you’ll have to share members-only content through one of Memberful’s email newsletter or discussion forum integrations.

Image Source

There is a free plan available but has a 10% transaction fee. On the premium plans, the fee drops to 4.9%.

15. Bold Memberships

Pricing: Contact sales.

Bold Memberships is an app that you can purchase to add and sell memberships on your Shopify store. You can show or hide any content, products, page, prices, add-to-cart buttons, menu items, and more with this app. You can create an unlimited number of membership tiers, charge recurring fees, and view analytics right in your dashboard.

Image Source

Membership Website Examples

1. Suffolk Building Society
2. Maimun Ape Social Club
3. Strathmore
4. Sydney FC
5. The Nifty Portal
6. The Vines
7. AccessElite
8. Head Wines
9. The Loft
10. Texas Healthcare Association

1. Suffolk Building Society

Suffolk Building Society is designed to help members either save their money by setting up a savings account or buy a home by setting up a mortgage. This community of “savers and borrowers” has access to many resources. There’s a member’s lounge which includes information about managing an account with Suffolk, their sponsor partners, and ways to get involved with the community. There’s also a blog that posts about the latest news and updates across the Society.

There are also exclusive content and events, including a newsletter and Annual General Meeting.

What we like:

• Offers a mix of public and members-only content
• Dedicates part of website as a “member’s lounge”
• Multiple ways for visitors to get in touch, including a Contact navigation link and CTA button, social media links, and a telephone number

2. Maimun Ape Social Club

Maimun Ape Social Club is a closed platform where members or “Maimuns” (ie. NFT collectors) provide video courses, articles, podcasts, discussions, or other exclusives for members only. Members who empower others in this way get rewarded, and all Maimun Ape NFT holders receive access to exclusive content, drops, and experiences.

What we like:

• Multiple CTA buttons to connect a crypto wallet and join Disco
• Provides a Roadmap and FAQ section for visitors who need more information before becoming members
• Black-and-white website design evokes ideas of privacy and exclusivity and showcases their product and memberships without overwhelming visitors with information or color

3. Strathmore

Strathmore is a venue focused on building community and experiences. It relies on memberships as well as donations to provide lecture series, exhibits, shows, resources, and more to its visitors (often free of charge).

In addition to providing multiple members pages explaining the different tiers of memberships, the impact members have, and other ways to give, it has a custom membership portal where members get access to exclusive presales, great seats, insider information, savings, and more.

What we like:

• Offers 8 membership levels with different pricing and perks
• Has a custom membership portal for members to access exclusive presales and more
• “Impact” page lays out what their members’ philanthropic support made possible

4. Sydney FC

Sydney FC is where visitors can go to find Sydney FC membership packages, hospitality options, and info about the Sydney Football Stadium. Members and fans alike can find the perfect seats based on preferences, like how close they want to be to the field, their ideal position in terms of the halfway line, goals, and sun, and who will be part of their group.

Members get access to ticket first and exclusive parts of the stadium, like the inner sanctum, terrace bar, and the cove.

What we like:

• Offers 8 membership packages with different price points for adults, juniors, and families
• Personalized form to help visitors find the “perfect” location and membership package
• Provides multiple FAQ sections tailored to corporate and other membership packages

5. The Nifty Portal

The Nifty Portal functions as a premium membership pass into The Nifty Community, a group of aspiring and successful NFT collectors and creators.

Members get early access to minting, with private investors going first and the public going last. They also get exclusive access to the members-only area of Nifty’s Discord and software which provides NFT market monitoring, portfolio monitoring, and other (secret) features.

What we like:

• Members get access to minting earlier than the public, a members-only area of Nifty’s Discord, and software
• Offers other ways for members and non-members to stay informed, like Discord and YouTube
• Glitch effects and the overall site design make the site feel like a video game

6. The Vines

The Vines is a global winemaking membership program. Members choose a winemaking region to learn the craft from some of the greatest winemakers in the world and create their own unique vintages. They also get access to virtual events with chefs, multi-day Blending escapes, and trips in Europe and other parts of the world.

What we like:

• Includes descriptions of past events
• Shows member profiles so visitors can get to know the community more and get some inspiration for filling out the questionnaire
• Video backgrounds on the homepage are engaging and provide another glimpse into the community

7. AccessElite

AccessElite is designed to connect corporate members with the best doctors and wellness specialists in their area and online. This total well-being platform offers live wellness classes, virtual health fairs, corporate challenges, and on-demand classes for fitness, cooking, and more. Members enjoy exclusive access to elite events, seminars, local partnerships, and more — all of which can be accessed through their member dashboard or mobile app.

What we like:

• Offers wide range of digital content, including live wellness classes, virtual health fairs, and on-demand classes
• Members can access the platform on desktop or a mobile app
• Member Services Team helps onboard and support members

8. Head Wines

Head Wines is the ecommerce site of a boutique Australian winemaker. You can purchase wine by the bottle or set up a subscription.

You can also become a Limestone member of The Stone Cellar wine club simply by signing up for an account and making a purchase. This club is designed to reward their most valued customers for their continuous loyalty with product discounts, access to limited releases, special wines, and pre-releases, invitations to member-only experiences, and other exclusive offers.

What we like:

• Members get access to a log-in area where discounts, complimentary shipping, and other benefits are automatically applied
• Limestone membership has no minimum spend requirement
• Offers two “premium” membership levels with minimum spend requirements and additional perks

9. The Loft

The Loft is a modern workspace in North West London that offers a variety of individual and team memberships. Since its membership packages range from day passes to private studios, it’s ideal for startups, small to medium sized businesses, and solo workers. There are multiple “essentials” and perks for all members, including a kitchen, speedy broadband, lockers, and free tea and coffee.

What we like:

• Offers flexible membership options for businesses and individuals
• Provides options to book a tour, book a meeting room, or enquire about the space
• Members can set up an account to manage their bookings

10. Texas Healthcare Association

Texas Healthcare Association is a non-profit organization that offers statewide membership. THCA’s members include several hundred licensed non-profit and for-profit skilled nursing facilities, specialized rehabilitation facilities, and assisted living facilities in Texas as well as over 190 long-term care businesses that provide products and services to the state’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

These members get access to educational resources, events, and continuing education credits to develop, promote, and support the professional development and education of long-term healthcare providers.

What we like:

• Members-only content has login form
• Offers public access to its blog, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
• Provides educational resources for providers and individuals and families who need long-term care

Building a Membership Website

Offering a membership on your website is one of the best ways to enrich your users’ experience. Using any of the dedicated membership website builders, CMS platforms with built-in functionality, or extensions above, you can increase engagement and add additional lines of revenue on your site.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.