Sallie Goetsch explores the many meanings of "membership" when it comes to WordPress plugins, and some examples of plugins to help you build different kinds of membership websites

1. What Is a Membership
Website?
Sallie Goetsch
July 2018 East Bay WordPress Meetup

2. membership
/ˈmɛmbɚˌʃɪp/

3. What Most “Membership”
Plugins Actually Do
Put your content behind a paywall

4. What
Content
Restriction
Offers
• Create multiple access tiers
(e.g. free, bronze, silver, gold)
• Choose what content to show
each access tier
• Charge for access to your
content
• Upgrade/downgrade access
levels

5. Plus
Optionally
• “Drip” content to members
over a period of time
• Email new posts to members
• Restrict access to your forum,
LMS, or store
• (And more integrations)

6. Some
Content
Restriction
Plugins
• Restrict Content Pro
• WooCommerce Memberships
• MemberPress
• Paid Memberships Pro
• S2 Member
• WP-Members

7. What
Content
Restriction
Plugins
Don’t Do*
•Connect members with
each other.
•Display public member
profiles.
•Allow members to publish
their own content.
* Some exceptions later in this presentation

8. When
Membership
Isn’t about
Content
• Chambers of
Commerce
• Professional
Associations
• Church Groups
• Homeowners
Associations
• Networking
Groups
• PTA

9. If You Just
Need to
List Your
Members
• AMR Users (members must be WP
users)
• Participants Database (members do
not need to be WP users)
• Ultimate Member (free version;
tutorial by Chris Lema)
• Connections (a teensy bit bloated)

10. Participants
Database
List View
Also includes
• Responsive View
(flexbox)
• Grid View (CSS Grid)

11. When You Want to
Build a Community
• Public Profiles
• Connect to other
members
• Forums & group
discussions
• Private messages
• Member posts
• Member uploads
• Charge for
access

12. Community
& Social
Networking
Plugins
• BuddyPress (not for the faint of
heart)
• bbPress (when you just need
forums)
• PeepSo (freemium and slicker than
BuddyPress)
• Users Ultra (free or pro)
• Ultimate Member (with paid add-
ons)

13. When You Want
All the Features
With great power comes great
complexity.

14. Add-ons,
Integrations,
&
Extensibility
CRM
Community
Forums
Learning
Management
Directories
Job Boards
Ecommerce

15. Best for
Add-ons &
Extensibility
• s2Member
• Paid Memberships Pro
• Restrict Content Pro
• MemberPress

16. Wrapping It All Up
There is no one best
membership plugin for
all purposes.
But there’s at
least one for
every possible
purpose.

17. About Sallie
Goetsch
Sallie Goetsch has been working
with WordPress since 2005. She
became organizer of the East Bay
WordPress meetup in 2009.
• sallie@wpfangirl.com
• https://www.wpfangirl.com
• Twitter: @salliegoetsch
• GitHub: wpfangirl