5 Best WordPress Membership Plugins for Your Website in 2026

Thinking of launching a membership website in 2026? Or maybe you already tried and hit the classic wall: too many plugins, too many features, with zero clarity and reliability. 

Here’s the truth: not all WordPress membership plugins are built the same. Some are perfect for selling premium content. Others shine for online courses, communities, or even large-scale subscriptions.

And a few? Well, they look great on paper but fall apart in real use.

That’s exactly what this guide is here to help with.

In this blog, we’ll show some of the best WordPress membership plugins for 2026 and beyond. Also, we’ll explore what they’re actually good at, who they’re best for, and which one makes sense for your website, not someone else’s.

Whether you’re building:

• A paid content site
• A coaching or course platform
• A subscription-based community
• Or a complete membership site 

Ready to find a plugin here that fits your business the best? Let’s jump in! 👇

Quick Comparison: The Best WordPress Membership Plugins (2026)

Short on time? No worries! Here’s a quick overview and comparison of the top-notch WordPress membership plugins for your website: 

Still, we suggest you read it to the end to never miss an important feature of your favourite plugin. 

The Best WordPress Membership Plugins for Your Website

1. ARMember

ARMember is the best WordPress membership plugin for creating membership plans, communities, and online courses, and managing subscriptions easily.

During hands-on testing, ARMember turns out to be the exact thing we were looking for in a membership plugin: an all-in-one membership solution. Thus, this is perfect for all WordPress-based business sites that want to transform their site into a revenue-generating membership business.

The user interface is beginner-friendly even for users who are new to WordPress. Yet what we loved the most is its robust set of advanced features plus 57+ in-built addons, which are completely free even with a lower plan.

With this plugin, you can monetize your content with multiple membership plans with different access rights and pricing. It comes with powerful content restriction out of the box and advanced drip content rules to keep your members engaged all the time.

Best For: All sizes of businesses, entrepreneurs, online creators, educational institutes, and freelancers who want to create a complete full-power membership system with zero code headaches. 

Pros:

• Easy to use and set up via its membership setup wizard 
• Over 21+ popular payment gateways to accept membership payments on a global level 
• Community boosting features such as members’ profiles, directory templates, and awesome gamification elements like points, badges, and achievements
• Smooth integration with WooCommerce and tons of email marketing tools, CRM, page builders, etc. 
• Developer-friendly with over 150+ action & filter hooks and API 
• In-built simple drag and drop form builder to create custom login and sign up forms for membership
• Powerful built-in security options to keep your membership site safe and sound. 
• Detailed video tutorials and an excellent customer support team 

Cons:  

• With so many advanced features packed in, the configuration can feel a little overwhelming to beginners. 
• Advanced features and integrations may require users to choose and manage different plans based on their website needs.

Rating: 4.8 Out of 5 Stars 

Pricing: 

• The free version is available on the official website.
• The premium plan starts from only $79/year.

Read More: Set Payment Gateways by User Roles

2. WP-Members Membership Plugin

WP-Members is a simple membership plugin for WordPress that allows you to restrict your exclusive content, create custom forms, and manage your members easily. 

When we tested it, we were just simply surprisedby how simple it is to use. From the user interface to features, everything is perfect for businesses that wish to make a simple membership site. 

Best of all, it is lightweight, so no load on your site. Plus, if you want advanced features such as multiple membership levels, integrations, and payment gateways, you can simply get its premium addons. 

Best For: Content creators, bloggers, and tech-savvy developers who want a code-friendly plugin for creating a private blog site, simple member area, or news site.

Pros: 

• Easy to set up for basic features, and free as well 
• Fully customizable with over 120 action and filter hooks 
• Custom fields in WooCommerce checkout and registration 
• Easy to create custom memberships and restrict content as restricted or hidden 
• Budget-friendly options for small businesses and freelancers 
• Lightweight for better performance 

Cons:  

• No in-built payment gateways, recurring subscriptions, or invoicing, unlike ARMember’s native payment gateways and advanced features 
• No advanced engagement tools such as member directories, drip content, etc. 
• Limited integration and slow development 

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars

Pricing: 

• Completely free to use. 
• For advanced options, the premium starts at $49/Year, and the Pro Bundle starts from $125/Year.  

Read More: 3 Ways to Hide Product Prices

3. Memberful

Memberful is another best membership plugin and software that allows you to protect your premium content and manage members effortlessly. 

It stands out due to its ease of use interface and features, but needs a paid subscription for full features to be unlocked. 

Still, it is the best membership plugin around here that syncs members automatically to WordPress with role mapping for access control. Moreover, it lets you create and manage multiple membership plans, upgrades, discounts, and Stripe payment including Apple/Google Pay. 

Best For: Solo creators, podcasters, publishers, and media companies who want to monetize their exclusive content using a simple membership subscription plugin. 

Pros: 

• Powerful content protection for specific posts, pages, downloads, and more
• Tons of in-built integrations with popular third-party tools like MailChimp, Discord, Google Analytics, and more. 
• Seamless Stripe integration and SSO for smooth logins 
• Automatic tax calculation 
• Supports bulk content protection and custom shortcodes
• Quick user-friendly setup

Cons:  

• Limited to Stripe payments only, no PayPal or other payment gateways 
• No self-hosting means dependency on Memberful’s service uptime and policy changes.
• May have hidden costs 

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars.

Pricing: 

• The free version is available 
• The paid version starts at $49/month + transaction fees

Read More: Create Custom WooCommerce User Roles

4. WCFM Membership

WCFM Membership plugin for WooCommerce is a popular WordPress membership plugin that allows you to create and sell unlimited subscription plans for your multi-vendor marketplace. 

You can create endless free or paid membership levels with different capabilities, commissions, or pricing. 

Plus, it smoothly integrates with WCFM Marketplace, WC Vendors, Dokan, and others for seller management. With this membership plugin, you can even set vendor-specific commissions, which can be either fixed or percentage-based, define vendor capabilities and limits for each plan, and so on. 

Furthermore, it supports multiple payment gateways such as PayPal, Bank Transfer, and Stripe to collect recurring subscription payments securely. 

Best For: All well-established marketplace owners who want to monetize their multi-vendor platform, control and limit vendor access, and build a highly customized and feature rich market place. 

Pros: 

• Unlimited membership levels with unique pricing, commission rates, and feature access
• Free, one-time, and recurring subscription payments via PayPal, Stripe, and Bank Transfer 
• Easy to set different commission models for each membership level 
• Vendors get a dedicated area in their frontend dashboard to keep an eye on their current plan details, upgrade, and cancel 
• Fully customizable membership page design, welcome email, and registration forms

Cons:  

• Needs to get other paid addons for advanced features 
• Limited to the WooCommerce ecosystem only 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Pricing:

• The free version is available 
• The addons like Frontend Manager, Group and Staff, Delivery, Affiliate, Analytics, and Product Hub can be bought separately or in a bundle starting from $224/Year. 

Read More: WholesaleX integration for WCFM

5. s2Member

s2Member is the most powerful WordPress membership plugin that allows you to protect your exclusive content via shortcodes. 

What we liked the most about this plugin is its deep customization options. You can easily leverage its extensive shortcode and API options if you are a tech-savvy guy. And even if you are not, then no worries. 

This plugin lets you sell unlimited membership plans with one-time or recurring payment subscriptions. Also, it smoothly integrates with PayPal, Stripe, Bitcoin, ClickBank, and Authorize.Net for easily accepting online payments. 

And if you want community features, it smoothly integrates with BuddyPress and bbPress to create member forums. 

Best For: Developers, tech-savvy guys, businesses, and coaches who want to monetize their existing WordPress site by adding a secure members-only area. 

Pros: 

• Flexible content restriction for protecting all parts of your site, such as posts, pages, categories, tags, downloadable files, audio, and so on. 
• Custom registration form
• Advanced profile management
• Powerful content dripping 
• Smoothly integrates with BuddyPress and bbPress ​
• Open source code 

Cons:  

• The free version allows you to create 4 paid membership levels; you need the Pro for unlimited membership levels 
• The free version is limited to PayPal Standard only 
• Content dripping is less user-friendly 

Rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars.

Pricing: 

• The free version is available 
• The Pro version starts from $89 for lifetime access 

How to Choose the Right Membership Plugin for WordPress 

Let’s skip the fluff.

Choosing the right membership plugin shouldn’t feel like buying a mystery box. You should know exactly what you’re getting. 

Plus, the right membership plugin isn’t the one with the longest feature list; it’s the one that matches what you actually want to build.

So before you click Install, here are the factors to help you make a better choice. If one sounds like you, you’ve got your answer: 

👉 If you want to sell premium content or online courses and are looking for a plugin that handles content restriction, drip access, subscriptions, and payments without extra plugins, ARMember is your all-in-one membership solution.

👉 If you are running a store, vendor marketplace, or paid seller access, plus want good WooCommerce integration and vendor-level control, just go for WCFM Membership.

👉 If you want a free and lightweight solution, also not ready to spend yet or building a simple members-only site, WP-Members is the lightweight plugin that can get the job done.

👉 If you need advanced rules, custom logic, and deep configuration, and don’t mind a little learning curve, s2Member is the best pick.

👉 If you want something that just works without overthinking, clean UX, smooth payments, and fewer technical decisions: Go for Memberful.

TL;DR

If you’re still unsure, ask yourself this one question: Do I want flexibility or simplicity?

If you can choose based on your goal, you couldn’t go wrong! 

Why do We Consider ARMember the Best?

From the discussion above and taking all the factors into account, we consider ARMember should be considered as the best membership plugin for WordPress.

Wondering why? 

Here’s what makes ARMember the best WordPress membership plugin for your WordPress site in 2026:

✅ Create endless membership levels.

✅ Restrict content with advanced access rules.

✅ Sell recurring subscriptions, lifetime plans, free trials, parallel memberships, group (family) memberships, and even individual posts. 

✅ Drip content automatically to boost engagement.

✅ Accept payments via more than 21+ payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and a lot more. 

✅ Integrate smoothly with WooCommerce, email marketing tools, and page builders.

And the best part? You get all this without juggling multiple addons or plugins.

That’s why ARMember is the best all-in-one membership solution for all business-oriented WordPress sites in 2026. 

FAQs about WordPress Membership Plugins

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Written byEditorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WholesaleX is a team of WordPress experts who loves to explore and write about WordPress Themes & Plugins.