Do you want to start earning money from your WordPress website?

There are lots of ways that you can turn your site into an additional revenue stream, but many of these options revolve around one-off payments. You could build an online store, sell advertising space, or fill your website with affiliate links—or you could sell membership subscriptions that'll guarantee you a steady income for the next few weeks, months, or potentially even years.

In this article, I'll be sharing my favourite free and premium plugins that you can use to transform your WordPress website into a thriving online community. 

Integrating a membership plugin into your WordPress website gives you the power to lock certain sections of your website and charge recurring payments for access to these members-only sections. Whether you are running a fitness website or looking to offer videos for your tutoring business, a premium WordPress membership plugin will help you grow and scale your business.

The Best WordPress Membership Plugins on CodeCanyon

Discover over 7,000 of the best WordPress plugins ever created on Envato Market's CodeCanyon. With a cheap one-time payment, you can purchase one of these high-quality WordPress plugins. 

Here are a few of the best membership WordPress plugins available on CodeCanyon for 2020.

Without these WordPress membership plugins, you will have to hire a web developer to implement this functionality. This can be very expensive and time-consuming. By purchasing the premium membership plugins available on CodeCanyon, you will be able to create a membership website in no time. 

Here are some of the features that you can expect from the WordPress membership plugins:

• WooCommerce integration
• paid and free membership levels
• periodic billing
• email opt-ins
• multiple payment gateways

Now let's take a look at some of the best-selling membership plugins on CodeCanyon.

Top 18 WordPress Membership Plugins (From CodeCanyon for 2020)

1. Ultimate Membership Pro WordPress Plugin

Ultimate Membership Pro WordPress Plugin doesn't get its name solely for marketing purposes.

It really is the ultimate.

This WordPress membership plugin offers a wide variety of options, making it very agile. Some of the options include:

• multiple login, register, and locker templates
• multiple payment options
• conditional logic
• social login
• and much, much more
  

You can also create multiple levels, drip content, restrict pages, create custom account pages, and the list goes on.

No matter what kind of membership site you're trying to build, Ultimate Membership Pro WordPress Plugin should deliver without a problem.

No wonder it's the #1 selling membership plugin!

2. Multi-Vendor Marketplace Membership for WooCommerce

Marketplace Seller Membership Plugin for WooCommerce allows you to create memberships on the basis of time and or products. You will need to have the WordPress WooCommerce Multi Vendor Marketplace in order for this plugin to work. Adding this membership plugin to your already existing marketplace will help you bring in recurring revenue, so don't miss out on this plugin!

3. SUMO Memberships

SUMO Memberships is a complete WooCommerce membership system. It allows you to sell memberships from your existing WooCommerce store and give your members access to pages, posts, content blocks, and certain products. 

Here are a few important features of this plugin:

• content and product restriction
• transferrable memberships
• multiple membership plans
• free trial of membership

4. Ultimate Learning Pro

Ultimate Learning Pro is a membership plugin that was specifically designed for businesses providing courses. You can easily sell courses and have instructors manage your students with this powerful plugin. 

Here are some of the plugin's top features:

• intuitive course builder
• control enrollment
• Stripe, WooCommerce, and PayPal payments
• student grade books

5. PrivateContent

PrivateContent has one of the best restriction engines on the market. In addition to the standard account locking that membership plugins provide, there are many other powerful features that will help improve your membership website. Here are a few of the features that differentiate this plugin from others:

• multilanguage support
• Google Analytics integration
• Mailchimp integration
• discount coupon support

6. UserPro—User Profiles With Social Login

Not all WordPress membership plugins are about making revenue on your content.

UserPro—User Profiles with Social Login does include content restriction, but focuses on the community aspects of a membership website.

Features include:

• unlimited membership custom fields
• set up badges and achievements
• manually approve new users
• well-designed user profiles
• and more!

There's also some great integration with WooCommerce, BuddyPress, Mailchimp, and others.

And if UserPro—User Profiles with Social Login doesn't have enough features for you, there are over a dozen different User Pro add-ons that are worth a look.

7. User Profiles Made Easy—WordPress Plugin

The User Profiles Made Easy WordPress plugin is an excellent plugin for membership directories and user profiles.

Features include:

• full-featured membership directory
• private content and custom fields
• front-end login and registration
• well-designed user profiles
• and more!

There are also content restriction options, but the membership user profile management is where this really shines. It also includes the ability to search users based on built-in custom field types or custom search filters.

User Profiles Made Easy is one of the best WordPress user profile membership plugins you'll find.

8. Youzer—BuddyPress User Profiles

Youzer is one of the best WordPress user profiles and membership plugins on the market. It has all the features you need and more to build a community where users can express themselves and interact with each other. Here are just a few of the many features that this plugin offers:

• public and private profiles
• 14 header styles
• fully customizable membership and profiles
• custom tabs
• custom widgets

See for yourself just how feature-rich this plugin is by viewing the live preview.

9. ARMember 

ARMember is a one-stop solution to sell WordPress subscriptions without having to type in a single line of code. This plugin has many advanced features such as conditional redirection, IP-based restrictions, and URL-based locking. The level of control that you have over the membership is unparalleled. This powerhouse plugin is a must-have if you are serious about creating a membership website.  

10. Good LMS—Learning Management System WordPress Plugin

Unlike some of the previous WordPress membership plugins, Good LMS focuses on online learning.

With Good LMS you can:

• create online and onsite courses and quizzes
  
• set up commission rates for instructors
• sell learning courses via PayPal
• course ratings
  
• and more!
  

Good LMS includes everything you need to develop an online education system, from payment and registration to quizzes and certificates.

11. Ultimate Member Community Plugin

UM Profiler enables you to create new designs for your member cards. The plugin comes with nine template designs to ensure that you find a design that works with the theme of your website. What's even better about this plugin is that it's free if you own the Ultimate Member plugin. The UM Profiler is sure to create a stunning-looking profile system for your membership website. View the live preview of this plugin to see if it's right for you! 

12. WPGYM—Wordpress Gym Management System

Developed by the same author as the previous plugin, WPGYM works in the same fashion, but with a focus on gym memberships.

Features include:

• workout, activity, nutrition, and other modules for members
  
• full-featured dashboard
  
• membership payment
• member profiles
• and much, much more

WPGYM—Wordpress Gym Management System is nothing short of impressive.

13. WooCommerce Membership

This simple but effective membership plugin gives you a quick and affordable way to convert your website into a membership site. The admin dashboard allows you to add as many plans as you see fit for your business, and a dedicated support team will help you with any questions or concerns that you have about the plugin. 

Here are the features you can expect with this plugin:

• create unlimited online membership plans
• add or remove members manually
  
• convert any product to a membership product
  
• restrict access to any post or page, including custom WordPress post types

14. Custom Login and Access WordPress Plugin

Easily restrict content, but add some style with the Custom Login and Access WordPress Plugin. It's simple and easy to use.

Block users from pages, posts, post types, categories, and taxonomies. Redirect users when they log in and log out. You can also:

• add login, registration, and forgotten forms to a page
• style the default WordPress login page
• allow users to set their own password
• and more
  

Custom Login and Access WordPress Plugin is a great way to simply restrict content to registered users, and it also includes helpful redirects and design.

15. Modal Login Register Forgotten WordPress Plugin

Modal Login Register Forgotten WordPress Plugin is much like the previous offering, but comes in modal form.

Features include:

• custom register email
  
• unlimited color styles
  
• login widget
• and more
  

Modal Login Register Forgotten WordPress Plugin is an excellent way to extend any WordPress membership plugin, helping users recover their forgotten logins in style.

16. WordPress Expire Passwords

Membership websites can often be subject to security risks, as users neglect to update their passwords.

That's where WordPress Expire Passwords can be a lifesaver.

You can easily:

• select password expirations based on user roles
  
• option to prevent users from using the same password
• select how long before a password expires
• view last password reset
• and more

WordPress Expire Passwords is a great plugin not just for membership sites, but also for any WordPress site with multiple users.

17. WP Private Content Pro

WP Private Content Pro gives you a simple and easy-to-use interface for protecting your important site content. This plugin allows you to restrict content on your website based on various types of users including guests, members, user roles, user groups, and Mailchimp subscriptions. Unlike other membership plugins, it can provide additional restrictions on menus, widgets, searches, private groups, and products. 

18. Institute Management Pro

This cheap membership plugin has plenty of powerful features that make this a must buy. Institute Management Pro helps you manage the multiple institute-related activities such as courses, batches, enquirers, registrations, fees, students, and staff. 

Here are a few notable features of this plugin: 

• exam results management
• generated receipts, reports, and ID cards
• institute noticeboard widget
• send notifications to students
• accepts PayPal or Razorpay

Feel free to check out how this plugin works by viewing the live preview.

5 Free Membership Plugins for Download in 2020

By purchasing a premium WordPress membership plugin, you will receive the highest quality plugins available on the market. The number of advanced features that these plugins will have and the overall user experience for both you and your customers will much higher than with free membership plugins.  

If you are on a budget and still need to add membership functionality to your WordPress website, then take a look at these five free membership plugins.

1. s2Member

Protect your WordPress posts, pages, tags, categories, and URLs with this free plugin. s2Member is powered almost entirely by WordPress shortcodes, making it quick and easy to add member features.

2. Mini Membership

If you're looking for a basic membership plugin without any advanced features, this is the plugin for you. All this plugin does is lock specific content on your website to users who are not part of the membership. 

3. WP-Members Membership Plugin

The WP-Members plugin puts the registration process on the site's front end so it is part of your content instead of the WP login page. This is a great tool for sites offering premium content to subscribers.

4. Simple Membership

This plugin allows you to set up unlimited membership levels and protect your posts and pages through the different membership levels that you create. You can also configure it to have free and/or paid memberships on your site. 

5. Paid Memberships

Paid Memberships features an all-in-one solution for your membership site needs. The back-end dashboard is filled with features that will help tailor your membership needs to your specific business. It even includes six popular payment gateways!

Take Your Membership Website to the Next Level

The premium and free membership plugins mentioned in this article are guaranteed to get your membership site up and running. However, just installing the plugins is not enough to create a profitable business. You need to retrofit your WordPress website to draw in potential customers and customize the membership plugin to fit your business's needs. Below are three Envato Tuts+ tutorials that will help you implement membership plugins into your WordPress website. 

In addition to the three tutorials below, feel free to check out the membership plugin tutorials available on Envato Tuts+.

• WordPress
  Monetize Your Content: Create a Membership WordPress Site With UMP
  Jessica Thornsby
• WordPress Themes
  How to Design the Front Page of a Subscription Website
  Stelian Subotin
• WordPress
  Protect Paid Content on Your WordPress Site Using a Free Membership Plugin
  Sajal Soni

Add a Premium WordPress Membership Plugin to Your Website Now!

Transforming your WordPress website into a fully functional membership website will be very costly and time-consuming if you hire a web developer. CodeCanyon offers you a quick and affordable solution by hosting a marketplace full of membership plugins for you to choose from. 

Whether you need to lock certain pages on your website or create cyclical payments through the WooCommerce payment gateways, CodeCanyon has plenty of high-quality membership plugins that can help you grow your business. 

While you are on CodeCanyon, feel free to browse through the best-selling WordPress plugins. New plugins are added weekly and can help you improve your website's functionality not only for you but also for your customers. 

Dive into CodeCanyon's library of premium WordPress plugins today! With a low-cost, one-time payment, you can purchase one of these high-quality WordPress plugins and improve your website experience for you and your visitors. 

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