MemberPress vs WooCommerce Memberships vs ProfilePress – Which Is Best?

Looking to add memberships to your WordPress site but not sure which plugin to choose?

Three popular options are MemberPress, WooCommerce Memberships, and ProfilePress. Choosing the right plugin can impact everything from member management to revenue generation.

Therefore, in this article, I will compare the features, pricing, and ease of use of these three leading membership plugins. By the end, you’ll better understand which plugin is best for your business’s needs and budget.

Table of Contents

MemberPress vs WooCommerce Memberships vs ProfilePress – A Basic Overview

Before we get into the details, let me briefly introduce each of these three popular membership plugins.

What is MemberPress?

MemberPress is a popular WordPress membership plugin that allows you to create and manage different membership plans with customizable billing cycles, set content access rules, and sell digital products. Apart from memberships, it also supports course creation and subscriptions.

What is WooCommerce Memberships?

WooCommerce Memberships is an extension that seamlessly integrates with your existing WooCommerce store to turn it into a fully-fledged membership site. It allows you to restrict access to content, products, and even discounts to members only while using the infrastructure provided by WooCommerce.

What is ProfilePress?

ProfilePress is a modern WordPress membership plugin that allows you to create highly customizable membership websites. You can create different membership levels, accept payments, restrict access to content based on subscription level, and create member directories. It also lets you create custom registration forms, login forms, and user profiles.

Features: MemberPress vs WooCommerce Memberships vs ProfilePress

Features are the backbone of any membership plugin, so let’s look at what each plugin offers.

MemberPress Features

Control access to specific content by setting up various membership rules.
Use content protection rules to gradually release content over time or upon completion of actions.
Provide corporate account management for organizations looking to manage group memberships.
Allow members to gift memberships to others and broaden your reach.
Create and sell online courses with a built-in Learning Management System (LMS).
Built-in tax calculations, including VAT, using the TaxJar integration.
Integrate with WordPress plugins like bbPress and BuddyBoss to create membership communities.

WooCommerce Memberships Features

Create membership plans to restrict access to content, products, and discounts.
Use drip content to schedule when members should have access to your content.
Integrate membership payments and associate memberships with the WooCommerce store.
Provide free shipping, members-only discounts, and other rewards specifically for members.
Add membership notes to communicate with members via email.
Sell team, company, or group memberships with Teams extension.
Restrict the purchase of public products to members only.

ProfilePress Features

Restrict access to specific content like pages, posts, categories, tags, custom post types, videos, and more based on member level.
Conversion-optimized checkout form to increase conversions.
Create discount codes and set up promotions to drive membership growth.
Use metered paywall to allow guests to view a limited number of posts for free and encourage sign-ups.
Create member directories with advanced filters to help users find each other.
Create and sell online courses with direct integration to LearnDash, Sensei LMS, LifterLMS, and Tutor LMS.
Integrate social logins or enable passwordless login to streamline the registration and login process.
Sell sub-sites as part of the membership.
Automatically calculate taxes and VAT based on customer billing details.
Reporting dashboard to track key eCommerce performance.
Beautifully designed templates for front-end login, registration, password reset, and edit profile forms.
Built-in custom field to collect custom user profile fields beyond the standard WordPress data.

Ease of Use: MemberPress vs WooCommerce Memberships vs ProfilePress

When using a new plugin, you should also consider how easy it is to set up and manage. Let’s take a closer look at the ease of use of each plugin.

MemberPress Setup and Ease of Use

MemberPress is easy to install and set up. After installing the plugin, a setup wizard automatically guides you through configuring the membership site. It helps you turn on features, create membership plans, set protection rules, and connect payment gateways.

The Settings page is well-organized, but new users may find it overwhelming at first due to the many options available. The plugin also has a lot of menu options on the left side, which may confuse new users.

However, it does aim to simplify functioning with its built-in page maker, ReadyLaunch. It’s a no-code tool that allows you to create visually appealing, mobile-responsive, and accessible pages easily.

WooCommerce Memberships Setup and Ease of Use

WooCommerce Memberships is an extension of the core WooCommerce plugin. If you’re familiar with the WooCommerce interface, WooCommerce Memberships will be easy to set up.

However, the plugin lacks its own menu, and the options are spread throughout the WooCommerce pages. For example, all membership-related settings are listed on the WooCommerce > Settings > Memberships page. You can create new membership plans by going to WooCommerce > Memberships > Membership Plans.

ProfilePress Setup and Ease of Use

ProfilePress is very simple to use and set up. After activation, a 5-step wizard walks you through the initial setup of your membership site. You can click on each button, and it’ll take you to a page where you can customize the settings for that step.

The layout is easy to navigate. The menu items are organized into sections so you can easily manage memberships, set up payment gateways, and customize user profiles. The majority of the customization options are available as simple dropdowns and checkboxes.

It also gives you a clean dashboard to monitor key eCommerce data for your membership store.

Integrations: MemberPress vs WooCommerce Memberships vs ProfilePress

Integrating other tools and services into your membership site can take its features and member experience to the next level. Let’s explore some of the top integrations offered by these plugins.

MemberPress Integrations and Add-ons

MemberPress integrates with 100+ popular services to extend the functionality of your membership website. However, the integrations are plan-specific, so you must choose a plan that has the integration you’re looking for.

For collecting membership fees, it seamlessly integrates with leading payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net.

To build your member email list and automate communications, MemberPress syncs with top email marketing platforms, including ActiveCampaign, AWeber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, and MailerLite.

Beyond payments and email, MemberPress supports a wide range of other integrations. You can monetize your podcast with Castos, use Zapier to connect with thousands of web apps, sell memberships as products through WooCommerce, and even use ChatGPT to overcome writer’s block.

WooCommerce Memberships Integrations and Add-ons

WooCommerce Memberships has fewer add-ons than the other two plugins.

These add-ons include Mailchimp for WooCommerce Memberships, Teams for WooCommerce Memberships, WooCommerce Social Login, and Woo Subscriptions. They allow you to enable syncing of membership data with Mailchimp, sell group accounts, add social login functionality, and manage recurring payments for memberships.

It’s worth noting that these add-ons are not included with the plugin, and you must purchase them separately.

ProfilePress Integrations and Add-ons

ProfilePress provides over 25 integrations and add-ons to expand the capabilities of your membership site.

For collecting payments, it seamlessly integrates with leading payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Paystack, and Mollie. This enables you to easily accept one-time and recurring payments for subscriptions, memberships, and digital products.

If you run an LMS or online course site, it has direct integrations with LearnDash, Sensei, Tutor LMS, and LifterLMS to allow you to bundle course access into membership plans.

For email lists, it integrates with services like Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor to allow you to sync new members to your email lists.

ProfilePress also offers specialized add-ons to level up membership features. These add-ons include metered paywalls, invite-only signups with promo codes, manual user moderation, and more.

Pricing: MemberPress vs WooCommerce Memberships vs ProfilePress

With the key features and integrations covered, let’s focus on the financial aspect. We’ll now compare the pricing structures of each plugin to help you determine which offers the best value for your money.

How Much Does MemberPress Cost?

MemberPress has four pricing plans that vary based on the number of sites, features, and add-ons.

Basic: $179.50/year for one site and basic add-ons.
Plus: $299.50/year for use on two sites and advanced marketing integrations.
Pro: $399.50/year for three sites.
Elite: $499.50/year for five sites.

The prices listed above are only for the first year, after which they will be renewed at full price.

How Much Does WooCommerce Memberships Cost?

WooCommerce Memberships runs on top of WooCommerce, so the core WooCommerce plugin is free to download. WooCommerce Memberships offers only one plan, which is $199/year for a single website with all features.

How Much Does ProfilePress Cost?

ProfilePress offers three pricing plans:

Standard: $129/year for a single site license and 18 premium add-ons/
Plus: $299/year for a 3-site license and all premium add-ons.
Agency: $499/year for unlimited websites.

There’s also a free version with core features that you can try before committing to a paid plan.