Best MemberPress Alternatives, Competitors & Similar Software (2023)
MembersPress provides easy access to creating membership sites, communities around your content and sell memberships using MemberPress plugin.
If you're passionate about writing, blogging, or teaching online, you might be wondering how you can turn your work into a money-making venture. There are different ways to do this, such as selling courses, digital downloads, or creating a community around your work. By monetizing your passion, you can make a living doing something you love!
Each method has its benefits, so choosing the right platform best suits your needs is essential.
We understand that you have a lot of options when it comes to selling your work. One such option you might have come across is MemberPress.
MemberPress is an easy-to-use WordPress Membership Plugin. MemberPress can be used to build courses, community forums, and drip content. However, if you're looking to save time from using too many tools, MemberPress might not be the right fit.
Let's look at some of its shortcomings and fantastic options to consider to get your business up and running.
Why look for a MemberPress alternative?
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MemberPress does not provide an in-built community feature, so if you'd want to create your online community, you'd have to apply another platform that can be a hassle for you and your members.
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MemberPress is not brand consistent, and giving the site a look you want can take much effort. In the end, you may have to spend money on developers to get the results you want.
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No staging site or demo is available, so you'll have to be extra careful when implementing new changes or features. Changing or adding new features in a secure environment is impossible with MemberPress.
Best MemberPress Alternatives
Graphy Community Platform
MemberMouse
PeepSo
SendOwl
SamCart Courses
Kajabi
Teachable
Podia
Memberful
LearnDash
LearnWorlds
Thinkific
WildApricot
Simplero
Zenler
Graphy Community Platform
Graphy Community Platform is an ultimate community platform that helps you build a robust community where you can sell your courses and host live events, webinars, and live streams. It offers the best community features through which you can moderate, manage, and monetize your community all in one place - with your brand appearance, under your custom domain. Graphy Community Platform can also generate a whitelabelled mobile app and list it on the Play Store/App Store.
Features
Pros
- Available across in multiple formats & avatars; be it a web app under your domain, a native whitelabeled app on Android and iOS, integrations within your existing app or API-based integrations.
- Auto Scaling across platforms - Scenes uses powerful auto-scaling technology to keep your community blazing fast no matter how many visitors you have across all devices. They scale as you scale.
- The only platform that enables custom CSS for top to bottom granular-level user interface customization. You can make your community look close to your app/website's UI.
- A built-in coin system lets you incentivize your community members to engage more.
- Live audio-video features for your events, webinars and live classes where all your members can get notified and RSVP.
Cons
- You will lose some members during the platform migration process.
MemberMouse
MemberMouse is a popular WordPress membership plugin that turns your WordPress site into a membership site. It allows you to easily sell any type of digital or physical products, you can setup a membership area and offer 1-click upsells or downsells.
MemberMouse Features
- MemberMouse offers robust reporting tools that help you calculate sales, customer lifetime value, churn/retention, and more. Embrace a data-drive approach with the right metrics at your fingertips.
- Automate your member engagement, support and marketing with our tools and integrations. It's time to put things on autopilot.
- Member management is built into the core of MemberMouse. We also give you CRM tools to track member info, activity, transaction history and more.
Pros
- It seamlessly connected with my billing software (Stripe and PayPal).
- The support team is incredibly quick and thorough when issues do arise (usually stemming from my customizations, not the MemberMouse product).
- MemberMouse is easy to jump in and configure and manage members on a day to day. It has reporting to see where sales are at and help with churn.
Cons
- It requires WordPress knowledge to implement MemberMouse. It can get technical at times which leads to a learning curve for some administrative users.
- It is not user-friendly.
- The starter plan has limited features.
PeepSo
The PeepSO plugin is an easy way to add a social network or an online community to your WordPress site. It is extremely light, free and it looks great on any device. You can connect with your friends, share photos, videos and much more.
Peepso Features
- You can automatically create a corresponding Post on Community Stream when a new blog post is published.
- WordPress blog posts can be reacted on and commented on. Comments and reactions are synced with the corresponding community posts.
- Provides live On-site and Email Notifications.
Pros
- Dashboard with an Overview of Your Community and statistics.
- Configure your entire community navigation from one place.
- Built-in security configuration, preventing brute force attacks and more.
Cons
- Peepso expect customers to go into a testing-phase to find errors that the plugin causes the site.
- It is not user-friendly.
- Plugins are buggy.
SendOwl
SendOwl allows creators to sell their digital products and manage the entire order and payment process, from creation to delivery. In addition, it gives businesses control over their e-commerce operations by offering features like customizable sales workflow, flexible shipping options, automated invoicing, invoice management and analytics integration.
SendOwl Features
- SendOwl provides a shopping cart processing system so that your customers can purchase and add more products to their virtual shopping carts at their own pace.
- You'll be able to reward your valued loyal customers with thoughtful perks, like giving access to a private chat room, forum, or community.
- Affiliate marketing - Ask your brand advocates to help grow your customers base by making recommendations and referrals to their friends. In return, they’ll receive rewards for being instrumental in the growth of your business.
Sendowl Pricing
- Starts at $9/mo.
- Free trial available.
Pros
- The SendOwl delivery system offers fast and safe delivery, so you don't need to worry about getting your products to your customers on time.
- You can have your extensive affiliate program to increase the sales of your recent course or any other product.
- The checkouts and email templates can be customized to match your brand.
Cons
- It takes a great deal of time to understand SendOwl's complex features and go through a learning curve.
- There is no discussion forum where your members can ask any questions on Sendowl.
- The absence of community groups on SendOwl makes your website uninteresting and reduces member engagement.
SamCart Courses
SamCart courses is an e-commerce platform for creators. It allows you to create and sell courses, offers, templates and digital products on a single platform. You have complete control over your pricing, content, and branding.
Samcart Courses Features
- Drag & Drop Builder - You can add anything you want to showcase about your product. No coding experience is required to design pages.
- Pre-Designed Templates - You can easily create an attractive website with customizable templates to help you start selling.
- Conversion Rate Optimization - Optimization can be applied to every page on your site, making it easier to improve conversion rates.
SamCart Courses Pricing
- Pricing starts at $49/month.
- SamCart courses offer free trials.
Pros
- The affiliate management setup is very simple and easy to use. Each product has an affiliates option that can be enabled or disabled.
- Building sales pages and the checkout process for the customer are convenient and easy.
- You can easily add Google Pay and Apple Pay to the check-out flow, making it easier for your customers to pay.
Cons
- Due to SamCart's lack of an autoresponder, you cannot use your lists to send reminders, so the entire email process must be handled manually.
- SamCart's customer service is lacking, leaving customers with unanswered questions.
- Email marketing and website builders will require you to utilize multiple tools, which will take your time and effort.
Kajabi
Kajabi is a platform that enables educators to run their online courses and manage their students in one place. Moreover, Kajabi also offers a mobile app to allow your users to access courses on the go (however, it is not a native white-label app)
Kajabi Features
- No bandwidth or storage restrictions - Upload all of your videos, photos, and other files without worrying about space or bandwidth limitations.
- Fully-fledged LMS capabilities let you run your courses and manage your students seamlessly.
- Integrated checkout - Accept payments from anywhere in the world using Stripe or PayPal and give instant access to your content behind a paywall.
Kajabi Pricing
- Starting Price is $119/month.
- Kajabi offers a 14-Day free trial.
Pros
- Kajabi has rich-text and media features that let you upload all kinds of content into your online content library.
- You can track lesson progress, view grades, and get detailed analytics on how well students digest your content.
- Kajabi offers your prospective students free trials to taste your content before rolling them over to become paid customers.
Cons
- Kajabi is one of the most expensive solutions out there when it comes to LMS + community platforms.
- It lacks good customer support and offers minimal options to customize your course community.
- You have no native branded mobile app; your students will have to download the Kajabi app to access your content.
Teachable
Teachable is a popular online course platform that allows anyone to create, host and sell their pre-recorded online courses. So if you have your videos recorded & ready, you can create an online course within half an hour without being tech-savvy.
Teachable Features
- Drag and drop builder - Building courses on Teachable can get slightly confusing if you try to do it all yourself. But thankfully, if you follow their tutorials, it becomes easy.
- Quizzes - You can add multiple choice questions alongside (or after) your lectures - this helps your students assess their learning progress.
- Promotional offers - You can create coupon codes. This is a good way to run discounts and increase sales on your courses.
Teachable Pricing
- Paid plan starts at $39/month.
- Teachable has free trial.
Pros
- Teachable is affordable even on the paid plans, making it accessible to everyone.
- Teachable is easy to start with - it best suits beginners to advanced-level users.
- You can sell a variety of add-ons alongside courses like ebooks and services and even set up workshops and conferences.
Cons
- Pay-out options are a problem for customers from outside of the USA.
- Teachable doesn't include email marketing, community management, or landing page software.
- Teachable does not offer gamification or live learning which can make your courses boring and not up to the mark, as per 2023 standards (where cohort-based courses are the norm).
Podia
Podia is a platform that lets you build a free, no-code website and sell your online courses. With Podia, you can create a business from anywhere in the world with zero fees or start-up costs.
Podia Features
- Connect your audience and your content – You can host an online community in the same place that your audience uses your digital products.
- Community – In Podia, you can create a community that works like a forum or Slack. The design is clean, and the workflow is simple.
- Course Features – Using Podia, you can quickly create lessons and quizzes.
Podia Pricing
- Paid Plans start at $39/month.
- It has a free version.
Pros
- You can offer your audience webinars using YouTube Live and Zoom with Podia.
- If you want your website to look professional and run smoothly, you do not need to be tech-savvy or have coding knowledge.
- You can connect your payments, scheduling, and sales pages all in one place in minutes with Podia.
Cons
- Podia does not have a mobile app if you want to build courses that will be accessible on mobile for your members.
- Podia doesn't offer in-depth lesson reports if you're interested in knowing how impressive your course is. Only some basic information about student progress is provided.
- To assess your students more effectively, Podia lacks open-ended questions. The use of multiple choice questions is not suitable for all courses.
Memberful
Memberful is a membership site platform that enables you to sell and deliver digital and physical goods, community subscriptions, and online courses. Members can easily pay and stay subscribed with its tools.
Memberful Features
- WordPress Plugin - It allows you to make private posts on your WordPress website. This is ideal for creating members-only content.
- Discord Plugin - You can create a chat forum for members-only. Memberful invites paid members to your Discord server and removes their access when their subscription expires.
- Track your performance - You can track your performance and earn new members using conversion analytics and activity metrics, Gift purchases, Group subscriptions, Coupons, Discounts, Referral programmes, Free trials, etc.
Memberful Pricing
- Starts at $25/mo.
- Free trial available.
Pros
- Memberful offers reasonable prices compared to its other competitors. It is budget friendly and a good investment in building
- With the free plan, you have access to a variety of advanced features.
- Tens of thousands of third-party applications are compatible with memberful integration.
Cons
- Besides hosting costs for your WordPress site, Memberful charges fees between 4.9%-10% on each transaction.
- Memberful works with WordPress, but you have to add extra plugins to handle SEO, which can take a great deal of work.
- In comparison to other solutions, they have fewer features to offer.
LearnDash
LearnDash is a platform for creating course websites using WordPress. In addition, LearnDash offers great LMS features for course instructors, educators, and knowledge creators.
LearnDash Features
- The drag & drop course builder helps course creators create courses easily and quickly.
- It offers gamification tools like badges and certificates - Award certificates based on quiz results and course completions.
- It has a built-in notification feature that prevents your students from missing any necessary updates.
LearnDash Pricing
- Paid plan starts at $199/year.
- No free trials available.
Pros
- The video preview feature gives students a sneak peek into video lessons and makes the course more engaging.
- It offers a flexible quiz builder that makes creating QnAs easy.
- Provides gamification tools that help in engaging your members in your courses.
Cons
- Its URL structure is highly complicated, making SEO difficult. There is no way to shorten it.
- It takes some time to get used to all the new features. The learning curve is steep.
- It runs only on WordPress, which means you'll need to know all WordPress functionalities.
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is a learning management system that lets course creators create online courses. Using LearnWorlds, you can create student communities and sell online courses.
LearnWorlds Features
- Offers gamification tools such as badges so that you can acknowledge efforts & promote good behaviour.
- In-built shop for highlighting the details of your courses and selling them all in one place.
- A broad range of assessment tools to help the educator & the students measure the learning progress.
LearnWorlds Pricing
- Paid plan starts at $24/month (billed annually).
- LearnWorlds offers a free 30-day trial.
Pros
- You can create student communities in LearnWorlds so that your members can share their experiences, ideas, and learnings.
- Students can interact with your course content through LearnWorlds' course builder and enjoy a blissful learning experience.
- LearnWorld's live online classes encourage your students to have interactive sessions and discussions among each other.
Cons
- LearnWorld's interface is difficult to understand, and there are no tutorials that can help you get started.
- Regarding email management and funnel-building tools, LearnWorlds does not offer as many options.
- In LearnWorld, users complain that many features do not work when courses are published, making the learning experience less seamless.
- With LearnWorlds, you need too many integrations and more management, distracting you from your business activities.
Thinkific
Thinkific is a digital course creation platform where educators can curate online courses for their students. In addition, they offer competitive LMS features that let their customers run online courses effectively.
Thinkific Features
- Assessments & Certificates - Offers comprehensive quizzes, engagement surveys, assignments, exams and certificates.
- Progress Tracking - In-depth reporting to track student progress.
- Live Lessons - Deliver lessons via live audio/video and let your students engage with you in realtime (via Zoom integration).
Thinkific Pricing
- Paid plan starts at $39/month to $399/month.
- The free plan includes access to all the core features of the platform.
Pros
- Easy-to-use UI that makes running courses on Thinkific all the more seamless.
- A very prompt support system responds to customer queries and problems and comes with an active Facebook group filled with Thinkific customers.
- You can design the access portal, the courses, and the payment methods all in one interface without needing third-party integrations.
Cons
- Not built for community engagement - in 2023, an LMS is not enough to successfully run courses. Thinkific lacks critical community features like gamification and incentive systems.
- Cannot manage multiple cohorts under the same roof - this may constrain you as your courses start scaling and diversifying.
- The pricing is slightly more expensive than alternatives and confusing for some.
WildApricot
With WildApricot, associations and non-profit organizations can automate and simplify membership management tasks. WildApricot allows you to add, edit, manage members, and collect dues and payments.
WildApricot Features
- Member application process – WildApricot offers membership management software that can automate the application process to give your new members a great first impression.
- Events – You can create a detailed event listing with descriptions and images and get an online event registration form. You can list events in a calendar on your WildApricot site or existing website.
- Email marketing - With WildApricot, you can send prospective members announcements or offers using modern email templates that match your brand.
WildApricot Pricing
- Starts at $60/mo.
- 30-Day free trial is available.
Pros
- You can easily customize your member database with WildApricot. You can use it to keep track of all sorts of information, and it's easy to use.
- WildApricot provides up-to-date member directories. You can also store membership information in the cloud, making it accessible to your team.
- WildApricot's drag-and-drop website builder creates a website easily, sells digital products and services, and quickly gets your business online.
Cons
- WildApricot does not give you the freedom to create a website that matches your brand strategy.
- WildApricot does not provide any specific functionality for course building, so you may have difficulty formatting your courses and displaying student progress. In addition, WildApricot does not host videos or digital files.
- You can only add a certain number of members, emails, and invites unless you spend some extra money.
Simplero
Simplero is a learning management system built for online courses and coaching programs. You can sell digital products, build a list, create landing pages & more.
Simplero Features
- Flexible course delivery - In granular detail, you can control who gets what content.
- Sales Funnel - Set up your sales funnels without stress or tech nightmares so you can focus on your customers.
- Badges - You can give badges and community groups on the same membership site. It has worksheets, quizzes and a blog and notifies your members about community activity.
Simplero Pricing
- Paid plan starts from $70.80/month to $298.80/month.
- Simplero offers a free trial.
Pros
- You can deliver your members a great customer experience with easy-to-use courses and products.
- Simplero offers integrations with Stripe, PayPal, and 120+ other gateways.
- You can give people a taste of what you have to offer. Then, if they decide to buy, you can release the rest of your content to them.
Cons
- There are too many options and not enough customization options in design.
- Simplero has a tough learning curve, pricing 50% higher than other platforms.
- To make your website design look professional, you must have CSS knowledge.
Zenler
Zenler is a web-based online course platform best suited for creators and educators to create and sell their online courses and memberships. Zenler also helps you design video-based courses and build your video library.
Zenler Features
- Learning tools - Zenler offers tools like quizzes, exams, assignments, certificates, and more. Quizzes are its best feature, with plenty of available customization options. You can create quizzes with multiple-choice answers or single answers, images, and true or false questions.
- Page designer - Zenler allows you to create a page without any coding knowledge. You can use the Page Designer to customize your course website, with the home page, landing pages, funnels or even a blog with SEO settings.
- Community – Zenler lets you build an online community with your members. You can create different groups where you and your members can post anything.
Zenler Pricing
- Paid plans start at $67/mo.
- No free plans are available.
Pros
- Zenler provides many easy-to-use features that save a lot of your time on learning complex things.
- Zenler Integrates well with email, funnels, payments and blogs that make you market your courses better.
- You can host live webinars and classes and stream live with your members, making your sessions more fun and interactive.
Cons
- Because Zenler does not offer mobile app features, users may not open your website regularly, reducing retention and losing interest.
- Zenler is not the place to go if you want to make unique newsletters. It has limited email design options making your newsletters look boring.
- There are no creative templates or designs in Zenler that match your brand. It significantly affects the user experience.
Disclaimer: To curate the pros, cons and reviews - we mine the internet for customer references regarding the said software. Some of our sources include Reddit, Product Hunt, Twitter & Quora (and sites like G2 & Capterra).
What you should do now
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