The Best Membership Site Platforms – Top 6 Reviewed

All-in-one Platforms:

Build it Yourself Platforms are better solution if you want to build a community, use several integrations, and give members access to more than just an online learning course. These are the membership platforms that go beyond implementing an online course, and help you build recurring revenue. (You still do NOT need to know how to code to use these platforms)

All-in-one Platforms are better solutions for online course learning content. These are good solutions if you have training content in mind already and are ready to get your membership website set up from scratch as quick as possible. This is a better option for someone who does not want to deal with the tech side of things at all.

This is what we build our own membership sites on, and what we build sites on for clients. WordPress is our favorite membership site platform because it is extremely functional and affordable. This platform requires some more hands-on work (compared to the other platforms in this list) setting up your entire membership website, and will require a membership theme and wordpress membership plugin. However if you don’t want to be limited by what features a certain membership platform includes, this is the platform for you because thousands of developers support the WordPress platform, and millions of sites worldwide are built using it.

Pricing

• Free initially

Expected Costs

• Domain – www.yourwebsite.com
• WordPress membership plugin (you can use a free one to start)
• Hosting for your site (~$10/m)
• Additional integrations you add such as Email

Memberful is the underdog of membership software platforms. They may not have as many features in terms of website building, backend course structure, or marketing funnel tools, but what they do great is connecting several different platforms together. This is a great option if you want to create more a community around your membership and want to give your members access to more than just your website content. Memberful is more of a membership community platform than it is a content membership platform.

Memberful integrates closely with Zapier – a service for automating workflows easy with drag and drop. So if you are anything like me and don’t like to get into the nitty-gritty programming side of things, but still want the abilities of a magical tech wizard, Memberful + Zapier might be the platform for you.

The Profit Per Month Membership platform is built to help engage members in the most effective way possible – You can connect the PPM platform to any website to help collect data on your audience’s engagement with your content, to determine who your most valuable customers are and which aspects of your membership are most valuable to customers.

This is the ultimate drag and drop subscription website and best online course platform for if you want to spend the least amount of time on the techy side of things. You are ready to get your content up and selling now, and you don’t want to mess around with tediously setting up your website. You’re going to have to pay a hefty price tag of $149/month, but this is platform can have you set up with membership website from scratch in just a few hours. We recommend this option if you have a larger budget for your subscription business, and/or you specialize in a less technical industry and don’t want the most efficient solution.

Features

• All-in-one, drag and drop membership site creator
• Extensive E-learning & Course structure tools
• Fastest, most intuitive way to create a membership site from scratch

Pricing

• $149/month lowest option
• $199/month more contacts, members, features
• $399/month more contacts members, features

Teachable is similar to Thinkific – its built more specific for online course learning, without the extra widgets and gizmos of extra sales tools and funnels. Choose a prebuilt layout, pick what types of course content you are including, and upload away. Teachable is super flexible and easy to build on. It includes user analytics tools, and even has an iOS App.

Features

• Plenty of themes and templates for building the membership website you want
• Great functionality for online course, lecture, & learning content
• Drip Content – schedule your lecture sessions for a specific date
• 1-page checkout process (essential for tracking leads and growing sales)

Pricing

• $29/month + 5% of your transaction fees is the starter plan.
• $99/month & $249/month upgrade paths, with 0% of transactions

Thinkific is another great all-in-one platform for membership and subscription websites. Its not as extensive as Kajabi in terms of sales funnels and prebuilt layout options, but it has plenty of functionality for online learning content and is focused more just on that. What we love about Thinkific is they also have plenty of resources for learning how to grow your own subscription service, and a whole movement behind the platform for evolving your business to the next level. We think its worth giving Thinkific a look if you want a simple membership platform that isn’t going to break the bank.

Best Membership Site Platforms Wrapped

These are our favorite membership site platforms we think you should consider if you are trying to build sustainable recurring revenue monthly. Again, it is important first to decide what kinds of aspects you are looking for in your website before choosing a platform, to ensure you can integrate.

In our opinion we think its better to build a subscription service that goes beyond online learning courses. In order to build a successful online membership site, you want to build a movement behind your membership and motivate your members beyond just technical learning content. Grow a relationship with your members instead of looking at it from a transactional point of view. This is why  WordPress is our ultimate favorite choice in the long run.

All-in-one platforms for building membership websites such as Kabaji, Thinkific, and Teachable are great for easily building a website, but you have limited freedom with the itegrations you can use for your site. This is only reccomended for those who don’t want to deal with the tech side of things at all.