Memberful or WordPress plugins?

We’ve had more than a few creators ask us about the differences between Memberful and other WordPress plugins. Of course, we know we’re not a perfect fit for every creator, but here are some of the important differences we think will help you choose the right membership plugin for your site.

Dedicated dashboard for member management

For big creators, managing thousands of members in WordPress’ CMS interface can get… unmanageable. Memberful lives outside of WordPress, allowing you to go to a separate dashboard to manage key aspects of your subscriptions like credit card information and customer profiles.

We also provide you with powerful metrics you can use to grow your membership site. Plus, since you’re not working within WordPress, it’s easier to handle day-to-day tasks like member profile updates, subscription changes, and refunds.

Higher conversion rates and better retention.

WordPress plugins use multi-step checkouts that hurt conversion rates. Memberful’s simple one-step checkout via our payment form makes it easier for your subscribers to make purchases, which in turn makes it more likely they will.

We also send well-timed and relevant transactional emails to your subscribers that increase retention. We’ve seen first-hand that features like our automatic two-day grace period for subscriptions have increased renewals by 14%.

Easy integrations

Memberful integrates with tools like Discourse, Mailchimp, and Stripe, making it easy to have a decentralized solution that fits your site’s specific needs.

Plus, we’re always listening to our customers, and often add new features and integrations based on their direct feedback.

If WordPress goes down, your business keeps running

With Memberful, you won’t have to weigh down your WordPress site with code, making your site less likely to break. But, if your WordPress site does go down, your membership business keeps running in the background without interruption; daily deposits will keep coming in while you focus on getting the site up and running.

No coding or customization needed

With most WordPress plugins you have to spend time designing the whole checkout page to fit with your site, which can not only be time-consuming but frustrating. With our simple payment form, you get a streamlined design and easy user experience right out of the box, no custom pages needed.

Plus, with our always free test mode you can 'kick the tires' without any commitment or upfront cost.

Hands-on support

With most membership WordPress plugins you could wait days or even weeks to hear back from customer support which can be frustrating. At Memberful, we understand your membership business is your livelihood, and we take pride in providing same-day support for all your technical issues.

Plus, since we’re SaaS (software as a service) you get most of our new features without having to worry about manually upgrading the plugin, giving you a seamless stress-free experience.

Memberful versus WordPress plugins: We keep it simple

One of the most important things for us at Memberful is giving you an easy to use simple membership experience. You’re already dealing with marketing, pricing, and creating value for your subscribers- we’re happy to help you do the rest.