Memberful vs Leaky PaywallWhich platform helps you grow beyond your paywall?
Should you choose Memberful or Leaky Paywall?
Comparing Memberful and Leaky Paywall for WordPress publishers
Memberful and Leaky Paywall both add paywalls to your WordPress site, but they’re designed to solve different problems.
What is Memberful?
Memberful is a membership platform for building long-term businesses that scale as your membership grows. With Memberful, you fully own every element of your memberships: your pricing, data, subscription tiers, and content.
Add membership features to your WordPress site, like a metered paywall, then offer your subscribers more. Start a hosted newsletter, share private podcasts, or launch a Discord community: you can create the exact membership you want on your WordPress site and beyond.
What is Leaky Paywall?
Leaky Paywall is a WordPress paywall built for publishers and news sites who need more control over who accesses what content. While it does have a free plugin for a metered paywall and subscriptions, it gets more powerful on its paid Pro plans.
Dynamic paywalls give you more options for restricting access, using granular data like cookies and IP addresses to grant or limit access based on location or user behavior. You also get comprehensive analytics that predict churn and show what content drives subscriptions.
Memberful & Leaky Paywall’s Features
| Feature | Memberful | Leaky Paywall |
|---|---|---|
Price | Free plugin available with 10% revenue share on paid subscriptions Pro: $299/month + 5% revenue share on new subscribers Pro + Flowletter: $499/month + 5% revenue share on new subscribers Enterprise: $1000/month (no revenue share) | |
Setup fees | Memberful doesn’t have any setup fees, and you don’t pay until your membership goes live | Pro: $750 one-time fee |
Migration + setup | Migration is included for everyone who uses Memberful. | On paid Pro plans, migration and setup are handled for you, and are typically live in under 60 days |
Architecture | Manage memberships across platforms — including WordPress – directly from Memberful’s dashboard | Features are managed on your WordPress backend |
Paywall types | Metered paywall and hard paywall for members-only content for WordPress | Metered paywall and registration wall with free plugin |
Web features | WordPress integration adds members-only content and membership sales to your existing WordPress site | WordPress-native integration; every Leaky Paywall feature is built for your WordPress site |
Content types supported | Publications and blogs, hosted newsletters, integrated newsletters, private podcasts, digital downloads, online communities hosted through Discourse or Discord | Built for publications and news sites |
Analytics | Track growth metrics like trials, MRR, and churn in your Memberful dashboard | In-depth analytics on paid plans help you analyze churn risk, articles with high conversion rates, and reader behavior |
Integrations | 18 built-in integrations, including Discord for paid communities, Mailchimp for email marketing, and a sophisticated WordPress integration | 20+ integrations, including Mailchimp, Salesforce, and HubSpot |
Best for | Creators and publishers who want to build long-term, multi-channel membership businesses | Publishers and news sites who want a tool that lives inside of WordPress to manage complex content access |
Why publishers switch from Leaky Paywall to Memberful
Leaky Paywall manages subscriptions and access to articles on WordPress sites, but what if you want to offer more? Memberful lets you offer subscribers more content, like newsletters, private podcasts, or Discord communities.
Multi-channel memberships
Leaky Paywall manages subscriptions and access to articles on WordPress sites, but what if you want to offer more? Memberful lets you offer subscribers more content, like newsletters, private podcasts, or Discord communities.
An integrated experience
Leaky Paywall lives in your WordPress site’s backend, which means going back and forth between tools if you add new membership features outside of WordPress. With Memberful, you manage your membership from one dashboard: your content and paywall, your subscriptions, and your integrations with other tools, too.
Creator-friendly features
Leaky Paywall is a powerful tool with deep customizations, which can be essential for some large-scale publications and news sites. But if you’re a creator or publisher focused on a simple setup and a great member experience, Memberful might be a better fit.
Simple, predictable pricing
With Leaky Paywall, you have two options: a free plugin with a 10% revenue share, or pricey paid plans with a 5% revenue share and significant setup costs. As you scale, even the free plan’s revenue share adds up. Memberful keeps it simple: everything is included for $49 per month + a 4.9% transaction fee.
Stronger security
MemberSpace is a JavaScript-based tool. While this makes it easier to integrate with more websites, it protects your exclusive content at a surface level — making it easier to bypass. Memberful’s server-side content protection keeps your subscriber-only content private.
“Memberful is so simple to use it's almost unfair to other WordPress plugins.
Armit Vit at
Brand New
Turn your website into a business with Memberful
Read more customer storiesThe Air Current
Jon Ostrower publishes deep analysis and resources for aviation and aerospace professionals and enthusiasts Read his story
Brand New
Brand New gives design, logo, and branding enthusiasts exclusive articles, a newsletter, and a podcast See the site
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Taegan Goddard turned his WordPress into a business with a thriving subscriber community Read his story
Real brands trust Memberful to build long-term membership businesses
How to migrate from Leaky Paywall to Memberful
Tell subscribers you’re switching subscription platforms, and answer any questions they have. This keeps them in the loop if they notice something different.
Talk to your subscribers
Tell subscribers you’re switching subscription platforms, and answer any questions they have. This keeps them in the loop if they notice something different.
Schedule your migration
Once you’re ready to switch to Memberful, schedule your migration 3–5 days ahead of time. Typically, the migration takes between 1-2 hours.
Get ready to switch
We’ll tell you what you need to prepare for the move. You might already use Stripe Subscriptions with Leaky Paywall — if you do, we’ll use it to migrate your subscribers and payment information.
Ask for help when you need it
Support continues after migration, whenever you need us. Reach out to Memberful’s human support team with any questions you have. We’re here to help you from Monday to Friday, 9 am–6 pm ET.
Frequently Asked Questions
Memberful is free to try for as long as you like, so you can get into the details.
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