Do you plan on providing exclusive content by building a WordPress membership or subscription site? Well, then you’re in for a super treat! Whether you’re a coach, content creator, or a community manager, you would need a powerful tool for membership management. Additionally, you also need a tool that helps lock in your content and supports content monetization features.
But before we go all in, let us have a brief about what a membership plugin is and how it helps building a WordPress membership site.
What is a Membership Plugin and How Does it Help?
Technically, a membership plugin is a tool that allows restriction of specific exclusive content. Thus, this helps you to set up a paywall wherein only the registered users can access particular content. It helps you build a private, subscription-based environment to cater to a community.
A robust WordPress membership plugin provides the following features to sustain and manage a website.
- Multiple Tiers: Usually, a membership plugin helps you set up different levels or plans to allow users to choose the one that fits their needs and pocket.
- Monetization: Exclusive content must be behind a paywall for you to earn from it. You can sell access to content, courses, digital downloads, or even entire sections of your site.
- Content Restriction: It helps set up various rules for posts, pages, custom content, etc. based on user roles, membership levels, etc.
- User Management: Supports handling of registrations, logins, payments, member profiles, etc. in an easy way.
- Automation: The best WordPress membership plugin allows you to automate payments, content dripping, email notifications, and more for easy membership website management.
- Scalability: A membership site plugin usually provides third-party integrations and addons that help you grow your business with time. Thus, a great membership tool grows with you.
Now, you must be confused as to what kinds of businesses can use a membership tool. Well, it is more than just content-sites. Let’s have a look at it.
What Kind of Businesses Can Leverage a Membership Plugin?
A membership plugin is a versatile tool and can power multiple types of business models. It can be used for content monetization, build a private community, offer exclusive service access, etc. Following is the list of businesses that can be powered by online membership sites.
- Online Course Creators
- Content Publishers & Bloggers
- Fitness & Wellness Coach
- Private Hobby Group
- Online Communities
- Private or Professional Associations
- Service-based Businesses like Freelancers
- Non-profit Groups
- E-commerce Brands
- Podcast Site
- Video Subscription Site Netflix
Well, you’re sold on the idea of creating a membership site. But what tool to use that is both powerful and affordable? That’s where ARMember steps in! In the following detailed review of the plugin, we shall take a deep dive into everything it has to offer. From the no-code setup to its powerful features, addons, pros, and cons. Let’s take you through a well-researched review and decide whether this Plugin should be a part of your list in 2025!
What is ARMember?
ARMember is a complete membership and subscription plugin that helps protect your content, manage members, and set up various plans and recurring subscriptions. That too, right within your WordPress dashboard. It powers thousands of websites around the globe. Whether you want to sell online courses, restrict exclusive content, sell specific posts individually, or build a paid community; ARMember supports it all.
And using this tool, you don’t need to duct-tape or work with 5 different plugins at the same time. It is a truly all-in-one solution.
Key Features of ARMember
Let’s break down why ARMember is your complete membership management solution.
1. Multiple Membership Levels
With ARMember, you can create unlimited membership levels to cater to different audiences. It allows various plan types like Free, Lifetime, Paid Finite, and Recurring Subscription. Thus, you can easily plan your website content as per different tiers.
2. Content Restriction
You can restrict your content by post, page, category, or even partially. Furthermore, define which plan members can access specific content posts. Create content dripping schedules to deliver your content step-by-step gradually. This kind of setup is perfect for coaching business or online courses for gated, structured delivery.
3. 21+ Payment Gateways
ARMember supports a total 21+ payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, Bank Transfer etc and provides some of them in-built. You can easily configure free trials, paid trials, one-time fee, or a definite recurring payment.
4. Easy Member Management
The member management dashboard is super sleek and easy. Herein, you can view, edit, and manually approve member registrations. ARMember WordPress membership plugin allows you to assign one user to multiple memberships as well. Export/import member data and track their payment status/cycle right here.
5. Built-in Form Builder
Easily create and customize various forms like registration, login, forgot password, change password, etc. It also provides anti-spam features like Google reCAPTCHA. You can use the drag and drop builder and also leverage the pre-built templates.
6. Email Notifications
With 15+ email marketing integrations like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Mailster, AWeber, Brevo, and more, you can automate your emails. ARMember provides a detailed shortcode library to customize and personalize your various email triggers.
7. Gamification & Badges
You can set up the in-built gamification features to reward your members with badges and achievements. This can be defined based on the user activity and can boost engagement among your membership community. You also get myCRED integration to set up points systems.
8. Pay Per Post Facility
Using ARMember for your membership site, you can sell individual posts to non-members. Thus, it is beneficial to rope in the audience that wants a sneak peek access to your exclusive content but are yet not ready to commit full-time to a plan.
These are some of the essential features that you get with ARMember. Apart from these, the plugin fashions 57+ inbuilt addons and 50+ external addons that supports full membership management.
But Firstly, Is ARMember Easy to Use?
Straight Answer: Yes!
Its setup wizard walks you through the entire setup process. From creating a membership plan to setting up payments and content protection, it is intuitive and downright easy.
The admin dashboard is super clean and organized. Even if you’ve rarely or never worked with WordPress, ARMember setup would seem like a cakewalk. Even if you’re an advanced developer, you will get enough hooks, customization options, and custom CSS blocks to help you.
Third-party Integrations: What ARMember Plays Well With
ARMember easily integrates with famous tools of WordPress realm. These might already be your favorites and in use.
Email Marketing: 15+ tools like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, GetResponse, AWeber, ActiveCampaign. MailerLite, Zapier, Zoho, HubSpot, Brevo, etc.
Payment Gateways: 21+ like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Mollie, Mercado Pago, RazorPay, PayFast, Paysafe, Skrill, 2Checkout, Bank Transfer, etc.
Page Builders: Supports 10 page builders viz. Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery, SiteOrigin, Beaver Builder, etc.
Other Powerful Integrations: WooCommerce, BuddyPress, AffiliateWP, etc.
Exclusive In-built Addons to Power Up Your Membership Site
Inbuilt Addons of ARMember provide exclusive features to extend your business exponentially. Let’s take a look at these features.
- Online Courses: Allows you to create and sell online courses individually or as a part of a plan. Herein, you can add multiple lessons, sections, video, audio, text, and HTML content. It allows you to create graded quizzes with multiple field types and also assign completion certificates.
- Social Community: Build an in-house member engagement platform with features like feed posting, direct messaging, group creation, friend requests, follow/unfollow, etc. It allows setting up a vibrant community of like-minded people to share ideas.
- Affiliate Addon: With ARMember, you don’t require any external affiliate plugin. You can easily set up and manage your affiliates using this addon. It provides special affiliate links, dashboard, commission options, mass payout system, and much more.
- WhatsApp & SMS Notifications: To keep your members hooked, you can easily automate your notifications via WhatsApp or SMS.
- Group/Umbrella Membership: You can allow a member to purchase a group membership and assign child seats. Such plans can be offered to corporations and agencies.
- Gift Membership: Allow your members and visitors to buy your membership plan as a gift for someone else using this exclusive feature.
- Proration: Allow members to upgrade/downgrade their membership plan in between at any point in time. This feature smartly calculates the difference amount to be paid for the updated plan.
- Membership Cards: Use customizable membership card templates to assign a separate one to each plan type. Allow members to access it for a quick view at membership details.
- Social Feature: Allows social login options, provides access to member profiles, membership cards, directories, etc. It also activates the in-built gamification of badges and achievements.
- Invoice & Tax: This in-built invoicing and tax calculation system helps streamline financial operations and simplifies tax management.
- Coupon Discounts: You can create multiple coupons to provide discounts on member registrations.
- WooCommerce Integration: ARMember is WooCommerce compatible, This integration allows you to take all the benefits of the famous e-commerce platform with ease. Be it product selling or payment gateway extension, you get it all.
ARMember Pricing: Free vs Paid
Free Lite Version (available to download free here)
Includes:
- Basic membership setup
- In-built Paypal and Bank Transfer Payment Support
- 9 Standard Page Builders Supported
- Unlimited plans
- All 4 types of plans
- Content restriction rules
- Bank transfer and PayPal integration
- Simple forms
- Redirection rules
- Anti-spam feature
The ARMember Lite version provides all the basic features to set up a fully functioning membership website. To explore more, you must go Pro. Here’s a quick overview of the pro pricing plans.
ARMember Pro Version
ARMember pricing begins with our Standard plan at just $69 per year. It comes with various payment gateways, all in-built and free addons to be used on 1 site. You get access to Proration, Drip Content, Pay Per Post, Multiple Membership, and Two factor Authentication.
Its professional and enterprise plan with access to more addons and payment gateways are available starting at $129/year and $299/year. No monthly fees.
Verdict: The Pro version is a steal for the features it packs in a very budget friendly price. The yearly fee is a more convenient payment option than monthly fees for other such plugins. You can easily get yourself acquainted with the UI using the free version and then choose a plan that suits your requirements.
You can choose any of our plans based on your requirements. Check out the ARMember demo for various membership setups in order to get a feel for the pro features.
Pros & Cons of ARMember
Pros:
- Perfect all-in-one solution.
- Affordable pricing options.
- Pre-made templates for form, directories, membership cards, and profile.
- Flexible content dripping and content access rules.
- Powerful integrations to scale up your business.
Cons:
- Slight learning curve if you’re using custom CSS and shortcodes for the first time with WordPress. It will take some time to get used to it and do it intuitively for beginners.
Final Verdict: Is ARMember the Right Membership Plugin for You?
Absolutely! If you want a powerful and budget-friendly option which is stacked with amazing features, this is perfect. Whether you’re just starting out with membership site business or scaling up, ARMember offers everything you need.
You can easily start with the free run and take it for the test drive before committing to a license. But you will not be disappointed, that’s for sure.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Is ARMember Secure?
It is a very secure plugin as it follows standard WordPress security practices. It offers role-based content restriction, captcha for forms, regular updates, etc. to be up to date.
- Does ARMember support recurring payments?
You can use the subscription plan type to set up recurring payments with ARMember. It can be customized to daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or a custom duration of your choice.
- Can I offer a free trial with ARMember?
Yes, a free trial can be set up with ARMember. Moreover, you can also choose to offer a paid trial and charge a minimal amount. Both of these are possible with the recurring subscription plan type.
- Can I use ARMember as a beginner without any coding knowledge?
It is easy to use ARMember ARMember as it comes with a setup wizard and drag-and-drop form builder. It can be easily used without any coding. It might take some time to get comfortable with the advanced features setup.
