WordPress membership plugin lifetime license: protect content, sell access and pay once

• $89 s2Member Pro for 1 site, the cheapest lifetime entry in this guide

• 31 Months until ARMember beats its yearly plan, the fastest of the five

• 100 sites Covered by the single lifetime plan of SureMembers

• 11 Course, membership and community deals with a lifetime license in our catalog

WordPress membership plugins with a lifetime license at a glance

The table shows the lifetime entry plan of five plugins that turn a WordPress site into a membership site. All prices are in US dollars and come from each vendor pricing page. The payback row shows after how many months the one-time price beats the yearly plan. s2Member Pro is only sold as a one-time license, so it has no yearly price and no payback value.

Is a WordPress membership plugin lifetime license worth it?

Yes, if your membership site will run for more than three years. Members, plans and protected content are set up once, and then the plugin works in the background for as long as people pay. The four plans with a yearly price pay off after 31 to 37 months. After five years WP User Manager Pro has saved you $296 compared with renewing every year. Our post lifetime license or subscription explains how to read payback times.

How to create a membership site in WordPress

Every membership plugin follows the same order of steps. You decide what members get, set up plans and payments, protect the content and build the pages for sign up, login and the member account. The steps below work for all five plugins in this guide.

1. 1Define the offerWrite down what is free, what is members only and whether there are several levels, such as a basic and a premium plan.
2. 2Create the plansSet price, billing cycle and trial for each plan. Recurring plans need a gateway that supports subscriptions, such as Stripe or PayPal.
3. 3Protect the contentAssign posts, pages, categories or downloads to plans and decide what visitors without access see: a teaser, a sign up form or a redirect.
4. 4Build the member pagesRegistration, login, account and password reset pages need to work on a phone. Test the whole path with a real payment before you launch.

Restrict content WordPress: who sees what

The core job of a membership plugin is to restrict content in WordPress by rule. You decide per post, page, custom post type or category which plan may see it. SureMembers groups these rules into access groups and can lock single blocks inside the editor. User Registration & Membership Pro restricts by role, plan, date or form field. ARMember and WP User Manager Pro restrict content and keep private content for logged in members only.

If your members come from a CRM or an email tool, WP Fusion restricts content by tags that it syncs with more than 50 CRMs. It is not a membership plugin on its own, but it connects one to your marketing tools.

Drip content WordPress: release lessons on a schedule

With drip content in WordPress a member does not see everything on day one. Lesson two unlocks after seven days, the bonus after thirty. That keeps people subscribed longer and stops them from downloading everything and cancelling. ARMember and SureMembers drip content on a schedule in their lifetime plans; User Registration & Membership Pro offers it from the Plus tier upwards.

WordPress paywall plugin: lock articles for paying members

A WordPress paywall plugin shows the first part of an article and asks for a membership to read on. Technically this is content restriction with a teaser. SureMembers does it at block level: everything below a locked block stays hidden. In the other plugins you set a custom message or a redirect for visitors without access. For news sites, keep the teaser long enough to be indexed and readable.

Complete membership systems with a lifetime license

A complete membership system takes the payments itself. You do not need a shop plugin next to it: plans, checkout, coupons and member management live in one plugin. That is the classic setup for a paid newsletter, a premium download area or a club.

ARMember: unlimited plans and more than 22 gateways

The plugin by Repute Infosystems handles unlimited membership plans, also recurring, with proration for upgrades and downgrades. It restricts and drips content, gives members profiles, directories and membership cards and brings a live form builder with registration templates. More than 22 payment gateways are included, among them Stripe, PayPal and Mollie, which matters for European sites.

Lifetime starts at $229 for 1 site; all tiers: 1 site for $229, 2 sites for $379, 10 sites for $599. It pays off after 31 months against $89 a year, the fastest of the five. Updates run for life, premium support for 3 years. Refund window: 14 days. See how it compares with a leaner tool in our duel SureMembers vs ARMember.

s2Member Pro: the veteran with a low one-time price

s2Member Pro by s2Member has been around since 2010. The free framework runs on 8,000+ sites with a rating of 4.1. Pro adds one step registration and checkout through Pro-Forms, Stripe, PayPal Pro, Authorize.Net and ClickBank, unlimited membership levels, coupon and gift codes and custom registration fields. You get the full source code.

It costs $89 for 1 site; all tiers: 1 site for $89, unlimited sites for $189, multisite included. Development and staging sites do not count as activations. The trade off: no ticket support, an older interface and refunds within 14 days only at the vendor’s discretion.

WordPress user registration plugin with paid memberships

Some membership sites start with the sign up form: custom fields, approval, profiles. A WordPress user registration plugin with a membership add on covers that first and adds paid plans on top. If you also need social login on the sign up page, our guide to WordPress social login plugins with a lifetime license compares the options.

User Registration & Membership Pro: forms and memberships in one plugin

The plugin by WPEverest combines registration and login forms with more than 42 fields and paid, recurring memberships with groups and upgrades. It restricts content, has a members directory, coupons, social login, two factor authentication and links to WooCommerce, LearnDash and Zapier. The free version has existed since 2017 and runs on 50,000+ sites.

Lifetime starts at $299 for 1 site; all tiers: 1 site for $299, 5 sites for $699, unlimited sites for $999. It pays off after 37 months against $99 a year. Content drip and team memberships need the Plus tier or higher, and the pricing page does not say how long support lasts. Refund window: 14 days.

WP User Manager Pro: profiles, groups and private content

WP User Manager Pro by WP User Manager focuses on users: custom registration forms and profile fields, user verification, user groups, front end posting and private content. GDPR tools export and delete account data on request. Paid memberships need the Pro tier with Stripe Pro or WooCommerce. The free version runs on 10,000+ sites.

Lifetime starts at $449 for 1 site; all tiers: 1 site for $449, 5 sites for $599, 10 sites for $899, 25 sites for $1,799. It pays off after 37 months. Support runs for 1 year, the refund window of 30 days is the longest in this guide.

Content protection for many sites

SureMembers: access groups and block level rules

SureMembers by Brainstorm Force, the makers of Astra, keeps membership simple: access groups for posts, pages and custom post types, content drip, block level restriction in the editor, smart redirects for non members and secure downloads. It takes no payments itself; you sell access through SureCart or WooCommerce. How those two shop plugins differ is in our comparison SureCart Pro vs FluentCart Pro.

The single lifetime plan costs $599 for 100 sites with lifetime updates and support, also available in 11 monthly payments. It pays off after 37 months against $199 a year. There is no small lifetime plan for one site, so it suits agencies and builders of several member sites more than a single club. Refund window: 14 days.

Membership sites with a community or courses

Many members stay for the people, not for the downloads. A community plugin adds feeds, groups and chat to the member area. FluentCommunity Pro brings spaces, profiles, chat and a course builder for $399 on 1 site and pays off after 25 months. PeepSo Ultimate Bundle builds a full social network with its own mobile app, but costs $1,999 once. Our review of FluentCommunity Pro and the duel FluentCommunity Pro vs PeepSo Ultimate Bundle go into detail.

If the membership is mainly a course, a course plugin with its own membership features may be enough. Our guide to WordPress LMS plugins with a lifetime license compares them.

MemberPress alternative with a one-time price

Many people search for a MemberPress alternative because they do not want another yearly renewal on a site that should make money. MemberPress is not in our catalog, so we make no claim about its prices. The five plugins in this guide are all sold with a lifetime plan on their own pricing page. The closest match for an all in one setup with its own checkout is ARMember; if you already run SureCart or WooCommerce, SureMembers adds the access rules. Before you switch, export members and plans and check that your gateway keeps running subscriptions when the plugin changes.

Free vs paid membership plugin: what the Pro version adds

Four of the five plugins start with a free version on wordpress.org, and for a free members area with login and protected pages that can be enough. The paid versions add what turns it into a business: recurring payments, several plans, coupons, content drip, upgrades with proration, directories and email integrations. Start free, build the member path and buy the lifetime plan once a paid feature is missing.

Membership features compared

• Own checkout and gateways

  ARMember, s2Member Pro and User Registration & Membership Pro; WP User Manager Pro through Stripe Pro or WooCommerce.

• Content drip

  ARMember and SureMembers; User Registration & Membership Pro from the Plus tier.

• Block level restriction

  SureMembers.

• Member profiles and directory

  ARMember, User Registration & Membership Pro and WP User Manager Pro.

• Coupons and gift codes

  s2Member Pro and User Registration & Membership Pro.

• Upgrades with proration

  ARMember.

Membership plugin for agencies and many sites

Agencies should count sites before they compare prices. A membership plugin for agencies needs either many activations or no limit. SureMembers covers 100 sites in one plan. s2Member Pro offers 1 site for $89, unlimited sites for $189. User Registration & Membership Pro offers 1 site for $299, 5 sites for $699, unlimited sites for $999. ARMember stops at 10 sites. Our guide to lifetime deals for unlimited sites lists more plugins without a site limit.

Choosing a WordPress membership plugin: checklist

1. 1Decide who takes the moneyThe membership plugin itself or a shop plugin next to it. That splits the field in two.
2. 2Check your gatewayRecurring payments only work if the plugin supports your gateway for subscriptions, not just for one-time sales.
3. 3Read the support termsLifetime updates are common, lifetime support is rare. Note the support period of the plan you buy.
4. 4Test the member path on a phoneSign up, pay, log in, reset the password, cancel. Every step must work on mobile.
5. 5Use the refund windowThe windows here run from 14 days to 30 days. Set up a real plan on day one. Our lifetime deal checklist shows what else to check.

Which membership plugin with a lifetime license fits your site

• One paid membership with several plans

  ARMember with its own checkout and European gateways.

  Fits

  • ARMember$229

• Small budget, own setup

  s2Member Pro for $89.

  Fits

  • s2Member Pro$89

• Custom sign up forms first

  User Registration & Membership Pro or WP User Manager Pro.

  Fits

  • User Registration & Membership Pro$299
  • WP User Manager Pro$449

• Content protection on many sites

  SureMembers for 100 sites.

  Fits

  • SureMembers$599

• Members who talk to each other

  FluentCommunity Pro with spaces, chat and courses.

  Fits

  • FluentCommunity Pro$399

• Paid online courses

  FluentCommunity Pro with its course builder, or a course plugin from our LMS guide.

  Fits

  • FluentCommunity Pro$399

Frequently asked questions