Buyer’s Guide
to Wordpress
Paywall Plugins to
Sell Subscriptions
Letter from the Editor
Welcome to the first edition of our Buyer’s Guide to WordPress Plugins to Sell Subscriptions.
If you search for WordPress plugins for paywalls, memberships or subscriptions on the Internet, you’ll find dozens mentioned on hundreds of “review” sites. Many of these sites are either run by the plugins or their marketing affiliates, so the information may be biased. You’ll also see mentions on quite a few discussion groups and bulletin boards. In this case, you don’t know the experience or business
background of the people posting messages, so it’s hard to evaluate the value of their advice for your own situation.
That’s why we decided to launch this Buyer’s Guide.
Our goal is to give you insight into what you should (a) expect and (b) look for in a plugin. We also included reviews of 10 of the plugins that Subscription Site Insider members, who tend to be executives running paid content businesses (as opposed to enthusiastic hobbyists, part-timers and newbies hoping to make a few bucks online), are most likely to consider.
All reviews are as of July 2011. Plugins update frequently, as does WordPress itself. However some essentials don’t tend to change much – such as the type of sites served, on-hand live support, and whether the software is open source and designed for easy customization or not.
To create this Guide we used on our own experiences as the publisher of a WordPress site with a recently added paywall – our sister site WhichTestWon.com. We also interviewed other publishers of WordPress-based sites selling subscriptions such as Mike McCurdy co-founder of TestingMom.com and Justin Lukasavige, founder of NeedaTopic.com. We also delved into the expertise of Tyler Archer, a membership site development consultant who specializes in helping WordPress publishers add paywalls. Lastly, we researched the actual plugin companies themselves and asked searching questions.
Notes on terminology: Throughout this Guide we use the term “plugin” in a sweeping sense to include software and solutions that can be easily integrated with the WordPress content management system (CMS), whether they are a plugin or some other type of software solution.
We also use the terms “subscriptions” and “memberships” fairly interchangeably. We’ve found the only difference between the terms in a paywall site world is the background of the person using the term. Execs from a publishing or SaaS background tend to say “subscription” and execs from an Internet background tend to say “membership”.
Kathy McCabe, Editor
KathyM@SubscriptionSiteInsider.com (401) 354-7555
How a Subscription Plugin Fits Into a WordPress Website
Until fairly recently, creating a subscription website from scratch or adding a paywall to an existing site, was an expensive business costing tens, or often, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, now that 20 million bloggers and publishers use the free CMS WordPress to power their sites, a flood of plugin entrepreneurs have followed. Paid content is always a popular business models during advertising recessions, so it was fairly predictable that those plugin entrepreneurs would start churning out subscription plugins.
Very, very few of the plugin developers have a subscription business or paid content background. As a result, although they may market their plugins as “all inclusive” or “everything you need to make money selling memberships,” no plugins we know of are remotely all-inclusive or would service the needs of a professional publishing company without extensive customization.
(That said, that customization is often fairly cheap and easy, and there are hordes of freelance programmers out there to help you with it. )
Adding to the confusion, about what a typical plugin actually includes, are another group of Internet entrepreneurs – the people who publish information advising you how to make money as a membership site publisher. Many of them hook prospects by claiming that it’s super easy to launch a subscription site – just pop a cheap plugin onto your WordPress site and within a week, you’re earning money!
If you intend to make more than a few thousand dollars as a part-time hobby, again, you’ll need more technology than just WordPress and a plugin. Plus, you’ll need custom programming to tie everything together, not to mention to optimize marketing so you get the sales you deserve.
Here’s a diagram to give you an idea of all the working parts of a professionally-run WordPress site with a subscription plug-in:
Technical Map of a WordPress Paywall Site
Definitions:
Your Site: This is the content management system coupled with a theme (design). You can use free templates or customize your design.
Paywall Plugin: The piece that protects paid content and offers visitors the option to pay to become a member. Often includes levels of membership and “drip” content capabilities.
Payment System: How subscription payments are processed. May include the entire visible cart or order form, or just the processing capabilities with users staying on your site the entire time.
Member Email: Transactional emails (receipts, etc) may be included with a plugin, but other member-only emails may not be so you’ll probably need a separate system. Also, plugin email systems are not optimized for deliverability or advanced email campaigns, so you’ll want a better system if you intend to have a lot of customers or to do high-impact email marketing. This separate email system must integrate with your plugin or cart so it knows who’s a member and who is not.
Paywall Design: You will receive a template with your paywall plugin but can and should customize to maximize conversion.
Integration Plugins: In order to make other features work, you may need additional plugins, i.e. for your affiliate program.
Domain + Content: You must buy your domain separately and develop your own content.
Hosting: You also purchase your hosting separately. We strongly recommend separate hosting for sites vs. videos as there are specialists for each. Content/Function Plugins: Want comments or social networking buttons on your content? Those
kinds of features will require separate plugins.
Marketing Email: Emails to prospects, former members, etc. need to go through an email service provider which might not be the members-email system. Other Software: Make a list of other software you must have for content, marketing and
fulfillment.
What you need to know before you shop for subscription
plugins…
For a simple site, this process might take a week from start to finish… if you’ve already got your specs and content already created, your hosting and payment system accounts set up, and you have programmers on hand to jump into customizing. Generally though, you should expect to take at least several weeks up to several months to launch a WordPress subscription site.
It’s tempting to start the development process by diving into researching plugins. Don’t. You should not start shopping for the best plugin until you know what your specifications are. Otherwise it’s easy to get sidelined by the plugins’ marketing copy which often has little to do with your true needs.
First, make thoughtful decisions about four key areas of your launch: Payment processing decisions
Paywall style selection
Marketing strategies, including offers and tactics Technical considerations
Payment Processing Decisions
Most plugins only integrate with a limited number of payment solutions. Payment processing is critical to your bottom line in more ways than you may think. Each system has different:
- Fees and costs
- Consumer acceptance rates or typical cart bounce rates - Fraud protection systems
- Recurring charge success rates (what percent of the charges you run will go through) - Customization potential for your brand and offers
- Customer database (CRM) - Ease of refund processing - Currencies accepted
Lastly, some systems do not allow you to sell your site to a third party publisher or to move existing customer accounts to a different payment processing system. You have to continue charging old customers through that system yourself, period.
Four Main Types of Subscription Payment Systems
#1 All-In-One Systems:Example: PayPal. These services offer you a cart and payment processing without a merchant account or a gateway account. You also don’t have to add security to your own site, or worry (much) about PCI compliance. When visitors hit your paywall, they clickthrough to the third party system and the entire order process happens there.
We do not recommend these systems for most publishers because you can’t sell your site to a third party, and it’s impossible to fully optimize marketing campaigns or the cart itself for the best possible sales results. If you’re processing a lot of charges, it may be cheaper to go with another solution as well. #2 Carts:
Example: 1Shoppingcart.com. These give you an ecommerce cart that can be somewhat integrated into your site. The cart can take recurring billing (subscription payments) as well as one-off sales. Often the customer database is a bit more robust than that of an all-in-one system and you can do more custom cart design for better results. Some carts include affiliate programs. However, you may not be able to add analytics to track marketing optimization, which is especially critical for anyone planning heavy PPC advertising. Carts include some marketing reports. You must have an additional merchant account and gateway account to take care of the actual credit card processing.
#3 Gateways:
Example: Authorize.net You can design and use your own order forms on your site, but these are integrated on the back-end to the gateway which then handles the actual credit card processing, fraud
prevention and recurring billing for you in a secure environment. The gateway then sends information on buyers back to your customer database system. Great for publishers who want to optimize their order forms, run web analytics on every part of their marketing process, and/or have a customized CRM or marketing reporting system. Probably the best solution for most professional publishers until you hit heavy-duty sales volume levels. Requires you to have a merchant account.
#4 Direct to Processor:
Example: Chase Paymentech. You design and run your own order forms, CRM, marketing systems, etc. Instead of hooking into a gateway which then itself hooks into the processor, you go directly to the processor yourself. Saves you processing fees and gives your payments department the kind of detailed information they need to optimize recurring billing for greater success. Your bottom line will thank you. However, processors prefer not to work directly with sites they consider too small (perhaps under $100k per month) and you’ll want someone on staff who is at least partly dedicated to managing the
relationship and processes. Yes, you’ll still need a separate merchant account.
Checklist: Questions to Ask When Evaluating Payment Processors
What are the costs? Look at the cost per order, cost per refund, cost per month If you decide to sell your site, can you switch the accounts to a new owner?
If you decide to switch processors someday, can you move the recurring billing into and customer records to the new platform for existing and past subscribers or do you have to continuing running the old system for legacy customers?
Is it PCI compliant? For US based sites, PCI compliance is critical and not only affects your processing decisions but also your staffing and customer service decisions. If you aren’t PCI compliant, you can lose your merchant account, among other security risks.
Can you optimize the design of your cart beyond the logo?
Can you optimize marketing campaigns through the cart, i.e. can you run analytics campaigns to see how PPC ad are working?
Paywall Style Selection
Although your paywall’s design and function is critical to whether you make sales or not, few plugins focus on this as a big part of their offering. In fact, you’ll rarely see paywall templates or design considerations mentioned in their marketing copy, and you never see a sample of whattheir paywall template looks like, just samples of client sites with no indication of how much customization took place.
Why? Because software is developed by techies, and they’re far more comfortable dealing with technical issues such as payment systems and multiple levels of membership than “soft” things such as marketing design.
Unfortunately, that means many plugin paywall templates are so non-optimal that we’re surprised any publishers make sales. Before you pick a plugin, educate yourself about best practices in paywall design and decide what’s important for you.
There are two main types of paywalls, generic and dynamic: → Generic paywall pages
Pages which contain general marketing information about your offering, plus an order form or link to an order form. The page is the same no matter where the customer is clicking from or on. It’s one standard page. These are useful pages because you’ll probably want at least one of them on your site as a general marketing page, even if it’s not the only paywall page you have. Every subscription plug-in we know of offers these types of paywalls.
→ Dynamic paywall pages
Pages which change depending on what type of content the visitor was trying to access. For example, the page may show the headline and a summary of a particular piece of content along with an order form or link to an order form. (The order form page linked to may in turn be dynamic as well and
continue referencing the original piece of content the visitor wanted to access.) Dynamic pages are great for SEO because they give you hundreds or even thousands of “extra” keyword rich pages for spiders to crawl. They also tend to have higher conversion rates than generic pages may. Very few plugins we know of offer these, although you can use custom programming to add in this capability.
Example of a generic paywall page linking to a Paypal order form and cart
→
Example of a dynamic paywall page with a built-in order form linking to a merchant gateway
(Authorize.Net)
Checklist: Questions to Ask About Paywall Customization
As we noted above, most plugin developers don’t think about paywalls much, and their marketing materials are notably absent of details about paywall capabilities. So you’re going to have to contact the plugin you’re considering using and really dig into the details. A suggested short-list of questions:
o Can I create a unique “teaser” paywall page (ie dynamic paywalls) for each piece of content behind the paywall?
o How many changes can I make to the look/feel of the paywall (buttons, typeface, form fields, etc.)?
o Can I A/B test my paywall and measure the results all the way through the order form and cart? (Note: this will also depend on what payment system you use.)
o Can the order form be on my site (vs dumping the visitor into a 3rd party cart)? o Can I control what the ‘thank you’ receipt page looks like?
Marketing strategies, including offers and tactics
Some of your marketing function and reporting will come through your payment solution, some through the plugin, some through your email marketing systems, some via Web analytics, and some through other plugins and integration.
Warning: Most paywall plugins offer extremely bare bones marketing systems and reporting.
Before you pick your paywall plugin, you have to know or how much programming are you willing to do by customizing or integrating with other systems. Consider these marketing factors:
Pricing: How many pricing levels or special prices do you want to offer?
Membership levels: Nearly all paywall plugins over at least a few customizable levels, most offer unlimited.
Group sales: If you’re a B2B site you might especially want this option. Paywall plugins don’t advertise this as an option but the solution can often be custom-programmed or less ideally a customer service person can manually enter the memberships on the back end. Types of group sales include –
Canned group – a pre-determined number of memberships (say 3 or 5), easiest to custom program
Custom group – allow client to pick how many members will be in the group Site license – could mean giving an entire company access, i.e. any mail address from one company can enter; company could stream content into their intranet Term options: Will memberships be monthly, quarterly, annual or all of the above? Will you have recurring billing?
Trials: We’ve found offering a $1 limited-time trial to be a very effective conversion technique. Some of the plugins already have a free trial or trial with credit card built in, but if it isn’t, it can usually be custom programmed.
Affiliates: Paywall plugins usually offer a custom affiliate solution or can integrate established affiliate platforms. The most important consideration is what would your affiliates or potential affiliates be most interested in using?
SEO with Google First Click Free: This is “white hat” way for Google to spider the entire site and include stories in Google News, significantly improving SEO; shows first page free to someone clicking over from Google News but locks down all other paid content after that. A few plugins currently offer this capability.
PPC: If you’re running pay-per-click ads, be sure you can measure sales through the cart to optimize your PPC ad buys.
Email: Does the built-in email system allow for free opt-ins need to tie to email system for members only so you can move names or measure who converts?
Direct mail/advertising: Can you create landing pages on the fly focused on particular campaigns or offers, including a vanity URL?
Ecommerce capabilities: Can you make one-off sales and cross-sales (aside from subscription sales)?
Also, now is the time to make hard decisions about the types of marketing reports you will require (most plugins give minimal if any reports) and what sort of customer service database or CRM system you’ll need to have on your back-end. Most plugins’ CRM systems are non-existent or extremely bare bones.
Technical Considerations
Are you adept at handling custom programming yourself? Do you have in-house programmers or long-term relationships with freelancers? If you’re going freelance, do you have an experienced project manager in-house? Handling programmers is a lot like managing building contractors. Even for experts, inevitably there are headaches, over-promises, and time and budget overruns.
Think through your in-house resources and abilities before looking at plugins. And, when you see sample client sites that do everything you want your site to do, always ask them directly what types of technical resources they used to accomplish it. We’ve found, with a little digging, site publishers who initially claimed, “It took a few hours” will often admit the complete process actually took a lot longer.
Like all types of software developers, plugin creators often promise anything you want to do “is possible” with custom work. The problem is just because programming is possible, that doesn’t mean it’s easy or likely to be cheap.
Key questions to ask when you’re ready:
O If you are advertising that you integrate with other software (such as a cart or email system) is the integration one-step easy or will it require further custom programming?
O How many of your other clients have integrated with this particular piece of third party software and may I have their names as references?
O Is your software truly open source? (Some claim to be, but really are not for all intents and purposes.) O Do you maintain a list of approved freelance (or in-house) programmers who have already worked with several clients and your program? Are there any in my country? Is there a wait-list for their time? Three additional technical considerations:
1. WordPress Upgrades:
WordPress itself releases new editions fairly frequently. Is the plugin you’re considering going to work with new editions? Does the company behind the plugin keepo a tech tam on staff fulltime to react swiftly to WordPress upgrades?
2. Plugin Upgrades:
Most plugins also upgrade routinely, often several times per year. How will those upgrades affect your custom programming? Are you required to work with “authorized” programmers for any customization so future upgrades don’t mess you up? How much warning will you get about the scope and projected impact of planned upgrades? If you chose to keep running on an ‘older’ edition of the software, is that possible?
3. Support:
No matter how easy software is to use, someday you’ll need support. Will the plugin creator provide it? Do they have a phone number you can call during your normal business hours? Do they have a formal ‘ticketed’ support system to answer customer questions promptly and reliably? If they maintain a customer Q&A discussion boardt, how useful are the answers you find when trolling there and how often do plugin staff themselves surf the boards to provide authoritative answers?
Plugin Comparison Chart: 10 Contenders
Legend: 1 1Shopping Cart 2 2Checkout A Authorize.net AL Alipay C Clickbank CC ccbill E e-Junkie EP Epoch G Google Checkout I Infusionsoft M Moneybookers O Ogone P Paypal PP Paypal ProPR Premium Web Cart Pro Q QuickPayPro
R Red Oak Cart S Sagepay U ManualPay W WorldPay Y AlertPay
10 Subscription Plugin Reviews (Alpha Order)
We’ve chosen this shortlist based on our own research of the brands of plugins that
Subscription Site Insider members tend to evaluate for their own use. As we noted, there are a
dozen or more additional plugins out there, and more launching all the time as developers
smell the opportunity. However, of the entire field, we suspect these may be the most worthy
of your consideration.
You can also use our standard review format for your own reviews of other plugins so you’re
comparing apples to apples.
aMember
www.amember.com
Launched in: 2003 (as html page protection software) Clients Include: WhichTestWon.com, NeedATopic.com
Parent Company:
CGI Central
www.cgi-central.net Saratov, Russia
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: $179.95 includes one year of upgrades
Payment processing: 60+ payment processors, shopping carts etc. including Authorize.net, ClickBank, 1ShoppingCart, PayPal, PayPal Payments Pro
Paywall Specifics: Fully customizable (can add unlimited custom fields
DRM Available: Multiple membership levels, drip content, trial subs, one-off, group sales
More Marketing Capabilities: Built-in two-tier affiliate program. Many of the integration plugins make marketing easier.
Support Available: Email (guaranteed answer within 24 hours), community forums at www.amember.com/forum/
Other Tech Notes: Offers lots of integration plugins with email providers, forum software, BuddyPress which adds a social network to your site. aMember is more than just a WordPress plugin; it also integrates with Drupal and Joomla. Complicated script setup. Monitors use of same
username/password.
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
aMember is a good choice for those who want plenty of payment options and many ways to integrate with other software. You will need an experienced developer to help with set up; the aMember case studies in our webinar spent 35 and 90 hours, respectively on customization with a developer. Doesn’t integrate fully with WordPress.
If you’re looking for a solid, fairly affordable solution and don’t have a huge amount of special needs, aMember should be at the top of your list. It appeals to everyone from solopreneurs to corporate execs rolling out a new site.
Digital Access Pass
www.digitalaccesspass.com Launched in: 2008
Clients Include: ConsultantSupplyRoom.com, SpaceVidCast.com
Parent Company: Digital Access Pass
www.digitalaccesspass.com San Diego, California
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: $167 - $997 Membership Site in Box options (Starter is $497 and Pro is $997) include personalized online meetings to walk you through the set-up process.
Payment processing: Authorize.net, Paypal, Paypal Payments Pro,; ClickBank, e-Junkie, 1ShoppingCart, WorldPay; also offers its own built-in shopping cart but need a payment processor to work with that. Paywall Specifics: fully customizable
DRM available: unlimited membership levels, free and paid trials, drip content (highly flexible, called Tru-Drip), one-off sales, group sales possible
More Marketing Capabilities: Targeted emails offered, i.e. can email every customer who bought x product. “Membership In a Box” users receive free “Upsell Tree” Plugin which integrates with PayPal and Authorize.net and allows one-click upsells and one-time offers. Built-in affiliate program can give each member his or her own unique affiliate link.
Support available: email, community support forum at www.digitalaccesspass.com/forums/ Other tech notes: Set up is difficult so you need a developer who doesn’t mind getting into the technology. Works outside of WordPress requiring a separate login and interface.
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
This is a good option for anyone who wants full control over every little piece of their site though some non-techies find it not so intuitive to manage. High marks for content drip features and a self-service store. A new feature allows users to purchase products with “credits.”
If you’re not afraid of nitty gritty technology or working with someone who isn’t, Digital Access Pass maybe the solution for you. You have to have some comfortability with the back-end workings of such a site in order to get the most out of this plugin and to run it on a day-to-day basis. Techies will be
InfusionWP
www.infusionwp.com
Launched in: 2009, upgrades weekly
Clients Include: CPNEWorkshop.com, ScoreMoreCredit.com, KaylimCareerInstitute.com
Parent Company: InfusionSoft,
www.infusionsoft.com Gilbert, Arizona
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: $570 per year for the plugin + $299 per month for InfusionSoft backend and payment processing fees
Payment processing: InfusionSoft only Paywall Specifics: fully customizable
DRM available: unlimited membership levels, drip content, one-off sales, group sales
More Marketing Capabilities: One of the few paywall plugins that offers Google First Click Free, which is a legal way for Google to spider the entire site and include stories in Google News, significantly
improving SEO; shows first page free to someone clicking over from Google News but locks down all other paid content after that. Also offers a one-click upsell option in the sidebar. A member can click on a product and it will be charged to the credit card on file. Tight CRM integration.
Support available: phone, email, community forum at www.forum.infusionwp.com
Other tech notes: Very customizable with hundreds of short codes though no “open code.”
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
The biggest drawback of this plugin is the price and the fact that only one payment processing option is available. But many developers love InfusionWP for all its “bells and whistles” and the fact that you can customize almost anything that you can imagine.
InfusionWP is considered “the Ferrari” of paywall plugins. It is best for publishers with minimum revenues of at least 100k per year. You get what you pay for and can build a robust, well-optimized, user-friendly site with Infusion WP.
Magic Members
www.magicmembers.com Launched in: 2009
Clients Include: UtahKidsClub.com, PaintPalClub.com
Parent Company: Magic Members
www.magicmembers.com Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: $97 for one site license, $297 for multiple sites; includes one year of upgrades and support Payment processing: PayPal, PayPal Pro, 2CheckOut, CCBill, Authorize.net, ClickBank, WorldPay, MoneyBookers, iDeal, Epoch, AlertPay, Ogone, SagePay, Manual Pay
Paywall specifics: The Magic Members website mentions the ability to customize “error pages” which we take to be the pages one sees when one is not a paid member, or paywalls, but no additional information on paywalls is given.
DRM available: multiple levels, drip content, free and paid trials, one-off sales (via pay per post capability – can put link to ebook, download on that post)
More marketing capabilities specifics: Can create unlimited coupons for memberships. Each level of membership can have a custom welcome page; good place for upsells, custom offers. Autoresponder integrates with AWeber, GetResponse, Constant Contact, iContact, AutoResponse Plus, MailChimp. Can purchase Magic Affiliate plugin (www.magicaffiliateplugin.com; $79) to create affiliate program.
Support available: Online support ticket (promises response in 24 hours)
Other tech notes: On its website, Magic Members recommends DTCStudio (http://dtcstudio.co.uk) for assistance with implementation and customization.
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
Magic Members is a frequently mentioned plugin used by a number of sites so it is worth looking at. However, it is disappointing that we couldn’t find any kind of online help forum for Magic Members, as this is usually a valuable resource for anyone installing a plugin. Some of those using Magic Members say the documentation and training videos aren’t as helpful as they could be.
Magic Members is appealing solution for those who want a built-in affiliate program (with purchase of additional plugin) but may not have the tech know-how to go with a more complicated set up like Digital Access Pass. If you’re looking for something simple, Magic Members may do the trick but if you think you will want more robust features down the line, look at some of the other plugins as well.
MemberWing-X
www.memberwing.com
Launched in: 2008
Clients Include: WallStreetWeek.com,
OilandGas-Investments.com
Parent Company:
Member Wing
www.memberwing.com
Ottawa, Canada
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: $199.95 - $399.95 Top of the range includes unlimited site licenses and membership in WordPress Membership University which includes video tutorials on setting up the plugin. All licenses include one year of free upgrades. Most expensive is the TSI edition which was built for time-sensitive financial sites to charge higher fees for immediate access, lower fees for delayed access.
Payment processing: PayPal Payments Pro; ClickBank, e-Junkie Paywall Specifics: fully customizable
DRM available: infinite membership levels, drip content, one-off products, group sales
More Marketing Capabilities: Supports Google First Click Free, which is a legal way for Google to spider the entire site and include stories in Google News, significantly improving SEO; shows first page free to someone clicking over from Google News but locks down all other paid content after that.
Support available: email, fax, community forum on main site; developer Gleb Esman provides custom development and consulting
Other tech notes: About 99% open source code; 1% is code related to license verification.
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
This is the only paywall plugin that we know of that allows a paywall site to charge more for time-sensitive information when it is initially released and then allows it to become part of evergreen paid content (and accessible to lover levels of membership) once the urgency passed. This is ideal for sites selling out time-sensitive market or financial news and advice. The site’s use of Google First Click Free is advantageous for marketing and SEO. Users report timely support. It is nice to have the option to hire the original developer if you want to customize the site.
If you have time-sensitive content, this is absolutely a plugin for you to consider. If you’re in a very competitive industry and fighting for every SEO advantage, MemberWing-X and its Google First Click Free capability is hard to beat. Good as an affordable solution.
PaidMemberships Pro
www.paidmembershipspro.com
Launched in: 2011
Clients Include: www.philly.sidearts.com
Parent Company:
Stranger Studios
www.strangerstudios.com
Fleetwood, Pennsylvania
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: free – released under the General Public License (GPL); $10 per month for ongoing support and updates
Payment processing: Authorize.net, PayPal Payments Pro Paywall Specifics: customizable
DRM available: unlimited membership levels, free and low-price trials
More Marketing Capabilities: Option to hide advertising from members making that an incentive for members to join.
Support available: phone, email, offers public and member support forums at www.paidmembershipspro.com/forums/
Other tech notes: 100% open source.
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
This is a no- or low-cost limited solution that might be great to use to test out a concept. As it is fully open source, it is easy to customize. This may be a great option for a publisher with solid in-house programmers who want to own their development.
Our only worry is how new this is and how small the user community is. There is no track record yet. From a developer standpoint, it’s a great platform; from a businessperson’s standpoint, it may not be the safest choice..
S2MemberPro
www.s2member.com
Launched in: 2010
Clients Include: TestingMom.com,
ContentMarketingInstitute.com
Parent Company:
Primo Themes
www.PrimoThemes.com
Loganville, Georgia
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: $69 single-site, $129 unlimited-sites license. Bundles available with other s2 theme plugins. Payment processing: AliPay, Authorize.net, PayPal Pro; ClickBank, ccBill, Google Checkout
Paywall Specifics: fully customizable
DRM available: Supports free subscribers plus four additional membership levels. Recent upgrade allows sale of specific post/page access (membership not required), using "Buy Now" buttons. Can also package multiple post/pages together into one "Buy Now" transaction. This allows sale of ebooks, audio downloads, anything that can be placed on a WP page.
More Marketing Capabilities: CRM within WordPress environment. Good database export function. Support available: video tutorials, community forum at
www.primothemes.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4
Other tech notes: Access to full source code which makes it easy to customize. Integrates easily with BuddyPress.
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
Another good solid, middle-of-the-road plugin. Until recently, our main criticism with S2MemberPro is that it didn’t integrate with the major payment processor Authorize.net. Now with that function added, S2MemberPro can be a serious option for many membership sites. Users have found the built-in email system clunky to use.
If you’re eager to have a social network on your site as well, this is a good choice since it easily integrates with BuddyPress.
WishList Member
www.member.wishlistproducts.com
Launched in: 2008
Clients Include: CBIClubhouse.com, ThrivingwithAutism.com Parent Company: WishList Products
www.wishlistproducts.com Cordova,Tennessee
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: $97 for one site with one year of updates; optional $47 per year after initial year for support and updates
Payment processing: Integrates fully with: PayPal, 1Shopping Cart, ClickBank, Infusionsoft, Premium Web Cart, QuickPayPro, Red Oak Cart. Offers a generic “simple” integration options that should work with all payment providers. Yet simple integration requires a site admin to manually cancel
memberships if a user cancels payment.
Paywall Specifics: fully customizable; can create custom teaser on each individual content page DRM available: unlimited membership levels including free and trial, drip content, one-off product sales, group sales (manually)
More Marketing Capabilities: Easy to import and export member list. Can set custom welcome page for each level – good opportunity to upsell to higher level of membership. Free add-on integration with iDev Affiliate tracking software.
Support available: Dedicated full-time support team at http://wishlistproducts.zendesk.com/home Other tech notes: WishList Member includes an advanced API which can be used to allow access to portions of the code. Integrates with autoresponders from Aweber, MailChimp, Autoresponse Plus, Interspire Email Marketing, GetResponse; also offers a generic version to integrate with other autoresponders.
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
We strongly recommend choosing your payment processor and/or shopping cart solution before choosing a paywall plugin. The fact that WishList Member only offers a few payment processor solutions, and currently doesn’t offer one of the most popular ones (Authorize.net), could be a
disadvantage for some users. Unless you are a tech wiz or want to use very basic settings, you will need to work with a developer. This plugin can be challenging to set up and there’s a learning curve to mastering its daily use but one advantage is that it integrates fully into the WordPress platform, so no need to go to another site. WishList Member offers good support, and has an enormous installed user base.
Some people just feel more comfortable going with a proven product that has a large team behind it. If you’re a little more risk-averse and looking for something on the affordable side, WishList Member is for you.
WP-Member
www.wp-member.com Launched in: 2008
Clients Include: BulletinNewspapers.com, InvestorsUnderground.com
Parent Company: smartmediapro
www.smartmediapro.com Texas
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: $39.99 for one site, $199 for multiple sites; “standard support” with unlimited updates is $19.99 annually and “total support” (including plugin installation and testing) is a one-time fee of $77
Payment processing: Authorize.net, Google Checkout Support: Online support ticket
Paywall specifics: Paywall page logo, colors and registration fields can be changed.
DRM available: multiple levels, free and paid trials
Support available: Online ticket
Other tech notes:
All features have been tested to be PCI compliant.OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
Limited payment processors, paywall customization and marketing options.
This is an affordable but limited option. With the possibility of paying for initial installation and ongoing support, WP-member might make sense for someone who wants to try to set up and run a plugin without the help of a programmer or developer.
WPMU DEV Membership
www.premium.wpmudev.org/project/membership Launched in: 2010
Clients Include: IzzyVideo.com, ProGigaom.com, Psd.Tutsplus.com
Parent Company: incsub
www.incsub.com Victoria, Australia
ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE:
Pricing: Membership plugin offered as part of WPMU DEV monthly membership ($79 per month) – includes other plugins and training
Payment processing: Authorize.net, 2Checkout, PayPal Express Paywall Specifics: customizable
DRM available: multiple levels, free trial memberships
More Marketing Capabilities: Membership in WPMU DEV gives you access to many other plugins such as Google +1, Wordpress Affiliate, Site Maps and SEO which can help with marketing efforts.
Support available: weekly live chats, community forums at www.premium.wpmudev.org/forums/ Other tech notes: Fairly easy to set up. Integrates easily with BuddyPress
OUR ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS:
This is a good plugin for anyone who wants to do simple page and post protection. Downside is that payment processing options are limited and support is limited as well.
While this is a pretty simple, easy-to-use solution, at $79 per month, the cost can add up. It is good for someone who needs to set up the site on his or her own and feels there is value in the other plugins and training available as part of the WPMU Dev monthly package.
More Resources
On Demand Video: Best WordPress Plugins to Sell Subscriptions & Memberships http://www.subscriptionsiteinsider.com/members/427.cfm
Worksheet: Calculating Credit Card Fees
http://www.subscriptionsiteinsider.com/public/login/325.cfm
[Overview] Online Credit Card Processing Primer: Video and Glossary http://www.subscriptionsiteinsider.com/public/login/322.cfm
On Demand: Paywall Optimization – How to Improve Your Subscription Conversions http://www.subscriptionsiteinsider.com/members/226.cfm
[Slideshow] Tutorial: Subscription Site Design Rules
