Create a membership website

You can add membership functionality (including user registration, login options, and member profiles) to your website to offer content, features, or services exclusively to registered members. This guide will help you choose the most appropriate option for adding membership features to your WordPress.com site.

Before you start building your membership site, take some time to consider the types of features you’ll need:

• Will members pay to join your site, or will it be free?
• What kind of membership access will you offer? Examples include:
  • Exclusive content for members only
  • A community of registered users
  • Online classes
  • Members-only file downloads
• Do you plan to offer perks based on different membership levels, or will all registrants have the same level of access?
• Will you sell other items or run a store aside from membership access?

From there, you can consider a membership solution that is most appropriate for your needs. The best option may already be included on your WordPress.com site, and if not, you can install a plugin to add membership support.

You can choose from several membership features built into your WordPress.com site, or add advanced membership functionality with specialized membership plugins. In the following sections, we’ll share the various features relevant to the type of membership you wish to add to your website.

For content that you wish to make exclusive to paying members only, you can place your content behind a paywall so only people who pay for membership can view the content. You can set up one-time, monthly, or yearly membership fees.

Paid content is often used by:

• Journalists and bloggers to share their writing.
• Teachers sharing courses online.
• Artists sharing videos, photos, music, and more.

When writing a blog post on WordPress.com, you can set your post to be accessible to everyone, to subscribers only, or to paying subscribers only. This can encourage people to subscribe to your site and enable you to (optionally) earn an income from your audience. Learn more about creating a paid newsletter here:

If you wish to offer user registration, membership tiers, account logins, a member dashboard, and other features typically associated with a membership platform, we recommend installing a membership plugin. Popular WordPress plugins like MemberPress, Simple Membership, and Paid Memberships Pro are often used to create and manage membership sites, providing easy-to-use tools to handle memberships, payments, and restricted content.

There are many plugins out there, so take the time to consider your needs and install the most appropriate plugin for your needs. Consider our advice on choosing the best plugins too.

To create courses, organize classes, track student progress, take payments, and more, we recommend the following combination of plugins together:

1. WooCommerce (free): Add e-commerce and account functionality to the site.
2. Sensei (free): Create beautiful and engaging online courses, lessons, and quizzes.
3. Sensei Pro (paid): Sell and monetize your courses.

For a fully-fledged forum or message board, consider plugins like bbPress or other available plugins.

If you have an online store, you might want to offer perks (such as a special discount, trial period, or exclusive products) based on different membership levels. This is possible using WooCommerce with the WooCommerce Membership extension.

If you have a few pages you wish to make exclusive to certain people only, you can password-protect a page (or post). Share the password with anyone who you wish to have access to the page:

Creating a private site is a useful option if you don’t have a plugin-enabled plan. Your private site becomes your members-only area, separate from your main site. You decide who has access to the private site by inviting them to become members of the site.