Platform Breakdown

Paid Memberships Pro for memberships

An open-source WordPress membership plugin with a genuinely free core and paid tiers that add premium add-ons, support, and hosting.

VERIFIED 2026-07-29Official pricing page

What Paid Memberships Pro is

Paid Memberships Pro is an open-source WordPress plugin that adds membership levels, recurring billing, and content protection to a site you control. The core is free; the paid tiers buy add-ons, support, and optionally hosting.

Who it’s best for

Anyone already on WordPress who wants memberships without paying a platform a share of revenue, and who is comfortable maintaining a site.

WordPress sites that need memberships without a recurring platform fee
Developers and agencies who want to change how it behaves
Anyone who wants a free path to a working paywall

Who should avoid it

People who want a product rather than a stack. If updates and backups sound like someone else's job, this is the wrong shape.

People who do not want to run a website
Community-led or video-led memberships
Anyone who needs support on the free tier

Membership models it supports

Not every platform suits every kind of membership. These are the models we consider it a genuine option for.

Pricing and fees

Read from Paid Memberships Pro's own pricing page on 2026-07-29. Always check the official page before you buy.

Paid Memberships Pro plans, prices, and fees
Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	Platform fee
FreeOpen source with unlimited sites and unlimited members. No premium add-ons, no support, no managed hosting.	$0	$0	None
StandardOne site licence with every premium add-on and support. $499 charged annually.	$49	$41.58	None
Max$999 charged annually. Adds managed hosting, migration, daily backups, and a done-for-you setup service.	$99	$83.25	None

Payment processing. Paid Memberships Pro takes no cut of revenue on any tier. Payments run through your own Stripe or PayPal account at that provider's standard published US card rate.

Trial. Free open-source core with no time limit

What it costs in practice

Cheapest plan that holds the member count, including the platform's cut and payment processing.

Just starting

25 members at $20 a month

$22 / month

On Free. About 4% of your revenue.

Established

100 members at $25 a month

$103 / month

On Free. About 4% of your revenue.

Growing

500 members at $25 a month

$513 / month

On Free. About 4% of your revenue.

Feature support

What is included, what needs a higher plan, and what simply is not there.

Community features
Third-party integration
Pairs with BuddyPress or a forum plugin; there is no native community.
Courses
Higher plan required
Course add-ons come with a paid licence.
Coaching and live events
Third-party integration
Video hosting
Third-party integration
Embed from YouTube, Vimeo, or your own storage.
Livestreaming
Not supported
Newsletter and publishing
Third-party integration
Private podcast support
Third-party integration
Payments and monetization
Supported
Stripe and PayPal with recurring levels, trials, and discount codes. No plugin cut.
Branding and customization
Supported
It is your WordPress site.
Branded mobile app
Not supported
Audience discovery
Not supported
Email and marketing
Third-party integration
Integrations and API
Higher plan required
Premium integration add-ons need a paid licence.
Migration support
Higher plan required
Site migration is part of the Max plan.
Customer and data ownership
Supported
Open source on your own server with your own payment account. As strong as it gets.

Important limitations

The free tier is genuinely free but comes with no support and no premium add-ons.
No native community, courses, video, or email. You assemble those from other plugins.
Hosting, backups, and maintenance are your job unless you buy the Max hosting plan.

Data ownership and migration

The strongest available. Open source on your own server, your own payment account, and no vendor able to change your terms.

Alternatives worth comparing

Sources

Every fact on this page traces to one of these official pages.