7 Top Membership Website Buildings in 2023 |
Anne Cocquyt had a passion to host live, social networking events for women in San Francisco - "I just thought there was a need to be an actual women-focused community for female business leaders," she says. "Something that would support the women wanting to make things and put awesome companies in the marketplace." ."
Then she began hosting live, in-person events and built an engaged community of women entrepreneurs. The events struck a chord. People loved them. The excitement and energy faded between live shows. So Anne made an important decision. She decided to go beyond individual live events to embark on a full-blown membership community.
The outcome? The GUILD, a membership community with more than 1300 entrepreneurial women. It's loaded with helpful members-only features like webinars, online courses, premium groups, and obviously - online activities.
Anne's story demonstrates the benefits of a good membership site and not just to show off content as well as for creating a powerful user experience for your company's brand. That's the reason we'll be discussing in this piece The best membership websites builders. If you're thinking of building a site with a membership section, whether it's a new-build or adding it to your website, we've got the 7 best membership website builders on the market.
If you want more support in building your membership community, come join OUR Mighty Community for free and meet other new and well-established community owners! We'd love to have you join us. Register to join for no cost!
In this post...
Why would you create an online membership website?
7 Best Membership Website Builders
What exactly is a membership website?
A website for membership is one that has some type of content that's secure, secured, and requires login to access. Websites for membership can be built around topics like exclusive content, courses or communities. Members will have a way of accessing content that members can't, easy like this. As technology advances, membership website builders become advanced, incorporating items like forums, courses, events, communities, and - of course- payment gateways. In the next section, we'll discuss this.
What are the reasons to build a membership site?
Ok, so obviously there are a variety of reasons for creating an online membership site. But here are some of the most commonly used:
- You'd like to monetize your business through a premium offering
- You're trying to safeguard some types of information
- You want to protect members' private data
- You want to offer a better experience for members
- There are different kinds of visitors to your website who need different things (ie. clients and vendors)
- You'd like to create your own private community (and make it a safe place)
- You're looking to create an exclusive brand community
- You're looking for a place where customers can ask concerns about the product
- You're planning to develop the foundation for an asynchronous online course
- You would like to instruct a live course
- You're looking to collect emails
- You would like to provide online occasions
All of the above might be the reason why your business or brand should create a membership site. There's plenty of possibilities using it. Membership sites can be a great option to improve the service you provide to the people who visit your site and create new revenue streams at the same while.
At Mighty We're witnessing the positives of ALL kinds of membership websites launched by brands and creators. Like, for instance, Oiselle is a women's activewear brand that was searching for a way to grow its reach and increase sales in the past few years. In the year they started their Oiselle Volee community and accidentally created a space in which women could gather for more than just training tips. They found friendship, inspiration and a place to belong.
Or, how about the membership website dedicated to the PLANTSTRONG Community? The idea was hatched by Austin firefighter, Rip Esselstyn. The firefighter team that Rip was leading had a habit of being competitive, and after their usual physical challenges they decided to determine those with the lowest cholesterol. In Rip's shock, the majority of their team members had cholesterol that was very high. The cholesterol was high. This is when Rip began eating the plant-based diet. A change that eventually grew into a community of around 20,000 other people who were doing similar.
The tales of Oiselle Volee and PLANTSTRONG demonstrate that membership sites with courses, community, and premium content are focused on just about anything. So if you've got an idea of a membership site We'd like to welcome you to our club!
7 Best Membership Website Builders
If it's time to choosing a membership website builder - surprise! Which one is right for you depends on your needs. Bloggers who want to publish premium blog content needs a different option of a firm that has an online community for customers. So for each of these options, we'll talk about the best people to use them and why.
1.
Mighty is a powerful cultural software platform that does what traditional website builders can do and much more! It brings together the community, course, and content and even commerce together - and that's it without the need for coding. And Mighty's flexible Spaces mix in features like classes, live streaming forums, discussions on forum, premium content options (written as well as video), live events, member profiles, chat, and many more! You can toggle the features you want to use between off and on, giving the user total control over the type of membership site you'll develop.
The process of monetizing your business is simple with Mighty too. You can sell and create packages, memberships, courses or events at the touch of a button, in 135 different currencies, and even using token-gating. Also, in contrast to the alternatives below, Mighty comes with a integrated app that works on every device.
The best fit is for companies as well as creators looking to bring community, courses Content, commerce, and community together.
Features:
- Community Platform
- Forums for discussion
- Gated content
- Live streaming
- Virtual Events
- Courses
- Chat & messaging
- Profiles of Members
- Commerce built-in
- Unlimited hosts, unlimited members, and mods
- application for all devices
2. Mighty Pro
Mighty Pro is the enterprise version of . It comes with all the features that make Mighty that we discussed above, but there's one significant difference. Mighty Pro lets you create your own membership-based website, which is available on a fully branded white-label app! It means your customers won't be able to see your name in The App Store or Google Play Store, they can see the one you have.
We've created membership applications for artists such as Adriene Mishler - YouTube's best-known yoga teacher with more than 10 million subscribers - as well as Drew Binsky - who built an app for travel with 20,000 members that celebrates the joy of travel. We've also built membership apps for institutions like TED as well as Cambridge University. If you'd like to learn more about our services and see what you could develop, make a phone call with us!
Ideal for brands and creators who want to bring community, courses, content, and commerce all in their own brand-name app.
Features
- All of the above plus an app with a brand name
3. MemberPress
If you've created a website using WordPress and are looking for a plugin that turns a WordPress website into a membership website, MemberPress is a good choice. MemberPress lets you gate sections of your WordPress website (that's WordPress.org instead of WordPress.com). Once you do, you can mark areas of your site as Members Only.
MemberPress has a number of useful features for creating your web-based membership site, like the ability to include digital downloads as well as to build basic courses through their LMS. But it's probably best to go with high-quality content. If you're planning to sell memberships, you'll need to install a plugin such as Stripe that can help you develop a checkout system to attract customers.
If you're an experienced WordPress user, then you're likely aware of some of the challenges of building directly into WordPress with plugins. They can conflict with each as well as with the theme, making it challenging to build a gorgeous and responsive website for membership as opposed to one that has membership integrated. If you're committed to building your website on WordPress, MemberPress is about the best there is.
Best for: Diehard WordPress users
Features
- WordPress plugin
- Members-only area
- Gated content w/ numerous restriction options
- LMS
- Paywalls
4. Wix
With regards to drag-and drop web creators, Wix is quickly establishing its place in the market. Wix lets you build attractive conventional, traditional-looking websites and it even has some free options to get started. With the variety of templates you can choose from It's an ideal option for many smaller businesses needing basic websites, and it works well with these kinds of websites. It has options for an online store integration in case you have an online store. It also comes with a built-in logo designer for you to personalize your branding.
It's not as well known in this regard, however Wix can also be used to build a basic membership website. You'll need to create a section of your Wix site that was gated, adding the "log-in" button on the top. Then, you can build options like premium content, or even a simple forum within the members-only area. The site isn't as strong like the other two choices however, for basic and business-oriented membership sites, it could be the right choice.
Ideal for: Smaller businesses who have content that is only available to members
Features
- Drag-and-drop site builder
- Templates
- Members-only area
- Member accounts
- Exclusive member content
- Solutions for business
5. CMS Hub
If you've ever heard of the website for marketing called HubSpot is a must, as it has a reputation for its powerful online marketing tools. However, in addition to functions like emails, sales navigators and other tools for marketing, HubSpot also has a CMS Hub, a content editor. CMS Hub.
CMS Hub also comes with a drag-and-drop editor, like Wix. The CMS Hub allows you to build a flexible website with many different template designs. The best part is that the CMS Hub can be integrated with HubSpot's other tools which makes it a sales and sales heavyweight for companies that have a significant presence on the internet or even a digital product.
And, of course, CMS Hub also comes with a website creator for membership sites. CMS Hub promotes their membership services to businesses that are able to have different kinds of users accessing their site. For example, a big SAAS firm might have clients employees, corporate clients, and affiliates. CMS Hub allows you to create specific content that is tailored to each type of visitor to your site It also connects easily to HubSpot's audience segmentation tools.
Best for: Large enterprise sites with huge audiences and multiple website versions
Highlights
- Content that is user-specific
- Personalized profile pages
- Information about purchases
- Appointments
6. Memberful
Memberful is another option to build a membership site. Like MemberPress, it has an integrated WordPress plugin, so it can be used to gate content on a website. It also works with numerous other platforms, serving as a gate for each one. The great thing about this is that you can incorporate payments right into a WordPress site, podcast platforms, and more. The downside is you'll require other plugins and programs to get the full features of the membership site.
For instance for instance, if you were to build a course with Memberful on your WordPress site, you'd need to integrate an LMS such as LearnDash to make it functional. If you want to create an online community, you'll need to use a community platform such as Discourse. It's up to you to determine whether mixing and matching apps is the most appropriate choice especially since community platforms like practically do all this and much more.
Ideal for WordPress creators and those who want to make money from a newsletter or podcast directly through this hosting service.
features
- Content gating
- Monetization options
- Integration with various platforms and plugins.
7. Weebly
Weebly is a drag-and drop website building tool that comes with the ability to build memberships. When it comes to creating websites, it offers all the options as the other players. It is possible to choose between a variety of designs, and pick a template that is suitable for your requirements. Weebly has a ton of options, including choices to alter the code of your site and improve SEO or even add an app for mobile devices.
Similar to Wix, Weebly comes with an easy creation of membership websites, complete with a sign-up window and a login button. You can provide premium content and create a "members only" section for your company website. You can also segment members and bulk-upload membership lists, it's got plenty of options when it comes to offering extra content for members who are premium.
Weebly isn't equipped with many of the benefits of membership offered by an even more powerful community platform like it, however, it can make a great alternative to an enterprise site that has premium content.
Ideal for: Companies with premium content and member lists
Highlights
- Sign-up window
- Membership lists
- Gated content (Members-only zones)
- Up to 100 members on professional sites
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it's a great time to be creating a membership site. There are plenty of options available for pretty much every builder and need, from huge businesses to self-made creators and every thing in between. This list will help you decide which one of these is right for you.
If you're looking to start, come to try Mighty! It's ranked as the top online software for managing your community by G2, beating out dozens of competitors. When you build your own membership site using our the right software for cultural, you'll be able to go beyond just features and make it a truly unique experience your members won't find any other place. Test it now and find out! You can try it for free for 14 days.