Paid Memberships Pro alternatives: 10 wordpress membership plugins tools compared
Owners look for a Paid Memberships Pro alternative when the core is free but support and premium add-ons require a paid plan, when they want a one-time licence instead of a recurring fee, or when they only need part of the job, such as profiles or content rules. Most stay on WordPress and choose a plugin with a different pricing shape.
Short answer: s2Member, Paid Member Subscriptions and WishList Member head the list of Paid Memberships Pro alternatives drawn from our wordpress membership plugins ranking. Challengers take places 1 to 3 here. Big brands follow in the order of our category ranking. s2Member is the one to try if you want to pay once and not renew a licence every year. All 10 alternatives below are ranked products from Best WordPress Membership Plugins in 2026, and each says where it differs from Paid Memberships Pro.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Pricing: Self-hosted core at no charge; paid plans billed monthly or annually with published USD prices
Established in: Not stated by the vendor
Built for: Site owners who want a no-cost core now and paid support later
Not for: Buyers wanting one flat price with support from day one
01
Why buyers look past Paid Memberships Pro
01
Support and add-ons start at a paid plan
The free plan is self-hosted and open source with no licence key, but it carries no support. Standard, at 49 USD monthly or 499 annually, adds expert support and the 54 premium add-ons for one site. Teams that want help on a small budget must jump to that level.
02
Managed hosting arrives only at the top
Max, at 99 USD monthly or 999 annually, adds managed hosting with Cloudflare CDN, Redis caching, daily backups and malware cleanup. Max 2x costs 299 monthly or 2,999 annually. Buyers who only want membership features and already have a host are paying for infrastructure they do not need.
03
The page contradicts itself on site counts
The comparison table lists unlimited sites for Max, while the FAQ says unlimited sites in the PMPro hosting environment plus one external site. The free add-on count also differs, 25 in the table and 29 in a pop-up. Agencies running many client sites should ask before buying.
you want a single vendor with growth and scale tiers and take PayPal
#10
03
What each one does differently
1
s2Member
Not stated by the vendor · Published
s2Member offers a free Framework and sells Pro once rather than yearly: 89 USD for a single site or 189 USD for unlimited sites, including a Multisite network. Nothing recurs. The page lists no Pro trial and no country, and the update length and support terms were not confirmed in what we read.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you want to pay once and not renew a licence every year.
Cozmoslabs sells this plugin as annual licences in euros, with Adrian Spiac named as CEO: Basic for one site, Pro for three and Agency for unlimited sites. Eight advanced add-ons come with Basic and 14 pro ones from Pro upward. A full refund runs 15 days, and no trial is listed.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you prefer euro prices and three clear site tiers.
WishList Member charges yearly in USD by site count: Basic is 149.50 for one site against a regular 299, with Plus for two sites and Pro for five. Basic already has unlimited members, drip content, and Stripe, eWay and PayPal, with no per-sale charges. Renewals bill at the regular rate, and WooCommerce payments wait until Pro.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you sell drip-fed courses and want unlimited members on the entry plan.
Ultimate Member Group Ltd is registered in Scotland with a Glasgow address. The free core covers profiles, registration, login, restriction and member directories. Standard is yearly for one site with 21 extensions, and Pro covers two sites and adds Stripe and Zapier. Prices exclude 21% tax, and a 30-day refund replaces a trial.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if member profiles and directories matter more than subscription billing.
Content Control comes from Code Atlantic LLC in Florida and concentrates on rules: block scheduling, a block rule engine, teasers, previews and custom login URLs, with conditions for WooCommerce and EDD. It does not bill members, so it needs a shop plugin beside it. Personal costs 99 USD normally and 69.30 in year one, and Professional covers 50 sites.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you already sell through WooCommerce and need only the gating rules.
Members edits roles and capabilities instead of selling subscriptions. It offers several roles per user, role cloning, content permissions and a private site mode under GPL-2.0, with 300,000-plus active installs on WordPress.org. Blair Williams is named as author, and the page promotes an upgrade to MemberPress. Nothing we read handles payments.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you grant access by hand and want a free role editor.
WP-Members calls itself the original WordPress membership plugin and treats the core as free. PayPal Subscriptions, Invite Codes, Download Protect and MailChimp Integration are separate paid add-ons, with a bundle and a support subscription besides. No prices, owner or country appear on the page, and the footer links to butlerblog.com.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you want a long-running core and will request a quote for add-ons.
Simple Membership is a free download, shown at version 4.8 and requiring WordPress 6.5 or higher. Premium Addon Support and Paid Support are linked from the home page without a price, so the full cost cannot be worked out beforehand. The page states no licence, owner or country.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you want a plain free plugin and will do the setup on your own.
Pie Register sells perpetual licences described as buy once and use forever, with a free version as well. The home page marks the PayPal payment add-on as free, while Stripe and Authorize.net are marked Pro. No amounts or currency appear, and the pricing page was a dead link. It is credited as powered by Genetech.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you want registration forms first and a once-off licence.
MemberPress, from Caseproof, LLC, publishes three annual plans, all with unlimited members. Launch takes a 4.9% fee on each successful payment and supports Stripe only, while Growth and Scale charge 0% and add PayPal, Square and dripping. A 14-day refund replaces a trial, and no country is stated.
Switch from Paid Memberships Pro if you want a single vendor with growth and scale tiers and take PayPal.
s2Member: Pro is 89 USD for one site or 189 USD for unlimited sites, bought once.
02
You sell drip-fed courses with unlimited members
WishList Member: Basic lists unlimited members, drip content and Stripe, eWay and PayPal, with no per-sale charges.
03
You need profiles and member directories more than billing
Ultimate Member: The free core covers profiles, registration, login, restriction and directories, with Stripe on Pro.
04
You already run a WooCommerce shop and only need gating
Content Control: It offers block rules with WooCommerce and EDD conditions but does not bill members.
05
You pay in euros and want clear site tiers
Paid Member Subscriptions: Annual euro licences run Basic for one site, Pro for three and Agency for unlimited sites.
04
When Paid Memberships Pro is still the right choice
Paid Memberships Pro is still a sound choice when you want an open-source core you can host yourself and grow into paid support. The free plan has 25 add-ons and no licence key, Standard and Max add the 54 premium add-ons and expert support, and premium plans come with a 100-day money-back guarantee on a single payment. Max offers managed hosting with daily backups for owners who want one supplier for site and plugin. If your levels already run on it, switching rarely pays.
05
What moving off Paid Memberships Pro involves
01
Export members and levels before you switch
List every level, its price and its billing cycle, then export the member table with expiry dates. A new plugin will not read PMPro's level logic, so each level must be rebuilt by hand and tested with a test payment.
02
Plan for gateway and renewal timing
Recurring subscriptions live at the payment gateway. Check whether the new plugin can take over existing Stripe or PayPal subscriptions, or whether members must re-subscribe, and avoid a switch just before a big renewal date.
03
Match add-ons to what you used
Make a list of PMPro add-ons that are active today. For each one, check whether the new plugin includes it, sells it separately or lacks it, since add-on pricing differs widely between the plugins below.
06
Questions about replacing Paid Memberships Pro
6 answers
What is the best free alternative to Paid Memberships Pro?
Members, Simple Membership, WP-Members and Ultimate Member all offer a free core. Members edits roles only, Simple Membership has no stated price for support, and Ultimate Member covers profiles and directories, so none matches PMPro's billing without extras.
How much does Paid Memberships Pro cost?
The free plan costs nothing and has no support. Standard is 49 USD monthly or 499 annually, Max 99 monthly or 999 annually, and Max 2x 299 monthly or 2,999 annually. Premium plans carry a 100-day money-back guarantee.
Which alternative has a one-time price?
s2Member sells Pro once, at 89 USD for one site or 189 USD for unlimited sites. Pie Register describes a perpetual licence but shows no amounts. Both leave support and update terms unconfirmed on the pages we read.
Do any alternatives avoid per-payment fees?
MemberPress Launch takes 4.9% per successful payment, while Growth and Scale charge 0%. WishList Member states no per-sale charges, and the others we read list none.
Can I gate content without billing members?
Content Control and Members handle rules and roles only. Content Control adds block scheduling and WooCommerce and EDD conditions, and Members adds role cloning and a private site mode.
Is there an alternative priced in euros?
Paid Member Subscriptions lists annual licences in euros from Cozmoslabs, at 15-day refund terms. Most others are priced in US dollars.
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Sources
Checked 10 November 2026
Paid Memberships Pro pricing: Free, Standard, Max, Max 2x prices, 54 premium add-ons, hosting, 100-day refund, site-count inconsistency.
s2Member: Free Framework, Pro 89 USD single site, 189 USD unlimited.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Checked and edited by Sebastiaan Smits, last on 10 November 2026. The editorial process explains the method.
