Simple Membership Plugin review
A capable free WordPress plugin for basic free and paid memberships.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Simple Membership Plugin is a free, self-hosted WordPress plugin for creating membership sites with free or paid access levels. It suits site owners who want to protect pages and posts, manage member accounts, and add membership workflows within an existing WordPress installation. The core feature set includes unlimited membership levels, free registration, login and profile forms, password-reset shortcodes, payment buttons, and automated signup, payment, expiry, and upgrade processes.
The pricing structure is straightforward: the core plugin is free, while optional premium addons are sold separately. Site owners configure their own membership prices, and the plugin supports both one-time and recurring payments through PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree. Its wider integration set includes WooCommerce, bbPress, MailChimp, ConvertKit, MailerLite, AWeber, and Zapier, giving WordPress sites several options for commerce, community, email, and automation workflows.
For more technical sites, the developer API supports creating, updating, querying, and logging in members. That makes the plugin suitable when membership data needs to connect with custom WordPress functionality. The main boundary is that deeper protection features are not part of the core package: full-page and partial-content protection use optional addons, and drip functionality also requires an addon. Simple Membership Plugin is a sensible choice for WordPress owners who need basic membership access and payment handling without a core software charge. Sites needing broader platform coverage or more advanced protection should consider a different fit.
Simple Membership Plugin pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Unlimited membership levels and page or post protection
- Supports one-time and recurring payments
- Includes PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree integrations
- Where it doesn't
- Full-page and partial-content protection require addons
- Drip features require optional addons
- Available only for self-hosted WordPress sites
Simple Membership Plugin fact sheet, pricing and score →
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