How to create a mem­ber­ship site or password protected website

If you plan to build a password-protected website with a mem­ber­ship area, you can use different plugins and platforms created for this purpose. The number of sign-ups you generate will largely depend on the type, design, and scope of the content you offer to members.

What are mem­ber­ship sites?

Member areas are sections of a website that require a password to access. They’re designed to strengthen customer loyalty and provide exclusive content un­avail­able to regular visitors. Depending on the setup, a password-protected site can be unlocked for free after re­gis­tra­tion or offered as a paid option. With different mem­ber­ship tiers, access rights may vary from one user to another.

Mem­ber­ship sites are suitable for all website types, as their content is com­pletely up to you as the website owner. They range from exclusive com­munit­ies to con­sum­able media.

What is good exclusive content for members?

The content you provide on your member website can take many different forms. Below are some of the most common types, which can be offered in­di­vidu­ally or in com­bin­a­tion:

• In­ter­act­ive offers such as webinars, live streams, and similar formats
• In­form­at­ive resources like articles, tutorials, and guides
• Community spaces including forums and chat rooms for personal exchange
• Exclusive product offers, for example early access or dis­coun­ted sales
• Content archives where past materials can be accessed anytime
• News and updates such as product an­nounce­ments and feature releases

What are the benefits of a members area?

Setting up a mem­ber­ship section on your website is useful if you want to make certain content available only to selected users. These password-protected areas can function as a space for internal com­mu­nic­a­tion among employees or teams. They are also an effective way to provide users with special offers and strengthen customer loyalty.

Before launching, it’s important to define the right mem­ber­ship model for your website. Decide whether users should regularly encounter a paywall or move through different mem­ber­ship tiers. You also need to carefully consider access re­stric­tions: how much content and which areas of your website should be ex­clus­ively available to members is entirely up to you.

How to create a website members area

If you want to set up a mem­ber­ship site, you have three options. If you’re just starting out, you can purchase a website builder that allows you to create a website with a member website. The other two options involve plugins or a platform. Es­pe­cially among WordPress plugins, you have many options available.

The first step involves in­stall­a­tion or re­gis­tra­tion. After that, you are equipped with various design options to customise and define the website members area according to your pref­er­ences. For optimal website nav­ig­a­tion, you should assign it a des­ig­nated place to help users navigate more easily, es­pe­cially if you also offer content for non-members.

3 plugins for creating a website members area

Mem­ber­Press

The WordPress plugin Mem­ber­Press is one of the most popular tools for creating mem­ber­ship sites, offering both ease of use and a wide range of features. Enhance your website with community forums, online courses, and various other in­teg­ra­tions to make mem­ber­ship on your site versatile and appealing.

The WordPress mem­ber­ship area plugin is available in three versions: Basic, Plus, and Pro. The Basic version is ideal for those launching a mem­ber­ship site for the first time. Features include unlimited mem­ber­ships and an advanced paywall. However, a variety of add-ons is only available after upgrading to the Pro or Plus version.

Di­giMem­ber

The WordPress plugin Di­giMem­ber offers the advantage of trans­form­ing not only selected pages of your website into member areas but also in­di­vidu­al sections within them. Ad­di­tion­ally, you have the flex­ib­il­ity to decide when these password protected website contents—video courses, down­load­able products, etc.—are made ac­cess­ible to the members of your site.

Di­giMem­ber offers a free version and a paid Pro version, with the free one being suitable only for small projects due to sig­ni­fic­ant lim­it­a­tions (e.g., a 50-member limit or a preset payment provider). An upgrade is necessary for unlimited members and ad­di­tion­al features.

Ultimate Mem­ber­ship Pro

Ultimate Mem­ber­ship Pro is a WordPress plugin that has already equipped over 40,000 websites with mem­ber­ship areas and enjoys very good reviews. Its features include in­teg­ra­tions with Woo­Com­merce and PayPal, a sub­scrip­tion man­age­ment tool, and various security measures.

Ultimate Mem­ber­ship Pro can be purchased in an af­ford­able basic edition with an annual sub­scrip­tion. However, if you want to enjoy popular ex­ten­sions like ‘Elementor Widget Lock’ or ‘Divi Content Locker’, you should consider the Pro Addons Bundle, which is also available as an annual sub­scrip­tion.

3 platforms for creating mem­ber­ship areas

Mem­ber­Space

The service Mem­ber­Space was launched in 2015 and enables you to lock selected pages of your website for members. Its special features include forums, podcasts, and affiliate programs. Ad­di­tion­ally, an analytics tool allows you to monitor important data like downloads, while bank-level SSL en­cryp­tion ensures high security.

Mem­ber­Space is available in various versions after an optional 14-day trial period, including a starter package where you only have to pay fees per sub­scrip­tion sold.

Digibiz24

Digibiz24 is an online platform that allows you to create websites, sales funnels, and mem­ber­ship sites. The latter can be focused on edu­ca­tion­al courses and down­load­able products or serve as a community space. A sig­ni­fic­ant advantage is the optional in­teg­ra­tions, such as with the email marketing platform Act­ive­Cam­paign, which automates various processes in email marketing, sales, and more.

Digibiz24 offers a 30-day trial that you can use for free. After that, you have a choice of three pricing models—Light, Premium, and Platinum—available as monthly and annual packages. The two more expensive packages include the Di­gi­ment­or24 app, which allows your users to access your mem­ber­ship offers via mobile devices (Android and iOS) even offline.

Kajabi

Kajabi is a versatile all-in-one online platform that allows you to quickly create a mem­ber­ship site for various content—online courses, podcasts, com­munit­ies, and more. Since it already includes numerous features, the platform ad­vert­ises that you don’t need any ad­di­tion­al plugins or in­teg­ra­tions after purchase.

If you’d like to try Kajabi, you can start with a free 14-day trial. Af­ter­wards, you can select from several paid pricing packages: Kick­starter, Basic, Growth, and Pro. Each package includes unlimited landing pages and access to Kajabi Uni­ver­sity — a dedicated help centre offering courses to support users in building and managing their online business.

How do you get con­ver­sions?

A con­ver­sion in online marketing describes the process in which a user takes an action that turns them into a customer — for example, by pur­chas­ing a product. With a mem­ber­ship site, the key challenge is finding effective ways to turn visitors into re­gistered members and, ideally, paying customers.

For op­tim­ising the con­ver­sion rate, it is crucial how appealing you make a mem­ber­ship on your website and the offers contained within. This endeavor is suc­cess­ful by meeting the users’ needs. In addition to the type of content you provide, the amount can also be a key factor. Many mem­ber­ship sites are a hybrid of diverse content. A com­bin­a­tion of a community forum, special (product) offers, and con­sum­able media leaves a positive im­pres­sion and entices users to sign up for a mem­ber­ship.

What are the dis­ad­vant­ages of password protected websites?

One of the main dis­ad­vant­ages of websites that are fully or partially password protected is the higher ad­min­is­trat­ive effort involved. This becomes es­pe­cially relevant when larger teams are working on the site. In such cases, it’s essential to adjust WordPress access rights ac­cord­ingly and assign re­spons­ib­il­ity for member areas to specific in­di­vidu­als. If community forums are in­teg­rated, mod­er­at­ors should also ensure that all rules are enforced and users follow the es­tab­lished netiquette.

Another drawback is the password system itself. In practice, you cannot control who actually enters your website’s members area. Passwords can be shared between users or even stolen by cy­ber­crim­in­als. To counter this, it’s important to pri­or­it­ise strong website security and provide helpful features such as password recovery.