Creating a website for your online courses program, brand, paid membership, or events from scratch have proven costly and time-consuming.
A membership site allows you to launch a website, initiate an online course, and get paid memberships and events. You won’t even need to create a website from scratch.
The best membership site platforms include Kajabi, Thinkific, HubSpot, MightyNetworks, and MemberPress, which we review in this Buying Guide.
The FAQs section offers insights into the top membership site platforms and explores how to set up a membership website successfully.
You can even find out how to create free membership site platforms or a paid membership.
The last FAQ discusses how you can structure your membership program.
This mini review explores five membership sites that are dependable and efficient.
We also highlight the benefits of membership sites, their drawbacks, the specs featured in each membership site, the extra features each membership site has, and offer readers buying advice.
Best Membership Site Platforms – Reviews & Buying Guide
1. Winner: Kajabi
According to our buying guide, Kajabi is the overall winner as the best software for hosting membership site platforms.
This first place is because Kajabi allows its members to create online courses with quizzes and videos.
This site also sends content out through drip marketing or pre-requisite lessons. And you don’t need to pay an extra fee for sales funnel building, email marketing, or market automation.
Featured specs of Kajabi
The Kajabi membership site platform is the best software for hosting membership platforms because it provides better member and business integration.
As you explore the top membership site platforms, you also find that you don’t have to worry about updates, add-ons, and plugins.
Kajabi membership platform is the winner because it has all the necessary features to start your business.
These features from the response of the membership site platform include knowledge sharing, selling of products, growing website traffic, and building your website.
Type: Kajabi membership site has six kinds: Abbey of horses, Brendon Burchard, Michelle Lagaly, Brian Dixon, and the empowered entrepreneur.
Bandwidth: Kajabi has a robust bandwidth which makes the traffic smooth. There is unlimited bandwidth to support a vast number of member users with no downtime.
Livestreams for online courses can efficiently run uninterrupted, making Kajabi the best software for hosting membership site platforms.
Space: Kajabi has unlimited space for uploading content, and members can even
Domain: Kajabi recommends the use of Cloudflare, which is best for performance and security.
Kajabi is an all one solution to getting started!
Get you new Idea or Course online today.
Benefits of Kajabi
- Using the Kajabi membership platform, you can upload content without worrying about storage or limitations on bandwidth.
- Your website will be SEO-friendly, meaning it is easily accessible to those who require it.
- You are just an article away from learning how to upload your content and eliminate dependency on developers.
- Kajabi’s website makes members feel safe since the platform has the backing of solid security provided by the Cloudfare domain.
- Kajabi’s website uses auto-scaling to keep the website blazing with considerable traffic.
Drawbacks of Kajabi
- Kajabi platform does not attribute to the creation of certificates.
- Customization of assessment is limited and, unfortunately, does not work well in terms of membership site platforms responses.
Extra features of Kajabi
- Kajabi has an integrated checkout system in that it gives its members access to the content behind the paywall.
- Kajabi has coupons for promotions that allow the members to earn points.
- Kajabi sites can host an unlimited number of videos.
- With Kajabi, you get to use email broadcast where you can send information to many people simultaneously. An email sequence function ensures the automatic follow-up of relevant information.
- Kajabi has a high-converting page where you can customize it to your aesthetic preference.
Buying advice
The Kajabi membership platform has proven to be efficient and dependable.
This reliability is why it is the winner and why we recommend this top membership site platform for uploading content for business purposes.
Kajabi helps you create multiple landing pages that are efficient for supporting various features such as client marketing and lead generation.
2. Runner-up: Thinkific
According to our buying guide, Thinkific comes in second as among the top membership site platforms because of its reliability.
This elevated level of reliability is especially valuable for people who want to create online courses from their existing knowledge.
They can then sell their expertise through course development to their members.
Thinkific Featured specs
One thing that makes Thinkific among the top membership site platforms is its security.
This security feature creates confidence and enables people to develop and sell courses online by promoting membership.
Promoting membership also helps build your brand and your reputation.
Thinkific has all the features you’d expect from the top membership site platforms. Once you embrace them, you support business success.
These features include:
- Building of your course
- Designing your course site
- Marketing and selling your content
- Supporting your students
Type: Types of Thinkific type content that you can upload include text, quizzes, and media.
Bandwidth: At an event where many members access to content, Thinkific bandwidth is unlimited and modified to support all of them at once.
Space: Thinkific, like any other top membership site platform, has unlimited space for uploading content.
Domain: Thinkific allows customers to have their own custom domain.
Benefits of Thinkific
- You will enjoy complete control over your content in that you have the freedom and flexibility to run your course business and price it.
- Automatic onboarding helps to communicate with students and manage queries. You can also generate automated certificates after course completion.
- Thinkific grants you the power of customization to make the website appealing to your aesthetic value without the need to pay developers and designers for coding.
- Thinkific being a powerful, all-in-one platform with a user-friendly interface and usability, will provide you with confidence to kick-start your business.
Drawbacks of Thinkific
- Thinkific (see also ‘What Is Thinkific? Overview, Features (2022)‘) does not necessarily provide its email marketing tool that defaults to the website.
- You will not get a marketplace for promoting and selling your courses to an already present audience.
Extra features of Thinkific
- Connecting with learners on Thinkific in that the tutors and learners interact beyond the standard course content.
- Thinkific’s pricing model allows for fee-splitting over several months so that students can pay for their courses in installments.
- Tutors can set up domains and websites on third-party hosting platforms and then leverage Thinkific for its online learning functions through simple integration.
- Thinkific is tracking and analytics modified to keep track of the content sold, monitor the learning process, and amount of money paid, especially if your audience is enormous.
Buying advice
Thinkific’s unique feature of tracking and analytics makes it positively stand out, which is why we strongly recommend this best software for hosting membership site platforms.
The site comes in handy, especially when you need to build professional content aligned to your brand regardless of your expertise.
Membership site platform responses are also a valuable feature for customers and students, which is not a problem.
3. Alternative: HubSpot
HubSpot comes in third place among the top membership site platform.
The reason for this is that the site opens a new avenue to generate revenue for your content using the latest CMS membership feature.
This feature allows you to specify a list of content that helps students access with usernames and passwords.
Featured specs of HubSpot
HubSpot is an all-in-one platform that allows people to access an endless number of tools and features from membership site responses.
When you use these tools and features effectively, you can earn an income from your content.
HubSpot’s features include:
- Free CRM
- Landing Pages
- Segmentation listing
- Automated workflow
- Automated Email
Type: HubSpot is a membership site platform with content, articles, and media.
Space: HubSpot has unlimited space, which enables you to upload an unlimited amount of content.
Bandwidth: HubSpot has a bandwidth strong to support all the members with minimal downtime.
Domain: HubSpot uses a custom domain for its website.
Benefits of HubSpot
- HubSpot provides a chatting tool where the tutor can freely communicate and interact with the student to enhance content sharing.
- You can customize HubSpot’s email to all your students simultaneously, save time and improve reliable communications.
- With a segmentation list, you can categorize your contact list according to the content they access. You can also customize email interactions, page views, and lead scores.
- Hubspot has landing pages that enhance your marketing strategy since they are spun often without using developers.
- HubSpot’s free CRM helps attracts inexperienced users as you can access the tracking data to analyze their onsite behavior. This access in combination with the marketing hub enables better decision-making.
- Automation workflow makes activities more intuitive and more straightforward through arrangement at a specific criterion that triggers the action needed.
Drawbacks of HubSpot
- Hubspot contracts are often not flexible, making it hard to adapt to changes your contacts might require.
- Hubspot is expensive since you are required to pay an extra fee for technical support.
- The templates present at HubSpot have proven difficult to be modified
Extra features of HubSpot
- HubSpot has a feature of paid Ad tracking, which enables you to market your content through social media, Facebook, and Google Ads, which makes your performance more digestible to people.
- Hubspot has an integration feature that enables users to connect multiple accounts across various social media platforms to draft and edit posts more efficiently.
- Using HubSpot, reporting is made easier in those reports concerning your buying cycle and interactions being crucial is enabled in the same platform.
- Use Tandem in Hubspot through the free accessible CRM. You can access the sales and marketing hub, and information is extensively shareable between teams, increasing your market. This feature supports membership site platform responses, which is in line with customer satisfaction.
Buying advice
HubSpot has unique CTA software, which helps you to pinpoint individual leads and identify customer pain points.
This feature allows converting more prospects to customers to increase sales.
4. Alternative: MightyNetworks
MightyNetworks is the second alternative among the best membership site platform in our buyer’s guide.
This website is new and allows users to provide online paid top memberships. Paid memberships can access content under your brand, which is an asset for teachers and members.
The best software for hosting membership site platforms also enables you to launch your website, online courses, and create events.
Featured specs of MightyNetworks
The MightyNetworks platform allows interactive content delivery to members in an organized way.
The setup is dependable and efficient when using the site’s features correctly and producing a masterpiece.
Some of the features on MightyNetworks include:
- Communication Tools
- Content management
- File sharing
- Mobile Access
- Collaboration tools
Type: MightyNetworks has various content such as articles and videos to accommodate content creators, brands, and instructors.
Bandwidth: MightyNetworks has strongly modified bandwidth that supports content uploading and downloading by members. It provides unlimited access to all members, making it easier to launch courses and websites.
Space: MightyNetworks has unlimited space, which allows you to upload a lot of content.
Domain: MightyNetworks enables people to have their own domain instead of making it a site default
Benefits of MightyNetworks
- MightyNetworks has design templates that you can easily use to create a desirable site without hiring a designer. These templates are excellent for saving time and money.
- MightyNetworks make you entirely responsible for your content in that you can decide on how you will create your content, deliver your content, and the price you desire to sell it to your contacts.
- MightyNetworks is a modern website builder supporting the community by implementing better interactions that virtually guarantee a market for your content.
- MightyNetworks was initially a social network, so it has a solid foundation for content sharing, attracting a robust audience.
- MightyNetworks has an email system that you can use to send a sequence of information and follow-up communications to your contacts. You can also access a record of these communications at any time.
Drawbacks of MightyNetworks
- Customized assessment on MightyNetworks is limited.
- MightyNetworks is expensive compared to other membership sites.
- MightyNetworks lacks the aspect of integration with other social apps.
Extra features of MightyNetworks
- MightyNetworks has an extra feature whereby members can edit their profiles to put pictures, add a bio, and they can contact each other concerning topics that might be tough for discussion.
- MightyNetworks can support video conference calls for all members without any limits since modern technology supports this functionality.
- With MightyNetworks, you can upload content, be it videos, images, or even articles, without worrying about storage since it is unlimited, and the bandwidth is enormous.
- With MightyNetworks, you can organize articles, polls, questions, and events according to your desired criteria, provided it guarantees a market for your content.
Buying advice
MightyNetworks is highly popular for buying because it has many features for content creators like you.
It allows you to sell and market content and hold discussions, content, live streaming, and video conferencing. All these features provide you with multiple content selling methods.
5. Alternative: MemberPress
The MemberPress site platform is a simple yet powerful top membership site platform, a plugin for WordPress (to find out more about Memberpress memberships, read here).
You can effortlessly create a website to sell content to paying members and maintain your branding, making it easier to generate profits.
Featured specs of MemberPress
MemberPress provides a reliable and efficient platform to upload your content to members who paid for it through easy manipulation of pre-existing features to have the desired outcome that is presentable, reliable, and worth pricing.
The specs of MemberPress include:
- Easy setup
- Powerful access rules
- Easy building and selling of courses
- Coupons that are enjoyable
- Forums that are premium
Type: MemberPress has been modified so you can upload content in various formats, including articles, videos, and live conferencing.
Bandwidth: MemberPress has a modified bandwidth that will support all the members on the website.
Space: MemberPress has unlimited space for uploading content
Domain: MemberPress has a modified domain that is designed for the website.
Benefits of MemberPress
- MemberPress is beneficial because you can determine your content pricing, content order, copy changes, change its appearance, and customize your products at will.
- MemberPress makes you the only one in authority in that you are the one with the decision of what content you want to sell, the way you want to sell it, and at whatever the desired price.
- With MemberPress, you can use any theme, even if it isn’t available on StudioPress. This feature means that you can customize your content however you wish to appeal to your target audience.
- MemberPress can easily be integrated with Easy Affiliate, which accounts for small business owners beneficial for profitability.
- MemberPress has a more advanced reporting system that is simplified to ensure that members can easily access and digest available content, increasing relevance ratings.
Drawbacks of MemberPress
- MemberPress pricing lacks a lifetime purchase option.
- Features that should be inbuilt are sometimes add-ons.
- The registration and login forms lack customization.
Extra features of MemberPress
- MemberPress has a user manual in each admin manual that will enable you to use some functions. The MemberPress technical team is also ready for consultation in case of questions.
- MemberPress is ideal for integrations in that you can easily link it with existing social media platforms (if you’re wanting to integrate it with MailChimp, read here). A good example is Zapier software, which you can use to enhance content marketing through ads and connecting through sharing data.
- MemberPress has a well-developed and robust form of security that will protect it from hackers and ensure stability if your contacts are all accessing the same data.
- MemberPress gives the members the ability to create, cancel, upgrade, or update subscriptions directly from the website that automatically updates new information.
- MemberPress gives you fine-tuned control over what content you desire in that you can restrict pages, custom post types, categories, and tags.
Buying advice
Despite MemberPress being the fifth on the list, it is still worth buying due to its unique features that guarantee content sharing and revenue generation.
You will also find that the response of membership site platforms meets expectations.
Hosting Online Courses FAQs
According to our buying guide, it is evident that paid membership sites are reliable and efficient for selling content.
However, many people still have questions about these paid membership platforms and free membership site platforms.
What is a membership platform?
A membership site platform is an all-in-one tool used by various organizations to manage their free or paid membership functions online.
How can I create a membership website for free?
Free membership site platforms are more accessible with a free website builder.
You describe the courses you want to offer, outline membership levels, and have a content calendar to explain course content and delivery.
How do I set up a paid membership website?
If you are looking to build a paid
If you are looking to build a paid membership site, you can follow these simple steps:
- Plan your membership model: A membership model is why people join a system because they know how their investment will reap beneficial returns. These returns include course descriptions, explaining paid membership levels, and having a calendar to schedule content.
- Clean up your contact database: Since you will have to access various and new contacts from your website, you have to clear your current one to standardize city and state names for all membership levels.
- The use of membership management software will provide a basis for anyone with no technical expertise. Once you select membership on management software, the website is done after a few minutes. Membership management software automates and eliminates most administrative work such as registration, payments, design, and automating.
- Attraction and converting of new members: To attract and convert new customers, you must provide helpful information for users to understand your content. Valuable information can include the organization’s purpose, access to specialized knowledge, evidence of an active community, and an easy registration process.
- Uploading your contact database is the last and crucial part of your plan. This last action is because communication is more effortless when you plan well for automation and reminder communications.
- Ensure your response of membership site platforms caters to your target audience.
How do you structure a membership program?
Structuring a membership program is essential since it will give the members insights and tips on what you will provide.
Remember that when you focus on the response of membership site platforms, you show support for your customers.
The structure should include:
- How to define your membership program.
- Make it easy to sign up.
- Market your membership program.
- Treat members as donors/customers.
- Treat members as a valuable community.
- Develop a system for overseeing the program.
- Get the benefits right.
Further Reading:
Conclusion
This buying guide highlights the best membership site platform, which we highly recommend to potential users.
You can choose a membership site that will provide you with the flexibility, efficiency, and reliability required to grow your business.
It is worth buying a membership site platform to reduce the high costs and time of developing your website from scratch.
These membership sites provide you with the right tools to create your content, brand your business, and scale up your online sales.
If you plan to launch an online course, these membership sites are the best starting point for you.
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