Opinions on Memberpress (and other membership plugins)
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Mike Witt
Sep 28, 2020, 3:00:13 PM9/28/20
to manchester-word...@googlegroups.com
On 09/28/2020 12:40:35 PM, 'Steve Mosby' via Manchester WordPress User
Group wrote:
> I’d be interested to hear opinions on Memberpress. Currently using
> Restrict Content Pro (now taken over by ithemes) but finding some
> restrictions are a bit of a pain!
>
> Currently have a site with 400+ paying and 1400 free members - but
> finding RCP a little inflexible with some bits.
Hi Steve,
I thought this did deserved its own thread :-)
I'm supporting one commercial site, based in MemberPress, BuddyPress,
and bbPress. It is currently running something like 200 paid members,
and has had something like twice that in and out periodically. It
appears to be growing between 5 and 10% per month.
I also have a "hobby" site PhysicsCafe.org, using all the same plugins,
but no money changing hands (other than occasional contributions).
This has been going on for about a year and a half, and things are
going reasonably well so far. The biggest problem we've had so far,
well I outlined that in my recent post on Sep 11, but it's not clear
where the problem lies.
I'm not sure what to say beyond that, but I would love to compare
experiences with specific issues, limitations, or whatever.
What are the "inflexible" bits you mentioned?
What are the good points of RCP?
-Mike
Group wrote:
> I’d be interested to hear opinions on Memberpress. Currently using
> Restrict Content Pro (now taken over by ithemes) but finding some
> restrictions are a bit of a pain!
>
> Currently have a site with 400+ paying and 1400 free members - but
> finding RCP a little inflexible with some bits.
Hi Steve,
I thought this did deserved its own thread :-)
I'm supporting one commercial site, based in MemberPress, BuddyPress,
and bbPress. It is currently running something like 200 paid members,
and has had something like twice that in and out periodically. It
appears to be growing between 5 and 10% per month.
I also have a "hobby" site PhysicsCafe.org, using all the same plugins,
but no money changing hands (other than occasional contributions).
This has been going on for about a year and a half, and things are
going reasonably well so far. The biggest problem we've had so far,
well I outlined that in my recent post on Sep 11, but it's not clear
where the problem lies.
I'm not sure what to say beyond that, but I would love to compare
experiences with specific issues, limitations, or whatever.
What are the "inflexible" bits you mentioned?
What are the good points of RCP?
-Mike
Steve Mosby
Sep 29, 2020, 3:46:32 AM9/29/20
to manchester-word...@googlegroups.com
Haha good idea, so not taking over the other one.
I run a support/accounting site for self employed Slimming World consultants. Unusual niche, but there's around 3000 across the UK of these consultants, and with my partner being an ex-one, there's a large gap in knowledge from the consultants in how to prepare their business accounts for the purposes of HMRC and sending their tax return. And as I'm a trained Bookkeeper, it fits to move into this area as a side hustle, which now employs a few people providing support to the members.
Benefits - it's easy to use. Simple tick box 'hide this content from non-paid members' works perfectly, and on some pages, the ability to add [is_paid] or [is_free] allows upsells and restricts content further. It works really well as a result for this, and with the integration to stripe, there's little maintenance we need to do with the plugin. We purchased the pro version to give a few extra bits (like mailchimp sync for the status of members, and also tracking to help support if people struggle with parts of the site), and it's generally good that way.
However after 1 year of running with it, we decided back in April that the annual subscription fee for the services provided online should increase (ever so slightly) thanks to VAT needing to be added. So our subscription went from £30 > £36 per year as a result. No members have complained about the price rise (which is truly due to VAT being added...), However RCP doesn't allow flexibility for changing someone's subscription at renewal which has resulted in working with Stripe to arrange for this (which they have done).
When running any membership, you'd expect at some point in the future (e.g. renewal) that it would increase slightly, so it seems inflexible. At the same time, we will need again to increase the price at the next renewal period for most people as obviously costs do increase for businesses, and we want to be able to add more stuff along the way - but I don't want to hassle Stripe again as it took a while and some playing about between us all to try and work it out. RCP has a 'trial option' - however we don't know what the price will be next year, until we do the accounts and profit/loss, so cannot add that in at the moment, and it appears from the support team at RCP that once it's sent through to Stripe, it cannot be changed.
And due to the nature of the members, we don't want in a few years time to have people complaining that someone got access for £30, and someone else now is paying (say) £40..
So happy to look at other options, although knowing there could be a headache of migration of 400+ members which could be chaos!
Bw
Steve
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Mike Witt
Sep 29, 2020, 8:18:55 AM9/29/20
to manchester-word...@googlegroups.com
On 09/29/2020 01:46:18 AM, 'Steve Mosby' via Manchester WordPress User
> Benefits - it's easy to use. Simple tick box 'hide this content from
> non-paid members' works perfectly, and on some pages, the ability to
> add
> [is_paid] or [is_free] allows upsells and restricts content further.
> It
> works really well as a result for this, and with the integration to
> stripe,
> there's little maintenance we need to do with the plugin. We
> purchased the
> pro version to give a few extra bits (like mailchimp sync for the
> status of
> members, and also tracking to help support if people struggle with
> parts of
> the site), and it's generally good that way.
The "tick box per page" sounds easier to me than the memberpress
"rules." They may be quite powerful, but I personally find it
impossible to predict with certainty exactly what the results are going
to be until I try them.
The MemberPress <--> Stripe integration has been working well for us.
We are using "Active Campaign" which MP does interface with. It works
OK, but there appear to be some limitations about which AC features MP
can access. MP appears to have a mailchimp add-on, but I haven't tried
it:
https://memberpress.com/add-ons/mailchimp/
We have not tried to change the price of a given membership. We did
have "introductory" free memberships in the beginning, but they were
constructed so as to be, for example "three months free and then $14.00
/ month."
We haven't increased the regular membership price yet, so we haven't
actually been over that hurdle. It's my wife who actually runs the
commercial site, and she has been planning *not* to increase the price
for existing members, but rather create a new membership for new member
at a higher price.
But with the pandemic and all, she has decided simply to hold off any
any price increases for the time being.
I also should say, that the interface between the MP plug-in and Stripe
is a bit "mysterious" to me and MP themselves (the company, not the
plugin) appeared to need some kind of access to our stripe account in
order to get it working with the current stripe protocol. They were
requiring this of all their users. My wife talked to a couple of other
MP users on a forum she used to be on, and they were all doing this.
But I have to say I thought it was "strange" and MP support was never
able to explain to my satisfaction exactly why this was necessary.
> So happy to look at other options, although knowing there could be a
> headache of migration of 400+ members which could be chaos!
We currently have only about 400 members, including the ones who are
"in and out" but I have a hard time imagining switching membership
plugins. I also have a similar concern about our forums (currently
bbPress).
We are in the process of dumping one plugin, which was used for
creating classes. Even that is turning out to be a big job.
FWIW, I do have a "test site" which is running MP, bbPress and
buddypress and is hooked up to Stripe. I'd be open to discussion if
anyone wanted to try some experiments together. I've only been working
with WP and it's ecosystem for less than two years and I'm very keen a
better understanding of all this.
-Mike
Group wrote:
> Haha good idea, so not taking over the other one.
>
> I run a support/accounting site for self employed Slimming World
> consultants. Unusual niche, but there's around 3000 across the UK of
> these
> consultants, and with my partner being an ex-one, there's a large gap
> in
> knowledge from the consultants in how to prepare their business
> accounts for the purposes of HMRC and sending their tax return. And
> as I'm
> a trained Bookkeeper, it fits to move into this area as a side hustle,
> which now employs a few people providing support to the members.
It's a marvelous thing to find a niche like that!
> Haha good idea, so not taking over the other one.
>
> I run a support/accounting site for self employed Slimming World
> consultants. Unusual niche, but there's around 3000 across the UK of
> these
> consultants, and with my partner being an ex-one, there's a large gap
> in
> knowledge from the consultants in how to prepare their business
> accounts for the purposes of HMRC and sending their tax return. And
> as I'm
> a trained Bookkeeper, it fits to move into this area as a side hustle,
> which now employs a few people providing support to the members.
> Benefits - it's easy to use. Simple tick box 'hide this content from
> non-paid members' works perfectly, and on some pages, the ability to
> add
> [is_paid] or [is_free] allows upsells and restricts content further.
> It
> works really well as a result for this, and with the integration to
> stripe,
> there's little maintenance we need to do with the plugin. We
> purchased the
> pro version to give a few extra bits (like mailchimp sync for the
> status of
> members, and also tracking to help support if people struggle with
> parts of
> the site), and it's generally good that way.
"rules." They may be quite powerful, but I personally find it
impossible to predict with certainty exactly what the results are going
to be until I try them.
The MemberPress <--> Stripe integration has been working well for us.
We are using "Active Campaign" which MP does interface with. It works
OK, but there appear to be some limitations about which AC features MP
can access. MP appears to have a mailchimp add-on, but I haven't tried
it:
https://memberpress.com/add-ons/mailchimp/
have "introductory" free memberships in the beginning, but they were
constructed so as to be, for example "three months free and then $14.00
/ month."
We haven't increased the regular membership price yet, so we haven't
actually been over that hurdle. It's my wife who actually runs the
commercial site, and she has been planning *not* to increase the price
for existing members, but rather create a new membership for new member
at a higher price.
But with the pandemic and all, she has decided simply to hold off any
any price increases for the time being.
I also should say, that the interface between the MP plug-in and Stripe
is a bit "mysterious" to me and MP themselves (the company, not the
plugin) appeared to need some kind of access to our stripe account in
order to get it working with the current stripe protocol. They were
requiring this of all their users. My wife talked to a couple of other
MP users on a forum she used to be on, and they were all doing this.
But I have to say I thought it was "strange" and MP support was never
able to explain to my satisfaction exactly why this was necessary.
> So happy to look at other options, although knowing there could be a
> headache of migration of 400+ members which could be chaos!
"in and out" but I have a hard time imagining switching membership
plugins. I also have a similar concern about our forums (currently
bbPress).
We are in the process of dumping one plugin, which was used for
creating classes. Even that is turning out to be a big job.
FWIW, I do have a "test site" which is running MP, bbPress and
buddypress and is hooked up to Stripe. I'd be open to discussion if
anyone wanted to try some experiments together. I've only been working
with WP and it's ecosystem for less than two years and I'm very keen a
better understanding of all this.
-Mike
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