Does WordPress have a membership plugin?

Yes, WordPress has several membership plugins. In fact, it has too many, which makes choosing the right one harder than it should be.

Here are the main options worth considering:

MemberPress ($179-$399/year) is the most popular choice. It handles content restriction, payment processing (Stripe, PayPal), drip content, and course creation. It's well-maintained and has solid documentation. The downside is that it's not cheap, and the basic tier is fairly limited.

Paid Memberships Pro has a free core plugin with paid add-ons. It's a good option if you want to start small and add features as you need them. The free version covers the basics: registration, checkout, content restriction. Add-ons for things like email integration and advanced reporting are $247-$697/year.

Restrict Content Pro ($99-$499/year) is a lighter-weight option that focuses on doing content restriction well. It's less feature-rich than MemberPress but also less complex.

WooCommerce Memberships ($199/year) makes sense if you're already running a WooCommerce store and want to add membership functionality to it.

The honest downsides of WordPress for memberships:

WordPress membership plugins give you flexibility, but they come with trade-offs:

When WordPress makes sense: You're running a content-based membership site (courses, articles, community) and you're comfortable managing a WordPress installation.

When to look elsewhere: You're an association, club, or professional body that needs member management features beyond content gating. A dedicated membership platform will serve you better than a WordPress plugin ever will.