Normal for membership software to be ~$200 ?

Go for free version of DELAVO
The free script is also very powerful If you know how to use it
Watch all videos after installation to learn how to use the script
It is a centralized business solution for all your business needs
If you know how to effectively utilize it
you will never need any other software

There are even many open source and free membership softwares.
You can use them, it's also easy to costumize thee code in such free software.

I prefer Wishlist Member with Wordpress, it's 97 dollars for a single site license and 297 for unlimited sites. It's an easy to upload wordpress plugin. Since it's wordpress you can also use other wordpress plugins with it. So far Wishlist Member, coupled with a few other plugins, does exactly what I need it to do very easily with very little setup.

I am using Delavo for paid membership
It is working good

I use Wishlist Member. Highly recommended is you're using Wordpress

S2 Membership from Primo themes is free and full of features but only works with Paypal and if I remember right it doesn't have a secure download ability built into the script, so you might need to get something like s3flowshield depending on what you're going to do with your site.

Wishlist is excellent and they've just added a secure download feature which was the main thing I felt was missing from it. It allows for multiple payment options.

Easy Member Pro is extremely easy to use and very well thought out and has a secure download feature as well as the ability for remote downloads if you use Amazon S3 or another CDN. Uses multiple payment options.

Simple member pro is a very good script, but is not as intuitive as Easy Member Pro (IMO) and also has the secure download feature but it's a bit more cumbersome to learn than Easy Member pro. But I know the user's manual is being revamped now so the learning curve should be lessened somewhat.

I haven't ever used amember but have heard a lot of good things about it.

The bottom line is that you should figure out first exactly what you want and then base your decision of what each script can do and how it meets your needs. It will be a major pain to change it over to something else down the road should you decide to do so.

Gary

As far as file protection, I've found Wishlist Member to be unable to protect the direct links to files, but instead it protects the attachment POST.

Great information and thanks for sharing!

I too am looking to purchase a membership solution to use with WP and came across Digital Access Pass ($167). It looks like it is on par with some of these other solutions, with a few things extra (and I'm sure missing a few too).

Has anyone had any experience with this, good or bad?

Another one to consider that is really going all out is MemberWing X:

Membership Site Plugin – Wordpress Membership Plugin – MemberWing

It's stand alone like WishList, but has a built in affiliate program (with instant payout), pay per post or full membership settings and download protection feature that allows you to trace pirated files to the original person that downloaded the file.

Worth checking out.

Thanks,

John

I use sitelok myself, it has a brilliant manual that allows you to set up a membership site with a massive amount of detail.
The best part is it only costs about $40 to purchase it for a site. It allows locking pages so people can only view them if they are logged in to your site, also a built in mailing system as well as many other features.

Try google "sitelok" you should find it easily enough!

Cheers
Connor McCreesh

You can check Magic Members feature list;
Single License: $82
3-User License: $172
Unlimited License: $262

http://www.promembershipsite.com/wor...ip-plugin.html

You can also check my website for more membership software options.

I've built a couple of membership sites around Joomla with the AEC plugin. If your hosting comes with Fantastico you can install Joomla with just a couple of clicks, and the plugin can be downloaded for free from the Joomla website. AEC isn't too difficult to install, and supports PayPal and most of the more popular credit card processors.

There are a lot of "cheap" alternatives to paying for membership scripts. However, most times you get what you paid for.

The higher price on membership solutions usually allows you better customer service, better support, less chance of being hacked since you're not using open source code, better written code, less chance of a major emergency upgrade to fix security holes, and a host of other things that you usually won't get when you go with free or low cost options.

Add to that the fact that the low cost/free solutions generally do not allow for scaling upwards and you can sometimes put yourself in a bind by going cheap from the start. When you outgrow your low cost solution, or decide to change to get away from security issues, then you will have a nightmare trying to port your existing site over to a new membership solution.

I use EasyMemberPro - full of features - price ok - especially if you hang about a while and wait for their special offer to come through.

Compatible with ClickBank and PayPal.

Look on their website for full details and demo's

Butterfly Marketing is pretty flexible, and free.

Before you decide what software to use you really ought to know why a membership site works and how best to monetise one.

There are a lot of fallacys concerning membership sites that 99.9% of the software cater too, and because of that they have built in automatic failure.

When you understand Why they work, Not how they work the decision over which software to use becomes easier

Abednego,

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Joomla. Once you understand the software it's very powerful and secure.

Joomla is free and a complete CMS

John

Installed Joomla - and it feels very different from WordPress.

I don't like the lack of permalink options. I have SYSTEM - SEF enabled in my plugins, but still don't think they're as search engine friendly...

Anyway of eliminating the "LATEST NEWS" and "POPULAR" sections right in the middle? I'd rather have that be a large page or rotating image...

I have to disagree with whoever said above "you get what you pay for", some of the most buggy, poorest supported and under featured (I'm shocked to read above that WishList doesn't have a download manager) plugins are the expensive ones.

People often wrongly assume because it's only $50 a site ($200 unlimited sites) and its a one off fee (not an annual cost) Your Members must lack the features and support of the $200+ products, but it actually ticks all the same boxes.

@abednego,

Don't look at "price" in isolation. It's all about overall value (and unexpected hidden/fixed/add-on costs)

* Will the script do everything you want it to do today, 6 months from now or 2 years from now?

* Can it scale in features and flexibility as your membership site grows?

* Will the folks behind it still be around? Do they know what they're doing? How good is the support? Will they answer tickets on time? Will they pick up the phone when you call (if at all they even have a phone number on the site)?

* How often is the script/plugin updated? How often are new features introduced and bugs fixed?

* Do you just want a walled-garden where people must pay (or register) to access content?

* How about content dripping? What about having an affiliate program? What about email autoresponders and broadcasts?

* Will you need to sign-up for other 3rd party services (like Aweber, 1shoppingcart, delavo, etc) which will add a lot more to your running costs than just the price of the membership script alone?

* How about upsells, forum integration, coupon codes, etc?

So you would be better off trying to figure out what exactly you are looking to get out of a membership site. What features you need to accomplish your goals - and then once you have a reasonable check-list, it is a lot easier to go comparison-shopping.

Hope this helps.

- Ravi Jayagopal

I use a custom php member/affiliate manager script. It starts at $697 but once you use it, very few others will make you happy.