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Anything Better than aMember?

by lerxtjr
11 replies
WishList seems to be great for when you want to give access to extended blog posts and video behind a membership area. DAP seems to be great for dripping content. But what else is there besides aMember that allows for user accounts and levels that allows access to user-provided content that is saved over the years. Basecamp is a good example. If you were to make a new Basecamp, what would you use to manage the member levels?

aMember's support just takes too long to do by submitting a support ticket, wait till morning for a response, answer their question in the support ticket, wait till morning, try what they suggest, report back that it didn't work, wait till morning. You're probably getting tired just reading this. Imagine us working on a membership site for 4 months going through this.
#amember
  • Profile picture of the author untappedrep
    WishList and DAP are great solutions with lots of support! Sending you a PM
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  • Profile picture of the author Anonymous Affiliate
    I personally think aMember is the best, and I use it whenever I want to protect my members-only areas behind a login info.

    Yes, the interface is a bit clunky and support is a bit slow, but the script itself is the best out there.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      Since you haven't mentioned cost as a limiting factor, the best membership software that I have used is Membergate.

      IMO, it's the best - hands down and help is always available, courteous, and personal.

      Membergate does everything that a membership site should do and the interface is great for both the user and administrator.

      Yes, it is pricey compared to other lesser platforms. But you asked for the best and this is it.

      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author lerxtjr
        Just thought I'd mention that I got a p.m. from this post by an amember support tech who offered to see if he could help. That's a class act. I have another site I'm using aMember with that works awesomely so I'm confident we'll get this one through its hurdles too.
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      • Profile picture of the author roblawrence
        Yes, Membergate used to be tops and the only thing around and is a great all-in-one-solution but it is lacking a lot of the community features that are standard nowadays.

        Membergate has no native commenting system, you have to use Disqus or another plugin for the comments and there is no way to have the Membergate forum avatars and profiles synch with the comments (because they are two different systems). So it is a bit disjointed for the users. The forum software they tacked onto Membergate is really dated and hasn't been updated in over 4 years. This is what they are using: CFMBB Forums - Coldfusion Forums

        And the system they use for the "member profiles page" is pretty old-looking too and again not a nice user interface, it's another piece of software that's been tacked-on and just looks different.

        Also, something as simple as having thumbnails for photos in articles that you can click on and blow-up into a lightbox so people can see them closer, doesn't exist. The only size you get is the size you put on the page. So if you have a large photo you have to cut it down manually before you post it and this creates a lot of additional work. Wordpress, with automatically fit your photo to the page and if a user clicks on it, will show the full size.

        There are other features lacking as well. They also don't update the software with new features as often as Wordpress does. But the backbone seems solid. The software works excellent and the billing features and renewals are fantastic but it is starting to show it's age.

        I would recommend Membergate if your needs are not too complex and you don't need all the fancy new bells and whistles. It's a robust and reliable solution that does the job well (controlling access to content, processing payments and managing renewals).
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        • Profile picture of the author roblawrence
          Originally Posted by roblawrence View Post

          Yes, Membergate used to be tops and the only thing around and is a great all-in-one-solution but it is lacking a lot of the community features that are standard nowadays.

          Membergate has no native commenting system, you have to use Disqus or another plugin for the comments and there is no way to have the Membergate forum avatars and profiles synch with the comments (because they are two different systems). So it is a bit disjointed for the users. The forum software they tacked onto Membergate is really dated and hasn't been updated in over 4 years. This is what they are using: CFMBB Forums - Coldfusion Forums

          And the system they use for the "member profiles page" is pretty old-looking too and again not a nice user interface, it's another piece of software that's been tacked-on and just looks different.

          Also, something as simple as having thumbnails for photos in articles that you can click on and blow-up into a lightbox so people can see them closer, doesn't exist. The only size you get is the size you put on the page. So if you have a large photo you have to cut it down manually before you post it and this creates a lot of additional work. Wordpress, with automatically fit your photo to the page and if a user clicks on it, will show the full size.

          There are other features lacking as well. They also don't update the software with new features as often as Wordpress does. But the backbone seems solid. The software works excellent and the billing features and renewals are fantastic but it is starting to show it's age.

          I would recommend Membergate if your needs are not too complex and you don't need all the fancy new bells and whistles. It's a robust and reliable solution that does the job well (controlling access to content, processing payments and managing renewals).
          Just a follow-up to my previous post. You can cobble together some community features on a Membergate site by embedding a Talkki forum or Vanilla Forum onto a Membergate page. Yeah it's not pretty, but it will do the job and give you added community functionality that users nowadays expect. Vanilla Forum will even handle the commenting system for the Membergate articles you post. But you are using another system to compensate for things and the forums are technically hosted elsewhere and are not part of Membergate. But it works, and you get Membergate's backbone and other great features like rebilling and dunning management to handle bounced/rejected credit cards.

          Embeddable Forums by Tal.ki embeddable forum

          Vanilla Forums - Evolved Community Forum Software another embeddable forum option

          Vanilla Forums Blog » Introducing Vanilla Comments: Integrate blog comments to supercharge your community (info about the commenting option which integrates with their embeddable forum, can be used on Wordpress sites or any CMS like Membergate by embedding a javascript code where you want the community comments to go).

          Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Haven
    You can also use ProfitsTheme which is pretty decent
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
    The problem with Amember is that they don't do any support during daytime hours in the USA. I've told them that they absolutely should pay at least one support person to work during the day (USA time) and until they do, I just can't use their system because it does take way too long for answers, especially when you have to go back and forth trying different things.
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    • Profile picture of the author cgicentral
      Dear lerxtjr, as I know the problem has been fixed early morning today. In any case I am sorry for experience you had with aMember support. We have literally thousands customers, and although we are doing the best to answer tickets ASAP, sometimes it takes longer.

      Paul, thanks, I followed your suggestion and we now have a support/sales representative in USA. He is on the phone, and ready to answer any sales/simple support questions.
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      • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
        Originally Posted by cgicentral View Post

        Dear lerxtjr, as I know the problem has been fixed early morning today. In any case I am sorry for experience you had with aMember support. We have literally thousands customers, and although we are doing the best to answer tickets ASAP, sometimes it takes longer.

        Paul, thanks, I followed your suggestion and we now have a support/sales representative in USA. He is on the phone, and ready to answer any sales/simple support questions.
        I checked the support desk and it's showing that you only have support in the middle of the night still (USA time). I see you added support for pre-sales which is good but you really should get a full time person handling support for existing customers during the day during USA time.

        I love Amember and the challenging support hours are the only thing that keeps me from using it and recommending it to others. If you guys do make the change, please let me know as I'd love to use Amember again.

        Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author ConnorMRR
    I am a big fan of Amember and I would recommend it. It's handled over 15,000 members (free and paid) over the years for me personally with barely any hitches.

    I am hoping however that they have somehow made it an option to upgrade to the latest version from the older versions, as the last time I checked they didn't recommend it, which in my opinion is a bit of a problem for existing Amember and membership owners.

    I've heard good things about DAP, I know several people who use it and they all recommend it. For me though, Amember gets my vote.
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