Memberstack Alternatives: Which Tool is the Right Fit for Your Webflow Agency?

To DIY, or pay for SaaS, that is the question – at least if you’re thinking of creating a membership-based website. Here at Slam Media Lab, we use Memberstack to manage user authentication for our gated content. However, it’s a good idea to explore all your options before making a decision – DIY or otherwise. That’s why we recommend evaluating Memberstack alternatives to determine which solution best satisfies your project’s unique needs.   

In this article, we’ll go over: 

1. An introduction to Memberstack alternatives
2. Memberstack alternatives: Top 3 criteria for choosing the right solution
3. Memberful as an alternative to Memberstack
4. Mighty Networks: A Memberstack alternative for building community 
5. Memberstack alternatives: WordPress plugins
6. Outseta vs. Memberstack: an all-in-one-alternative
7. Do Memberstack alternatives integrate with Webflow? 
8. Why Slam prefers Memberstack to the alternatives

As an award-winning B2B website design agency with over a decade of experience supporting organizations of all types and sizes, we’ve demoed pretty much every SaaS application on the market. Sure, we have our preferences, but we aren’t biased. Our priority is to support founders, and we believe you should choose the best option for your use case and bottom line. 

If you’re an agency founder, it’s always a good idea to stay up-to-date on the latest Memberstack alternatives. That way, you’ll be well-positioned to suggest the best solutions to your clients based on their unique project needs. 

For instance, when our client Quiet Films approached us about an auth feature for renting their documentary film The Death of My Two Fathers, we were able to confidently suggest a SaaS solution based on our knowledge of all the Memberstack alternative options – as opposed to our preference as an agency.  

Now, let’s take a look at some Memberstack alternative options for you to consider. 

Memberstack Alternatives: An Introduction

Do you want to create a membership-based website? Or, maybe you’re looking to offer restricted access to certain content on your pre-existing site. Either way, if your goal is to sell products or provide visitors with access to exclusive products, you’ll need a user authentication solution. 

The first question you’ll need to consider is how to quickly and efficiently create your user authentication infrastructure. Should you pay for a subscription-based software solution or code up a membership site yourself?  

In other words, should you spend your budget and a week’s worth of dev time building out an auth feature with gated content, or should you pay a monthly fee for a no-code solution that can be set up in the amount of time it takes to wait for your lunch to be delivered? 

Here at Slam, we opted to save ourselves the dev time and enjoy our lunch, while trusting Memberstack with the process of authenticating access to our gated content. As a Webflow design and development agency, the Memberstack + Webflow duo works best for our needs. 

In this article, we’ll explore six Memberstack alternative options for you to evaluate: 

1. Memberful
2. Mighty Networks
3. Membermouse
4. Restrict Content Pro
5. Outseta

For the purpose of this article, we’re assuming that a SaaS application is better for you than DIY. Now, it’s a matter of determining which software solution works best for your use case. 

Let’s take a closer look at the options available and how to evaluate them. 

Memberstack Alternatives: Top 3 Criteria for Choosing the Right Solution

There are a lot of factors to consider when evaluating a software solution for your agency. After all, if you’ve decided to go with SaaS, it’s because you want to save time and money. The wrong software choice could end up being counterproductive! 

When choosing the right solution for your agency, consider these top three criteria: 

1. Setup logistics 
2. Membership functionality
3. Customization and scalability

By carefully evaluating these criteria, you increase the likelihood of selecting either Memberstack or a Memberstack alternative option that meets your agency needs and aligns with your long-term goals. 

Either way, you should conduct thorough research. If you can do that through trials, demos, and consultations with SaaS providers, even better! 

Setup Logistics

A smooth setup is often the primary reason businesses choose to go with a SaaS application over the DIY option. If the software in question takes hours to set up or, worse, isn’t technologically compatible with your other digital tools, is it even worth using? 

When evaluating the setup logistics of a Memberstack alternative option, consider these factors: 

• Ease of setup and implementation
• Time to deployment
• Technical requirements
• Integration with existing systems
• Training and documentation 

By thoroughly evaluating setup logistics, you’ll be well-positioned to make an informed decision about the feasibility and suitability of Memberstack alternatives for your business model. This process will help you mitigate potential challenges and ensure a smooth implementation, which will ultimately save you time and money. 

Membership Functionality

Not all membership applications are created equal – nor do they need to be. The needs of a website offering products for purchase and download often differ drastically from a website focused on virtual learning, for example. 

When evaluating Memberstack alternatives, it’s important to consider the specific aspects of membership functionality required for your project. 

You might evaluate aspects like: 

• Membership tiers and plans
• Automated email communications
• Content restriction
• Trial periods and discounts
• User profiles

For example, not all membership SaaS applications offer unlimited emails. If your business model relies heavily on automated email newsletters, email functionality would be an important aspect for you to consider. 

By carefully evaluating these aspects of membership functionality, you’ll be well prepared to consider all the Memberstack alternative options and decide which software works best for your use case. 

Customization & Scalability   

Customization and scalability are important considerations when choosing a membership authentication service for several reasons, including: 

• Alignment with branding strategy and identity
• Adaptation to unique business workflows
• Integration with existing systems
• Handling increased traffic

For instance, if you’ve already done the legwork on choosing the right CMS for your website design, it won’t make much sense to go with a membership SaaS application that doesn’t integrate with your preferred platform. 

From creating a personalized user experience to integrating with your existing systems, your subscription software should support your growth and changing needs over time. 

Customization and scalability features provide the flexibility and adaptability your agency needs to thrive, so be sure to evaluate them closely when choosing a SaaS solution for your membership needs. 

Memberstack Alternatives: Memberful

Memberful is a membership and subscription management platform designed to meet the needs of independent creators, publishers, educators, and podcasters. It allows users to create and manage memberships, handle subscription billing, and restrict access to premium content. 

Let’s take a look at the pros, cons, and price breakdown of Memberful as a membership software solution. 

Pros & Cons

According to online reviews, Memberful caters primarily to small businesses that appreciate its customer service, evolving features, and simple and intuitive user interface. Setup is quick and easy, and the application gives subscription customers some control over their accounts, which reduces the customer service pressure on businesses with small teams. 

Reviewers also noted some things they dislike about Memberful, including: 

• Confusing reporting with Stripe
• Lack of data analytics options
• Clunky password reset process for users
• Emails/newsletters limited to 5 per day, even with a Pro Account

Memberful’s limited dashboard is another source of discontent, with users expressing the need for more customization control over analytics. 

Price Analysis 

Memberful offers three pricing tiers: 

1. Starter for $0/month + 10% transaction fee
2. Pro for $25/month + 4.9% transaction fee
3. Premium for $100/month + 4.9% transaction fee

The pricing tier you choose depends on your specific needs, with more expensive plans offering features like staff accounts, group subscriptions, and the option to white-label your Memberful domain. 

Fortunately, you can try Memberful for free to get a sense of whether the software meets your needs – no credit card required. 

Mighty Networks: A Memberstack Alternative for Building Community

Might Networks is a platform focused on building unique online communities around everything from hobbies to a specific cause. More than just a social networking platform, Mighty Network lets users offer online courses, share exclusive content, host events, and more. If community-building is an important part of your project, then this might be a good Memberstack alternative option for you to consider. 

Mighty Networks is especially good for: 

• Content creators
• Educators
• Coaches
• Hobbyists

For instance, as a nonprofit web design agency, community building is an important part of the work done by several of our clients. Mighty Network supports the process of nurturing and growing a digital community through: 

• Interest and passion-focused online community creation
• Custom branding elements
• Content sharing features
• Events and meetups
• Mobile app

The software also offers robust analytics tools for gaining valuable insights into your community’s engagement and growth. With Mighty Networks, you can easily track things like member activity, course performance, and community metrics. This will help you make data-driven decisions without exporting data to a third-party tool. 

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Mighty Networks offers three pricing tiers: 

1. Community for $33/month
2. Business for $99/month
3. Mighty Pro (contact the company for pricing) 

These prices are based on annual payments. You can try the service free for 14 days to get a sense of whether it’s right for you. 

Memberstack Alternatives: WordPress Plugins

If you’re using a WordPress site, you have several plugin options for setting up your membership authentication. 

WordPress plugins are third-party software components you can install to extend the functionality of your WordPress site. These add-ons are easily integrated into a WordPress site to improve functionality or add new capabilities without altering the core code. 

Users can install, activate, and deactivate plugins as needed, making them a flexible and highly customizable option for WordPress websites 

The two most popular WordPress plugins are:

1. BuddyBoss – an app geared towards online learning and community building.
2. Ultimate Member – great for user-centric sign-up solutions.

In this section, we’ll also take a closer look at two additional WordPress plugin alternatives to Memberstack: 

1. Membermouse
2. Restrict Content Pro

Before selecting a WordPress plugin, it’s a good idea to consider your specific requirements, budget, and integration needs. You should also check for the latest updates and reviews to ensure the plugin is compatible with your WordPress setup. 

Membermouse

Membermouse is a WordPress plugin with enterprise-level features. It features the option to create everything from unlimited membership plans to digital downloads and physical product purchases. 

One benefit to Membermouse is that it lets you create modular memberships. For example, if you want to offer users the option to purchase specific modules from a course without accessing all its content, Membermouse might be a good solution for you. 

According to online reviews, one potential downside to Membermouse is that updates are less frequent compared to other WordPress plugins. When they do occur, it’s mostly done to fix issues with the software, instead of providing users with regular feature updates. 

Membermouse doesn’t work with Stripe’s built-in subscription management, either. So, if that’s important to you, look elsewhere. 

Restrict Content Pro

Restrict Content Pro is a premium WordPress plugin that lets you create membership sites with an unlimited number of subscription levels. 

While it integrates nicely with payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, it also gives you the option to add your own payment gateway. 

Pricing for Restrict Content Pro starts from $99 per year for 1 site, and you can upgrade or downgrade your subscription levels at any time. 

An All-in-One Alternative: Outseta vs. Memberstack

Memberstack and Outseta both provide tools and services for managing memberships, subscriptions, and gated content. However, Outseta was designed to be an all-in-one solution, while Memberstack focuses specifically on user authentication and membership management. 

As an all-in-one service, Outseta is geared towards SaaS startups. 

Outseta software offers: 

• CRM
• Email marketing
• Analytics
• Customer support

If you don’t yet have independent software solutions set up for these functions, Outseta might be a good tool for you to consider. 

On the other hand, if you’re already happy with your digital tools, a service like Memberstack will likely suit you better thanks to its robust integration features. 

Outseta offers three pricing tiers: 

1. Founder for $33/month + 1% transaction fee
2. Start-up for $66/month + 1% transaction fee
3. Growth for $99/month + 1% transaction fee

We recommend taking advantage of the 7-day free trial to determine whether Outseta will work for you. 

Do Memberstack Alternatives Integrate with Webflow? 

As a design agency with 10+ years in the industry, we’ve supported countless clients with everything from blogging to e-commerce and more. Since our focus is on low/no-code Webflow design and development, integration capabilities are at the top of our list when it comes to evaluating a SaaS product. 

You should evaluate a software’s integration capabilities when choosing a membership service for your Webflow site for several reasons, including: 

• Efficient data management
• Process automation
• Scalability
• Cost-efficiency 

There are few things worse for an agency founder than spending time and money on software setup, only to realize that your chosen SaaS product doesn’t integrate with the tools you use for other critical processes. 

Here’s a breakdown of Memberstack alternative integrations with Webflow: 

1. Memberful – Yes
2. Mighty Networks – Limited, integrate with Zapier
3. Membermouse – No
4. Restrict Content Pro – No
5. Outseta – Yes 

If you’re interested in learning more about how Webflow stacks up against other platforms, check out our Webflow article series: 

• Webflow vs Wordpress 2024
• Webflow vs Wix
• Webflow vs Contentful
• Webflow vs Elementor 
• Squarespace vs Webflow
• Editor X or Webflow

Integration is an important thing to consider when choosing a membership solution. Whether you work with Memberstack or an alternative option, make sure the software integrates seamlessly with your preferred digital tools – Webflow or otherwise. 

Why Slam Prefers Memberstack to the Alternatives

Here at Slam, we’ve chosen Memberstack as our preferred solution for managing social sign-ons, letting customers purchase resources and courses directly from our site, and restricting access to resource and information hubs. We’ve also implemented the software into our website designs for clients. 

Here are a few of the reasons we prefer Memberstack over the alternative options on the market: 

• Thorough and helpful documentation
• Easy and fast integration with Webflow
• Seamless integration with other preferred tools like Stripe and Zapier
• Focus on membership functionality, without extras we don’t need
• Useful community forum features like commenting and moderating
• Competitive pricing

Another thing we love about Memberstack is its thriving community of users. The software boasts an almost endless number of use cases and examples on their showcase page, which is great for finding inspiration to reference! 

From secondary income streams to discounted content and analytics tracking, the benefits of Memberstack extend to all industries and objectives, making it a great choice for everyone, from nonprofit founders to entrepreneurs. 

For Memberstack Solutions, Slam Has Your Back

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As certified Webflow Expert partners, we’ve worked with businesses of all sizes to create high-quality digital products that scale and convert.

Here are just a few of the award-winning services we offer: 

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Webflow Design & Development
• Content Writing & Strategy
• Brand Strategy & Identity

Whether you need help choosing a membership subscription solution for your website, optimizing your SEO strategy, or something else, you can contact us to schedule a consultation with one of our experts.