WP Membership Sites without a Membership Plugin

The Question Was Simple

Last week I got an email with a simple question. Can a person who already has a WordPress website protect content via a membership site without a membership plugin?

While the question was simple - no words in it were confusing or anything - it did make me scratch my head for a second. I was trying to figure out if this was possible, how it would work, and lastly, why anyone would want this.

Why Would Anyone Want This?

As I read on, the details of the context made sense to me. They had a complex WordPress website that had been developed by someone who was now no longer around. There were a ton of plugins installed and already there was some drama as updates were starting to create conflicts.

The site owner couldn't afford for the whole thing to break or fall over. So adding in a new and fully-featured membership plugin was too risky. But could they create a membership site without a membership plugin? That was the question.

The Answer Turns Out to be Simple Too

It turns out there was a way. I wrote about it in April of 2020 - you know, when the world was locking down. That feels so long ago that I barely remembered it.

The product is called MemberStack and it's a membership SaaS product.

What I did was create a prototype to test out if this was possible. And when I saw that it was, I recorded a quick 4 minutes tour with an explanation of how it all works.

The Four Minute Tour & Explanation

Here is the YouTube video.