Memberfulvs
Patreon
Patreon: Patreon, Memberful's parent company, offers a similar creator membership model with its own discovery platform.
Memberful
Membership platform for creators to sell subscriptions, courses and gated content
As of 29 August 2026, Memberful starts at $49/month. Memberful lets creators sell memberships, subscriptions and gated content with their own branding, backed by Stripe payments. Softwr lists it under E-Commerce. Memberful is launched in 2013, available on Web, API.
Overview
What Memberful does
Memberful is a membership platform that lets creators, podcasters, newsletter writers and communities sell recurring subscriptions, one-time purchases and gated content directly from their own website or WordPress site. It handles checkout, member management, retention tools like coupons and surveys, and integrates with tools such as Discord, Mailchimp and Kit. Payments run through the creator's own Stripe account, and pricing is a flat monthly fee plus a transaction fee, with no charges until the creator goes live. Memberful is owned by Patreon.
What people use it for
- Selling paid membership subscriptions from an existing website
- Gating podcast, newsletter or course content behind a paywall
- Running a WordPress site with paid member-only content
- Offering one-time purchases alongside recurring memberships
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Memberful.
- Charges a 4.9% transaction fee on top of the flat monthly fee on the Standard plan.
- Requires a separate Stripe account, adding setup complexity compared to all-in-one checkout platforms.
- Lacks built-in course-hosting depth found in dedicated learning management platforms.
- No free plan beyond the pre-launch trial period; charges begin once payments go live.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Memberful
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- MemberfulvsSubstack
Substack: Substack offers paid newsletter subscriptions with built-in publishing and distribution tools.
Pricing
What Memberful costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Standard
$49 /mo
- 4.9% transaction fee
- Full platform access
- Free until you go live
Enterprise
On request
- Custom volume-based rates
- Premium services and success management
- Dedicated migration support
Capabilities
Features
Membership checkout
Fast checkout supporting Apple Pay, Google Pay, coupons and custom fields
Flexible subscriptions
Supports trials, group plans, one-time payments, and monthly/annual/weekly billing
Member management
Analytics, referral programs and retention discounts for existing members
Landing page builder
Builds branded membership landing pages with custom domains
Dynamic paywalls
Gates content such as podcasts, newsletters, courses and downloads behind membership
Third-party integrations
Connects to WordPress, Mailchimp, Discord and Kit
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
What does Memberful cost?
Memberful's Standard plan costs $49/month plus a 4.9% transaction fee, while larger organizations can get custom volume-based rates on the Enterprise plan.
SourceIs there a free plan, and what are its limits?
Memberful can be used for free while setting up a membership site, with no charges incurred until the creator goes live and starts accepting payments.
SourceWhat does Memberful integrate with?
Memberful integrates with WordPress, Mailchimp, Discord and Kit, among other tools, to connect membership data with existing sites and marketing systems.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Memberful
- Company
- Memberful
Timeline
Memberful over time
- Founded2013-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
Memberful founded
Source
Keep looking
Where to go from Memberful
- Memberful alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Memberful pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Memberful badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All E-Commerce softwareThe full category
- Best E-Commerce softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best E-Commerce software for
Compare Memberful with
- Mailchimp
- Amazon Shopping
- Shein
- Temu
- CJ Dropshipping
- BackToMe
- Wish
- Zendrop
- Stripe
- FastSpring
- Bluepark
- Gumroad
- Vendure
- Volusion
- Wix eCommerce
- WooCommerce
- Wish
- Zendrop
Other E-Commerce software
Amazon's consumer marketplace app for browsing, buying and tracking orders
Free plan11 researched notesUltra-fast-fashion e-commerce app shipping low-cost apparel direct from Chinese manufacturers
Free plan10 researched notesUltra-low-cost general merchandise marketplace owned by PDD Holdings, parent of Pinduoduo
Free plan10 researched notesSourcing and order fulfillment platform for dropshipping and e-commerce sellers
Free plan11 researched notesDiscount marketplace connecting buyers to low-cost goods from mostly Chinese sellers, now owned by Qoo10
Free plan10 researched notesAll-in-one dropshipping fulfillment platform for online stores
Free, then $49/mo9 researched notesMerchant-of-record commerce platform for global payments, subscriptions, and tax compliance
9 researched notesA UK-based ecommerce platform to design, sell and manage your online store
From £14.99/mo10 researched notesHosted storefront for selling digital products, memberships and courses on a per sale fee
14 researched notesHosted website builder with a store module, using drag-and-drop layout rather than themes you can swap
Free plan14 researched notesDiscount marketplace connecting buyers to low-cost goods from mostly Chinese sellers, now owned by Qoo10
Free plan10 researched notesAll-in-one dropshipping fulfillment platform for online stores
Free, then $49/mo9 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Memberful, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Memberful
Memberful alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Memberful pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Memberful
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Memberful badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best E-Commerce software alternatives
Social resale marketplace with a flat fee on low-value sales and a percentage cut above that
Free to list; tiered seller commission by sale priceUltra-fast-fashion e-commerce app shipping low-cost apparel direct from Chinese manufacturers
Free to browse and use; pay per order, optional paid loyalty tier
Japan-founded peer-to-peer resale marketplace with a flat seller commission
Free to list; 10 percent seller commission on sale price plus payment processing feeAmazon's consumer marketplace app for browsing, buying and tracking orders
Free to use; optional Prime subscription for fast shipping and bundled media
Lithuania-founded secondhand fashion marketplace that charges the buyer, not the seller, a platform fee
Free for sellers, no commission; buyer pays a variable Buyer Protection fee at checkoutUltra-low-cost general merchandise marketplace owned by PDD Holdings, parent of Pinduoduo
Free to browse and use; pay per order, heavy promotional discounting