Good membership website design is less about how the site looks than about the path a visitor takes: from landing on your homepage, to choosing a plan, to signing up, to finding what they paid for on their first visit and coming back. Each page on that path has one job. This guide goes through the pages a membership site needs, what each one should do, and the details that make members stay, with examples from sites that do it well and how to build each page with WP User Manager.
For the build itself, step by step, see our guide to building a membership website. This guide is about the design decisions.
The pages a membership website needs
| Page | Its job | Must have |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage | Turn visitors into people who want to join | Who it’s for, what members get, one clear call to action |
| Pricing | Help people choose a plan | Two or three plans, what each includes, the price next to the button |
| Sign-up | Get people in with as little friction as possible | A short form and a trusted checkout |
| Welcome | Show new members where to start | A “start here” page and a welcome email |
| Members area | Bring members back | What’s new, where to go next |
| Locked content | Sell membership from inside the content | A teaser and a way to join |
| Account | Let members manage everything themselves | Profile, password, plan, card and cancel |
Homepage: say who it’s for
A visitor decides in seconds whether your site is for them. Above the fold, say who the membership is for and what they get, in their words, not yours. Then show the inside: a sample lesson, a screenshot of the members area, a few member stories. Social proof matters more on a membership site than almost anywhere, because people are paying for something they can’t see yet.
Give the page one main call to action, “Join” or “See plans”, and a small “Log in” link for members who already have an account. Two equally loud buttons split attention.
Pricing page: make choosing easy
- Two or three plans. More than three and people stall. If you have one plan, say so plainly; it’s often the best place to start.
- Highlight one. Mark the plan most people should pick.
- Say what’s in each, in plain words. “All courses and the monthly Q&A”, not “Tier 2 access”.
- Offer a yearly price with a saving, next to the monthly one.
- Answer the worries. Can I cancel any time? What happens to my access if I do? Put the answers on the page.
Patreon is a good model here: each tier lists exactly what you get, and a creator’s page shows them side by side.
Sign-up: keep it short
Every extra field loses people. Ask for an email and password, plus anything you genuinely need before someone can start; collect the rest later on their account page. Show the plan and price they chose on the form, so there are no surprises at checkout, and take payment on a checkout people recognize and trust.
With WP User Manager, the registration form shows the plans you choose, and members pay on Stripe’s own checkout page. Our guide to creating a custom registration form covers the fields and options.
Welcome: the first visit decides the rest
The moment after someone pays is when they’re keenest, and the most common place to lose them. Don’t drop them on a generic page. Send them to a “start here” page that says what to do first, and send a welcome email that repeats it.
In WP User Manager, choose that page in Users > Settings > Redirects > After Registration, and rewrite the welcome email in Users > Emails. Your emails can use your logo and an HTML template (Email Template and Logo in Users > Settings > Emails), so they look like your site.
Members area: give them a reason to come back
Logged-in members need a different home from visitors: what’s new since their last visit, where they left off, and the next thing to do. Many sites change the navigation too. Chessable, for example, has one menu for courses and another for the account.
Get Started with the Best WordPress Membership Plugin Today
Connect, Manage and Build your Membership Site
In WP User Manager, each menu item can be set to show to Everyone, Logged in users or Logged out users, or only to the roles you choose, so visitors see “Join” and “Log in” while members see “Start here”, “Account” and “Log out”. (These settings are on menus built in Appearance > Menus.)
Locked content: show what they’re missing
When a visitor reaches members-only content, don’t show them an error or an empty page. Show the first part as a teaser, then a clear message saying which plan unlocks the rest and how to join. The Athletic does this on almost every article: you read the opening, then hit the paywall with a subscribe button. The teaser does the selling.
Our guide to gated content in WordPress shows how to set this up, with a free shortcode for part of a post or the Content Restriction addon for whole posts and pages.
Account page: let members help themselves
Members should be able to update their details, change their password, switch plans, update their card and cancel without emailing you. Each of those emails is a support request you don’t need, and a member who can’t find “cancel” tends to dispute the charge instead.
WP User Manager’s account page covers the profile and password, and members who pay with Stripe get a Billing tab with their plan, their invoices and a button to Stripe’s customer portal.
Profiles and directories, if members should meet
If your membership is a community, members want to see each other. Profiles with a photo and a few details, and a member directory to search, turn a list of customers into a group. Our guide to creating a custom user profile page covers the design of the profile itself.
Details that make the difference
- Match your theme. Login, registration and account pages should look like the rest of the site, not a plugin’s default screens. WP User Manager’s forms take their style from your theme; if your theme doesn’t style forms, turn on Form Styles in Users > Settings > General > Misc Settings.
- Design for phones first. Many members will sign up and log in on a phone. Check every form and the account page on one.
- Make forms accessible. Visible labels, clear error messages and enough contrast help everyone, not only people using assistive technology.
- Keep member pages out of the cache. Page caching speeds up your public pages but can show one member’s page to another. WP User Manager keeps its login, registration and account pages out of page caches; check any other members-only pages with your caching plugin.
Build it
Start with the free WP User Manager plugin: registration, login, account and profile pages, Stripe payments and menu visibility are all free. Then follow building a membership website for the setup, step by step, and see pricing when you need content restriction or more registration forms.