Membership Websites – A study between PMPro and Wild Apricot

What is the difference between Wild Apricot and Paid Membership Pro?

Both Wild Apricot and Paid Membership Pro are membership management tools, but they are different in terms of their features and functionality.

Wild Apricot is a cloud-based membership management software that allows businesses and organizations to manage their memberships, events, donations, and communications. It provides a wide range of features such as membership database management, event management, online registration and payment, email marketing, and reporting.

On the other hand, Paid Membership Pro is a WordPress plugin that allows businesses and organizations to easily set up and manage membership levels and subscriptions on their website. It is primarily focused on providing content restriction, recurring payments, and billing management, robust reporting and tracking, as well as flexibility and integration options.

The main difference between Wild Apricot and Paid Membership Pro is that Wild Apricot is a standalone software that provides an all-in-one solution for managing memberships, events, donations, and communications, while Paid Membership Pro is a plugin that focuses on providing membership management functionality within the context of a WordPress website.

Wild Apricot is more suitable for businesses and organizations that need a full-featured membership management system, with capabilities such as email marketing and event management. However, Paid Membership Pro is more suitable for businesses and organizations that already have a website and would like to add membership management functionality to it.

In summary, Wild Apricot is an all-in-one membership management software, while Paid Membership Pro is a membership management plugin for WordPress. Both tools have their own strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice for a particular organization will depend on its specific needs and requirements.

Wild Apricot Pros and Cons

Wild Apricot is a cloud-based membership management software that allows businesses and organizations to manage their memberships, events, donations, and communications. Here are some of the pros and cons of using Wild Apricot:

Pros:

  1. All-in-one solution: Wild Apricot provides a wide range of features such as membership database management, event management, online registration and payment, email marketing, and reporting, all in one platform.
  2. Easy to use: Wild Apricot is designed to be user-friendly and easy to navigate, making it accessible to users with little technical experience.
  3. Customizable: Wild Apricot allows businesses and organizations to customize the look and feel of their website, and to create custom forms, registration pages, and email templates.
  4. Automation: Wild Apricot offers automation tools that help businesses and organizations to automate tasks such as renewals, invoicing, and communications.
  5. Mobile-responsive: Wild Apricot’s website and membership database is mobile-responsive, allowing members to access and manage their membership from any device.

Cons:

  1. Costly: Wild Apricot can be more expensive compared to other membership management software and plugins.
  2. Limited integration options: Wild Apricot does not integrate with other platforms as easily as some other membership management tools, which can limit its functionality for businesses that rely on other systems.
  3. Limited design options: The design options for customizing the look and feel of the website are limited, which can be a downside for businesses that want more control over their website’s design.
  4. Limited Access to the Database: Wild Apricot does not allow access to the raw data, which can limit the ability of businesses to export or analyze their data using other tools.
  5. Saas (Software as a Service): This means you don’t really ever own the code that makes the experience happen.

In summary, Wild Apricot is an all-in-one membership management software that provides a wide range of features in one platform, but it can be costly, has limited design options, and limited integration options. It also does not allow access to the raw data. However, it is easy to use, customizable, and offers automation tools that help businesses and organizations to automate tasks.

Paid Membership Pro (PMPro) Pros and Cons

Paid Membership Pro is a WordPress plugin that allows businesses and organizations to easily set up and manage membership levels and subscriptions on their website. Here are some of the pros and cons of using Paid Membership Pro:

Pros:

  1. Content restriction: Paid Membership Pro allows businesses and organizations to easily restrict access to specific pages, posts, and other content on their website based on membership level, creating a more personalized and engaging user experience.
  2. Recurring payments and billing management: Paid Membership Pro allows for easy integration with popular payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe, making it simple for businesses and organizations to accept recurring payments and manage member billing information.
  3. Robust reporting and tracking: Paid Membership Pro provides robust reporting and tracking capabilities, allowing businesses and organizations to track member activity and generate reports on membership statistics.
  4. Flexibility: Paid Membership Pro can be easily customized to fit the specific needs of a business or organization. The plugin can be used to create tiered membership levels with different access levels and pricing options.
  5. Integration options: Paid Membership Pro can integrate with other WordPress plugins and can be used with popular page builder plugins such as Beaver Builder to create custom, membership-specific pages.

Cons:

  1. Limited feature set: Paid Membership Pro is primarily focused on providing membership management functionality and does not provide other features such as event management and email marketing like Wild Apricot. Although this is commonly achieved by other plugins installed into your WordPress instance.
  2. Limited support for recurring payments: Paid Membership Pro’s recurring payment options are limited and may not be suitable for some businesses or organizations.
  3. Requires a WordPress website: Paid Membership Pro is a WordPress plugin, so it can only be used on websites that are built on the WordPress platform.
  4. Limited design options: The design options for customizing the look and feel of the membership pages are limited, which can be a downside for businesses that want more control over the design.

In summary, Paid Membership Pro is a powerful WordPress plugin that provides a wide range of benefits for companies and organizations.

As a website and SEO agency, Perfectly Optimized has had the opportunity to work with a variety of membership management tools over the years. After careful analysis and consideration, we have found that Paid Membership Pro is the clear choice for businesses and organizations looking to set up and manage membership levels and subscriptions on their website.

One of the key advantages of Paid Membership Pro is its ability to easily restrict access to specific pages, posts, and other content on the website based on membership level. This allows businesses and organizations to create a more personalized and engaging user experience for members and can increase the perceived value of membership. Additionally, Paid Membership Pro allows for easy integration with popular payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe, making it simple for businesses and organizations to accept recurring payments and manage member billing information.

In conclusion, Perfectly Optimized highly recommends Paid Membership Pro as the go-to option for businesses and organizations looking to set up and manage membership levels and subscriptions on their website. The plugin offers a range of features that can help improve the user experience and increase the perceived value of membership, while also providing robust reporting, tracking, and flexibility options.