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Should You Use with the Membership Plugin? -

Apr 4, 2022

When you create an online course using WordPress you will find numerous routes to reach the goal.

WordPress is the perfect tool for creating and selling online courses since it's flexible and it you own the platform. Yet there numerous plugins to choose from that sometimes it can be a little overwhelming.

Maybe you're facing this dilemma in relation to your online course and you aren't sure of which way to go. If you decide to host your own WordPress site, you'll ultimately face the following decision for your courses:

  1. Only use for the courses you have chosen.
  2. Only use a membership plugin
  3. Utilize both

The answer is dependent on the particulars of your project, so it is not possible to give you a hard-set rule as to when to apply each. But let's look at some common situations.

1. Using Only

If this is something you're thinking about, you really don't require a membership plugin for protection of content. Our LMS can protect your content and not require the help of a membership plugin using Our Access Settings.

Let's take for instance that you wish to market three courses. The contents of these courses (lessons and quizzes, for instance.) can not be seen by those who aren't yet registered. Only people who are registered to take the course have access to the material. If someone purchases one course, they don't get access to all the other courses. They are only able to access only one course.

If the course you are taking isn't cost-free, you might be thinking about how you can add an option to pay for your classes. Integrates with the most well-known shopping carts:

  • Easy Digital Downloads
  • SamCart
  • ThriveCart (beta)

It is important to note that the WordPress shopping carts (1 and 2 above) connect to hundreds of payment processors. comes with the following three payment options if you want to use no shopping cart:

  • PayPal
  • Stripe
  • 2Checkout

You can very easily use any of these options to take payments. It will secure your course's content without the need of the use of a membership plugin. People who choose this approach appreciate the streamlined process for designing their courses since it reduces the need for learning a new solution.

2. Using a Membership Plugin (Only)

It is important to note that there are some instances where using an LMS plugin like isn't necessary.

If the project you are working on only demands protection of a few posts, pages or even assets that are within your WordPress site Then a membership plugin is all you require. Using a learning management plugin in this case would be excessive.

An example is if you have a site that has a forum for community members and maybe some useful downloads for users. If this is the case there is no need for plug-in like this because there isn't a need for enrolling students in courses, scheduling quizzes, badges, certificates, points, and learner report.

3. Utilizing Both and a membership plugin

Although a membership-based plugin isn't necessary, there can be advantages of using the membership plugin, based on your requirements.

In the case of instance, if you're interested in having extra metrics for your members then using an membership plugin is a nice value-add. A lot of membership platforms have reports built-in to them. Used in conjunction with this gives you more insight into your members.

Another scenario where you can use each is when you own an existing membership website but you would like to add some course capabilities in a more formaland structured manner. It is easy to enhance your membership website by creating classes that your members can take. You don't have to change the method you handle the members, as it's the same by using the membership plugin.

can be directly connected to the following membership solutions:

For a note of caution Beware of vendor lock-in!

Learning programs can vary in the requirements, and occasionally these requirements are changed. You can begin your program with any of the options above and freely switch as needed.

One thing I know after nearly a decade working within the world of online learning is that learning software and online classes are not universally applicable. Learners change and the same goes for requirements.

Whether you use or not I highly suggest that you stay clear of any method that focuses on using one e-commerce platform, or method for content protection. In the same vein, be cautious of any solution that is billed as "all-in-one". Rarely is this even true, but assuming it is then that means you're locked-in also. You don't want to be taking this risk. I've seen this cause individuals major pain throughout the years.

Still confused? Watch this video!

In this webcast, we will discuss typical scenarios in which using a membership plugin and together may make sense.