6 Great WordPay Alternative WordPress Plugins

Alex RabyMay 2, 2019

Collecting membership dues from your sports team is a hassle. That’s why SportsPress was partnered with WordPay to create the best membership plugin for WordPress.

Unfortunately, WordPay was discontinued in 2018.

Not to worry!

Here are our recommendations for the best WordPress plugins to manage team memberships as alternatives to WordPay as well as details on WordPay’s departure and how a membership plugin can make collecting dues much easier.

RIP WordPay

WordPay was a great way to set up integrated membership registration on your site as well as to remind members of upcoming deadlines. It also was a super useful way to keep a record of all payments in a single place.

As previously mentioned, it was also a plugin partner to SportsPress for seamless integration.

If you didn’t use WordPay, you’re in luck – you get to start fresh with a new membership plugin.

However, if you were depending on that plugin to collect your recurring revenue, its departure may have caused some friction.

The Silver Lining

The bright side is that the membership feature isn’t limited to WordPay. Another membership plugin for WordPress can even improve on the plugin if there were additional features you wanted.

Let’s take a look at some of the many features a membership plugin for WordPress can offer.

Membership Plugin Features

Membership plugins are versatile and can make a substantial, and positive impact to your team, league or club.

Here are just a few of the benefits of a membership plugin for WordPress:

Recurring payments of dues
Multiple membership levels
Content restriction to particular levels
User profile management
Multiple payment gateways

Depending on what you’re looking for in a membership plugin for WordPress, some plugins may be way too hefty or complicated for what you need. Take a moment to make a list of exactly what you’re looking for so that you can rule out the outliers.

Tailor It to the Team

It may initially be a struggle to think of ways to use a membership program for sports teams. But, automating certain tasks can really take the workload off of your administrators.

Here are a few ways to rethink how to use your website to your advantage:

Membership levels – Depending on whether you’re a team player, staff member or a fan, you’ll receive different content and news. Use the levels to distinguish where the key information needs to go and incentivize special news for your largest supporters.
Purchasing team supplies – At the beginning of a season, the rush to update equipment, team merch and even swag begins. Creating an eCommerce online store for players or fans to purchase discounted jerseys and more is straightforward with a plugin.
Coupons and promotions – Want to reward good behaviour or a winning game on the squad? Many membership plugins have coupons you can offer for discount products in one click.

Placing the ball back in the players court means your time and mind is freed up. Now, you can focus on anything else besides getting players situated.

Why not implement a few more structures and see how the minutes rack up?

Need a Membership Plugin for WordPress?

Here’s a list of free and premium membership plugins that, at minimum, accomplish the task of due collection. You may also find yourself intrigued by the abundance of additional features at your fingertips.

Paid Member Subscriptions

Paid Member Subscriptions is a free membership plugin for WordPress that you can use to collect membership payments. It has a super easy setup that will get you up and running in about five minutes.

Paid Member Subscriptions also integrates with WooCommerce for special product prices for members. It also has a number of add-ons such as discount codes, email reminders and reCaptcha functionality.

One of the coolest parts of this plugin is that it integrates into your site the way you already have it set up. This means there’s no need for complicated restructuring. You can use the provided shortcodes in a post or widget to add registration, login and management areas to your site.

Users have noted that Paid Member Subscriptions has excellent customer service. It has also been translated into 10 different languages for international teams.

When to choose this plugin: this is an excellent option to consider when you want a solid free plugin with a decent set of features.

Membership by Supsystic

Membership by Supsystic is a unique membership plugin for WordPress. The basic free plugin is buildable with whatever premium extension you want to add. You can customize your membership experience to whatever you need, whether it’s content restriction or eCommerce.

The core plugin has custom user profiles and roles as well as grouping functionality. This could be useful for contacting different squads a team.

While the plugin can be used as a social platform, if you’re looking for a way to collect dues, the WooCommerce extension is a great value to sign up for particular roles.

When to choose this plugin: If you want to add a social element to your site such as a fan directory for setting up pre and post-game celebrations, this is a great plugin.

s2Member

s2Member is another free membership plugin for WordPress on this list, but its popularity and functionality makes it worth mentioning. The core plugin lets you set up your membership site with PayPal Button integration.

That’s really all you need. But, content restriction with the shortcodes they provide as well as affiliate and mailing list integrations are also included. It’s definitely a good place to start to test out how you feel about using a membership plugin for WordPress.

The premium plans with additional payment platform integrations also have easy shortcuts to make registration a one-page deal.

It may also be important to note that s2Member is not compatible with WooCommerce. So, don’t use both plugins on the same site.

When to choose this plugin: S2Member is a good option if you have a shoestring budget and just want the bare bones to do the job.

Simple Membership Plugin

Simple Membership Plugin is, you guessed it, a simple and straightforward membership plugin for WordPress that’s also free. You’ll find no tricky bits or hidden settings in this option.

This user-friendly plugin lets you protect your content and collect dues using the Paypal, Stripe, and BrainTree payment gateways.

Depending on your dues structure, you can make payments a one-time occurrence or as a recurring subscription. It also integrates into your theme using shortcodes so there’s no special theme or custom changes that are needed.

Simple Membership Plugin includes settings for manual membership confirmation as well as developer customization if you want to kick things up another notch with hooks and an API for creating member accounts.

There are also free and premium extensions available if you need more features for your sports website.

When to choose this plugin: When you want a scaled down, easy to use, minimal membership plugin, then keep Simple Membership Plugin in mind.

MemberPress

For teams that really want to go the extra mile, MemberPress is a full-suite premium membership plugin for WordPress. It’s packed with every feature you may want and comes with unlimited membership levels, versatile content restriction options and settings to start your own affiliate program.

MemberPress also integrates with LearnDash which is a popular learning management system for creating online courses with WordPress. While the feature may seem irrelevant initially, consider the possibility of on-boarding or training new team members via video and not taking up the staff’s valuable time.

With MemberPress, everything is automated and happens directly from your website. It leaves your hands free to toss around a ball or plan a new game strategy. You can also share a video of it with your top-tier members – because now you can.

When to choose this plugin: if you want it all and even then a little more, this is a valuable option. MemberPress is a comprehensive solution to all your membership plugin needs.

WooCommerce Memberships

If you’re already using WooCommerce, you may as well dive right into WooCommerce Memberships. It’s a premium extension to the wildly popular eCommerce plugin that lets you assign and sell memberships. You can also grant different levels of access to the site and the store.

One of the highlights of the extension is that you can create members-only products which would come in handy when distributing team-only jerseys or swag for fans at a particular membership level. If someone isn’t at a necessary level, the product simply won’t show for them.

You can also tie products to membership levels at sign-up. Tack on a bonus product like a customized foam finger or bobblehead if fans sign up for a certain level.

Talk about an incentive for them to go big or go home!

When to choose this plugin: if WooCommerce is a large part of your site already and you want the full eCommerce WordPress integration, then this is an excellent option to consider.

Checking Out

Even though WordPay is gone, there are many exceptional membership plugins for WordPress that can lead your team to victory.

Once you have determined how a membership plugin is best suited for your sports site and your specific needs, you’re only a few more clicks away from crossing another item off of your to-do list.

Have you ever used a membership plugin for WordPress before? What did you love about WordPay? What unexpected uses have you found with your membership plugin for WordPress? Let us know over on Twitter or Facebook.