SureMembers vs MemberPress vs Ultimate Membership Pro

SureMembers vs MemberPress comes down to payments: SureMembers is a content access plugin that needs a separate checkout plugin, while MemberPress is an all-in-one membership plugin with a built-in course builder. Ultimate Membership Pro takes payments itself and adds a member directory, drip content and 41 add-ons to every plan. Pick SureMembers for an existing SureCart or WooCommerce store, MemberPress for courses, and Ultimate Membership Pro for payments, profiles and access rules in one plugin.

Ultimate Membership Pro is made by WPIndeed, the publisher of this blog. Facts about SureMembers and MemberPress come from their own websites and WordPress.org listings, checked on October 21, 2026.

A WordPress membership plugin decides who can see which content on your site and, in most cases, charges people for that access. The three plugins below split that job in different ways, and that split shapes everything else.

SureMembers vs MemberPress: which one should you pick?

The right pick depends on what you already run and what you sell. Here is the short version, with Ultimate Membership Pro as the third option.

• Choose SureMembers if you already sell through SureCart or WooCommerce and want a light layer that grants access when someone buys.
• Choose MemberPress if you want courses, quizzes and certificates in the same plugin as your memberships.
• Choose Ultimate Membership Pro if you want 10 built-in payment gateways, a searchable member directory and drip content on every plan, with no extra checkout plugin.

SureMembers vs MemberPress vs Ultimate Membership Pro: how do they compare?

All three restrict content by membership. They differ in who handles the payment, which plan includes drip content and directories, and whether courses are built in.

Feature	SureMembers	MemberPress	Ultimate Membership Pro
How you take payments	Through SureCart, SureForms or WooCommerce	Built-in checkout	Built-in checkout, or WooCommerce checkout
Payment gateways	Those of the checkout plugin you pair it with	Launch: Stripe. Growth adds PayPal, Square and offline. Scale adds Authorize.net	10 in Pro, 13 in Full Package and Agency
Content restriction	Site, post types, taxonomies, single items, URL rules	Pages, child pages, posts, custom post types, categories, tags, files	Pages, posts, custom post types, categories, files, URLs, menu links, part of a post
Drip content	Paid plans	Growth and Scale	Every plan
Courses	Through third-party course plugins	Built-in course builder	Not an LMS
Member directory	Not listed on its website	Growth and Scale	Every plan
Reports and analytics	Analytics tab and access log in the free core	Basic reporting on every plan	Reports section, member activity log and weekly summary email on every plan
Login and session limits	Concurrent sessions per user role, premium	Not listed on its features or pricing pages	One active login per account and IP lockout after failed logins, every plan
Team or corporate accounts	Listed as premium on WordPress.org, as planned on its homepage	Scale	Full Package and Agency
WooCommerce	Free integration	Not listed on its pricing page	Every plan, renewals by reminder email
Page builders	Gutenberg, Elementor and other major builders	Divi, Elementor and WPBakery content locking on Growth and Scale	Elementor, Gutenberg, WPBakery; Elementor widget and Divi section locking in Full Package
Pricing model	Free core plugin, yearly plans and a lifetime plan	Yearly plans; Launch adds a 4.9% transaction fee	Yearly plans: Pro, Full Package, Agency

Facts in this table were checked on each vendor’s website on October 21, 2026. Plans and features change, so confirm the details before you buy.

How do payments work in each plugin?

Payments are the biggest difference in SureMembers vs MemberPress. MemberPress and Ultimate Membership Pro take payments themselves, while SureMembers grants access and leaves the payment to another plugin.

SureMembers

SureMembers connects to SureCart, SureForms or WooCommerce. When an order completes, it grants the membership, and on a refund or cancellation it removes access. Its WordPress.org page lists all three as free integrations.

This works well if your store already runs on one of them. It also means you set up and maintain two plugins, and taxes, invoices and subscription logic live in the checkout plugin you choose.

MemberPress

MemberPress has its own checkout. As of October 2026, the Launch plan includes Stripe only and adds a 4.9% transaction fee on each successful payment. Growth adds PayPal, Square and offline payments, and Scale adds Authorize.net.

Ultimate Membership Pro

Ultimate Membership Pro also takes payments itself, with 10 gateways in every plan, among them Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Mollie and Authorize.Net, and 13 in Full Package and Agency. The payment gateways page shows what each one supports.

It runs renewals and invoices for each Membership, and Stripe Checkout supports 3D Secure for Strong Customer Authentication in Europe. You can also sell Memberships through WooCommerce checkout.

How do they control access to content?

All three lock pages and posts by membership. They differ in how fine the rules go and which plan you need for drip content.

• SureMembers protects the whole site, post types, taxonomies, hand-picked content and URL rules in its free core. Block-level rules, drip content, protected downloads and login restrictions come with its paid plans.
• MemberPress restricts pages, child pages, posts, custom post types, categories, tags and files. Content dripping is on the Growth and Scale plans.
• Ultimate Membership Pro locks pages, posts, custom post types, categories, files, URLs and menu links, and part of a post with a shortcode or block. Drip content is on every plan.

Between the two main plugins, SureMembers locks content for free, but drip and block-level rules need a paid plan. MemberPress restricts content on every plan and keeps dripping for Growth and Scale.

Which plugin is best for courses and community?

MemberPress is the only one of the three with a built-in course builder. If structured courses are your main product, that counts for a lot.

MemberPress

Every MemberPress plan includes unlimited courses and lessons. Quizzes, assignments, certificates and curriculum dripping are on Growth and Scale. The same plans add Circles for community groups and CoachKit for coaching.

SureMembers

SureMembers has no course builder of its own. Its WordPress.org page lists integrations with third-party course plugins and with community tools such as BuddyBoss and SureDash.

Ultimate Membership Pro

Ultimate Membership Pro is not an LMS. It restricts and drips lessons you publish as pages or posts, and it can link courses built in Ultimate Learning Pro, WPIndeed’s course plugin sold separately, to a Membership. For community, it adds a member directory, public profiles and a membership tab in BuddyPress profiles.

How do they handle members, profiles and groups?

MemberPress includes a member directory on its higher plans. SureMembers focuses on access rules and admin-side member management.

MemberPress offers searchable directories and member profiles on Growth and Scale. Corporate accounts, with parent and sub-accounts, are on the Scale plan.

SureMembers lets you grant and revoke access, set expiration dates and view an access log in its free core. Its WordPress.org page lists team (corporate) accounts as a premium feature, while its homepage marks team access as planned. Confirm with the vendor before you rely on it.

Ultimate Membership Pro includes a searchable member directory with public profiles in every plan, a register form with 11 field types and an account page for each member. Group accounts, where one owner pays and invites a team up to the seats you set, come with Full Package and Agency.

Which one handles taxes and invoices?

MemberPress and Ultimate Membership Pro handle taxes and invoices inside the plugin. With SureMembers, those jobs stay with your checkout plugin.

• SureMembers: taxes and invoices come from SureCart or WooCommerce, so they follow that plugin’s rules.
• MemberPress: its features page lists built-in tax calculations, including VAT, a TaxJar integration and PDF invoices for every transaction.
• Ultimate Membership Pro: you set a default tax or rates by country and state, and members get invoices with your logo.

How do reports, login limits and performance compare?

All three include member reports. SureMembers and Ultimate Membership Pro can also limit how many devices use one login, and none of the three publishes independent speed benchmarks.

Reports and analytics

SureMembers has an Analytics tab in its free core, with new member counts, growth trends, upcoming expirations and recent activity, plus an access log of every grant and revoke. MemberPress lists basic reporting on every plan. Ultimate Membership Pro has a Reports section, a member activity log and a weekly summary email on every plan, and its pricing page lists comprehensive reporting and analytics with Full Package and Agency.

Login limits and account sharing

SureMembers sells Login Restrictions as a premium feature: it limits concurrent sessions per user role and can block or allow a new login when the limit is reached. MemberPress doesn’t list a login or session limit on its features or pricing pages.

Ultimate Membership Pro allows one active login per account on every plan, so a new login ends the earlier session. It also blocks an IP after too many failed logins, and Full Package adds two-factor codes by email or SMS. If shared logins worry you, this is where SureMembers vs MemberPress differs most: only SureMembers has a session limit, and only on a paid plan.

Site performance

SureMembers describes itself as lightweight with no bloat, and MemberPress makes no speed claims on its features page. Ultimate Membership Pro says it was stress-tested on sites with 100,000+ members and over 1 million payments.

In practice, your hosting and cache setup matter more than the plugin. Member pages are built fresh for each logged-in person, so exclude them from page caching, as shown in this guide to cache plugins on a membership site.

Which one is easiest to set up?

SureMembers is the quickest to add to a store that already has a checkout. MemberPress and Ultimate Membership Pro take a little longer at first because they also handle payments.

1. SureMembers: install it next to SureCart, SureForms or WooCommerce, create access groups and link them to products.
2. MemberPress: a setup wizard walks you through memberships, a gateway and access rules, and ReadyLaunch gives you ready-made pages. Check which plan includes the features you need before you build.
3. Ultimate Membership Pro: a six-step setup wizard sets the currency, turns on a gateway and creates your first Membership. You then set access rules and place the register form, directory and account page with shortcodes or blocks.

You can test Ultimate Membership Pro on a live demo: you get your own WordPress site with the plugin installed for 24 hours, and no card is needed. Every plan also has a 14-day money-back guarantee.

How are the three plugins priced?

All three sell yearly plans, and each one ties features to the plan level. Pricing models are a better guide than headline prices, because offers change often.

• SureMembers: a free core plugin on WordPress.org, plus yearly Starter (1 site), Pro (10 sites) and Business (100 sites) plans and a Business Lifetime plan. Your checkout plugin is a separate product.
• MemberPress: yearly Launch, Growth and Scale plans. Launch adds a 4.9% transaction fee, and PayPal, drip content and member directories start at Growth.
• Ultimate Membership Pro: sold as annual plans (Pro, Full Package, Agency) for 1, 3 or 10 sites. Every plan includes unlimited members and 41 add-ons. See the Ultimate Membership Pro plans for details.

Which one should you choose?

SureMembers vs MemberPress is a choice between an access layer and an all-in-one plugin, so pick the one that matches your main product and the tools you already run. If you need a SureMembers alternative that takes payments itself, the choice is between MemberPress and Ultimate Membership Pro.

• You run a WooCommerce or SureCart store and want to sell access to a few pages: SureMembers.
• You sell structured courses with quizzes and certificates: MemberPress, on Growth or higher.
• You run a club, association or creator site that needs recurring payments on several gateways, a member directory and drip content: Ultimate Membership Pro.
• You sell to teams or companies: Ultimate Membership Pro Full Package, or MemberPress Scale.

Want a closer look at one pair? Read the Ultimate Membership Pro vs MemberPress comparison, see why people pick a MemberPress alternative, or browse the wider list of WordPress membership plugins. The full feature list is on the Ultimate Membership Pro features page.

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