Mike Lopez

Development

Is WishList Member Still a Good WordPress Membership Plugin After Nearly 20 Years?

May 21, 2026

WishList Member has been around since 2008, which is a long time in WordPress years.

That kind of longevity can raise two very different questions.

For some people, it creates confidence. A plugin that has survived major WordPress changes, new payment platforms, page builders, LMS tools, automation tools, and changing creator business models clearly solved a real problem.

For others, it raises a fair question: is WishList Member still relevant today?

The short answer is yes. WishList Member is still a strong WordPress membership plugin, especially for site owners who want to build and control a membership business inside WordPress.

Its value is not just history. Its value is that it still supports the things modern membership sites need: flexible content protection, unlimited membership levels, payment integrations, automation, email and CRM connections, page builder compatibility, member management, and developer extensibility.

See WishList Member Plans and Features

Quick Answer

Yes, WishList Member is still a good WordPress membership plugin for site owners who want to sell protected content, subscriptions, downloads, private resources, coaching material, or member-only access from their own WordPress site.

It is best for people who want ownership and flexibility. WishList Member lets you protect WordPress content, create membership levels, connect payment providers, integrate with email and automation tools, and manage members without moving your business away from WordPress.

It may not be the right choice if you want a fully hosted platform outside WordPress. But if WordPress is where you want your content, brand, customer experience, and business infrastructure to live, WishList Member is still worth serious consideration.

Why WishList Member Still Matters

Most WordPress plugins do not stay relevant for nearly two decades.

The ones that do usually have two things in common: they solved an important problem early, and they kept adapting as the market changed.

WishList Member was one of the early category leaders in WordPress membership software. It helped define what many site owners came to expect from a membership plugin: protected content, membership levels, recurring access, payment integrations, and control inside WordPress.

That history matters, but only if the product still works for current membership site needs.

Today, a WordPress membership plugin has to do more than hide a page from logged-out visitors. Site owners need to sell access, manage members, connect payments, integrate with email platforms, work with modern WordPress themes and page builders, support automation, and stay flexible enough for different business models.

That is where WishList Member continues to hold up.

What WishList Member Does

WishList Member is a WordPress membership plugin that helps you turn a WordPress site into a membership site.

That can mean many different things:

  • A paid content library
  • A private resource center
  • A coaching portal
  • A subscriber-only blog
  • A download library
  • A paid community hub
  • A business training portal
  • A members-only customer area

At its core, WishList Member lets you decide who can access specific content on your WordPress site.

You can protect posts, pages, files, folders, custom post types, and sections of content. You can create membership levels, control who gets access to what, and build different paths for different types of members.

That flexibility is one of the reasons WishList Member has remained useful for so long. Membership sites are not all the same. A plugin that only supports one rigid model can become limiting quickly.

WishList Member is built for site owners who want more control over how access works.

The Real Argument for WishList Member: Control

One of the biggest reasons to choose WishList Member is control.

With hosted platforms, you often get convenience, but you also build your business inside someone else's system. That can be fine for some people. But many WordPress site owners want their membership business to live on their own site, with their own design, content structure, plugins, analytics, checkout tools, and customer experience.

WishList Member fits that WordPress-first mindset.

You can build your membership site around the tools you already use. You can keep your content inside WordPress. You can design the experience with your theme or page builder. You can connect payments, email, CRM, automation, and other tools based on your workflow.

That matters because membership sites are business infrastructure. Once members are paying you, your plugin is no longer just a plugin. It is part of how your business earns revenue, delivers value, and manages relationships.

A good membership plugin should not force every site into the same shape. It should give you a stable system for controlling access while still letting you build the business your way.

That is still one of WishList Member's strongest arguments.

What to Look for in a WordPress Membership Plugin

If you are comparing WordPress membership solutions, here are the practical things that matter most:

  • Content protection for posts, pages, files, folders, and custom post types
  • Flexible membership levels and access rules
  • Support for free, paid, trial, recurring, and one-time access models
  • Payment provider integrations
  • Email, CRM, and automation integrations
  • Compatibility with WordPress themes, page builders, and LMS tools
  • Member management inside WordPress
  • Developer extensibility through APIs, hooks, functions, and template tags
  • Documentation, tutorials, changelogs, and support resources

WishList Member checks these boxes well.

The WishList Member features page shows the product's focus on content protection, payment setup, integrations, automation, and workflow flexibility. The integrations page also shows how broad the plugin's connection points are across payment providers, email tools, LMS plugins, page builders, and automation services.

For many site owners, that combination is more important than chasing the newest tool. A membership site needs to be reliable, flexible, and compatible with the rest of the business stack.

Active Development Still Matters

A common concern with long-running software is whether it is still moving forward.

That is a fair question. Longevity alone is not enough.

WishList Member has not stayed relevant by standing still. The product continues to support modern WordPress membership workflows through automation, integrations, payment options, developer extensibility, documentation, and support resources.

A few current strengths stand out.

First, WishList Member supports trigger level actions and automation. This matters because membership sites often need more than simple access control. Site owners may want to move members between levels, trigger workflow changes, or connect membership behavior to broader business processes.

Second, WishList Member has a wide integration footprint. It connects with payment providers, email marketing tools, CRM systems, automation platforms, page builders, LMS plugins, webinar tools, and other WordPress ecosystem tools.

Third, WishList Member remains useful for developers and advanced site builders. The product supports extensibility through a REST API, hooks, functions, and WordPress-style template tags. That gives developers room to customize membership workflows instead of being boxed into a single interface.

Fourth, WishList Member has ongoing support resources, documentation, tutorials, and changelog visibility. For a plugin that may sit at the center of a revenue-generating site, that matters.

Payments and Monetization

A membership plugin is only useful if it can support the way you want to sell.

WishList Member supports multiple payment and access models, including free memberships, paid memberships, subscriptions, trials, and pay per post access.

It also integrates with many payment providers and carts, including Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce, ThriveCart, SamCart, Authorize.Net, ClickBank, and others.

That flexibility matters because membership businesses are not all monetized the same way.

One creator may want a simple monthly subscription. Another may want a free entry level with a paid upgrade. Another may want to sell one-time access to a premium resource. Another may want WooCommerce involved because the site already uses it for ecommerce.

WishList Member gives site owners options instead of locking the business into one payment path.

Integrations Are a Big Part of the Value

Modern membership sites rarely run on one tool.

A site owner may use WordPress for content, Stripe or PayPal for payments, an email platform for follow-up, a CRM for customer management, a page builder for design, and automation tools for workflow.

That is why integrations matter.

WishList Member includes more than just basic access control. It is designed to connect membership access with the tools site owners already use.

That includes payment providers, email providers, automation tools, page builders, LMS plugins, webinar tools, affiliate tools, and community-related integrations.

This is one of the reasons WishList Member remains a practical choice. A plugin can have a clean interface and still fail if it does not connect to the rest of the business. Membership sites live inside workflows. The plugin has to fit those workflows.

Practical Examples

Here are a few ways a site owner might use WishList Member today.

A creator could sell a private library of premium articles, with some content available immediately and other content released over time.

A coach could create free and paid membership levels, then protect worksheets, recordings, and client resources based on each member's access level.

A business could build a customer training area where only active customers can view support resources, internal documentation, or onboarding material.

A publisher could sell one-time access to specific premium posts or resource pages using pay per post.

A site owner with an existing WordPress stack could connect membership access to email, CRM, payment, and automation tools without rebuilding the entire business on a hosted platform.

These are not unusual edge cases. They are normal membership workflows. WishList Member is still strong because it supports those real-world patterns.

See WishList Member Plans and Features

Who WishList Member Is Best For

WishList Member is a good fit if you want to:

  • Sell protected content from your own WordPress site
  • Create paid membership levels, free memberships, trials, or pay per post access
  • Use payment providers like Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce, ThriveCart, SamCart, ClickBank, Authorize.Net, or others
  • Connect your membership site to email, CRM, automation, webinar, page builder, or community tools
  • Manage member access inside WordPress
  • Keep ownership of your content, design, customer experience, and WordPress stack
  • Customize membership workflows with developer-friendly tools when needed

It is especially strong for WordPress-first membership businesses.

If your site is already built on WordPress, or if you want your membership business to live inside WordPress, WishList Member deserves a close look.

WishList Member May Not Be the Right Fit If...

WishList Member is not for everyone.

It may not be the best fit if you want a hosted all-in-one platform where WordPress is not part of the stack. It also may not be the best fit if you do not want to manage a WordPress site at all.

That is not a weakness. It is a positioning question.

WishList Member is strongest when you want the flexibility of WordPress and the ability to control your own membership site. If you want everything abstracted away into a hosted platform, a WordPress plugin may not be what you are looking for.

But if ownership, flexibility, integrations, and WordPress control matter to you, WishList Member remains a strong option.

Why Longevity Can Be a Strength

In software, old is not automatically good.

But proven can be good.

A membership plugin that has been around since 2008 has lived through major shifts in WordPress, payments, online courses, content marketing, automation, privacy expectations, and creator businesses.

That kind of history can be valuable.

Membership sites are not experiments once paying members are involved. They need stability. They need compatibility. They need support. They need a product that understands the many ways people sell and protect content.

WishList Member's longevity is meaningful because it is paired with continued usefulness. It is not just a historical name in the category. It is still a practical WordPress membership plugin for site owners who want to build on their own platform.

Author Note

I should be transparent about my perspective.

I was the original programmer behind WishList Member, and I am still involved with the product today as a senior developer.

This article is not meant to be a detached third-party review. It is my informed view of why WishList Member still matters, based on where it started, how WordPress membership sites have changed, and what the product continues to offer site owners today.

FAQ

Is WishList Member still actively developed?

Yes. WishList Member continues to support modern WordPress membership workflows through automation, integrations, payment options, developer extensibility, documentation, and support resources.

Is WishList Member still a good WordPress membership plugin?

Yes. WishList Member is still a strong choice for WordPress site owners who want to protect content, sell memberships, manage access levels, connect payment providers, and keep control of their membership business inside WordPress.

What can I sell with WishList Member?

You can sell access to protected content, private resources, subscriptions, downloads, premium posts, member-only pages, trials, paid memberships, and pay per post content.

Does WishList Member work with Stripe and PayPal?

Yes. WishList Member supports Stripe and PayPal, along with many other payment providers and cart integrations.

Can WishList Member protect courses?

WishList Member can protect WordPress content used for lessons, training material, resources, and member-only learning areas. It can also integrate with LMS tools depending on your site setup and workflow.

Does WishList Member work with page builders and LMS plugins?

Yes. WishList Member supports integrations with popular page builders and LMS-related tools. This makes it easier to build a membership experience around your existing WordPress stack.

Is WishList Member only for developers?

No. WishList Member is built for WordPress site owners, creators, and businesses. Developers can extend it through APIs, hooks, functions, and template tags, but you do not need to be a developer to use the plugin.

Why choose a long-running membership plugin instead of a newer option?

A long-running plugin can offer practical advantages: maturity, real-world usage patterns, broad integrations, documentation, and experience with many types of membership businesses. The key is whether the product is still useful today. WishList Member is still relevant because it combines history with current WordPress membership functionality.