Last Updated on January 27, 2024 by Justin Su
Do you want to create a paywall on your WordPress site?
Want to get your content or website protected? Then You must use PayWall plugins to get your WordPress website protected from copycatchers.
Most bloggers who have high-quality content worry about their content using Paywall-like tools to control and keep them safe. Those loggers who have quality content are less dependent on banner ads or Adsense.
There are not many Paywall tools and not many Paywall WordPress plugins hence we picked the top 8 Pawywall plugins for WordPress websites.
Table of Contents
What Is PayWall Plugin & What It Does Do?
A PayWall helps you to hide your content from viewers, premium content can be viewed by only paid viewers. The paywall locks the content and when a user pays money for the content it becomes viewable.
A website that uses Paywalls rarely uses any advertising networks because they want to give users better content without any disturbance.
Once you install PayWall to your website and activate it, viewers viewing your website will see a message asking them to buy a subscription or pay money to read the content.
There are already many known publications that use this feature like NYTimes, the Washington Post, UK newspaper, and The Daily Telegraph.
10 Best Paywall Plugins for WordPress
Here we picked the top 10 WordPress Paywall plugins that you can use to protect your content and serve them to your premium readers only.
Paid Membership Pro (Free & Paid)
Paid Membership Pro or PMPro was founded in the year 2010 by Kim and Jason Coleman and released its first plugin in 2011. Currently, they have more than 100K active installations.
It is one of the most complete WordPress membership plugins that come in both prices free and paid. You can use the free without any problem but to use all features you need to use the paid version.
With this plugin, you can put restrictions on your content, accept payments, and manage subscriptions. You can accept payment through payment processors like Paypal, Stripe, Braintree, Offline/Check, and Authorize.Net
If you are running a site where you sell items or produce premium content then this is the must-use plugin for you. Through this plugin, you can also download and see the sales and reports of your site.
Refund: 100-day money-back guarantee — no questions asked.
Free Version: https://www.paidmembershipspro.com/membership-checkout/?level=7
Paid Version: https://www.paidmembershipspro.com/pricing/
Pricing:
MemberMouse (Paid)
MemberMouse was founded by Eric in 2009 and is an awesome paid WordPress plugin to protect and payment automation tool for your website. They have processed more than 21 million orders to 18K customers’ websites.
It allows you to set a paywall on your content anywhere. You can set up multiple levels of membership through which users can get access to your content.
You can accept payment through multiple channels like Paypal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Sticky.io, Clickank, and Braintree. They have also email integrations for marketing automation ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, GetResponse, Adrop, ConvertKit, etc.
MemberMouse is more than a Paywall, you can also use it as a dropshipping website. Using the plugin is quite simple and easy. You can also use their guide to install and run integrations.
Refund: 14 Days Refund Policy
Free Version: N/A
Paid Version: https://membermouse.com/plans
Pricing:
s2Member (Free & Paid)
s2Member is one of the oldest Paywall WordPress plugins. It offers users full customization options so they can show the content as they want to. You can’t only hide content but you can also protect your posts, tags, files, live videos, audio, and videos.
You can lock your whole content for any users you want, you can lock the website for specific users. It is also one of those plugins that is Open-Source which means you can customize the plugin as you want.
The plugin comes in both paid and free versions, the free version is enough good for beginners. You can use the free version on unlimited websites.
They have a forum where you can ask for help and the community will try to help you, The S2Member team is also there to help.
It also allows you to set your own custom login and registration restrictions. You can accept payment through different payment processors like Paypal, Stripe, Authorize, and Clickbank.
Refund: 14 Days money back guarantee
Free Version: NA
Paid Version: https://s2member.com
Pricing:
Restrict Content Pro (Free & Paid)
Restrict Content Pro is a free and paid plugin. You can limit the content and implement a paywall on your website that asks users to pay a certain amount of money to access the content.
You can implement the limitations on your content like posts, pages, media, and custom posts. You can put subscription-based content and a one-time page. From the admin panel, you can view the accounts of your subscribers which you can ask them to subscribe.
The supported payment integrations are Paypal, Braintree, 2Ceckout, Stripe, and Authorize.net. Only limited payment processors are supported in the Restrict Content Free version.
They have features like content restrictions, membership levels, and paywall options.
Refund: Refundable on some conditions
Free Version: https://wordpress.org/plugins/restrict-content
Paid Version: https://restrictcontentpro.com
Pricing:
aMember Pro (Paid)
aMember is just another WordPress paywall plugin that comes with the free and paid version. It has some features that might attract you to them and make you use their plugin at least once.
They support more than 20 languages in the pro plan with a free plan you can get access to 6 languages only.
It provides detailed analytics of the purchase and all users’ activity from their simple admin panel. You simply need to set the product and payment gateways after that plugin will automatically proceed with all steps.
The top features of the plugin are unlimited subscription, members panel, email marketing, 22 languages, detail reporting, and high support.
Refund: 30 days full refund
Free Version: NA
Paid Version: https://www.amember.com/order/
Pricing:
MemberPress (Paid)
MemberPress is one of the best and most highly used WordPress paywall ad LMS plugins. It is also used to create your password-protected community using WordPress-based forum integration with bbPress and other WordPress plugins.
They have a courses add-on that will help you to get step to step guide to set up the plugin on your website.
Paywall, Oline Courses, Coupons, Forum building, Drip content, Start selling now, Affiliate plugin, Payment gateways, WordPress subscription, and more.
You can put a paywall on content, posts, pages, videos, and products. it offers many features like Easy setup, Restricted content, Integrations of Mailchimp, etc email marketing tools, payment gateways, content dripping, course builder, widget, and walkthrough.
You can accept payment through different supported payment methods like Paypal, Stripe, and Authorize.net.
Refund: 14 days 100% refund
Free Version: NA
Paid Version: https://memberpress.com/features/
Pricing:
WordPress Paywall Plugin Pricing
LearnDash (Paid)
LearnDash has been active since 2012 and it is considered one of the best LMS platforms for one who is selling courses on the WordPress-based site. It is mostly used by universities, small to mid-size companies, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and bloggers.
It has also built a paywall that you can use on your content or articles so you can enroll more dedicated learners and monetize your courses to make revenue.
They have features like drag & drop, quizzing, a certificate to enrollers, a forum to get better communication with users, prerequisites, and an easy-to-manage admin panel.
They have third-party integration that makes your experience easier like Mailchimp, Slack, PayPal, and Zapier.
Refund: Refundable on some conditions
Free Version: NA
Paid Version: https://www.learndash.com/pricing-and-purchase
Pricing:
Paid Member Subscriptions (Paid & Free)
This plugin is made by CozmosLabs it is one of the best free WordPress Paywall plugins. CozmosLas has developed many WordPress plugins and this is one of them that allows websites to hide and monetize their content.
The plugin is available for free users and paid versions as well, both versions allow you to manage content so it is best for free users as well.
The admin panel allows users to see the all information of the accounts and users’ activity from one place. It allows admins to edit the information of the user’s account.
Third-party integration tools like WooCommerce, Profile Builder, Elementor, etc.
Refund: Refundable on some conditions
Free Version:
Paid Version: https://www.cozmoslabs.com/wordpress-paid-member-subscriptions
Pricing:
Leaky Paywall (Free & Paid)
Leaky Paywall is widely used by sites like newspapers and magazines types. By using the Leaky WordPress paywall plugin you can stop users from accessing content and can restrict access to PDF files as well.
You can build good email lists of subscribers and monetize to generate revenue from them.
As a WordPress site manager, you can restrict access to articles, content, categories, tags, custom posts, in-content PDF-Video-audio, premium newsletters, and archive content. It also blocks incognito browsing.
The supported payment methods like Paypal, Stripe, MagHub, and RunMags.
You can start using the free version once you feel that this is the plugin that you are looking for then you can purchase their premium plans.
Refund: Refundable on some conditions
Free Version: https://wordpress.org/plugins/leaky-paywall/
Paid Version: https://leakypaywall.com/pricing/
Pricing:
Jeg Paywall (Paid)
Jeg Paywall is built for WooCommerce themes. It is one of the easiest ways to generate revenue from your website. You can restrict content on your WordPress website and monetize it via paid subscriptions using the Jeg Paywall WordPress plugin.
You can accept payment through Paypal only as it is the only supported method available in Plugin.
It is compatible with WooCommerce sites only hence your website must be using WooCommerce themes.
The plugin has features like Easy Content Restriction, Subscription System, Flexile Pricing Options, and Custom Post Type Support.
Refund Policy: No refund
Free Version: N/A
Paid Version: https://1.envato.market/dayaDq
Pricing: $39 one time (An alternative cheaper version can be accessed from here)
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Paywalls affect SEO?
Paywalls may affect SEO for new blogs or sites. And it also depends on how you use your website. If your website has an established audience and readers are highly interested in your articles then it will not affect SEO at all.
How do I add a paywall in WordPress?
You can add a Paywall to your WordPress website through above mentioned plugins. It is very easy to use the paywall plugin.
Can you have a paywall on WordPress?
Yes, you can have a paywall on your WordPress sites or blogs. It is not hard to integrate Paywalls into your WordPress websites.
How does Paywall make money?
Paywall charges pricing on plugins and you as a publisher charge users for using or seeing the articles or content.
How can I get a paywall for free?
Almost all plugins mentioned above are free and come with freemium versions. You can try them for free and if it profits you then you can get paid versions.