MadeThis vs Memberful: Which Is Better for Membership Sites?

Membership sites are one of the most sustainable business models for solo creators. Recurring revenue, predictable income, and a community that compounds over time. The question is which platform to build on.

Memberful and MadeThis both support memberships — but they're built very differently. Here's the breakdown.

What Memberful Is

Memberful is a membership platform that integrates tightly with WordPress. If you already have a WordPress site and want to add paid memberships to it, Memberful is one of the more established options. It handles access control, recurring billing, and member management.

The catch: it's an add-on, not a standalone platform. Memberful works best when you already have a WordPress site set up. If you don't, you're adding that dependency before you can do anything.

What MadeThis Is

MadeThis is a standalone platform — you don't need a WordPress site, a hosting account, or any existing web presence. It handles memberships, digital products, email marketing, and checkout in one place. The AI co-founder helps with content strategy, pricing, and product development.

For someone starting fresh, the difference is significant: MadeThis is a starting point, Memberful is an upgrade layer.

Setup Complexity

Memberful setup requires:

• An existing WordPress installation
• Memberful plugin/integration configured
• Stripe connected
• Access rules set up for your existing content

If you already have WordPress, this is manageable. If you don't, you're looking at setting up hosting, a domain, WordPress itself, then adding Memberful on top. Multiple hours minimum, often a full day or more for non-technical users.

MadeThis setup:

• Create account
• Add membership tier with pricing
• Configure what members access
• Done

I've set up new membership tiers on MadeThis in under 30 minutes. No WordPress required, no hosting accounts to configure, no plugin compatibility issues.

Pricing

Memberful charges a monthly fee (starting around $49/month) plus payment processing. There are no transaction fees beyond the Stripe percentage.

MadeThis has its own pricing tiers — see the current MadeThis pricing page for the breakdown. The comparison varies depending on volume, but for solo creators just starting out, MadeThis typically comes in at a lower all-in cost.

Features Comparison

Recurring Revenue Support

Both platforms support recurring billing through Stripe. Memberful's subscription management is solid — it handles dunning (failed payment follow-up), pauses, and cancellations well, which matters once you have significant membership volume.

MadeThis handles the basics well and covers everything most solo operators need. For a creator with under 500 members, MadeThis's recurring billing functionality is completely sufficient.

Who Should Use Memberful

If you already have a content-heavy WordPress site with an existing audience, Memberful is a logical way to add a membership layer. You're not rebuilding anything — you're adding a revenue layer on top of what you've built.

Who Should Use MadeThis

If you're starting a membership from scratch, don't want to deal with WordPress, or want AI tools to help you build and grow the membership — MadeThis is the better fit.

For most of the creators I talk to — people in the 0–500 member range who want to sell both memberships and digital products — MadeThis wins on simplicity, integrated tools, and lower setup friction.

You don't have to be a developer to run a successful membership site. MadeThis is designed to make that accessible. Check out my full review to see how the platform works end-to-end — membership setup is one of the features I've used the most.