Wix Membership Site: What to Expect? (Pros & Cons)

Back in the days, website builders had very few capabilities when it came to building a membership website. Features like password-protection of your pages and membership subscriptions were hardly heard of, and there were only a few membership website builders.

Nowadays, the situation has changed significantly, and Wix is the best example we can give. Wix has always been a few steps ahead of its competitive website builders, especially in terms of innovation.

A Wix membership site has always included things like personal login and password, so you can only imagine the additional features you can get with the platform now.

Don’t worry, though; we won’t let you ‘imagine’ things! In today’s article, we want to tell you everything we believe you should know about Wix and its free and paid membership features. Building a website, a membership website, has never been easier!

What is Wix Membership?

Wix is a lot more than just a membership website builder, but since this is the topic of our article, we will focus mainly on this feature. Wix has created a coding-free system that lets website owners provide special access to their clients to exclusive content on their site. This system allows visitors to register and access special content meant only for them.

Another great thing about Wix is that it allows you to sell paid membership (subscription) without any third-party integrations. Moreover, these sets of features can also be combined with other Wix apps such as Wix Bookings. You can also include your personal Wix blog in the picture.

On the other hand, if you prefer to have a simple password-protected website that does not offer credentials to users, you also have that option with Wix’s editor. Now, let’s say a few words about Wix pricing.

How much is it?

When it comes to website plans, the platform no longer offers a free website builder plan. However, we will not focus on that, mainly due to the fact that to build a membership website with Wix, you will need to choose one of its Business plans:

• Business Basic- $23 per month
• Business Unlimited- $27 per month
• Business VIP- $49 per month
• Enterprise- custom pricing

The Basic plan includes secure online payments, customer accounts, a custom domain, a free domain name for 1 year, 5 video hours, $300 ad vouchers, and 24/7 customer care. The plan sounds great, and it actually is if you focus on accepting online payments. However, if you want to grow your business and use the full set of eCommerce features, you will have to pay a bit extra.

Even though the Basic plan offers you unlimited products and abandoned cart recovery, it does not include subscriptions, USPS discounts, the option to sell on Marketplace, and advanced shipping. If you want your membership website to have these eCommerce tools, the Business VIP is the ideal option.

Yes, Business Unlimited includes all of the above-mentioned as well, but with the VIP plan, you get 3 000 product reviews by KudoBuzz, priority customer care, 50GB of storage space, unlimited video hours, unlimited events and tickets, loyalty program by Smile.io., and so much more!

Pros & Cons of Wix Membership Sites

We can’t deny that we are impressed by the range of features Wix offers for your site. Still, there are a few drawbacks that are also worth mentioning, so here are the most important pros and cons you need to know about this website builder:

Pros of Using Wix

• You can manage contacts from the Wix backend, and they are immediately synced with Wix’s email marketing tool;
• You can create a membership area for free;
• You can limit site pages to paying customers (paid membership);
• You can limit site pages to specific customers;
• Users can register with their Facebook, email, or Google credentials;
• You can also create user-generated content by using Wix Corvid;

Cons of Using Wix

• You can’t create membership sites that are multilingual;
• It is quite difficult to modify subscriptions;
• Subscriptions and recurring payments on your products are not available with the Basic plan;
• The registration email cannot be personalized;

How To Create a Wix Membership Site?

As we already mentioned, with Wix, it is super easy to create your members-only area. Still, to get it functioning and make it perfect, you will have to do some work. First, logically, you will have to create your Wix website and choose one of the templates provided.

Some of these templates come with a members’ area section, but if you wish, you can customize it or remove it according to your needs. To create your memberships area, you have two choices:

1. Individual members-only pages

Go to page settings and click on the permissions menu. There you get the option to set an individual page as a members-only page (in the left sidebar.) This will automatically make the site page you want available only to registered users.

Setting up member pages is the easiest way the platform offers to create exclusive content for your members. Keep in mind, though, that this is not really a member area, and there will not be member profile pages or even a login/out button.

Clients will see a registration screen, and once they sign up, they will see the content of your page. Basically, everyone who registers will have access to the content of that very same page. If, however, you want to create a fully-featured members’ area, continue reading!

2. Creating a fully-featured members’ area:

The Members Area allows your site members to have their own account on your Wix website. This tool improves your users’ experience, and they get:

• Plenty of registration options
• Login and logout buttons
• Member profile page where users can give information about themselves
• Members menu that will make navigating through exclusive-member pages easier
• Members page where your clients will have basic interactions with other registered users

Your potential members will have to answer your membership questions. You can review them on the site dashboard or on the live site. Once you do that, you can deny or approve membership status based on the privacy settings of your group.

We don’t like the fact that there seems to be no way of confirming the user’s email upon registration. This means that spammers could interfere and take advantage of this fact. You are also not allowed to customize the emails that your users will get after approval.

On the other hand, Wix allows you to create different membership levels and tiers, custom logins, and recurring payments (not with the Basic plan, though.) On top of that, with Wix, you can easily export or import your contacts and create custom fields.

If you are constantly searching for new ways to encourage customer loyalty, you have just found it! By creating various membership plans and membership levels, you can also attract new clients. Moreover, you can offer special discounts and control the percentage of this discount, the events included, and the duration of the membership.

Selling Plans & Recurring Payments

There are a few other popular website builders that offer you to create a membership website with membership areas. Still, they are less advanced than Wix, and they do not offer one essential feature that any well-made membership site needs to have- paid subscriptions.

With Wix, you can sell subscriptions, and trust us, in the end, the user experience mentioned in all of the reviews your membership site might get will be positive! To sell plans, you will first have to add your services with the Wix Bookings app. The next step you will have to take is to create the plans you will be selling, and their subscription fees with the Paid Plans Wix app.

Using the Wix Bookings app may get a bit confusing, so you might want to check Wix’s help center, where you can find tutorials on how to do it. There are also a few videos available on youtube, so you can try that as well.

The last thing you will need to do to finish your paid membership site is to link each membership page with the paid plan that you have created to grand access to it. You can do that from the Settings menu in the sidebar, where you will need to click on Permissions. Then you will be ready to sell your courses, bookings, and subscriptions.

In terms of payment providers, Wix automatically connects you to a payment provider in your region that is the most suitable based on your location and preferences. Still, Wix supports over 20 different options, so you can choose those available in your location.

Even though the subscription system is a bit complicated, Wix has provided its users with lots of ways to learn how to create a membership site with a subscription fee. There is one thing we don’t like, though, and that is the manual work you will have to do as a site owner.

For example, if someone decided they want to cancel their paid membership/subscription, they will first have to let you know. You will then have to manually cancel that subscription. We also wish to see more customization options in regard to email automation.

Still, considering the fact that this is relatively new functionality, Wix has been doing great, and we appreciate all the information, affiliate partners options, and features the platform gives to its users.

Continue Reading: The Best Free Ecommerce Website Builders for 2023

Last Thoughts on Wix Membership

Selling your courses, bookings, and subscriptions is easier than ever with all the options Wix offers. We are pleased with our experience with the platform and the progress it has achieved over the years, so yes, we would recommend it to everyone who wants to create a membership site.

In fact, Wix is one of the few site builders that offer so many advanced features. The site builder is also suitable for beginners as it is not that hard to use. And, even if you do encounter some problem with a Wix app, editor, etc., there are many videos available to help you through.

With Wix, visitors can purchase pretty much everything from dance studio monthly passes to subscriptions to online cooking courses. There are still a couple of things that can be fixed when it comes to the interface, but considering that Wix allows you to try its Paid Plans app for free, we are willing to ignore that little fact.

Thanks for reading our article; we really hope that it has been useful to you! If you have any questions or are a Wix Paid Plans user and want to leave a comment regarding the website builder’s features and services, feel free to do so!