This comparison document takes a look how WooCommerce Memberships compares to Groups for WordPress (free). The comparison assumes that you’re also using Groups for WooCommerce ($79) to sell access to Groups.
| MEMBERSHIPS | GROUPS | |
|---|---|---|
| Sales Page | View | View |
| Documentation | View | View |
| Plugin Cost | $149+ | $79+ |
Memberships focuses on content restriction (what members will be able to access on your site), and when access is granted, while Groups focuses on user capabilities on your site. Both can restrict your content, but they’ll do it in different ways.
Comparison chart
Memberships vs Groups
| ACCESS AND MEMBERSHIP LENGTH | ||
|---|---|---|
| FEATURE | MEMBERSHIPS | GROUPS |
| Sell membership access via your store |  | |
| Give away / manually grant membership access | | |
| Grant access for previous purchases | | – |
| Grant access at user registration | | – |
| Customers can have multiple memberships | | |
| Create unlimited memberships (never expire) | | |
| Create set-length memberships (expires) | | |
| Create fixed-date memberships (expires) | | – |
| SUBSCRIPTIONS AND RECURRING BILLING | ||
| FEATURE | MEMBERSHIPS | GROUPS |
| Sell recurring memberships alone | – | – |
| Sell recurring memberships when used with Subscriptions ($199) | | |
| Offer membership free trials | with Subscriptions | with Subscriptions |
| Can choose to exclude some content from Subscriptions free trial period | | – |
| Supports subscription switching (upgrade / downgrade) | | |
| Decouple access from Subscription billing | | – |
| CONTENT AND PRODUCT RESTRICTION | ||
| FEATURE | MEMBERSHIPS | GROUPS |
| Display & customize content restriction messages | | – |
| Show how to gain access to restricted content | | – |
| Restrict entire post / content types | | – |
| Restrict post / content taxonomies (category / tag) | | – |
| Restrict individual page, post, product viewing | | |
| Restrict product categories / taxonomies | | – |
| Restrict product purchasing (allow public viewing)
| | – |
| Hide restricted content completely (404) | | |
| Hide restricted content only (no 404, still show title & featured image in archives) | | – |
| Restrict content via shortcode | (details) | (details) |
| Can show excerpts of restricted content to users / search engines | | – |
| CONTENT DRIPPING | ||
| FEATURE | MEMBERSHIPS | GROUPS |
| Can drip content access over time (don’t give all access immediately) | | – |
| Can drip product viewing or purchasing access | | – |
| Exclude trial periods from dripping | | – |
| MEMBER MANAGEMENT | ||
| FEATURE | MEMBERSHIPS | GROUPS |
| Creates a member area to show members content / discounts they have access to | | – |
| Ability to transfer memberships (from admin) | | – |
| Import members via CSV (supports membership [and user] creation and transfers) | | – |
| Export members to CSV | | – |
| Customer membership management screens | | – |
| Add private membership notes for record keeping | | – |
| Can email membership notes to a member | | – |
| Email expiration or renewal reminders to members | | – |
| OTHER FEATURES OR INTEGRATIONS | ||
| FEATURE | MEMBERSHIPS | GROUPS |
| Setup complexity | low | high |
| Can provide free shipping to members | | – |
| Can sell group or team access | requires Teams add-on | – |
| Works with Dynamic Pricing | requires Role Handler add-on | |
| Works with User Switching | | – |
| Works with Jilt for automated emails | | – |
| Can create automatic member discounts | | – |
| Remind members to log in for discounts | | – |
| Can create member coupons | – | with Groups Coupons ($49) |