Purpose-Built Hosting for Paid Memberships Pro Sites
We’re opening up early access to our new hosting product—custom-built for the real demands of membership websites. Alpha pricing starts at $100/mo. and includes a Plus license. Space is limited. Must be running PMPro. Application and interview required.
Most hosting wasn’t made for membership sites. Ours is.
For 15 years, we have recommended a lot of hosts and used even more. What we learned is simple:
Shared hosting can’t keep up
Caching breaks dynamic pages
Performance crumbles under real user load
Payment, login, and checkout issues are common
The truth? Most hosting environments are built for blogs and pizza shops—not for sites with logged-in users accessing gated content, taking courses, engaging in community chats, and accessing custom member dashboards.
Membership sites are a different beast. They deserve an infrastructure built just for them.
We built PMPro. Then we built the hosting to power it.
We’ve run our own high-traffic membership site—PaidMembershipsPro.com—for over a decade. Why? Because we didn’t just need hosting that had great “uptime”. We needed something resilient, performant, and tailored to membership use cases. Hosting that could handle:
- 150,000+ registered users
- 20,000+ monthly sessions
- 50+ active users per minute
- 72 active plugins
- Powering our paid member support ticketing
- Dozens of third-party integrations
… without costing us thousands of dollars (the dirty little secret major hosts don’t want you to know: yes, you can run a site like this for around $250/mo).
So we built it. And now we’re opening it up to you.
What Makes PMPro Hosting Different
Performance Without Tricks
Certain pages like checkout and account should never be cached. With PMPro hosting, speed is baked in at the stack level. We’re improving PMPro to allow object caching—which works even better than caching via a WordPress plugin.
Support From Trusted Experts
No tier-1 scripts. We know your setup because we run it, too. If you have worked with our support team, you know why so many people are writing five-star reviews about us. Our hosting customers benefit from that same support quality.
Dynamic Content, Payments, and APIs
We’ve tested the most common third-party integrations—like Stripe, PayPal, Mailchimp, and Zapier—under real membership site conditions. Flawless. We’ll continuing to optimize how these systems communicate, so your checkouts, emails, and automations run smoother and faster.
Open Hosting With No Lock-In
As we move from the Hosting’s Alpha launch to true Beta, we are planning to publish our full hosting setup to our blog. Everything you need to replicate it yourself on your own LAMP server, including the DigitalOcean Template if you are rolling your own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I need special hosting for a membership site?
Because most hosting stacks are built for static pages and blog posts, not logged-in users, dynamic content, or real-time payments. Membership sites need different rules, and the PMPro Plus Hosting stack respects those rules.
Do I have to be using Paid Memberships Pro?
Yes. This hosting environment is optimized specifically for PMPro-powered sites. It is designed to eliminate friction between your membership plugin (Paid Memberships Pro), your payment gateway, and your infrastructure.
Can I use other plugins or themes?
Absolutely. You’re still running WordPress, with full admin access and no walled garden. We will guide you if anything is known to cause performance or compatibility issues.
Will this replace my current license?
Yes. Alpha hosting includes a Plus membership license for Paid Memberships Pro at no additional charge. If you have a prepaid balance for the current year on your Standard or Plus membership we will credit that amount toward your hosting plan.
What is the hosting setup process like?
You’ll start by submitting an application. After that someone from our team will reach out to schedule an interview. Once accepted, we will plan for a brief onboarding call to schedule out your migration. Our team will help you plan for the migration, but we’ll handle most of the heavy lifting. Or, we can set you up with a fresh installation if you are starting from scratch.
Can I leave if we realize you are not for us?
Of course. This is open hosting, not lock-in. You will always have full access to your site and your data. We’ll even help you move off if needed.
And, because with PMPro Hosting, every site is hosted on a standalone DigitalOcean droplet, you can stay with DigitalOcean. We’ll help you migrate your droplet to your own Team and Project.
What kind of support do I get?
Hosting customers get direct access to our expert support team: the same people who build and support PMPro. No scripts. No runaround. Just smart, real help.
What is included in the $100/month?
Plus Hosting plans include:
- A dedicated DigitalOcean droplet. No sharing. This is managed hosting tuned for membership sites unlike anything on the market.
- Your annual PMPro Plus license.
- Hands-on onboarding and migration support.
- Direct access to expert support.
- Early access to performance tools we’re developing.
Final pricing depends on your site’s specific needs. We will provide that before you commit.
What kind of stack are you using?
Plus Hosting runs on a customized LAMP stack using open-source tools and industry best practices—optimized for object caching, secure logins, reliable APIs, and dynamic member experiences. We are planning to publish our full setup publicly and release the template for free as we transition out of Alpha.
Will I have access to the stack to self-host later?
Yes. That’s part of our open hosting commitment. Once we hit Beta, we will share the exact configs, docs, and DigitalOcean droplet template you can use to replicate our setup on your own server.
