Initial Setup

Paid Memberships Pro is designed entirely around your members, so spend some time thinking about what you want your membership experience to be. Setup goes smoothly when you have a very clear vision of your dream membership site.

Below are a few aspects of your membership site you should consider before setting up the PMPro plugin on your WordPress site.

Plan Your Membership Site

Spend some time thinking about what membership levels you want for your site. Our blog features tons of content about running a membership business.

• What will members have access to? We have over 23 content types that you can protect in your membership site. Learn how to protect any content type in this post.
• How much are you going to charge? Read our guide on how to price a membership site for a primer on value-based pricing.

In our video tutorial and guide, we set up a simple $25/month membership.

Choose a Payment Gateway

It is easiest to select your payment gateway and create your payment gateway account prior to beginning setup. This will ensure you have your API keys or gateway username and password handy while going through the steps.

Visit our Payment Gateways documentation to learn more about which gateways integrate with Paid Memberships Pro. There are also a few gateway integrations not maintained by Paid Memberships Pro listed here.

Our preferred setup, and the one we use here on our own site to sell memberships, is Stripe with the Add PayPal Express Add On.

Next Step – Install and Activate the PMPro Plugin

After successful activation, new membership sites can now use the Setup Wizard to quickly set up PMPro and begin accepting new member registrations within minutes. The wizard performs the key setup steps for Paid Memberships Pro, including setting up your first free and paid level (both optional) and reviewing advanced settings related to content filters and spam protection.