EverWeb Membership Sites lets your visitors sign up, pay, log in, and see pages that only members can see. You build the pages in EverWeb with special Membership widgets, and you manage members and payments in your EverWeb account page (the Client Area). Membership Sites is a separate add-on. It works on EverWeb + Hosting or another host that supports PHP.
If you only need to keep a few pages private with usernames and passwords you choose, you may not need Membership Sites. See the table below.
Membership Sites guides
Ideas and examples:
- What can you build with a membership site? Ideas and examples for teachers, schools, coaches, trainers, clubs and creators
- Sell online lessons or a course with EverWeb Membership Sites
- Members' areas for schools, clubs and associations: parents, members, staff and yearly dues
- Coaches, personal trainers and fitness studios: paid client areas with Membership Sites
Set up and run your membership site:
- Set up Membership Sites step by step: buy a plan, fill in Setup and connect Stripe
- Plan your membership levels: free, one-time, monthly or yearly, trials, setup fees and coupons
- Build your members area in EverWeb: the Membership widgets, the pages you need and Membership Site Settings
- Choose which pages members can see: protect pages and directories by membership level
- Test your membership site before you launch, and fix common problems
- Manage your members: add, import, export, suspend, cancel and email them
The rest of this article is a short overview of the whole process.
Membership Sites or Simple Password?
| Simple Password | Membership Sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Who logs in | Usernames and passwords you create yourself | Each member signs up with their own email and password |
| Payments | No | Yes, by card through Stripe |
| Different levels (for example Free, Silver, Gold) | No | Yes |
| What you can protect | Directories (folders of pages) only | Any page you choose |
| Hosting | EverWeb + Hosting only | EverWeb + Hosting or another host that supports PHP |
| EverWeb Standalone, publishing to another host | Not available | Yes |
| Cost | Included with EverWeb + Hosting | Separate add-on (see below) |
To set up Simple Password, see Can I password protect my website? Simple Password and Membership Sites.
What it costs
| Starter | Plus | Deluxe | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $10 USD a month or $100 a year | $50 USD a month or $500 a year |
| Transaction fee on each payment | 10% | 4.9% | 2.9% |
| Paid members | Up to 10,000 | Up to 10,000 | Unlimited |
| Free members and free trials | No | Yes | Yes |
| Email all your members | No | Yes | Yes |
| Membership levels, coupons, card payments, members-only pages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Stripe has its own fees too: check them on Stripe's website. You need one Membership Sites license for each website that has a members area. You can move to a different plan at any time in the Client Area.
Before you start
- A Stripe account, to receive payments. We recommend your website has the padlock (HTTPS) before you take payments: see My site says 'Not Secure': how to get HTTPS (SSL) on your website.
- Your currency. Once you save it in the setup, you can't change it yourself (contact us if you need to), so choose carefully.
- Your membership levels: names, prices and how often members pay (one time, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly). Free levels and trials need Plus or Deluxe.
You can try a working example first: Membership Sites demo.
How to set it up
1. Get Membership Sites
- Sign in to your EverWeb account page (the Client Area).
- Go to Services > View Available Add-ons, choose Membership Sites, pick a plan and check out.
- Sign out of EverWeb and back in (or quit EverWeb and open it again), so it sees your new license.
2. Set it up in the Client Area
- In the Client Area, go to Services > My Services. Next to your Membership Sites license, click the down arrow beside the spanner icon and choose what you want to set up.
- In Setup, enter your site's details, the domain it's for, your currency and your Stripe account, and choose which emails you want to receive (new sign-ups, payments, cancellations).
- In Membership Levels, add your levels.
3. Add the Membership widgets to EverWeb
After you buy, you get an email with a link to the Membership widgets. Download them, then either double-click the Install file, or drag the widgets folder onto the Widgets tab in EverWeb.
4. Build the members area
- Click Add Directory in the toolbar to make a folder for your members area.
- Inside it, add a page for each of these and drag the matching widget onto it: Sign Up, Payment, Login, Profile, Change Password and Email Validation (each has a Membership widget of the same name). You can also add "success", Access Denied, Account Suspended and Account Cancelled pages.
- Add the Membership Sign Out Button widget to your members' pages.
- Select any Membership widget, go to Inspector > Widget Settings, choose your license in Membership Site, then click Membership Site Settings... and tell EverWeb which page is which. You only need to do this once.
5. Choose who can see each page
- Select a members-only page.
- Go to Inspector > Page Settings and open Password Protection.
- Click Memberships and choose your Membership Sites license from the dropdown.
- Tick each level that may see this page. For a Gold-only page, tick only Gold. For a page all members may see, tick every level.
- Untick Include in Site Search in Inspector > Page Settings. Otherwise the page's text is copied into your website's search file, which anyone can open.
Do this on every members-only page, including each page inside your members' directory. Ticking levels on the directory itself doesn't protect the pages in it.
6. Publish and test
- Go to File > Publish Entire Site.
- Open your website in a private window and sign up as a test member. Members-only pages are only protected on your published website, not in Preview.
- Check that a visitor who isn't logged in can't open a members-only page.
There's also a video mini-course on the EverWeb Membership Sites page.
Good to know
- Pages are protected, files aren't. Anyone who has the direct link to a PDF, MP3, picture or video file in your Assets can open it, even if you only link to it from a members-only page. For videos, use YouTube or Vimeo with their privacy settings. See Choose which pages members can see: protect pages and directories by membership level.
- Members can't cancel by themselves. You cancel them in the Client Area. Add a cancellation form with the Contact Form Advanced widget so members can ask you.
- Existing PayPal subscriptions can't be connected. Members need to sign up through your Membership Sites pages.
- Adding members yourself: use Add New on the Members screen, or Import to bring in a list from a CSV file (a spreadsheet saved as .csv). You can Export your list the same way. If an import says it worked but your members don't appear, contact us and attach the file.
- Mobile pages: if a page has a separate page for phones (a Mobile Page), protect that page too, and don't put a public page's mobile version inside a protected directory.