Restrict Content Pro vs ARMember: Which Membership Plugin is Best?

Restrict Content Pro vs ARMember: which membership site builder will empower your WordPress site with smart content monetization options, without overspending? Which one works better for what? Which can help you manage subscriptions and paywalls better?
Get ready! Today, weโre breaking that down in the detailed Restrict Content Pro vs ARMember comparison – to help you build your digital dream!
But before we move on, letโs introduce you to these top WordPress membership plugins.
What is Restrict Content Pro?
Restrict Content Pro is a WordPress membership and paywall plugin from the reputable StellarWP brand, known for its hosting services (Liquid Web) and plugins, including the Events Calendar and Kadence solutions. Moreover, their RCP membership plugin has been around for 10+ years, handling member management, upgrades and downgrades, and easy content restriction.
What is ARMember?
ARMember is a powerful and easy to use WordPress membership plugin, created by the makers of BookingPress and other well-regarded WordPress solutions. The ARMember plugin, just like Restrict Content Pro, has also been serving digital entrepreneurs for around 10 years. Itโs a well-designed and powerful tool with a focus on flexible content management, payment gateway integration, and powerful community building tool.
Protect Content Rules
Can you easily protect content through paywalls using ARMember or Restrict Content Pro?
Letโs take a look at their capabilities and how you can protect the content you sell. This is basically what these plugins are designed for!
Restrict Content Pro has many rules you will need every day:
- Restrict content to logged-in users only.
- Limit access by WordPress user roles.
- Restrict content by membership level.
- Use access levels (1โ10) to control who sees what based on their tier.
- Restrict entire posts, pages, or custom post types, or all at once.
- Restrict categories and tags, individually or all together.
- Use shortcodes to limit specific parts of content within a post or page.
For ARMember, content restriction options are central because they define how much flexibility you have in selling your hard work. Here are a few details:
- Restrict your entire site to logged-in members only.
- Control who can access pages, posts, categories, tags, custom post types, or any specific URL.
- Let members access drip content created after they subscribe.
Restriction rules | Restrict Content Pro | ARMember |
---|---|---|
Entire site to logged-in users | Yesย | Yes |
Restrict posts, pages, custom post types | Yes Entire or specific posts/pages/custom post types | Yes Pages, posts, custom post types, specific URLs |
Restrict by WordPress user role | Yes | Yes |
Restrict by membership level | Yes | Yesย |
Specific URL | Yes | Yes |
WordPress term or taxonomy | Yes | Yes |
Restrict categories and tags | Yes Individually or all at once | Yes Categories and tags |
Restrict specific parts of content | Yes, with shortcode | Yes, with content protection rules and shortcodes |
Drip content (post-purchase access) | Requires add-on | Yes, drip content created after subscribing |
Both wp membership plugins allow you to offer early access, sneak peeks and free trials to your members, including with the login.
How Can Members Pay? Subscriptions & One-time Payments
You want to handle walled content on your terms, at the same time, convenient for members. In this case, pay attention to how you can price your plans and tiers with both plugins. Normally, the choice of membership levels both plugins display on the registration page, allowing customers to choose what they need.
Here is a detailed comparison table of RCP vs ARMember on how you can charge your customers:
Membership tiers and options | Restrict Content Pro | ARMember |
---|---|---|
Subscription (monthly/yearly) | Supported | Supported |
Charge once | Supported | Supported |
Lifetime access | Supported | Supported |
Customer plan duration | Days, years, months | Days, years, months |
Renewย | Supported | Supported |
Term-limited access | Supported | Supported |
Upgrade/downgrade | Supported | Supported |
Membership free trials | Supported | Supported |
Signup Fee/additional registration charge | Supported | Supported |
Among other basic things, Restrict Content Pro allows you to:
- Set how many days, months, or years a subscription to a membership level will last.
- Define the number of how many times a membership can be renewed after purchase.
- Customers can renew until cancelled.
- Customize free trial duration.
- Use WordPress user roles for members signing up for membership levels.
ARMember handles this efficiently with its powerful features:
- Automatically give members access to paid posts or courses when they buy a plan.
- Specify the optional upgrade/downgrade actions.
- Set a grace period and plan expiration dates.
- Also handles member roles per plan through WP user roles.
Summary: While both membership plugins approach the membership level creation process a bit differently, their tools are made to help you sell content the way you need.
How Will Your Site Accept Payments?
Letโs discover more about whether the principle of accepting payments will be smooth and secure. For this, weโve put all the key gateways and payment-related things into the Restrict Content Pro vs ARMember comparison table below:
Payment features | Restrict Content Pro | ARMember |
---|---|---|
Payment processors | Stripe, Manual Payments, PayPal, Authorize.net, Braintree Via 3rd party integrations: BoaCompra, Netbilling | 21+ payment gateways, including:ย PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, Authorize.net In different plans: Mollie, PayPal Pro, Pagseguro, PayUmoney, Online Worldpay, Razorpay, PayFast, Paystack, Square, Skrill, Braintree, Klarna, Paddle, Mercado Pago, CCAvenue, Airwallexย |
WooCommerce integration | Add-on $99/year/site | All plans, including free |
Sandbox mode for tests | Yes | Yes |
Manual payments (check, wire transfer, other) | Yes | Yes |
Invoices downloaded by your members | Built-in | Built-in, all plans |
Recurring subscription | Yes | Yes |
Wide currency selection | Yes | Built-in, all plans |
Taxes | Through Avalaraย (requires extra fees) | Built-in tax settings |
Refunds | Built-in | Built-in |
Affiliates | Add-on | Addon or within premium plan |
Subscription cancellation | Yes | Yes |
Discounts | Only in Pro | Built-in, all plans |
Quick summary:
Both plugins are optimized for content monetization and easy payment handling, including refunds and invoices. ARMember obviously provides many payment processors ready to go. Whatโs more, Restrict Content Pro also relies on extra tools to help you manage things like taxation, affiliate systems, and more, while ARMember has these tools pre-integrated. Actually, weโve noticed that quite often Restrict Content Pro alternatives have more to offer at this aspect.
Certification Capabilities, Gamification & Courses
Content management is often about educational resources, courses and coaching. Can you offer official certification as part of the course or a live workshop using the plugins weโre reviewing? Absolutely. Sell e-learning courses securely through both WordPress subscription plugins.
What other onboarding and engagement instruments do you have at your disposal?
Tools | Restrict Content Pro | ARMember |
---|---|---|
Member directories and profiles cards | Some options via add-ons | Included with designs |
Gamification (badges, rewards, points ) | External plugins | Built-in, all plans + myCRED integration |
LMS features/course builder | External integration (LearnDash) | Enterprise plan |
Sell gift memberships | Not native | Professional plan and higher |
Member reviews | Yes | Yes |
Friends and followingย | No | Yes |
Member network sites | Only forums via forum plugins and webinars via LMS | Enterprise plan |
Social login | No | All plans |
WhatsApp messages | Via extra tools | Professional plan and higher |
Membership cards and social icons | No | All plans |
Quick summary:
- Restrict Content Pro also integrates with LearnDash for more course building capabilities. It relies more on forum plugins for community needs.
- ARMember comes with the Course builder add-on that allows you to run a full-scale education hub, with badges, points, and certificates. It has built-in tools to build communities and social networks.
Restrict Content Pro vs ARMember Pricing
Which membership plugin helps you cut costs and save time? Are there any hidden costs? Letโs take a closer look at the specific features and how much you need to pay for them.
First, letโs compare premium versions and then also not forget about a free one!
Premium versions
Cost | Restrict Content Pro | ARMember |
---|---|---|
Use on 1 website | $99/year | Standard plan – $69/year |
Use on 2+ websites | $149/year (up to 5 sites) | Professional plan $129/year (2 sites) |
Use on 10+ sites | $249/year (unlimited sites) | Enterprise $299/year (up to 10 sites) |
Free plugin version | Download Restrict Content Pro | Download ARMember |
Quick summary:
ARMemberโs plans are slightly more affordable and vary based on the bundled add-ons. The lowest-tier plan includes 5 payment gateways and essential features via extensions. In contrast, Restrict Content Pro offers the same features and support across all plans, with the only difference being the number of domains you can use.
Free versions compared
The good news is that both membership software allow you to sell subscriptions using as little minimum as a free version. Here are a few key points where the free versions of ARMember vs Restrict Content Pro differ:
- Restrict Content Pro provides PayPal and manual transactions in a free version, ARMember gives you two options as well (PayPal and Bank Transfer).
- Restrict Content Pro doesnโt provide such crucial things as free trials in the free version, while ARMember has it.
Final Verdict: Which Membership Plugin Is Best For You?
Now you have a clear view of ARMember and Restrict Content Pro compare – from pricing and content protection to payment gateways and community features.
So, itโs time to turn what you know into what your members will pay you!
Still confused? No problem! Weโll make this process smooth, enjoyable, and valuable for everyone. Thus, Letโs take a quick final look at the key capabilities, compare and choose your membership plugin for WordPress.
For you to make your conclusions, here is our final comparison table and highlights:
- Both plugins deliver professional tools for a subscription and paywall websites + community building instruments.
- For specific or complex tools, Restrict Content Pro relies on extra dependencies, such as an extra plugin for LMS or extra service for taxation management, which typically means extra costs. ARMemerโs approach is to give you maximum in one plugin without extra dependencies.
- ARMember allows you for a cost-effective launch of your learning platform or membership business even on the free version, while its competitor has many tools blocked.
- Member directories and profiles are not bundled with Restrict Content Pro but included with ARMember.
- Restrict Content Pro has integrations with EDD tools, such as EDD wallet, EDD Member Downloads, etc., but ARMemberโs list of integrations is very much focused on email marketing automation tools and payment gateways processors.
Key featuresย | Restrict Content Pro | ARMember |
---|---|---|
Made for | Subscriptions and paywalls | Subscriptions, paywalls, education, communitiesย |
Sell premium content to members | Advanced tools | Advanced tools |
Sell courses | External plugin integration | Built-in add-on |
Create unlimited subscription packages | Yes | Yes |
Drip content | Only in Pro | Supported in all plans |
Member directories | Via add-on | Built-in |
Free trials | Only in Pro | In free and paid versions |
LMS (Learning Management System) | Via extra integrations | Via native add-on |
Restrict content | Advanced | Advanced |
Sell multi-member group memberships | Yes | Yes |
Community-building tools | Via add-ons | Advanced |
Support | Private (tickets) | Private (tickets) |
Integrations | Active Campaign, AvaTax, AWeber, bbPress, BuddyPress, CampaignMonitor, ConvertKit, Download Monitor, EDD add-ons, MailChimp, MailPoet, WP Job Manager, LearnDash, Event Tickets, Affiliate WP, Recapture.io, WP Webhooks, iDevAffiliate, SliceWP, Gravity RCP | Zapier, MailChimp, WooCommerce, MyCRED, WhatsApp, SMS notifications, Active Campaign, Campaign Monitor, Cornerstone, Affiliate WP, Keap, MailPoet, Affiliates PRO, Mautic, AWeber, GetResponse, ConstantContact, MailerLite, Mailster, Brevo, Omnisend, Zoho, ConvertKit, HubSpot, BuddyBoss, BuddyPress |
Ready to build something legendary with Restrict Content Pro or ARMember?
Related articles:
- Podia vs ARMember: Which Membership Platform is Right for You?
- 11 Proven Tips to Choose the Best WordPress Templates
- Paid Memberships Pro vs ARMember: Which Membership Plugin is the Best?
FAQs
What is the difference between Restrict Content Pro and ARMember?
ARMember is a powerful, feature rich membership plugin for WordPress. It has advanced features such as drip content, course selling, social login, and 21+ payment gateways along with paid plans. Meanwhile, Restrict Content Pro is stable and reliable, yet it often relies on paid add-ons for LMS, affiliate tools, tax handling, and even basic features like discounts or drip content.
What is the best membership plugin for WordPress?
ARMember is the best membership plugin for WordPress, offering an all-in-membership solution. It has advanced features such as drip content, Membership Profiles, Member Directories, Membership Cards and so on. Moreover, it integrates with 21+ payment gateways, has LMS and gamification tools, social logic along with awesome community features.
Is Restrict Content Pro free?
Yes, Restrict Content Pro offers a basic free version that supports PayPal and manual payments. However if you want basic key features such as Drip content, free trails or discount codes, then you must opt for its Pro version.
How do I protect premium content on my site?
You can easily protect your premium content with membership plugins such as ARMember. ARMember lets you restrict and protect any content with its advanced content restriction rules. You can protect your content based on pages, posts, categories, tags, or specific URLs. Moreover, you can protect your content for logged-in members only.
Can I migrate from Restrict Content Pro to ARMember?
Of course! You can easily migrate from Restrict Content Pro to ARMember. ARMember offers import/export tool to import your member’s data from other plugins. Furthermore, it is completely free!
Read these also:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.