Adding a membership component to your Showit website creates one of the most powerful recurring revenue models available to creative professionals and educators. Memberful is one of the cleanest, most developer-friendly membership tools available, and it connects to a Showit site through a workflow that is more straightforward than most creators expect.
This guide covers everything you need to know to set up a Memberful-powered membership alongside your Showit site, from your first plan configuration to a polished member experience.
Why Memberful Works Well With Showit
Memberful is a focused membership management tool that handles payment processing, member authentication, subscription billing, and access control. Unlike all-in-one platforms like Kajabi or Teachable, Memberful does one thing extremely well and lets you control everything else through your own tools.
According to Memberful’s product documentation, Memberful integrates with WordPress, Stripe for payments, MailChimp for email marketing, and Discord for community, making it a flexible building block rather than a walled garden.
For Showit users, Memberful’s WordPress integration is particularly relevant. Since your Showit site runs a WordPress installation for blogging, Memberful’s WordPress plugin allows you to gate specific WordPress pages, posts, and categories so that only active paid members can access them.
This means your membership content can live inside your existing Showit WordPress installation, accessible through your blog’s URL structure, with Memberful controlling who can see what based on their subscription status.
Understanding the Showit and Memberful Architecture
Here is how the pieces work together:
Your Showit site contains your public marketing pages: your membership sales page, your about page, and any free content you publish.
Your WordPress blog on Showit hosts both your free blog content and your member-only content. Memberful’s WordPress plugin controls which content requires an active membership to view.
Memberful handles the subscription sign-up flow, payment processing through Stripe, and ongoing billing management. When a visitor wants to join your membership, they click a link on your Showit site that takes them to Memberful’s hosted checkout.
After subscribing, members can access your gated WordPress content through a login process managed by Memberful’s WordPress plugin. The gated content appears on pages within your Showit WordPress blog structure, styled by your blog template design.
Step 1: Set Up Your Memberful Account
Go to Memberful.com and create an account. Memberful’s pricing is based on a percentage of your membership revenue rather than a flat monthly fee, which makes it accessible for new memberships with no upfront cost commitment. Review current Memberful pricing directly on their site as rates and plan structures change.
Connect Stripe to your Memberful account. Memberful uses Stripe as its exclusive payment processor, so you need a Stripe account to accept membership payments. If you do not have Stripe, create one at stripe.com and connect it to Memberful through the Memberful dashboard.
Step 2: Create Your Membership Plans
In your Memberful dashboard, create one or more membership plans that define what subscribers receive and how much they pay.
For each plan, set:
Plan name: Something clear and benefit-oriented, such as Monthly Member or Annual All-Access.
Billing interval: Monthly, annual, or one-time.
Price: Your membership rate. If offering both monthly and annual options, the annual plan is typically priced at ten to twelve months of the monthly rate to encourage annual commitment.
Benefits description: A clear list of what members receive at this tier. This description appears in Memberful’s checkout flow.
Trial period: An optional free or reduced-price trial period that lowers the barrier to entry for new members.
Create your plan structure before setting up access control, as your plan IDs are what you reference when restricting WordPress content.
Step 3: Install the Memberful WordPress Plugin
Since your Showit site runs on WordPress for blogging, you can use Memberful’s official WordPress plugin to gate content within your WordPress installation.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins and then Add New. Search for Memberful and install the official Memberful WordPress plugin. After installation, click Activate.
Navigate to the Memberful settings in your WordPress dashboard and connect the plugin to your Memberful account using your Memberful API key or the OAuth connection process the plugin provides. Follow the plugin’s connection instructions until the integration shows as connected and active.
Step 4: Gate Your Member-Only Content in WordPress
With the Memberful plugin connected, you can now restrict access to specific WordPress content so that only members with active subscriptions can view it.
Gating Individual Posts
Edit any WordPress post you want to restrict. In the post editor, look for the Memberful access control panel, typically in the sidebar or below the editor. Set the access requirement to one or more of your Memberful membership plans.
After saving, visitors who attempt to access this post without an active membership will see a gate screen prompting them to subscribe. The gate screen’s appearance can be customized through Memberful’s settings.
Gating Categories
Memberful’s WordPress plugin also allows category-level access control. By restricting a WordPress category, you gate all posts within that category automatically without needing to restrict each post individually.
This is useful for memberships where all content of a certain type is exclusive, such as a business education blog where the Business Resources category contains all member-only content.
Setting Up a Members-Only Page in WordPress
Create a dedicated page in WordPress that serves as your member hub. This page is visible only to active members and contains links, resources, and any curated content you want to provide your membership community.
Gate this page through Memberful’s access control and link to it from your post-checkout redirect so that new members land here immediately after subscribing.
Step 5: Build Your Membership Sales Page in Showit
Your Showit site is where you convince potential members to subscribe. Design a dedicated membership sales page in the Showit editor that clearly communicates the value of joining.
A strong membership sales page addresses the following:
What does membership include? Be specific about what members get access to, at what frequency, and in what format.
Who is the membership for? Describe your ideal member in terms they recognize themselves in.
Why should they join now? Membership is an ongoing commitment, so the reason to join today matters. This might be a founding member price, a content archive they gain immediate access to, or a community you are building that has current momentum.
What does it cost? State the price and billing interval clearly. If you offer multiple tiers or annual savings, present these in a clean comparison layout.
What do past or current members say? Testimonials from members who have experienced the value of the membership firsthand are the most persuasive element on any membership sales page.
Include a prominent call-to-action button at multiple points on the page linked to your Memberful checkout URL. For design guidance on building pages that convert visitors into paying members, the Showit sales page design guide provides a strong framework.
Step 6: Get Your Memberful Checkout URL
In your Memberful dashboard, navigate to each membership plan and locate its checkout URL. This is the URL you link to from your Showit membership sales page buttons.
When a visitor clicks Subscribe Now on your Showit page, this URL takes them to Memberful’s hosted checkout where they enter their payment details and create their member account. After successful payment, Memberful creates their subscription record in your dashboard and the Memberful WordPress plugin grants them access to gated content on your site.
Step 7: Customize the Member Login Experience
When a member wants to access gated content, they need to log in. Memberful’s WordPress plugin creates a login flow, but you can customize where members land after logging in and what the gate screens look like when non-members attempt to access restricted content.
In Memberful’s settings, configure your post-login redirect to send members to your member hub page after they sign in. Customize the gate message that non-members see when they hit a restricted page. A gate message that communicates value rather than just saying Access Denied converts more curious visitors into subscribers.
Step 8: Create a Free Content Strategy That Drives Membership Conversions
Your free Showit blog content is the top of the funnel that fills your membership. Every free blog post is an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and introduce readers to the deeper value inside your membership.
Write free blog posts that address broad questions your ideal member has. Within these posts, mention specific deeper resources, templates, or video guides available inside the membership. At the end of relevant free posts, include a short membership call-to-action that describes what members get and links to your Showit membership sales page.
This content strategy creates a natural reading path from freely available expertise to paying membership. Readers who find your free content valuable through search or social discovery self-select into the membership when they see what additional depth is available.
Step 9: Connect Memberful to Your Email Marketing
Memberful integrates natively with Mailchimp and connects to ConvertKit, Drip, and others through Zapier. Set up this connection so that new member subscriptions automatically trigger email sequences in your marketing platform.
Key automations to set up:
A welcome sequence for new members that introduces them to the membership, shows them where to find key resources, and sets expectations for the content cadence.
A renewal reminder sequence for monthly members approaching their renewal date.
A win-back sequence for members who cancel, offering a special retention offer or an invitation to provide feedback.
These automations run without manual effort and significantly improve member retention and lifetime value.
Handling Cancellations and Member Management
Memberful provides a member management dashboard where you can see all active subscriptions, upcoming renewals, payment history, and cancellations. Members can manage their own subscriptions, update payment methods, and cancel through a Memberful-hosted member portal.
Configure your member portal URL in Memberful’s settings and make it accessible to members from your site. Consider adding a link to the member portal from your member hub page in WordPress so members can manage their subscription without contacting you directly.
When a member cancels or their payment fails, Memberful automatically revokes their WordPress access through the plugin integration. You do not need to manually manage access changes.
Marketing Your Membership From Your Showit Blog
Your existing Showit blog is your most powerful membership marketing channel. Blog readers who find your content through organic search or social sharing are pre-qualified as people interested in your expertise.
Use the following blog-based marketing tactics:
Write roundup posts that tease the depth of your membership content, such as: Here is a quick overview of the topic; inside the membership, members get the full step-by-step guide and template.
Publish a membership-specific blog post that functions as a permanent recruiting tool, explaining who the membership is for, what it includes, and how to join. Optimize this post for search queries like photography membership or online education membership for [your niche].
Add a membership promotion block to your blog’s sidebar if your Showit post template includes one. A short, visually clear sidebar module with a Join the Membership headline and a button converts a meaningful percentage of engaged blog readers.
For the full picture of how your Showit blog supports your business growth, the Showit SEO and ranking guide covers content strategy alongside technical SEO.
Your Showit site and Memberful together create a membership business that looks as good as it functions. With the marketing and brand experience on Showit and the payment and access management on Memberful, every piece of the system is handled by the tool best suited to it.
FAQ
Does Memberful work without WordPress?
Memberful has limited functionality without a WordPress integration. For gating content on your Showit site specifically, the WordPress plugin is the primary mechanism. If you want to use Memberful without gating WordPress content, you would link members to a separate hosted platform like a private Notion page or a Discord community, which Memberful also supports through its Discord integration.
Can I have both free and paid tiers of membership using Memberful?
Yes. You can create multiple membership plans at different price points, including a free plan. A free tier membership typically gives access to a limited content library and serves as the entry point for upselling to a paid tier. Free tier members still create a Memberful account and are tracked in your member dashboard.
What happens to member access if I cancel my Memberful account?
If you cancel Memberful, the WordPress plugin can no longer authenticate members and all gated content becomes inaccessible through Memberful’s access control. Before canceling Memberful, export your member data and migrate to an alternative membership solution if you plan to continue your membership.
Can I gate Showit pages (not just WordPress pages) with Memberful?
Memberful’s WordPress plugin gates WordPress content. Showit pages are served through Showit’s system, not WordPress, so they cannot be gated through the Memberful WordPress plugin. Member-only content should live on WordPress pages within your Showit WordPress blog rather than on Showit-designed pages.
How do I handle members who want to pause their membership rather than cancel?
Memberful supports subscription pausing on some plan tiers. Check your Memberful plan’s features for pause capability. If pausing is not available, you can manually handle pause requests by canceling and reactivating subscriptions, or by offering a downgrade to a lower-cost tier as an alternative to full cancellation.
