# Paid Memberships Pro or WooCommerce Memberships: which should I use?

**Short answer:** Use WooCommerce Memberships, with WooCommerce Subscriptions for recurring billing, if you already sell through WooCommerce or want products, tickets and memberships in one checkout. Use Paid Memberships Pro if memberships are the main thing you sell and you don't need a full store.

## How they differ

Paid Memberships Pro is a standalone membership plugin. It has its own levels, checkout and payment gateway integrations, and extra features come as add-ons.

WooCommerce Memberships is an extension for WooCommerce. A membership is granted when someone buys a product, so it shares WooCommerce's checkout, payment gateways, coupons and reports. For memberships that renew automatically, it's paired with WooCommerce Subscriptions.

## Choose Paid Memberships Pro when

- Memberships are the product, with no physical goods or event tickets alongside them.
- You want fewer moving parts: one plugin instead of WooCommerce plus two extensions.
- Your members mainly need access to content, directories or member-only pages.

## Choose WooCommerce Memberships when

- You already run a WooCommerce store, or will sell products, donations or tickets alongside memberships.
- You want members to get store perks, such as member pricing or free shipping.
- You need WooCommerce's reporting and order history for memberships too.

## Problems that show up with either

Most membership site trouble isn't the plugin choice. It's renewal emails that never arrive because the site's mail isn't authenticated, renewals that stop because scheduled tasks aren't running, or two plugins trying to control the same content. Fix those and either plugin runs well.

## Related

- [Membership sites](https://www.designnairobi.agency/services/membership-sites.md)
- [Nonprofit websites](https://www.designnairobi.agency/services/nonprofit-websites.md)
- [Heritage Hills case study](https://www.designnairobi.agency/case-studies/heritage-hills.md)
- [Global Atlanta case study](https://www.designnairobi.agency/case-studies/global-atlanta.md)

Author: Eric Mutema, Full Stack Developer: Websites, Stores, Apps & AI (https://www.designnairobi.agency/). Web page: https://www.designnairobi.agency/articles/paid-memberships-pro-vs-woocommerce-memberships.html