25 Successful Membership Site Examples to Inspire You (2024)

If you want to create a membership site, you need to spend a fair bit of time planning your membership model, offering, and various other aspects of your site.

In my experience, one of the best ways to learn about any business model is to study successful examples. While you don’t need to copy any specific approach, you can always gather inspiration and ideas from other success stories.

So, I have created this guide to take you through 25 membership site examples that are doing well in their niche, and hopefully, you can draw inspiration from them.

The most important thing I kept in mind while creating this list was to include a highly diverse mix of sites, so the list should help you learn many different aspects of a successful membership website, including:

• What model do these membership sites follow?
• How do they craft their membership offering?
• How do they drive engagement?
• What membership site platforms do they use?
• How do they price their membership?
• And more!

Now, let’s take a look at the examples of membership websites.

What Is a Membership Website?

A membership website is a subscription-based online business model where customers pay a membership fee to access premium content on your site.

The members-only content can include anything from online courses and digital downloads to private community and group coaching.

The key is that paying members receive exclusive, valuable content that they can’t find anywhere else. In exchange for this access, you charge a monthly or annual fee.

The membership website model is a great way to create a sustainable, recurring revenue stream for your business.

Not only do you get to create and sell valuable content, but you can also build a community of engaged customers who are invested in your success.

With this in mind, let’s look at the membership site examples.

1. VIP Membership @ StationX

VIP Membership @ StationX is a cybersecurity membership website that helps people build skills to advance their careers in the field.

What stands out most about them is the vast library of courses they offer that caters to beginners and experienced professionals.

Another impressive thing about the school is how they improve engagement and learning through things like virtual lab sessions, practice tests, and certificates. On top of that, they host an online forum where students can get their questions answered by experts.

Their subscription is available throughout the year, and students can access all their courses right after purchase.

When it comes to pricing, they only offer an annual subscription. And this makes a lot of sense, given the sheer number of courses and tests they offer, which cannot be made good use of without a serious time commitment.

2. Bouldering Training @ Training Beta

Training Beta’s bouldering training program is designed to help climbing enthusiasts level up their rock/mountain climbing game.

Besides their digital products, Training Beta hosts a popular podcast and blog. And they are a great example of how one can create a successful membership site in a small niche by building a loyal audience.

Although one can start their program anytime during the year, their membership content is drip-fed to students. A major part of their appeal is how they take students through different aspects of training in a step-by-step fashion, leaving no room for guesswork.

In terms of pricing, they offer monthly, bi-annual, and annual subscription plans, and one can save money by making a bigger commitment upfront.

I also like that they offer a 2-week free trial, which reduces potential customers’ barriers to trying out the program.

3. Smart Passive Income Pro

Smart Passive Income Pro is a membership community that gives online entrepreneurs a place to interact and learn from each other.

The community allows users to participate in a wide range of open and private channels and use 1:1 messaging. And to create even more engagement, they offer monthly challenges, regular Q&A sessions, live community hangouts, etc.

On top of that, students get access to content in live workshops and a growing list of pre-recorded workshops.

One interesting thing about SPI Pro is that they invite applications to join the program, which helps create exclusivity. Moreover, screening applicants helps them maintain the quality of engagement in the community.

They review applications quarterly, so one can’t start the program anytime during the year.

Finally, when it comes to pricing, they keep it really simple and offer monthly and annual subscriptions.

4. Yoga with Melissa

Yoga with Melissa is a membership site that takes a holistic approach to teaching yoga practices.

The most important element of their offering includes their library of yoga classes that cater to beginners and advanced practitioners.

However, their offering goes above and beyond teaching yoga postures. And it stands out for its focus on helping people incorporate holistic lifestyle changes.

So the site also includes live workshops, online retreats, meditation videos, and spiritual talks.

On top of that, they give members access to recipes, mindful eating courses, a book club, 30-day challenges, an online forum, etc. 

Yoga with Melissa offers quarterly and annual subscription plans, but they don’t offer a monthly plan, which makes sense given their comprehensive offering.

5. Personal Development School

Personal Development School is a great example of an online membership site tackling a broad niche by bundling together many online courses.

The site comes packed with 35+ courses that span a wide range of topics in the broader personal development niche.

Plus, students get access to weekly live webinars, recordings of prior webinars, and an online forum. And to further improve engagement, they offer access to accountability coaches, workbooks, and completion certificates.

As far as pricing is concerned, they take an interesting approach that includes monthly and annual subscriptions and a lifetime access pass that comes at a premium price.

6. Barakah Academy

Barakah Academy is a membership site that takes an Islamic faith-based approach to personal and professional development.

To begin with, what stands out about them is how they have chosen a unique niche by finding an intersection of two broad themes — faith and personal development.

Their core offering is their course bundle that tackles different areas within personal development from an Islamic perspective.

On top of that, the site includes monthly zoom calls, access to a slack community, curated content, and a book club. Plus, they even offer completion certificates for courses.

Another thing I like about them is their focus on microlearning, and all their courses are divided into bite-sized chunks of 10-15 mins.

Barakah academy only offers an annual subscription plan, which makes sense as they tackle a topic that is likely to attract a highly committed audience.

7. Kweli.tv

Kweli.tv is a video-on-demand service that focuses exclusively on stories covering African and African-American characters.

The site is packed with 450+ indie films, documentaries, and web shows, most of which have won awards or been official selections for film festivals.

Kweli.tv is a great example of a site choosing a niche by targeting a specific audience and creating a wide variety of content for that audience.

They also offer a free live channel that streams a limited selection of their content. And it seems like a great strategy to showcase their content to promote their paid membership offering.

They offer a monthly and an annual subscription plan with a 7-day free trial. And besides content, the subscription comes with giveaways and discounts for other brands.

8. Nak Muay Nation

Nak Muay Nation is a membership site in the Muay Thai niche, a competitive sport similar to kickboxing.

Their core appeal lies in creating a vast library of content that tackles almost every aspect of a relatively small niche.

The site is packed with 10+ comprehensive courses and 250+ videos covering Muay Thai training in a highly methodical fashion. Another thing that makes their offering powerful is that most of their content features elite fighters and coaches.

Besides video lessons, the site includes eBooks and access to a discussion group.

They offer a monthly and annual subscription, with a huge discount on the annual plan, which would surely drive their revenues.

9. Students of History

Students of History is a membership portal that offers multiple membership programs covering world and US history for school-going students.

Unlike most other sites on this list, their lessons are available as PowerPoints with guided notes and not video lessons.

However, the biggest part of their appeal is their project-based learning approach, which focuses on making learning fun for students.

The site also comes packed with online games, quizzes, interactive notebooks, and hundreds of curated video links to improve engagement.

And once students purchase one of their subscriptions, they get immediate access to all the course content and learning resources.

They offer monthly and annual subscriptions, with a significant discount on the annual subscription.

Another thing that should work well for them is that they offer multiple membership programs that target the same audience, leading to many opportunities for cross-selling.

10. Life and Business Mastery Community

Life and Business Mastery Community is a membership site covering the broadest topics you can imagine — life and business.

The most important element of their offering is their monthly group coaching and Q&A sessions, where students can interact with their coach in small groups.

On top of that, they offer monthly live training sessions with recordings for later consumption and access to a Facebook Group.

The membership program also includes access to a few courses and huge discounts for other courses on the site.

They offer a monthly subscription but no annual plan, which makes sense considering it is a premium membership site.

11. My Aligned Pregnancy

My Aligned Pregnancy is a yoga and meditation membership site for pregnant women.

One interesting thing about them is that they offer multiple membership levels. They offer on-demand yoga and meditation lessons and access to a community area on their basic plan. Plus, they release new yoga practices and meditations periodically on this plan.

They also offer a VIP plan, including everything available on the basic plan. And in addition to that, it comes with weekly live classes and a monthly coaching call.

Both plans come with a monthly subscription and no annual subscription, which is quite understandable, given their target audience.

Another interesting thing about them is that they also offer a yoga and membership program for the post-pregnancy phase, which creates a great upselling opportunity.

12. Storytime in the Schoolhouse

Storytime in the Schoolhouse by Little Round Schoolhouse is a membership site that helps bring storytelling and songs to kids’ daily routines.

One of the most impressive things is that they upload new videos every day from Monday to Friday. And once a member signs up, they get access to all the archived videos right away.

Another thing I like about them is that they offer a mobile app, which makes it easy for kids to consume content.

The membership program comes with a Facebook Group for parents and discounts on other programs offered by the parent site.

In terms of pricing, they offer a monthly and annual subscription plan, with a significant discount on the annual plan.

13. Membership Academy

As the name suggests, Membership Academy helps creators build and grow a successful membership website.

The most important part of their offering is their bundle of 35+ courses covering nearly all aspects of building a successful membership site.

On top of that, the site comes with other resources like a step-by-step guide and regular live Q&As. They offer workshops on different topics from leading experts and influencers, a thriving community, and a library of mini resources.

And they have even created a WordPress theme for creating membership sites that is available to all their members.

Finally, like most sites on this list, Membership Academy offers a monthly and annual subscription plan, with a discount on the annual option.

14. Top Stitch Makers

Topstitch Makers is a membership site that helps sewing enthusiasts develop and hone their skills. A major part of their appeal is regular instructor-guided live sessions that take students through the intricacies of sewing.

The site comes with a highly engaged community with a strong focus on collaborative learning.

So experienced members of their community regularly share their skills through live sessions on the platform. 

In addition to that, they offer a bundle of pre-recorded courses, which serve as a useful bonus element.

Another great thing about Topstitch Makers is that they offer a mobile app, making it convenient for students to consume content.

They offer monthly and annual subscriptions, which are quite reasonably priced. Plus, they offer a one-month free trial, which makes their offering even more compelling.

15. Mind Cake Vault

Mind Cake Vault is a membership site that helps creative food entrepreneurs build a successful cake and dessert business.

The site covers all aspects of building a dessert business, ranging from production, decoration, marketing, client management, and more. Plus, it is a great membership website example covering all bases to deliver solid value to a highly targeted audience.

A major part of their appeal is access to an engaged community and live group Q&A sessions.

When it comes to courses, they offer both pre-recorded and live training sessions.

The site also comes packed with bonus training sessions, group challenges, and many downloadable files and templates.

When it comes to pricing, they offer a monthly plan and don’t offer a quarterly or annual plan.

16. Jay Shetty Certification School

Jay Shetty Certification School is a program that trains aspiring and existing coaches in the life and success coaching niche.

A major part of what makes the site successful is Jay Shetty’s personal brand, as he is one of the most well-known names in the personal development world.

Another thing that makes the program quite appealing is that coaches receive a certificate once they finish the program. Moreover, they have even partnered with other reputed organizations that offer additional certificates. .

The program consists of coursework, regular assessments, and guidance for self-study and reflection. And at the end of the program, students have to take a comprehensive assessment to get certified.

Additionally, students get access to business training, marketing support, coaching templates, and a highly engaged community.

The program offers a monthly subscription with different installment plans, which makes sense as it is a premium course.

17. Kesler Science Membership

Kesler Science Membership provides useful science resources to middle school science teachers, which helps them ace their teaching job while saving effort.

The site stands out for its vast library of resources that consists of lessons, activities, subject plans, assessments, interactive notebooks, STEM challenges, and more.

Another major part of their appeal is that they help teachers give differentiated assignments to their students and identify which students need more intervention.

They even offer professional development webinars and a Facebook Group for teachers.

Kesler Science Membership caters to nearly all subjects and topics for middle school science, and the site has become quite popular with teachers in the US.

In terms of pricing, they offer monthly and annual subscriptions for teachers, which are quite reasonably priced. Plus, the site offers bulk discounts for multiple teachers and schools.

18. Master Your Medics

Master Your Medics is a membership site that helps paramedic students ace their studies while saving effort.

To begin with, what stands out about them is their vast library of video lessons with 800+ videos, which come with printable workbooks for different lessons. And besides recorded lessons, they also offer regular live classes to students.

Compared to traditional textbooks, their video training approach makes it much easier for paramedic students to grasp difficult concepts.

Another thing I like about their offering is that students can chat with an experienced teacher on their platform to resolve their queries. Plus, they can network and interact on a Facebook Group.

Master Your Medics also provides students with a large set of practice questions to help them prepare for certification exams.

Besides a monthly subscription, they also offer one-year and two-year plans, which makes sense as the site is designed to help paramedic students right through their education journey.

19. Photoshop Training Membership

Photoshop Training Membership is a membership site that helps people hone their design skills with photoshop.

The site strikes a great balance between in-depth courses and short tutorials, covering every aspect of photoshop. And what I like most about them is that their content is really comprehensive, and they even add new videos every week.

To improve engagement and learning, they also offer regular live Q&A sessions and access to a Facebook Group.

And when we talk about pricing, students have the option to choose between a monthly and annual plan.

20. Harmonica School

Harmonica School helps harmonica enthusiasts improve their skills at playing the instrument. The site comes packed with in-depth guides alongside video and audio lessons.

On top of that, they use a wide range of methods to engage with students. So they offer weekly live Q&A sessions, a discussion forum, and personalized feedback for students. Plus, they often invite guest tutors for live seminars and Q&A sessions.

In addition, the site includes a library of harmonica tracks and a study roadmap for students at different levels of experience.

In terms of pricing, they offer the popular model of monthly and annual subscriptions.

21. The Gutsy Boss Club

The Gutsy Boss Club is a membership site that helps women entrepreneurs upgrade their mindset for success and happiness.

They have a strong focus on community and engagement. And one of the most important parts of their offering is access to the bi-monthly group coaching calls.

The site comes with a community hosted on Slack and a mindset course where content is released on a schedule for three months.

In addition, they also offer training sessions from guest experts, a book club, quarterly challenges, and journaling prompts.

Another interesting thing about the Gutsy Boss Club is that students need to apply to get access, making them an exclusive program.

They only offer a monthly subscription plan, which makes sense given that they charge a premium for their community-focused site.

22. Salesforce Casts

Complete Salesforce & Lightning Experience Training is a membership site that helps people upgrade their skills at using the Salesforce software.

The site’s primary focus is on using screencast videos to teach students about the Salesforce platform and save them from the effort of going through tedious documentation.

Salesforce Casts is a great example of a membership site tackling a highly specific problem thoroughly.

Their course material makes great use of illustrations, graphics, examples, and scenarios. Plus, they even offer code repositories, coding challenges, and access to a private discussion forum.

In terms of pricing, they follow the usual model of monthly and annual subscriptions, with significant savings on the annual option.

23. The Ornaments Girls Club

As the name suggests, the Ornament Girls Club helps girls make ornaments.

The site shares an ornament pattern every month, accompanied by an eBook and video tutorial that helps students learn how to make that ornament.

Plus, they offer a repository of ornamental-making workshops, video tutorials, and access to a Facebook Group.

Students can purchase ornamental kits on the membership site, which come with free shipping. Plus, they provide a marketplace where students can buy, sell or exchange craft supplies and finished ornaments.

Additionally, they offer a VIP membership, including access to ornamental kits.

Another interesting thing about the site is that they open their membership on the 1st of every month, so students usually need to sign up for a waitlist.

In terms of pricing, they only offer a monthly subscription and don’t include any other plan.

24. The Fearless Tech Lounge

The Fearless Tech Lounge helps entrepreneurs and professionals develop the technical skills to create digital products and systems.

The site covers technical know-how for various topics, including email marketing, landing page, online courses, etc.

They even include a mindset course to help professionals get unstuck while building their products and systems.

Their course bundle covering different technical topics is the most important part of their offering, but they offer several other useful resources, including live Q&A sessions, implementation sessions, access to a Facebook Group, etc.

And they even offer discounted rates for people for additional tech services. Finally, in terms of pricing, the only option they offer is a monthly subscription option.

25. Qpractice NCIDQ Study Group

Qpractice NCIDQ Study Group helps interior designers across North America prepare for the NCIDQ certification exam and move ahead in their careers.

I really like how they combine content with various learning and engagement tools to create a really useful offering.

To start with, the site comes packed with a series of lessons, including videos, blog posts, worksheets, and quizzes released on a predefined schedule. Members also get access to a step-by-step exam prep schedule and unlimited online practice tests.

On top of that, they have a strong focus on live sessions with live webinars, workshops, and weekly Q&A sessions.

Plus, the site also comes with a thriving community, where the members can get their questions answered by NCIDQ certified designers. And to make it more convenient for students, the community is also made available on a mobile app.

Finally, when it comes to pricing, they offer monthly and annual subscriptions, plus a four-month exam season subscription.

How to Create Your Own Membership Site

In this guide, we looked at a wide variety of membership website examples, and they can help you gather a lot of insights and ideas to create your own membership website.

For example, successful membership sites often stand out in terms of their content offering. They generally offer different content types, including online courses, live sessions, group coaching, etc.

Apart from offering valuable content regularly, they use different strategies to improve engagement inside their membership site, such as offering an online community.

I hope you enjoyed reading the article. If you’ve any questions, please share them in the comments below.