A Paid Memberships Pro alternative for nonprofits

If you’re comparing Paid Memberships Pro against something simpler, Nonprofit Manager is a free alternative for nonprofits that need to track members, not gate content behind a paywall. Here’s where they actually differ.

Where they overlap

Both have a genuinely usable free core, and both run on your own WordPress site with no hosted middleman. If you want to explore either one without paying, you can.

Where they differ

Paid Memberships Pro is built to restrict content and automate recurring billing by membership level, and its paid add-ons ($499 a year for the Standard license) extend that. Nonprofit Manager takes a simpler approach: it tracks who your members are and what level they’re at, and keeps that list next to your donations, newsletter, and events, rather than locking pages behind a login. If your organization’s idea of “membership” is a list of supporters, not a paywall, that’s the simpler and cheaper tool for the job.

When Paid Memberships Pro fits better

If you genuinely need to gate content, downloads, or a course by membership level and want to avoid MemberPress’s price, Paid Memberships Pro is a solid, established choice. Pick the tool that matches what you’re actually building.

When to switch

If you want one list of members tied to your donors and newsletter, without building an access-control system, install Nonprofit Manager free. It’s part of the all-in-one plugin for small nonprofits, and it sits alongside the rest of the field in our best membership plugin for nonprofits guide.