How to sell memberships on your own website

Selling memberships on your own website used to mean stitching together a site, a payment plugin, a login system and a mailing list, and hoping they kept talking to each other. It is much easier now. But the pieces have not changed, and knowing them is the best way to choose how you put them together.

This guide covers the six things every membership site needs, the three main ways to build one, and what each costs at a realistic size.

Why your own website

A page on a platform is borrowed. A website on your own domain is yours: the address on your videos and in your bio keeps working even if you change the tools behind it, and nobody else’s work is suggested next to yours.

When members pay through your own Stripe account, the money arrives in your bank on Stripe’s schedule, and your paying members are your Stripe customers.

There are trade-offs, and they are worth saying plainly:

• No marketplace. Nobody discovers you by browsing your website. Members come from the audience you already have.
• You are the seller. Sales tax and VAT are your responsibility where they apply.
• You run support. Members email you, not a platform, when a card fails or a password goes missing.

If your members come from your videos, streams, podcast or social accounts, they already know where to find you. Send them to a home that is yours, not to a platform that takes a cut of them.

The six things you need

1. A domain

Your own address, like yourname.com. Prices depend on the ending (.com, .co, .studio) and where you buy it. On Drate, your own domain works on every plan, Free included, and you can connect one you already own.

2. A website

Somewhere to show your work, explain what members get and let them join. It should work as well on a phone as on a laptop, because that is where most links from social apps open.

3. Payments, monthly and yearly

Memberships are subscriptions, so you need recurring billing, not just a checkout. Most own-site setups use Stripe. Its standard rate for a US card is 2.9% + 30¢, with 1.5% more for international cards and 1% more when currency conversion is needed. Subscriptions run through Stripe Billing, which costs 0.7% of recurring volume on its pay-as-you-go plan.

Offer yearly billing as well as monthly. Members who pay yearly pay one card fee instead of twelve, and they are committed for longer.

4. Member accounts and sign-in

Members need a personal account that unlocks what they paid for. Make sign-in easy: an email link or a code is easier than a password nobody remembers, and signing in with an account they already have (Google, Discord, Patreon) is easier still. Avoid a single shared password for “the members’ area”: it gets passed around, and you cannot tell who is who.

5. Content that stays locked

Members-only posts, video, downloads and courses must stay members-only. This is where home-made setups fail most often: a locked post whose full text is still in the page source, a feed that publishes everything, a video file with a public link. Before you launch, open a members-only post in a private window, signed out, and look at the page source. If the text or the video address is there, it is not locked.

6. Tax, terms and refunds

As the seller, you are responsible for sales tax and VAT where they apply, and the rules for digital products differ by country and state. Tools can help: Stripe Tax calculates and collects tax for 0.5% per transaction where you are registered.

You also need simple terms that say what members get, how to cancel and what happens to refunds, and a privacy policy.

Three ways to build it

1. A website builder with memberships

Squarespace, for example, includes memberships in its website plans, then takes a cut of every sale until you pay for its top plan: 7% on Basic ($25 a month, or $19 billed yearly), 5% on Core ($39 or $29), 1% on Plus ($65 or $49) and 0% only on Advanced ($139 or $99). Card processing starts at 2.9% + $0.30 on top.

The catch: you pay twice, a monthly plan and a cut, and memberships are one feature of a general website builder, not the reason it exists.

2. WordPress or Ghost, with a membership tool

Ghost is a newsletter and publishing platform. Paid subscriptions start on Ghost(Pro) Publisher, $29 a month billed yearly for up to 1,000 members, and the price climbs as your list grows.

WordPress needs a membership plugin. MemberPress, for example, runs on self-hosted WordPress or a WordPress.com Business plan. Its Launch plan is $199.50 for the first year (normally $399) plus a 4.9% transaction fee, and Growth is $349.50 for the first year (normally $699). Renewals are at full price, and hosting is extra.

Memberful adds memberships to a site you already run, so you still need the site, and charges $49 a month plus 4.9% of every charge.

The catch: you assemble and maintain the pieces yourself, and every plugin, plan and renewal is another bill.

3. A creator platform on your own domain

These are built for creators first: memberships, content and sign-in come together, and you connect your own domain.

• Drate gives you a website and app made around you, with your own domain and look on every plan, members-only posts, video and downloads, courses, a community feed, paid coaching bookings, Discord roles by membership and print-on-demand merch on one site. Members pay through your own Stripe account. Free takes 5% of membership sales; Pro is $12 a month ($10 billed yearly) and takes 0%.
• Kajabi starts at $143 a month billed yearly, before you have sold anything.
• Fourthwall takes 5% of every membership on every plan, paid plans included.

On Drate, everything a membership needs is in one place, on your own domain, ready in minutes, for $0 or $12 a month.

What each route costs

The same example for each: 100 members paying $10 a month by US card, so $1,000 a month. Fees include the plan price, the platform’s cut and card processing at 2.9% + 30¢ per payment.

Stripe Billing’s 0.7% (about $7 here) applies on top when subscriptions run through Stripe Billing on your own account, which is how Drate works. MemberPress renews at $699 a year, about $58 a month, after the first year.

The pattern is simple. Below a few hundred dollars a month, a plan with no monthly price costs least. Above that, a flat price with no cut wins, and the gap grows with every member. Drate has both: Free has no monthly price, and Pro has no cut.

Designing what members get

The technology is the easy part. What makes a membership work is a clear answer to “what do I get?”

• Start with one to three tiers. One tier is easiest to explain. Add a second when you have something that is genuinely more, not just more of the same.
• Name what members get, not the tier. “Every episode a week early, and the bonus episodes” says more than “Gold”.
• Offer yearly billing, with a modest discount, from the start.
• Have a free option. A free account or newsletter gives people a way to follow you before they pay.
• Keep a rhythm you can sustain. A membership is a promise. Promise what you can deliver for a year, not what you can manage for a month.

Launch checklist

• Your domain points at your site, and the address works with and without “www”.
• You have bought a membership yourself, in test mode, from start to finish.
• A members-only post shows nothing locked to a signed-out visitor, page source included.
• Cancelling works, and access lasts until the end of the period already paid for.
• Your terms, privacy policy and refund rules are published and linked from checkout.
• You know how you will handle sales tax and VAT.
• You have written the announcement, and know where you will post it.

Where Drate fits

Drate gives you all six pieces at once, ready in minutes: your own website, domain and look, your own app on Pro, Stripe payments to your own account, member sign-in, content that stays locked for non-members, and memberships with posts, courses, community, coaching and merch on one site. It is free to start, and Pro takes 0% for $12 a month.

It is honest to say what it does not do. There is no marketplace sending you members, there is no one-click export of members or posts yet, and you are the seller, so tax is yours to handle. If you are coming from Patreon, read How to move off Patreon without losing patrons, and see every fee Patreon charges for what you stop paying.

Questions

Do I need my own Stripe account to sell memberships?

For most own-site setups, yes, and you want one. On Drate, members pay through your own Stripe account, which pays you directly and makes your paying members your own Stripe customers. Platforms that take payments themselves hold your money in their balance and pay you out on their terms.

How much does a membership website cost to run?

For 100 members paying $10 a month, the routes in this guide cost between about $70 and $200 a month in platform fees, plans and card processing. Card processing alone is about $59 of that, whichever route you choose. The difference is mostly the platform's price and its cut.

Can I sell memberships without paying a monthly fee?

Yes. Drate's Free plan has no monthly cost and takes 5% of membership sales, with your own domain included. Website builders and WordPress tools usually charge a plan or licence fee before you sell anything.

Do I have to charge sales tax or VAT on memberships?

It depends on where you and your members are, and the rules for digital products differ by country and state. When you sell through your own Stripe account, you are the seller and the obligation is yours. Ask an accountant, and look at tools such as Stripe Tax, which calculates and collects tax for 0.5% per transaction where you are registered.

How do I stop people sharing members-only content?

You cannot stop a member copying what they can see, but you can make sure nobody else sees it. Check that a locked post's full text never reaches the page source, a feed or a preview for visitors who are not signed in, and that sign-in uses a personal account rather than a shared password.

Sources

Checked on October 5, 2026. Prices and terms change, so check the latest before you decide.

1. Stripe: Pricingstripe.com
2. Stripe: Billing pricingstripe.com
3. Stripe: Tax pricingstripe.com
4. Squarespace: Pricingsquarespace.com
5. Squarespace: Digital products transaction feessupport.squarespace.com
6. Ghost: Pricingghost.org
7. MemberPress: Pricingmemberpress.com
8. MemberPress: Technical requirementsmemberpress.com
9. Memberful: Pricingmemberful.com
10. Kajabi: Pricingkajabi.com
11. Fourthwall: Plans and pricingfourthwall.com
12. Fourthwall: Membershipsfourthwall.com