Membership site
What is a membership site?
A membership site is a website or platform section that requires payment — typically a recurring monthly or annual subscription — to access its content, community, or resources.
The one-sentence definition: A gated content or community experience that earns recurring subscription revenue from members, not one-time course sales.
How membership sites differ from course platforms
Course platforms and membership platforms often overlap, but they start from different models:
| Dimension | Course platform | Membership site |
|---|---|---|
| Core product | Structured curriculum | Recurring access to content/community |
| Revenue model | One-time purchase per course | Monthly/annual subscription |
| Primary metric | Completion rate | Churn rate (members leaving) |
| Content format | Video lessons in sequence | Library + community + live sessions |
| Examples | Teachable, Thinkific | Circle, Mighty Networks, Kajabi Communities |
The three types of membership sites
1. Content membership — New content released weekly/monthly. Members pay for ongoing access to a growing library. Example: a fitness creator releasing new workouts monthly.
2. Community membership — Members pay for access to each other — the network, the peer group, the cohort. Content is secondary. Example: a mastermind group with weekly calls.
3. Hybrid (course + community) — A structured course is the entry point; the ongoing community is the reason members stay. Example: a business coaching programme with a course foundation and a live community for accountability.
Which platforms support membership sites
| Platform | Membership support | Community feature | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi | Yes — full membership site builder | Yes — Kajabi Communities | S5 operators at £5K+ MRR |
| Circle | Community-first | Yes — the core product | S5 community-first |
| Mighty Networks | Community-first | Yes — the core product | S5 membership-first |
| Thinkific | Yes — subscription courses + Communities | Basic | S1/S2 creators with basic community |
| Podia | Yes — subscription products | Basic | S1 creators on a budget |
| Teachable | Yes — subscription courses | Weak | Not recommended for membership-first |
The platform choice for membership-first businesses
If community recurring subscription is your primary business model (not a bolt-on to a course), the platform decision is: Circle at £89/mo, Mighty Networks at £39/mo, or Kajabi Growth at £127/mo if you also need the course infrastructure.
If your course is primary and membership/community is secondary, any of the major course platforms (Thinkific, Kajabi, Teachable) will suffice with their native community add-ons.
The critical mistake is choosing a course-first platform (Teachable, Thinkific) when community-first is your model. You’ll be fighting the product’s architecture from day one.
Pricing reality for membership sites
Membership site economics work when you have enough volume and low enough churn:
- 200 members Ã- £20/mo = £4,000/mo MRR
- If platform cost is £127/mo (Kajabi Growth), platform cost is 3.2% of revenue
- If community churn is 5%/mo, you’re replacing 10 members/month to stay flat
The switching cost for members in a community site is the highest in this category. Once 800 members have their community history inside Kajabi Communities, migrating them to Circle is a hard restart — you lose their conversation history, connections, and engagement momentum.