Squarespace Membership Site vs Wix Membership Site – Which One Is a Better Option for Creators

When you start looking for a way to gather a loyal audience and keep them engaged, membership site platforms are the best solution, and among the most popular ones are Squarespace and Wix. However, you might want to figure out the answer to the question which is better – Squarespace Membership Site vs Wix membership Site before picking. In that case, you have to consider all the advantages and disadvantages they bring.

The best platform for you as a content creator should not only be easy to navigate, it should also allow you to design a website to your likings. Additionally, it should be engaging, and it should keep your community members connected, which will lead to an increase in your revenue. Both Squarespace and Wix Membership Sites come with different benefits, but they also have some shortcomings. Let’s break down their features, and then it will be easy to choose the one that will easily help you achieve all of your goals.

What Is Squarespace Membership Site and How to Set it Up

If you are a creator looking for a place to show your content, you probably heard about Squarespace. This online platform provides software services for website hosting and building. However, even if you know what the platform is, you might still wonder how Squarespace subscription work? And you might ask yourself – How do I create a membership site on Squarespace?

Member areas are private sections on your Squarespace website where you can sell exclusive content to your community. Post private information for club members and teammates, and provide personalized learning experiences for students. You can also build your business and community. Start by creating a website with the Squarespace platform and follow these ten simple steps to create a membership area:

• Make an outline – this shouldn’t be a rough bullet-point list but the word for word description of the content, product, or service you are offering. Create an outline with all the content you want the community to have access to once they are members.
• Create the content – go to the not linked section on your Squarespace website, and inside this folder, create your membership content. However, make sure that your content is password protected because you don’t want your members to see it before everything is set up.
• Customize the content with some CSS – Use some custom code to make your content attractive and memorable.
• Enable member areas – When you create the content and make it memorable, it is time to enable the member area. Go to Settings, navigate to the Members Area, and toggle the button ON.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• Create a members area – When you enable the members’ area, go back to your page menu, and you will see a new section – the member areas. All you have to do is click on a plus sign and create one. You should give it a name that will be visible to your community members and then set up how much you want to charge for the access. Keep in mind that you can change the pricing in the future.
• Move over the made content – Simply drag the content you created to your new member area. Make sure you arrange it in a way that makes sense to everybody.
• Deciding on the setting – Settings will depend on the content you are offering. It is up to you to pick what best works for you. Go to the Member Area setting and choose what your community sees when they login to your site.
• Pick the plan – You can pay monthly or yearly. Go over every plan Squarespace offers and choose the one that fits your needs the best.
• Setting up the price for your membership area – you can choose to charge on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. When you choose the price, don’t forget to link your payment processor to your website.
• Add a member sign up button to your website – you can add this button by using a content block Member Sign Up. Inside that block, you can show the title, price, description, and join button.

How Much Is a Squarespace Membership

When it comes to the pricing plan, the Squarespace Membership website will give you all the necessary information. Firstly, Squarespace membership site options are divided into monthly and yearly ones, then you can opt for business, basic, and advanced commerce plans. Monthly prices range from $26 to $46, but you can save up if you opt for an annual plan. Keep in mind that every plan has its advantages and disadvantages, and choosing the right one will depend solely on your needs:

• Business Plan is the most popular pricing plan on Squarespace, and it will cost you $26 a month. Like all other plans, it provides free custom domain, SSL security, and unlimited bandwidth and storage, and it comes with a transaction fee of 3%. However, this plan lacks merchandising tools, as well as advanced shipping and discount options.
• Basic Commerce costs $30 per month, and besides 24/7 customer support, advanced website analytics it comes without a transaction fee. With the Squarespace transaction fees removed, all you have to pay is the credit card processor fee. However, the biggest flaw of this plan is that it doesn’t allow you to sell subscriptions to products and services.
• Advanced Commerce is by far the best option for creators because it includes all the necessary core, marketing, and commerce features. It costs $46 per month, and it doesn’t have a Squarespace transaction fee. Advanced Commerce plan allows you to sell subscriptions, use a variety of shipping options, and give advanced discounts making it ultimately the best plan Squarespace has to offer.

These plans are simple, and they allow you to pay for the features you really need. Furthermore, you can easily cancel or change your plan at any time. Just go to your website manager, where you can upgrade or downgrade it. After you set a new plan, you will either receive a refund or a pro-rated charge.

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How to Create a Wix Membership Site

Wix is among the most popular online generic website builders. It allows you to add a membership area to your website and create member-only pages as well as process payments. Begging to build your unique online presence by following these six simple steps:

• Sign up for a free Wix website builder and then carefully choose what type of website you want.
  Get a website made for you or customize already existing templates. With Wix apps like Bookings, Blogs, and Logo Maker, you can make your online presence notable and reach the targeted audience.
• Carefully choose design features you can drag and drop on your website. Those can be videos, texts, galleries, and more. Prepare your website for business – add booking system, online store, and members area.
• Publish your website and begging to build an online presence
• Use advanced SEO tools and marketing strategies to drive traffic.

When creating your website, use the Members Area tool that enables your community members to have their own accounts on your website. Also, with the tool, you can easily manage your community members through the list in the dashboard. You can also view their information and assign them different roles. Furthermore, when you want to monetize your content and set up a paywall, you can use the Pricing Plan app to connect your pricing plan to your members-only pages. This way, you will limit access to some content to specific plan holders.

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How Much Does Wix Membership Site Cost

You probably wondered at least once before how much does a membership site costs. Luckily, the prices on the platform are straightforward so that you can easily calculate your budget. Firstly, you should choose the right package, Wix offers Business and e-commerce premium plans. These are then split into three additional options you can choose from – basic, unlimited, and VIP. All plans are ad-free, with unlimited bandwidth and a free domain for a year. The main difference is the storage space and video hours. The Basic Business plan is $17 a month, and it comes with 20GB of storage and five video hours. Business unlimited gives you 35GB of storage and ten video hours for $25 a month, while Business VIP comes with 50GB and unlimited video hours for a monthly price of $35.

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Squarespace Membership Site vs Wix Membership Site – What Are Their Main Pros and Cons

Have you ever wondered which is better, Wix or Squarespace? If you did, the best way to get an answer is to compare them. Furthermore, when opting for a platform, you have to think not only about the way your content is represented and how will you earn some money but also about your community satisfaction. To get all the necessary information, let’s go over all the pros and cons of using Squarespace and Wix membership sites.

Pros and Cons of Using Squarespace Membership Site

Firstly Squarespace is not quite easy to use, so if you are a beginner, you might have some trouble setting everything up. You will have to work with many elements to create the desired layout look. However, Squarespace has more than 100 templates you can use, and they are all responsive for mobile devices. If you have knowledge in HTML and CSS, you can edit source files making a unique look for your website.

If you are planning on writing blogs, know that the Squarespace features are almost as good as WordPress. It offers many essential blogging features as well as integrated hosting for a podcast if you want to start one. Furthermore, recently Squarespace got rid of some big flaw in the SEO department, making it very optimizable. And finally, when it comes to e-commerce, Squarespace brings professional features that can make your business seem more competitive on the market.

Pros and Cons of Using Wix Membership Site

Wix membership site is easy to use because its website builder uses modern templates that are customizable. Besides being very user-friendly, when it comes to design templates, Wix has more than 300 free themes. You can easily browse through categories that vary from photographs to blogs and find the thing you need. However, you have to manually tweak the Wix template, and also, you can’t change it once you build a website. When it comes to e-commerce, Wix can be a good choice for small and medium online shops. If you need additional widgets and apps on your platform, there are a variety of options available on App Market. One of the downsides of choosing Wix is their customer support because they want you to read the FAQ first, then contact them, which can be time-consuming if you need help ASAP.

Overall, both platforms have something to offer to content creators. Your choice should depend solely on your needs, knowledge of internet technologies, and final goals. Nevertheless, if none of these tickles your fancy, there are other platforms that can help you build a membership community.

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GroupApp Is the Best Membership Site Platform for Creators

If both Squarespace and Wix are not something you are looking for as a content creator, know that there are other options to explore. Check out GroupApp, a membership platform with every essential feature. Not only is it easy to use, but its features will also allow you to create a strong online community and monetize your content. Let’s go over some of the basic characteristics GroupApp has and see how they can help you achieve all of your goals.

Setup GroupApp Membership Subscriptions

One of the best ways to monetize your website and its content is to offer membership subscriptions. With GroupApp, it will be easy to set up a membership subscription plan that will ensure you have recurring income built into your online membership community.

Even though monetization is the ultimate goal, sometimes it is not possible to start charging straight away for the original content. This is something people new in this business should know. The first step to steady incomes is establishing a loyal community base that is willing to give money for the content you put out.

Since GroupApp is created to help creators develop their community base and build a recurring revenue business through online membership communities, it allows you to keep a part of your membership website free for some time. After you manage to generate more than a few leads, you can start charging a membership fee, and that’s when customers start becoming paying members of your community.

You Can Create and Control an Online Community With GroupApp

One of the best things when it comes to using GroupApp is how it allows you to build a community interested in your services, content, or products. When you create your community on GroupApp, you have full control over it because it belongs to you. Meaning you can control the way you communicate and interact with the community.

GroupApp also allows members of your community to connect with each other. You will also have the option to divide group discussions into different categories, making the community as organized as possible.

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You Can Easily Create and Sell Courses

Did you know that around 60% of the US e-learning market share comes from content-related online learning courses? Taking into consideration the popularity of online courses, you might opt for creating one or a few. Luckily, with a GroupApp platform, you will get to use a free and simple online course builder.

GroupApp and its builder tool allow you to create courses right on the platform without having to use a separate online platform for hosting. With the help of the builder, you can just record the content, upload it, and share it with your community. Easily, fast, and without using additional tools and platforms.

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GroupApp Is Easy to Use and It Allows Easy Third-Party Tools Integrations

When choosing a platform for your content, one of the top things to think about is your audience. Will they be able to figure out how the platform works? Will it be too complex for them to use, and therefore they will have to stop following your work? As a creator, you have to not only think about your content but about users as well.

If you opt for GroupApp, your members will be able to easily navigate the platform from the get-go. Its design is efficient and simple enough. It looks like any other community platform your followers have already used, like Slack and Facebook Groups. Since GroupApp uses a familiar layout, it will be easy to intuitively navigate through it without big problems and, more importantly, without losing interest.

Also, GroupApp follows modern trends, and that’s why it allows its users to integrate their membership communities with their favorite or most used software. If you are considering a third-party integration, know that it will go easily and without a hitch. This way, can automate the community management and ongoing marketing campaigns as well as use it to track the return of the investment.

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What Are Other Membership Site Platforms You Can Use

Going over all possible choices before picking the best membership site platform is only normal. So, if you are still on the fence about choosing GroupApp, you should check out some alternatives. When researching other platforms, make a list of all pros and cons as well as their benefits and downsides. With all the information in your hands, it will be easy to make an educated decision and opt for the best platform for your content.

Kajabi

If you are considering Kajabi as your next platform, know that it combines two features in one. With it, you can sell online courses and have a paid membership site. Kajabi allows you to use different content types like photos and videos, and it also provides you with tools for email marketing campaigns. Nevertheless, even with those features, creators more often than not have to combine it with other platforms. Additionally, Kajabi has a fairly high pricing scheme, where a monthly plan starts at around $120.

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Podia

Podia is a platform mostly used for hosting courses, building marketing, and email campaigns. It allows you to make money through subscriptions. However, your community members can’t connect with each other, which eventually can affect your incomes. Furthermore, it has no mobile app features, and its email composer doesn’t have personalization fields.

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AccessAlly

AccessAlly provides training for over 2,5 million learners, making it one of the platforms mostly used for formal learning. You can use it to make and sell courses. However, it is more complicated to use than some other membership platforms. Also, another big disadvantage of AccessAlly is its price. It is rather expensive if you compare it to other platforms. Because of its confusing documentation, AccessAlly is not beginner-friendly, so if you are just starting to create online, maybe you should consider using other, simpler platforms.

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Know You Picked the Right Platform

There are around 284 million internet users in the US in 2020, making it one of the biggest online markets globally. If you are a creator that wants to monetize work and creativity, going online is one of the best choices. However, picking the right distribution platform can have a huge impact on your income. We went over some of the popular options, their pros and cons, and all that they bring not only to you but to the community as well. Picking the right one will depend solely on your ambitions and plans. Nevertheless, you can already tell that GroupApp can suit all of your needs and that it can be the best option when it comes to membership site platforms for your content.