In almost every case, when someone contacts me about setting up a membership site for them, their first question is: Which script?
It’s understandable. There’s just so much conflicting information out there. And because of affiliate relationships, much of it is a bit…biased. And hypey. And sometimes just plain wrong.
Here’s what I tell people when they ask me which is the best.
Consider Your Market
This is your number one priority. They are the people who will be using and interacting with whatever solution you choose, so they have to be comfortable with it.
My advice is this: If your market is primarily offline, meaning they don’t use the Internet more than they have to, and they’re not interested in your affiliate program, choose WishList Member. It sits quietly in the background and your members won’t even know it’s there.
The downside is that it has no integrated cart or affiliate platform, so if you want those components, you’ll need to add a third-party solution.
If your market is more Internet savvy or they’re likely to want to promote you, choose either aMember or DAP. Both have built-in cart functions and affiliate platforms.
Consider Your Affiliates
If your affiliates are professional marketers or super affiliates, choose aMember. They’ll be much happier and much more likely to promote you.
If they are simply users who may talk you up to their friends, either DAP or aMember will be fine. They’re both easy to use both as an affiliate and a member.
Consider Your Level of Expertise
Of the three, WishList Member is probably the least confusing, technologically speaking. When you first install it, WishList will offer to set up all the member pages for you, so you don’t have to worry about connecting your registration page with your member pages with your “please log in to see this content” pages.
DAP and aMember won’t do that for you, but both give you a great deal more control over how and when content is delivered.
Consider Your Business Model
If you want to “drip” content over a period of days/weeks/months – choose either DAP or aMember. Both give you the option of revealing content to members on a schedule, which is handy for training type sites where you don’t want to overwhelm members with too much information up front.
WishList has a similar feature called sequential upgrade, but it is not nearly as flexible as the drip feed features in aMember or DAP.
In addition, if you want to offer several different memberships or single products, WishList will quickly become cumbersome to deal with. For a site that you intend to grow as you add more and more products, courses, and even different memberships, aMember or DAP are far superior.
My Personal Preference
aMember. Hands down.
Since aMember 4 was released, I’ve been a raving fan. The interface is user friendly, it integrates seamlessly with WordPress (but it doesn’t rely on it), works with your own autoresponder, includes a well-respected affiliate platform, and is backed by a stellar team who have years of development behind them.
The bottom line, though, is this: Don’t buy anything just because “everyone” recommends it. Research the options and consider your needs and those of your members and affiliates before making a purchase, and if you need help, shoot me an email. I’ll be glad to help you work through the decision.
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