How to choose a membership site theme_Blog featured image

How to Choose a Membership Site Theme? 7 Points to Consider

If you’re a beginner and have just heard about the membership site theme, you must be scratching your head, wondering what’s it.

You may have doubts about choosing a membership site theme for your website.

But, don’t worry! It isn’t going to be that hard.

In this blog, we’ll help you choose a membership site theme.

Let’s get started!

Table of Contents: 

What Is a Membership Site Theme?

A theme is a template that lets you create and customize a website the way you want.

Similarly, a membership site theme is a template that lets you build and customize your membership site.

Why a Membership Site Theme?

Usually, membership websites contain many pages. Each of them may have its own design.

We recommend you choose a theme designed specifically for membership sites. Those themes can give your website a professional and attractive look.

Also, there’s a good chance for good membership plugins to work well with popular membership site themes.

7 Points to Consider When Choosing a Membership Site Theme

Though there are various membership themes to use on your website, the critical part is knowing what to look at when selecting the theme.

Below, we have listed seven points you should consider when choosing your membership site theme.

1. Budget

There are lots of themes out there for membership sites. Some are free, while others are paid.

Speaking of the prices, some are affordable, while some are super expensive.

Therefore, you should consider your budget when choosing the theme. If you’re on a tight budget, you should opt for free or cheaper themes.

Many theme providers sell certain features as an add-on. So, ensure to look at the included features before buying your theme.

2. Page Builder and Page Layout

When choosing a theme, you should ensure that it supports popular page builders.

Page builders let you easily modify the layout of a page to fit your needs.

Otherwise, opt for a theme with an in-built page builder.

If your theme has an in-built page builder and many page layouts, it’ll be much easier to customize the pages.

3. Features and Functionality

You should choose a theme that’s designed specifically for membership sites. Also, ensure the theme has all the features and tools necessary to run your site effectively and smoothly.

Here are some features you should look for in a membership site theme. 

  • Content restriction feature – This feature can help you restrict access to certain content for free users. 
  • Membership level feature – This feature enables you to create content for different levels of members on your website. This feature can be useful if you have different members on your site.
  • Membership management feature – This feature can help you easily manage your members’ accounts. You can track their activities, such as payments, and send them messages directly from your WordPress dashboard.
  • Payment integration feature –  This feature can help you to accept payments from your premium members. So, it’s better if you choose a theme that comes with an in-built payment system. 

4. Support

When you face a problem, you need support to resolve it. Do you agree with us?

So, you should choose a theme that provides good support.

Also, the support team should be able to provide a quick solution to your problem. When you face a problem, there should be someone to attend to and respond to your queries.

Usually, if you go for a premium theme, their quality of support will be outstanding.

You can go through the reviews of users regarding their support experience.

5. Responsiveness

We often hear users complaining of websites not working well on their phones or tablets. 

Though optimizing the website for mobiles is one of the primary ranking factors of Google, many website owners fail to do so even now. 

So, the theme you opt for a membership site should be responsive. In other words, it should be optimized across all devices. 

Once you set up the entire website, we suggest you check the mobile-friendliness of your website using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. 

Also, ensure that your payment page and form are optimized across all devices. 

6. Compatibility With Devices and Plugins

Usually, the developers will create their tools in a way such that they are compatible with popular themes.

However, it’s possible for some themes to have incompatibility issues. So, ensure to check whether the tools you want are compatible with the theme you choose.

7. Skill Level

Some themes may need you to have coding skills to develop.

If you aren’t knowledgeable in coding and don’t want to spend money on a developer, look for a theme that needs little or no coding to save you time and money.

However, we want to mention that even if you opt for a highly customizable theme, not all options in it will be easy to change. If you want to embed a custom functionality on your page, it’ll require you to write codes.

Generally, you should opt for a theme in which the basic features are easy to work on.

Conclusion

If you’re planning to start a membership site, choosing a good membership site theme will let you customize your website to suit your needs.

Depending on your Content Management System (CMS) platform, you’ll have a lot of options when choosing a theme.

For instance, if you’re using WordPress, you can opt for themes such as Astra, Divi, SeedProd, OceanWP, etc.

Make sure to note the points discussed in this blog when choosing your membership site theme.