How to add a Membership Area to your Squarespace Website
If you are thinking about adding a Members Area to your Squarespace website, there are two three ways to do it.
Note: In late November 2020, Squarespace rolled out their own membership product called Members Area. Keep reading to see how it compares to other robust options.
The Free Way
If you don’t need much security and you don’t need payment gated content (meaning people aren’t paying you to gain access), you can simply password protect a page or even a blog within your Squarespace website. Then you’d simply give the same password to anyone who needs access. This is a great solution for “freebie” areas just for your mailing list members or a tutorials section for clients. From the Pages menu, click the cog icon on any page you’d like to password protect, then add your password in Page Settings > General.
The More Secure Way
But what if you need a more secure option, an independent login for each person, or the ability to take subscription payments? There are three good choices for membership programs on Squarespace and I’ll detail those here, along with the pros and cons of each.
The two third-party options each require the Business-level hosting plan or higher on Squarespace (they won’t work on Personal plan sites). For those here’s a Pro tip: If your Squarespace template has AJAX loading (like the Brine family), you’ll need to disable this in Design > Site Styles.
All these options allow you to create a members area within your Squarespace website and offer free, one-time, or recurring payments to your customers. If you want to restrict access to certain pages of your site and require a unique login or paywall, here are some good options.
1. MemberSpace
MemberSpace is my favorite way to quickly launch a membership area on your Squarespace site. They offer a free 14-day trial, incredible customer support (I’m not kidding, it’s amazing), and a simple on-boarding process.
They also have some great Case Studies on their website, so you can get a feel for layouts and possibilities.
2. MemberStack
MemberStack is another option for adding a members area to Squarespace.
Their plans are free until you are ready to go live (so you can take your time to fully test out the system), their branding is removed on the lowest paid plan, and they offer a slightly lower transaction fee than MemberSpace.
The Built-in Way
3. Squarespace Members Area
If you are a fan of keeping everything under one roof, this is a great option. You can create your own Members Area directly in the Pages section of your website and test it out for free until you are ready to sell. A couple of cons for this option are that uploaded pdfs and other documents aren’t secure and you also can’t manually add members. This is where MemberSpace comes out ahead.
My friend Kerstin has an FAQ that covers most common questions about Members Areas if you’d like to learn more.
So, which option is best for you?
Whenever I’m faced with a decision, I make a spreadsheet. My pros/cons list shows how these three platforms differ, with what I consider “wins” to be highlighted in blue. You can decide which differences are most important to you to determine which platform is the best fit for your use case.
| Squarespace | MemberSpace | MemberStack |
|---|---|---|
| starts at $9/month | $25/month | $25/month |
| 7% transaction fee + Stripe fee | 4% transaction fee + Stripe fee |
3% transaction fee + Stripe fee
|
| no branding | subtle branding, remove at $50/month | no branding |
| add members from link | add members from link, email, or manually | add members manually |
| no extra agreements | can add checkbox for terms agreements, etc | no extra agreements |
| limited customer payment flexibilty: one time or recurring | flexible customer payment options (3 months at $100, for example) | limited customer payment flexibilty: one time or recurring |
| some admin email options | many admin email options, can edit template or disable |
only emails for password changes
|
| multiple admins | multiple admins (added June 2020) | multiple admins |
| 2nd level security; access denied screen | 2nd level security: blackout page | 2nd level security: redirect to another page |
| no 3rd level protection |
3rd level protected content, requires loading to memberspace
|
no 3rd level protection |
| some admin notifications | admin notifications | no admin notifications |
| customer service chat available during business hours |
customer service with onsite chat; personal, targeted, and fast (like 10-20 minutes during business hours)
|
customer service in open user forum or email; emails returned in about 24 hours
|
MemberSpace is currently my platform of choice because they offer a third-level security option for your most sensitive files and have stellar customer service. When Squarespace adds 3rd level security, having things all under one roof will tip me in their favor, but I don’t have a timeline on when this will happen.
