Thinking about charging for a members’ community? These 10 sites run forums, private groups, and peer networks on MemberPress, and their setups are worth borrowing.
You’ve built an audience, and you’ve people don’t only want your content, they want each other.
Readers are answering each other’s questions in your comments, and a few have told you they wish there were somewhere to talk to people like them.
That’s the moment a lot of creators start looking at paid online communities. And it’s the moment the hosted platforms start looking expensive, with monthly fees, transaction cuts, and your members living on someone else’s site.
MemberPress gives you another option. It handles who’s in, which tier they’re on, and how they pay, while your community lives on a website you own.
Below are 10 real examples, from a maker magazine and a writers’ collective to a fantasy football club with tens of thousands of members. Each one does community a little differently, so there’s plenty to steal (respectfully).
10 Online Community Sites That Run on MemberPress
1. Make:
Check Out the Site: Make:
What They Do
Make: publishes Make: magazine and is the team behind Maker Faire. It’s been at the center of the maker movement since 2005.
The Make: Community connects hobbyists, tinkerers, educators, and makerspaces through hands-on projects, tutorials, and events.
How the Site Uses MemberPress
Make: runs tiered memberships with MemberPress. The free Community tier opens up the member and makerspace directories, plus the Make: online platform and newsletters. Premium ($59.99/year) adds the complete Make: digital archive, a magazine subscription, and members-only videos and events.
It also sells Multi-Seat plans with 8, 14, or 20 accounts for schools and makerspaces. If your community includes groups as well as individuals, this is a clean way to sell to both.
2. Tiny Buddha
Check Out the Site: Tiny Buddha
What They Do
Founded by Lori Deschene, Tiny Buddha shares “simple wisdom for complex lives” through quotes, tips, and personal stories. It has more than 1.5 million followers.
Its Tiny Buddha Day-to-Day Calendar & Planner was the #1 bestseller in the Mind-Body-Spirit category two years in a row.
How the Site Uses MemberPress
Tiny Buddha’s community forums run on MemberPress. Readers support each other in boards like Relationships, Tough Times, Emotional Mastery, and Parenting, and the Relationships forum alone has more than 70,000 posts.
Alongside the forums, Tiny Buddha offers courses such as Breaking Barriers to Self-Care. It’s a good reminder that a free community can sit right next to paid products and feed into them.
3. Study Hall
Check Out the Site: Study Hall
What They Do
Study Hall is a membership community for freelance writers and media workers. Kyle Chayka and P.E. Moskowitz founded it in Brooklyn in 2015 as a coworking space for freelancers.
It’s since grown to more than 3,000 subscribers, and it shares pitch calls, jobs, fellowships, and grants with its members.
How the Site Uses MemberPress
Study Hall sells three annual tiers, each with a 7-day free trial. Basic ($99/year) includes the Opportunity Finder, newsletters, and paywalled content. Professional ($149/year) adds the Study Hall Forum, and Premium ($199/year) adds a Slack channel and a Creative Listserv.
Members also get access to a database of 2,500+ commissioning editors. Notice how each tier adds a closer layer of community. That’s a simple way to give people a reason to upgrade.
4. The Digital Project Manager
Check Out the Site: The Digital Project Manager
What They Do
Ben Aston founded The Digital Project Manager (DPM) in 2011. It’s grown into one of the most extensive resources around for digital project management.
Its stated goal is to “elevate the conversation surrounding digital work, leadership, and the world of digital project management.”
How the Site Uses MemberPress
DPM runs its paid membership on MemberPress at $18/month, billed annually. Members join a community of 1,000+ peers, with peer-mentoring sessions, social events, and specialized mastermind groups.
Membership also includes mini courses, live workshops and AMAs, templates, and 25% off certifications. DPM sets aside a limited number of seats subsidized by up to 50%, which is a thoughtful way to keep a professional community open to people earlier in their careers.
5. Writers’ HQ
Check Out the Site: Writers’ HQ
What They Do
Writers’ HQ is a UK-based writing community for people who feel they don’t quite fit in more traditional writing circles. It offers courses, workshops, retreats, challenges, and a forum.
The site says there are “thousands of WHQers all over the world.”
How the Site Uses MemberPress
Writers’ HQ starts with a free tier that includes two courses and the Secret Retreat forum. The paid Glorious Writing Beasts membership (£20/month) adds weekly write-alongs, monthly online retreats, live masterclasses with guest authors, a monthly Q&A support group, and more than 25 creative writing courses.
Write-alongs are a smart format to copy. Members don’t need to have anything to share to take part. They just log on and write together.
6. The Fantasy Footballers
Check Out the Site: The Fantasy Footballers
What They Do
The Fantasy Footballers is an award-winning fantasy football podcast hosted by Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. It’s picked up “Best Sports & Recreation Podcast” from PodcastAwards.com and “Best Sports Podcast” from the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards.
How the Site Uses MemberPress
MemberPress powers the #FootClan, which the site says has tens of thousands of members. Every tier includes the Premium Discord, FootClan Leagues for finding other players, bonus episodes, and in-season tools like the Start/Sit Tool and Trade Analyzer.
Higher tiers add extras like the Ultimate Dashboard and a separate DFS & Betting Discord. If your audience already has a shared obsession, giving them leagues and channels to compete in turns listeners into regulars.
7. Craft Industry Alliance
Check Out the Site: Craft Industry Alliance
What They Do
Craft Industry Alliance is a trade association for craft industry professionals. Abby Glassenberg and Kristin Link founded it in 2015.
It helps makers, designers, and craft business owners keep up with industry news and build their businesses alongside people who get it.
How the Site Uses MemberPress
Craft Industry Alliance uses MemberPress to manage its membership. The community side includes a private members-only group, a monthly Craft Business Roundtable with an open agenda, a member directory, and a Jobs + Opportunities board.
Members also get monthly expert webinars, online courses, discounts, and a premium mastermind program that runs twice a year. The open-agenda roundtable is worth borrowing. It gives members a standing reason to come back every month.
8. The Typographic Circle
Check Out the Site: The Typographic Circle
What They Do
The Typographic Circle is a UK membership organization for anyone who loves type, typography, and design craft. It’s celebrating 50 years of typographic and creative socials, inspiration, and education.
It describes itself as “a very sociable organisation with a reputation for staging enjoyable events.”
How the Site Uses MemberPress
Membership comes in three annual tiers: Student (£35), Individual (£45), and Agency/Uni (£250). Members get discounted event tickets, at least one members-only event each season, and a copy of Circular, the Circle’s magazine designed by Domenic Lippa and his team at Pentagram.
There are no entry tests or exams, so anyone with an interest in type can join. Agency/Uni members get extra copies of Circular and up to ten discounted tickets per event, which makes it easy for whole studios to come along together.
9. Be More with Less
Check Out the Site: Be More with Less
What They Do
Be More with Less is Courtney Carver’s site about simplicity and minimalism. It’s also home to Project 333, her well-known capsule wardrobe challenge.
The site offers articles, books, courses, and a podcast to help people declutter their homes and their schedules.
How the Site Uses MemberPress
Be More with Less uses MemberPress to manage its membership, the Simplicity Space. Members get a private members’ group, monthly live Gatherings on themes like clearing space and self-care, and Declutter Hours where people work on projects together for accountability.
Plans run $49/month, $99/quarter, or $249/year, and every call is recorded and captioned for the member library. Declutter Hours are a nice example of a community activity that’s simple to run and genuinely useful.
10. Greylock CXO
Check Out the Site: Greylock CXO
What They Do
Greylock is one of Silicon Valley’s best-known venture capital firms, with early investments in LinkedIn, Airbnb, and Discord.
Its CXO portal connects senior executives with Greylock’s portfolio companies across AI, cybersecurity, infrastructure, SaaS, and fintech.
How the Site Uses MemberPress
Greylock keeps its CXO portal private with MemberPress. Access is by invitation only, and logged-in executives can explore portfolio companies, upcoming events, and insights from the Greylock team.
Not every community needs to be open to the public. If yours is built on exclusivity, an invite-only membership keeps the room small on purpose.
Your Online Community Can Run on MemberPress Too
The communities on this list look pretty different. Make: and Tiny Buddha keep their community spaces free, while Study Hall and DPM charge for access to their forums and Slack. And one of them mostly happens in a room full of typographers.
What they have in common is that the owners stay in control of who gets in and what each member can access. People might join for the content, but they renew because of the people they’ve met there.
If you want to build something similar, MemberPress has all the tools you need to make it happen, including its own set of community add-ons, called ClubSuite™.
ClubDirectory™ lets members create profiles and find each other in protected member directories, searchable by membership, role, or location.
ClubCircles™ adds private discussion boards you can tie to specific membership levels, with moderation tools built in.
ClubConnect™ brings real-time direct messaging, so members can message each other, a whole Circle, or a directory group.
You can see how the three work together in our post on building communities with ClubSuite.
Which of these examples inspired you most? Let us know in the comments below!
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