In my mind, there are only two real contenders for the pick of the best membership site software, though there are a couple of others that aren’t too bad. It all depends on your budget, and how much control you want over the look and feel of the site.

The two best membership site software managers are Joomla’s membership site manager, and Membergate. Despite Membergate starting at $3995.00 for 1000 subscribers, and 2500 content pages, and going up in price to $29,995.00 for unlimited subscribers, and Joomla’s membership site manager being free, the two are very close in features.

Both have a built-in content management system, which is important if you’re going to present more than just download links to your members each month. There’s nothing wrong with a membership site that just needs to present download links - it’s just a slightly different model than the ones that present articles, how-to, tutorials, tips, and other information in a paid member’s area. Wit both Membergate and Joomla, the content management is tightly integrated with the membership management side, so you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues.

Both take care of the daily admin tasks like new members sign-ups, cancellations, non-payment of membership fees, renewals, the issuing of passwords, forgotten passwords, credit card processing through a third party processor, and they provide immediate access to your membership site for the new subscriber.

Payment Processors - the Joomla membership site software works with Paycom. CCBill, Paypal, Paypal Subscriptions, epsNetpay, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, Paysgnet, Allopas, Alertpay, and Viaklx.

Membergate works with these credit card processors: Verisign, AuthorizeNet, PaymentPlanet, CyberCash, PaymentNet and others. They do not mention paypal on their website, so I assume they are not compatible with it. Most merchants mention paypal when they are, given that it is so popular. That to me is a negative, both for the person wanting to set up a membership site, and their customers. Many merchants have reported an increase in sales when they offer paypal as an option. I use both 2checkout.coma and paypal, and most customers choose paypal.

Both have built-in blogs, image managers, the capacity to store audio files and multimedia. Membergate offers a calendar, and a directory, and there are free Joomla modules that you can install for these. Both offer stats, RSS Syndication, automatic archiving of posts, and content, strong security features (hey - Joomla is open source - you can’t get more robust than that). Also covered by both are a site search capacity, the ability to set multiple levels of membership, including a public area (great for producing lead generating search engine content), and the all-important feature - your own forums.

The main difference between the two is that you have to install and set-up Joomla’s membership site manager yourself, after having installed and configured Joomla. However, that’s not difficult with the step-by-step video that is part of the Easy Membership Site Toolkit. And the video is not the only thing you get with the Easy Membership Site Toolkit. There’s a manual that takes you through the whole process of researching ideas, getting content, tips on writing content, the promotion of your membership site, and more. You even get an ebook on getting JV’s and a JV Manager.

Also, most of the sites that I have seen using Membergate tend to look the same. They use a very similar layout, although I’m sure you could pay a programmer to change this. But with Joomla and its’ membership site manager, you can simply choose from a huge range of templates, many of which have been professionally designed. Even if you were to buy a Joomla template, as I did from one of my sites, the cost is a fraction of what you’d pay to get a programmer to try and change proprietary software.

Budget and aesthetics are the two main points of difference, and for this reason, I give Joomla’s membership site manager the thumbs up as best membership site software. Not only is it free - it is scalable. That means it will suit large and small membership sites. You can have unlimited members, and use it on as many sites as you want, and it is always free.

If you want to get started building your membership site with Joomla and the best membership site software around, check out the step-by-step video guide to installing and setting it up.