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PPSD2 is open-source PHP membership site software that allows you to create a secure member’s area on your website, manage users, handle subscriptions, communicate with your members and handle all of your usual membership site management tasks. One of the benefits of PPSD2 is that it is extremely flexible. For many membership sites a simple WordPress plugin will do, but for more advanced applications those plugins fall flat.
PPSD2 could, for example, be used to manage access to an online application, it could be integrated with existing applications, you could use it for community sites (on technology other than WordPress) etc. For the average membership site owner PPSD2 is probably overkill. If all you are looking to do is protect some content and some downloads and you’re on a self-hosted WordPress platform you can get into one of the competitive products for a fraction of the cost (about 20-25%). As I mentioned above, however, these products will not support content or file protection outside of the WordPress environment.
The admin section for PPSD2 is somewhat friendlier than its closest competitor, which I consider to be aMember. What PPSD2 doesn’t have that aMember has is a huge community of avid users and developers producing plugins and add-ons and sharing them for free (or for cheap) in the forums. So while the flexibility is there you aren’t going to find the same level of availability of the random plugins and components that you might need to get your membership site operating exactly as you envision it.
I have been using this software since September 2009 and have been thrilled with it overall. I would like to mention several things especially:
1. The program is constantly evolving and improving, often based on user input. I give the creators a round of applause for actually listening to what their clients want.
2. The program’s documentation isn’t perfect, but they make up for it with responsive and quick support.
3. The program was very easy to rebrand and setup. That’s rare with these PHP pacakges, so I appreciate that.
Overall I would recommend this software to anyone who needs a member component on their website.
Chris