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The cheapest membership site platform without WordPress is systeme.io: a gated member area, a community, recurring billing through Stripe or PayPal, and email automation, on a free plan with 0% platform fee. Circle starts at $89 a month plus 2% of payments, Podia at $42 plus 5%, Kajabi at $179. The shortlist prices each for the same job: a paywall, a monthly charge, and a few pages behind it.
- 1Our pick
systeme.io
Free, then $17/mo, 0% fee
Best for: gated content, a community, subscriptions and email in one login
The catch: forum-style community, no member app, video embedded not hosted
Try systeme.io free - 2
Circle
$89/mo + 2% (Professional)
Best for: a community-first membership with a feed, spaces and events
The catch: the fee on top of the subscription; no free plan
- 3
Podia
$42/mo + 5% (Mover)
Best for: a clean storefront with a membership attached
The catch: 100 email subscribers on the entry tier
- 4
Kajabi
$179/mo
Best for: polish and a member app
The catch: one community on the two lower plans; the highest fixed cost here
Prices and free-plan limits checked 2026-09-19 on each vendor's pricing page.
What a membership site needs, and what each costs
Content behind a login, a recurring charge, access removed on cancellation, a place to talk, and an onboarding sequence. Every tool above does the first four. Only systeme.io and Kajabi include email automation at the entry tier without a subscriber cap that bites; Podia’s 100-subscriber limit on Mover makes its email a footnote.
Membership site without WordPress: why hosted wins for a solo
A WordPress membership is a membership plugin plus a payment plugin plus a page builder plus hosting, and the failure mode is a plugin update that breaks the paywall on a Sunday. A hosted platform has one login, one bill and nothing to update. The cost is control: you cannot export systeme.io pages later, and the design is plainer than a WordPress theme.
Membership site with email marketing built in
On systeme.io a subscription purchase adds a tag; one automation rule grants access and starts the welcome sequence; a second rule removes access when the subscription ends. The free plan has one rule, so most memberships need the $17 plan for the second. Failed cards are handled by Stripe’s retry settings, not inside systeme.io, so configure them there.
For a paid newsletter, for creators, for fitness coaches
A paid newsletter is a subscription product plus a members-only area for the archive, with the emails themselves sent as newsletters to the paid tag; 0% platform fee against Substack’s cut. Creators selling a monthly drop use the course area with drip. Fitness coaches can gate programs and a community here, but workout logging, macros and check-ins belong in a coaching app; a membership tool is for selling and delivering the plan, not tracking it.
What the community lacks against Skool
systeme.io’s community is threads and posts. Skool’s feed, gamification and calendar hold attention better, and if the community is the product rather than the wrapper, that matters more than the price gap. Skool’s plans were not verified today, so they are not quoted here.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest membership site platform?
systeme.io: free plan with one member area, one community, subscription billing and a 0% platform fee. The $17 plan adds the second automation rule most memberships need.
Can I build a membership site without WordPress?
Yes. Hosted platforms such as systeme.io, Circle, Podia and Kajabi handle the paywall, billing and content with nothing to update.
Which membership platform has email marketing built in?
systeme.io (2,000 contacts free) and Kajabi (2,500 on Basic). Podia caps email at 100 subscribers on its entry plan; Circle is community-first.
Does systeme.io handle failed membership payments?
Retries and recovery emails are set in Stripe. systeme.io removes access when the subscription ends, via an automation rule you create.
Related: systeme.io membership site guide, email marketing for beginners.