13 Membership Site Examples That Will Inspire You

Creating a membership site is a smart way to drive recurring revenue and build your online community. But it takes work to pull off. Many creators are unsure of the type of content their target audience is genuinely interested in or how to design a site that converts.

To succeed with membership sites, you need to know how to curate an irresistible offering that people are willing to pay for long-term. The best way to learn is to look at successful examples of membership sites within and outside your niche to see how they’ve pulled this off!

In this article, we will share 19 membership site examples to inspire you, including:

What is a membership site?
What makes the membership sites on our list unique?
19 Examples of Membership Sites
Build engaged membership sites with Thinkific

What is a membership site?

A membership website is a members-only site that houses an exclusive community and content. To access this gated site, members are required to pay a monthly fee.

Membership sites can be a place for education, community, or a mix of both—it’s really up to you. Your goal, however, remains the same: attract new members while retaining the ones you have.

With that in mind, let’s get into the membership site examples and look at what makes them work!

Related article: If you want to learn the keys to running a successful membership site, check out our guide on How to launch a membership site.

What makes the membership sites on our list unique?

There is no shortage of membership site examples, but the best ones are those that:

Own a niche: The creators of these membership sites have really carved out an interesting niche for themselves. They aren’t trying to be everything to everyone; they’re honing in on a niche.
Are original: These sites scored points because of their new ideas, whether it’s the topic they chose, who they’re targeting, or the overall membership structure.
Positively impact members: At Thinkific, we have a special place in our hearts for sites that highly impact their members. These membership sites help their members improve their lives—whether it is starting a new business or learning a new skill.
Generate high member ROI: The examples we’ll share will cover a range of price levels. Since pricing is tied to your member’s perception of ROI, there’s no right or wrong way to price a membership site.
Focus on passion to profits: A membership site born from a passion for a particular hobby or activity. These examples remind us that anyone with expertise and a passion for sharing it with the world can start a business that they simply can’t wait to wake up to work on.
Are a teacher’s best friend: These membership sites help teachers by creating content that can be used in the classroom to facilitate blended learning or asynchronous learning.
Have a robust customer journey: These examples don’t stop at online membership sites, demonstrating how robust online businesses can deploy content marketing and marketing funnels to create a line of complementary offerings.
Nail site design: These sites have invested a lot in their look and feel, resulting in an excellent experience for their users. They follow web design best practices to capture and engage their audience effectively.
Nail the cool factor: This is like our wildcard for sites that are just too cool not to share.
Demonstrate stellar branding: This membership website example demonstrates a mastery of branding and all its components, creating a consistent and unique experience across channels.
Lean on influencer marketing: Sites that lean on influencer marketing successfully leverage the power of social media and community to further their digital success.
Leverage content marketing: Creators who do this deploy podcasts, blogs, YouTube, and other channels to build awareness and drive traffic to their websites and into their marketing funnels.

With that out of the way, here are 19 membership sites that should definitely be on your radar!

19 Examples of Membership Sites

Soulcial Mate

Earning the spot as the first membership website example is Soulcial Suite. Soulcial Suite is Kristen Bousquet’s membership site, listed under her broader Soulcial Mate brand. Kristen’s origin story begins after graduating from fashion school when she started her own business. After realizing social media influencing was calling her more than hair, makeup, and photography, she decided to pivot to influencing full-time.

Since making the leap into influencer marketing, Kristen has made over $350k from partnerships alone. She’s also led 150 students to success. Her membership site is available to students for just $44/month and brings in over $4,000 in revenue each month. In it, students can access templates, tutorials, her exclusive creator community, live group calls, monthly workshops, and more.

Why we love Soulcial Mate:

Stellar branding: Few creators have mastered branding as well as Kristen has. She’s married a bold color palette with unique typography and stunning visuals to create an instantly recognizable digital presence. This makes her content feel familiar whether you’re on Instagram, visiting her podcast, or in Soulcial Mate.
Robust customer journey: While Kristen offers a membership site, she also offers a cohort-style course, as well as 1-on-1 coaching. The latter offerings require more time and money for both Kristen and her students. Offering a membership effectively gives learners a cost-effective entry point while also delivering significant value. Should learners decide to stick with a membership, they’ll be more than happy, but they also have more opportunities to grow with the Soulcial Mate brand

Baking for Business

One of the best examples of membership sites is Baking for Business. This site came into existence when Amanda Schonberg’s former employer, a bakery, ran out of cake mix. As a result, she made a cake at home for a client in need. That same client shared her satisfaction with her friends and family, unknowingly giving Amanda the push she needed to launch her own baking business.

After successfully launching and scaling her own baking business, other bakers began reaching out to Amanda with questions about how to grow their own businesses. This led her to launch her second business, Baking for Business, an online course business for bakers. At launch, her course business was on Teachable, but after several years of trial, error, and compromise, she migrated to Thinkific, where her business was allowed to flourish.

In the Baking for Business online membership, users will have access to a library of educational content, masterclasses with guest experts, a monthly group coaching call, and an exclusive community of students.

Why we love Baking for Business:

Passion to profit: Amanda’s business developed from her passion for baking and helping others. Even her baking business’ origin story is rooted in helping someone in their time of need, so it’s only natural that her course business was also created to fulfill a need. Amanda is an excellent example of an online course creator who saw a need and created an offering to solve it, helping people like her in the process.
Member ROI and price range: Priced at $25/month, her online membership course is very affordable. While Amanda does offer stand-alone courses, the membership is a way to ensure students have ongoing, meaningful access to educational content rather than one-and-done type content.

Vintage Sewing School

Even Woods, the mastermind behind Vintage Sewing School, fell in love with sewing at an early age. Inspired, she attended fashion college, which helped her enter the couture bridal industry after graduation. In her own words, “So many people would ask me about the garments I would make and sell. They wanted to know how they could make them themselves.”

Spurred by her own passion for sustainability and that influx of interest from friends and family, Evelyn decided to create a sewing program so people could learn these skills themselves. At first, her goal was to offer one-and-done courses, but over time, she realized a membership might benefit her students, eventually making the transition.

At just $19/month, students have access to over 150 pre-recorded courses. Rather than offering one-time courses, memberships allow Evelyn to provide an exclusive community for her students while giving them as much time as they need to learn new sewing skills.

Why we love Vintage Sewing School:

Leverage content marketing: Sewing is a highly visual subject, so naturally, it performs well on a visual platform like YouTube. Currently, Evelyn has 371K followers and continues to grow. She recognizes the value of the platform and uses it as top-of-the-funnel marketing to help build brand awareness and drive potential students to her membership. In doing so, Evelyn demonstrates the power behind content marketing and its ability to drive sales from “free” content.
Owning a niche: Evelyn’s expressed an acute awareness of her audience, something others in her industry lacked when she first began. Where other sewing courses were project-based, she sought to create a membership that taught evergreen skills rather than helping students accomplish one-off projects. Evelyn recognized a need for something different and created it, which resulted in huge success.

Freelance Friday Club

Latasha James is a prominent figure in the Social Media Marketing and Freelance spaces. Following her passion, Latasha went to school for film and media and now owns her own marketing company called James + Park. Latasha leverages her successful YouTube channel and Podcast, Freelance Friday Podcast, to share her story and build awareness for her own education business.

While she does offer flagship courses, The Freelance Friday Club is her exclusive online community for freelancers. This community includes monthly office hours, a community forum, Live Q&As with Latasha, and a monthly minicourse.

Why we love Freelance Friday Club:

Price range: Latasha caters to an audience of both established marketing professionals and marketing newbies. As a result, she crafts three plans. The first is an affordable $19.99/month designed for learners who aren’t quite sure of their needs or aren’t ready to make more significant purchases. The Executive and Annual Executive plans appeal to a more established clientele. This tiered pricing plan allows for flexibility, making her membership more accessible to students.
Leverage content marketing: As a social media marketer and consultant herself, Latasha regularly shares her insights and personal strategies on various social channels. She also leverages YouTube and podcasting to build awareness, engage with her audience, and drive sign-ups across all of her offerings.

My Trainer Phil

Having isolated the perfect niche for his online training business, Phil Hynes generates over $100k with an online membership. Titled the “Beginner Workout Program,” Phil’s membership is one of the most affordable we’ve seen, at just $6.99/month.

His course caters to fitness beginners, which includes people who aren’t sure where to start or how to execute exercises in a gym. He found his target audience by listening to the needs of those engaged with him on social channels, effectively honing his niche over time.

Why we love My Trainer Phil:

Owning a niche: Phil began his online fitness business without “niching down;” he was a generalist who welcomed any and everyone. But through trial and error, he realized fitness beginners resonated most with his skills and abilities, which led him to refocus on this new, more specific target audience. Phil is a great example of how a slow and steady approach to identifying your target audience can work and how important it is to create content specifically for them in your marketing funnel.
Leverage content marketing: Phil’s digital marketing journey began with just a few thousand Instagram followers. In just a few years, he’d amassed hundreds of thousands of followers. Now, Phil leverages social media marketing and content marketing to drive potential students through his marketing funnel toward his membership. Phil’s journey is an excellent portrayal of how content marketing efforts can drive customers through a funnel and help you build your business.

Dunbar Academy

Sometimes, Fido does as Fido wants, and that’s where Dunbar Academy comes in. Taking a training class with your pooch can save your shoes from a future chew session or avoid embarrassing encounters at the dog park. And having structure and a clear line of command makes dogs happier—they’re pack animals, after all.

Dunbar Academy takes members through the basic principles of training—like taking control and showing pets who’s boss to high-level instruction like dealing with doggy aggression. For the especially inspired, you can also learn how to start, promote, and run your own training business. If you aren’t sure online dog training is right for you and your pet, Dr. Dunbar offers a collection of free beginner lessons to get you started, so students can start their training journeys in a wag of the tail, with no commitment.

Why we love Dunbar Academy:

Site design: If successful membership site creators share two common threads, it’s (1) nailing their value proposition and (2) providing value upfront. The value proposition here is evident: “Easy, Effective & Enjoyable Dog Training Techniques.” We also liked that they’re giving away 11 free courses you can take, which give them a chance to demonstrate value before someone commits to a membership.
Cool factor: It would be an understatement to say that Thinkific is fond of dogs. Bonus points for creating impactful content that leads to a better world for dogs and their owners.

Sew It Academy

Whether you have dreams of becoming a haute couture designer or you’d just like to start altering your own clothes, Sew It Academy is here to get you started. Their lessons let students learn, step-by-step and at your own pace, how to create clothes that you’ll actually want to wear.

Sew It doesn’t focus on just one demographic. They offer membership covering womenswear, menswear, both, and kids. With an a la carte pricing plan, you can pick and choose what you subscribe to. Memberships start at $11.97/month, but would-be tailors can dip their toes by signing up for a free trial.

Why we love Sew It Academy:

Passion to profits: It’s easy to think, “wouldn’t it be nice if I could get paid for my hobby?”; it’s another thing actually to execute on it. Sew it! Academy is another example of a creator who has made their passion a business. Mimi started a blog as a hobby. She needed an outlet, and always loved to sew. Starting a blog allowed her to share her passion for sewing and design with others, which has now evolved into a vibrant community built around an educational business.
Site design: Sew it Academy has a beautifully designed site. The value proposition is front and center when you reach their site, starting with “Want to learn to sew and design your own clothes?” As you scroll down, the site takes you through who the course is for and how it will help. They warm up new visitors with a welcome video, highlight tangible learning outcomes and what makes Sew It Academy unique.

Milestone Strength

Layne Fletcher, Owner and Head Coach, and Nathan McCallum, Co-Owner and Lead Athlete, team up under Milestone Strength to offer a comprehensive yet affordable online coaching program.

Layne brings with him a formal degree in psychology, exercise, and nutrition and experience as a professional athlete. Nathan brings to the table an impressive understanding of not just fitness but influencer marketing. As an influencer himself, Nathan leveraged his 822K followers to earn partnerships with major brands like Gymshark and Ghost while also launching his own clothing brand.

Together, Layne and Nathan spearhead the Milestone Strength program, which features two plans: Body Transformation ($99/3 months) and Performance ($149/3 months). These plans give students access to an exclusive fitness community, a personalized workout plan, a personalized meal plan, an online library of mental health resources, a fitness and progress log, and more.

Why we love Milestone Strength:

Lean on influencer marketing: Channeling his diverse audience toward his clothing brand, podcast channel, and now coaching business, Nathan demonstrates just how powerful influencer marketing can be when you create valuable offerings that resonate with your audience.
Passion to profit: The Milestone Strength YouTube channel still features videos up to five years old, giving students a glimpse into the longstanding passion that drives both Layne and Nathan in their efforts at Milestone Strength. This is a business clearly rooted in passion, set to make a positive impact on members’ lives.

Peak Freelance

Elise Dopson and Michael Keenan know firsthand that freelancing can feel like an impossible career choice. So, they created Peak Freelance—a safe space where freelancers connect with one another, find answers to tough questions, and vent about the ebbs and flows of freelance life.

Peak Freelance members get access to expert interviews, a private podcast, a Slack community, business templates, and much more! For freelance writers who aren’t ready to commit to a membership, Peak Freelance offers tons of free resources.

Whether you have been freelancing for a long time or just learning the ropes, it pays to have a community you can lean on for support.

Why we love Peak Freelance:

Site design: Peak Freelance does a great job of showing the value of its membership site right away. As soon as you land on the homepage, it’s clear what you’re getting out of joining the community—the copy is clear and concise, and there is plenty of social proof to support the community’s claims and drive subscriptions.
Originality: Peak Freelance has curated a library of expert content you cannot find anywhere else. The amount of resources hinges on overwhelming, but that’s what makes this community so valuable to its members.

Train 2.0+ Membership

Having created successful online courses like Downhill Skating System, and built a thriving YouTube community, hockey coach Jason Lee decided to take things a notch further by launching a Train 2.0+.

For $47/month, community members get forever access to all of Jason’s courses, including the Downhill Skating System and Slingshotting system. The membership site also offers group question-and-answer sessions plus one-on-one coaching with hockey experts.

Jason’s community is a great example of how creators can increase the ROI of their membership sites and earn recurring revenue. Instead of having to purchase a course one by one, students can subscribe to the exclusive community and access all of the courses in one place while saving money.

Why we love Train 2.0+ Membership:

Own a niche: Jason’s community focuses on helping hockey players at all levels develop expert skills and unlock their potential with tried and true training methods. But rather than just appealing to all hockey players, Jason really focuses on those with big-league aspirations. He deploys language like, “Discover what makes top NHL players different” to resonate with this specific audience.
Positively impact members: By displaying social proof through student reviews, Jason can show—not just tell—how he positively impacts hockey players, helping them reach their goals.

Natural Cosmetics Formulation Club

At first, Gail was only interested in making and selling organic skincare products. But she soon realized that the more people saw these products, the more they were interested in learning how to make the products themselves. So she set up The School of Natural Skincare to address this need.

Natural Cosmetics Formulation Club is the membership site for The School of Natural Skincare. It has tons of exclusive learning resources—including templates and guides—that will help you create natural skincare products and launch your own business!

New content is added to the club’s library every week. What’s more? You can suggest new topics to be added to the content library based on your research and learning needs. And you’ll also connect with other natural skincare aficionados who can support your journey from skincare novice to expert!

Why we love Natural Cosmetics Formulation Club:

Own a niche: The School of Natural Skincare is a perfect example of how niching can unlock tremendous benefits for your business. By focusing on a highly-specific niche, Gail attracted a high intent audience that drove organic signups to both her courses and membership site.
Originality: The members are not getting generic information that they can find somewhere else. They are getting first hand expert knowledge that translates to real results for their personal lives and businesses.

The Key to Pictures Academy

Founded by veteran photographer, Katie Evans, The Key to Pictures Academy is an advanced photography training program for people who have mastered basic photography skills and are looking to graduate to the next level! Members pay $37/month and get immediate access to over 80 step-by-step video tutorials, one-on-one mentorship sessions, peer reviews, and live feedback sessions with Katie.

For people who aren’t quite ready for the subscription-based community, Katie offers standalone online courses that set a solid foundation for understanding photography—after which you can sign up for The Academy!

Why we love The Key to Pictures Academy:

Membership ROI: Not everyone can afford a $495 one-time payment. To limit the number of people who might miss out on the membership due to pricing, The Academy allows students to pay in installments. It also offers scholarships to eligible applicants.
Own a niche: Katie’s school is very clear on its value proposition, which positively impacts its messaging and overall positioning. It’s not a place for beginners; rather it provides the key knowledge needed to go from basic to advanced photography. This clarity helps the school attract the right audience, making conversions a breeze.

Rachel’s English Academy

For foreign students looking to attain spoken English fluency, Rachel’s English Academy provides everything you need to succeed. It’s packed with practical training resources—from recorded lessons to sound boards and quizzes—to help you speak English confidently.

For $37/month, members get access to daily lessons from Rachel to help them improve their spoken English systematically, in addition to the extensive course library. You’ll also participate in live feedback classes and coaching sessions so you can attain near-native fluency in no time!

If you’re not ready for a membership, you can sign up for any of the academy’s courses and earn a certification upon completion. You can download these certificates and add them to your LinkedIn profile or professional website.

Why we love Rachel’s English Academy :

Own a niche: From the minute you land on the website, it is clear who it is made for—the copy is simple to grasp, and it speaks to the pain points of non-English speaking students. The academy isn’t concerned with the technicalities of the English language. Instead, it focuses on teaching non-English speakers to pronounce English words correctly.
Site Design: The membership site is packed with tons of social proof from former and current students. It has an FAQ section that addresses common objections students might have, which increases the chances of these students signing up for the academy.

Olive Knits

At age 11, Marie Greene learned to knit at her grandma’s side. Today, she’s passing on that knowledge and passion to knitters worldwide. Her Knit Camp sets members up with twelve new patterns per year—including complete tutorials, live webinars, tips and tricks, and access to the Knit Camp online community.

For knitters who aren’t ready to commit, Olive Knits offers original patterns at an affordable price. And Marie keeps her blog regularly updated, with topics ranging from design inspiration to perfect shoulder stitches.

Why we love Olive Knits:

Passion to profits: Unless your intent is to sell your knitting creations, knitting is thought of as more of a hobby than a business. But Olive Knits has taken their passion for knitting, and created a business from it by sharing it with the world. You can replace knitting with virtually any hobby that you’re passionate about.
Price range: Olive Knits is able to accommodate a variety of commitment levels. You can either sign up for their Knit Camp, purchase their patterns at an affordable price, or learn from their blog for free.

Zealous Art

For Freda Lombard, teaching art in person has always been a fun way to explore creativity and impact others positively. However, when the pandemic made in-person meet-ups impossible, Freda decided to move her classes online—and Zealous Art was born.

“Paint Night at Home ”, Zealous Art’s membership program, has more than 120 bite-sized painting videos suitable for everyone—from beginners to experienced artists. The videos are organized by theme—from winter and Christmas paintings to Halloween and beach paintings—so you can easily find what makes your creativity tick. And new videos are added every month too.

Zealous Art supports self-paced learning, which means you can paint whenever you like and for as long as you want—whether you have a few minutes between classes or you’re looking to relax after a long day’s work. You’ll also join a fun community where you can connect with other art lovers, plan co-painting classes and ask Freda questions!

Why we love Zealous Art:

Passion to profit: Freda has built a successful business by combining her two passions – art and teaching. She keeps doing what she loves while impacting others positively.
A teacher’s best friend: The videos are broken into bite-sized pieces with clear instructions that anyone can follow. Art teachers can use Freda’s videos to complement complex learning modules in the classroom.

Kid Explorer

Every so often, we come across newer membership site owners who are wise beyond their years—and this is quite literally true of Kid Explorer for a number of reasons. We first took notice of Kid Explorer after seeing a sudden influx of search engine traffic hitting their site. They were launching their Thinkific site as a way to expand from their success on YouTube to a platform that they own and control. They’re a family-run operation taking new steps to monetize their successful YouTube channel with educational content for kids. For $10 a month, you get an all-access membership to their content.

They gave away a free course on the U.S. Presidential Election that spread like wildfire through the public school system. Teachers from across the world were using Kid Explorer’s content in their classes to help children understand what all the election fuss was about. This is a membership site launch strategy that we see work time and time again—offer something for free to a large audience to plant the seed.

Kid Explorer has the unique advantage of having their children as the instructors, which gives them valuable input on how their content can be designed and delivered in a way that children understand. We suspect they nailed their launch because of their large audience and publishing effective educational content for children.

Why we love Kid Explorer:

Teacher’s best friend: Kid Explorer has found a niche creating content for children, by children–something clearly valued by teachers for use in the classroom. They indicate a trend we’d love to see more of our course creators capitalize on—the resourcefulness and agility of for-profit educational businesses that support the public school system with blended learning content.
Cool factor: Because of their unique approach leveraging the lens their children view the world through to develop more effective content, their impeccably timed launch during the election, and the fact that they’re a family-run operation, Kid Explorer is a pretty cool membership site.

The Personal Development School

Thais Gibson offers “courses for real life” with The Personal Development School. Overcoming mental obstacles, dealing with anxiety and depression, and forging deeper connections with the people who matter in your life are powerful skills that almost anyone can benefit from.

Membership in the Personal Development School gives students access to all intro modules, workbooks, and the school’s online community. You’ll also get two weekly group coaching events and exclusive access to live events.

Thais regularly updates her blog with concise, helpful content to keep students informed about her expertise and available support—potentially life-changing advice you can use now for free.

Why we love it:

Impact on members: Another example of an impactful membership site that can improve the lives of its members. They have carved out a unique proposition of “courses for real life” in the fairly crowded wellness space.
Site design: Their website has a slider that rotates through positive comments left by their members–a great example of using member testimonials to do the selling for you.

We loved the order in which things were placed on the website: The testimonials are above Thais’ bio, and it’s important to understand why. Your membership site isn’t about you; it’s about your members and the value they’ll receive from membership. Potential members are far more interested in the outcomes your site can provide than your qualifications.

Society of Visual Storytelling

It’s one thing to learn how to draw. It’s something else entirely to become a great illustrator. The Society of Visual Storytelling offers an array of courses covering the technical aspects of putting your ideas on paper. Plus, they offer online critique workshops and lessons specific to the illustrating profession—like how to perfect your portfolio and promote yourself online.

If students want a lesson on a specific technique—like cross-hatching or watercolors—they can buy it individually. But membership gives you access to every course so that you can get a comprehensive education at your own pace. As their student gallery and busy forum attests, the Society of Visual Storytelling has played a major role in kick-starting members’ careers.

Why we love the Society of Visual Storytelling:

Site design: We expected a membership site focused on visual storytelling to have a beautiful site, and were not disappointed. You probably wouldn’t know they’re using two different platforms for their front and back ends because they’ve done an excellent job integrating their brand look and feel across their entire site.
Member ROI and passion to profits: Their value proposition is the very first thing you’ll see when you visit the website. Society of Visual Storytelling bridges the gap between being good at drawing and making a career of it.

BizChix

Earning the last membership website example slot is BizChix. Last, but certainly not least, Natalie Eckdahl is a seasoned business strategist and high-performance coach helping entrepreneurial women build, grow, and scale their businesses. Membership to BizChix gives you access to weekly and bi-weekly group coaching, pre-recorded content, connections to a community of women entrepreneurs, and more.

Natalie has designed her program to appeal to entrepreneurs at all levels, with three packages focused on different groups and their needs—from women just getting their businesses off the ground to seven-figure CEOs.

Why we love BizChix:

Member ROI and price range: It’s hard to miss the impact BizChix can have on its members—high-achieving, entrepreneurial women who want to take their businesses to new heights. BizChix has a variety of packages ranging from 1-on-1 to group coaching sessions that lead to high member ROI, with package options that accommodate different commitment levels from $10,000+ to $600/month.
Impact on members: Due to the nature of their content and the fact that it’s tailored towards one niche audience, we believe that the value of the education they target towards a specific group has a high potential for impact on the lives of their members.

Build engaged membership sites with Thinkific

Choosing a membership site platform is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. You need a provider that supports a user-friendly interface and guarantees security for your content and customers’ data.

Thinkific is the perfect solution for creating thriving and engaging membership sites. It’s easy to use, allows you to set up a variety of content, and supports multiple pricing and membership plans. Check out the Communities feature here!

This blog was originally published in August 2022, it’s since been updated to include more relevant information in April 2024.