The MemberPress plugin and its knowledge base use a number of specific terms. Understanding these terms correctly helps you set up and manage your membership site.
This document lists the most common MemberPress terms and briefly explains each one. Where a term has its own documentation, the term links to it.
MemberPress Terms
| Term | Definition |
| License Key | The activated license key is required for the MemberPress plugin to work on your website. It also provides access to updates, customer support, and admin functions. The license key is connected to your subscription on MemberPress.com. The key stays active until that subscription expires. Learn more about what happens if your license key expires. |
| User | A WordPress user account is created for every person registered on your website (manually, by import, or by registration). This includes every registered user, including administrators. Users need their WordPress user account to log in to your website. |
| Member | Members are users who are, or were, registered for any membership in MemberPress. |
| Guest | A person visiting your website without being logged in. Most often, these are people who are not yet registered as users. |
| Product | Anything you sell with MemberPress is a product. MemberPress has two product types: Membership and Digital. You create and manage all products at Dashboard > MemberPress > Products. A group accepts membership products only. |
| Membership | A product type that gives members access to protected content for a set period. Each membership has its own price, duration and renewal rules (product terms), permissions, and registration page. Access to protected content is most often based on memberships. |
| Digital Product | A product type sold only through the shopping cart. A digital product is a one-time purchase with its own price and access period. Customers can buy several units of a digital product in one order. The Max Quantity Per Cart option on the product sets the limit. Digital products have no standalone registration page. |
| Permissions | A membership product option that controls who can purchase a membership. Here, you set the conditions users must meet to subscribe to that membership. |
| Product Terms | The section of the product edit screen that defines the price, billing type, and renewal rules. It also sets the duration (for example, 1 month or 1 year). MemberPress uses these terms to create subscriptions and charge users. A free price locks the billing type to one-time. |
| Subscription | The time-based access a user holds to a membership. MemberPress creates a subscription each time a user purchases a membership, through its registration page or the cart. Subscriptions are one-time or recurring. A one-time subscription holds a single transaction. A recurring subscription holds several transactions, one per subscription interval. One user can have several subscriptions to the same membership or to different memberships. |
| Subscription Status | A subscription is either Active or Inactive. Users can access protected content only while their subscription is Active. A subscription is Active when it has a completed, non-refunded, non-expired transaction. If that transaction expires or you refund or delete it, the subscription becomes Inactive. |
| Cancel | MemberPress does not process charges. Payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net) do this. Processors renew recurring subscriptions until the subscription is canceled. You can cancel users’ subscriptions at Dashboard > MemberPress > Subscriptions. If the Allow Members to Cancel their own subscriptions option is enabled, users can cancel on their Account page. Canceling is the only way to stop future charges. Deleting subscriptions, transactions, users, or the MemberPress plugin does not cancel recurring subscriptions. |
| Pause/Resume | Pausing a recurring subscription stops all future billing until the subscription is resumed. A paused subscription is not renewed and becomes Inactive in the meantime. Only recurring subscriptions can be paused and resumed. |
| Transaction | A single payment record for one product. Payment processors collect online payments, and you collect offline payments. MemberPress records a transaction for each payment. A one-time subscription has one transaction. A recurring subscription has one transaction per subscription interval. A cart order creates one transaction for each product in the order. The subscription status, and thus content access, depends on the transaction duration. When a transaction expires, the subscription must renew or it becomes Inactive. |
| Order | A purchase made through the cart checkout. One order can contain several products and holds one transaction per product. Orders appear at Dashboard > MemberPress > Orders, where you can refund, cancel, and review them. Members see their orders on the Account page. Order references use the mp-ord- prefix. |
| Group(s) | A set of memberships added to the Membership Products field of the same group. Creating a group lets members upgrade or downgrade between the memberships in it. MemberPress also generates a pricing page for each group. Groups accept membership products only. |
| Rule(s) | To limit content to members, you must protect the content. Rules define which content is protected and the access conditions users must meet to view it. |
| PayWall | A feature that lets non-members view protected content a set number of times. Once a non-member uses up the free views, MemberPress blocks further protected content. The user then sees the unauthorized message or is redirected, depending on your settings. You configure the PayWall on the General tab in MemberPress settings. |
| Coupon(s) | A unique code that applies a set discount to a purchase. Coupons apply when users purchase a product and cannot be applied to renewals. |
| Registration | The process of a user filling in and submitting the MemberPress registration form for one membership. Registration creates the user account, the subscription, and the first transaction. Users register through a membership’s registration page or, with the cart enabled, through the cart checkout. |
| Standalone Registration Page | The registration page MemberPress creates for each membership. It sells that one membership on its own. With the cart disabled, every membership sells through its standalone registration page. With the cart enabled, the Registration Page option on each membership controls whether the standalone page stays active. |
| Shopping Cart | An optional MemberPress feature that lets customers buy several products in one purchase. It adds the shop page, the cart page, and the cart checkout page. The cart is disabled by default and is enabled at Dashboard > MemberPress > Settings > Cart. Once the first cart order exists, the cart cannot be disabled. Switching to the MemberPress Cart explains the enablement process. |
| Shop Page | The reserved page that lists your products when the cart is enabled. Each product card shows either an Add To Cart button (cart sales) or a View Details button (standalone registration page). |
| Cart Page | The reserved page where customers review the products they added, change digital product quantities, and proceed to checkout. |
| Cart Checkout Page | The reserved page where customers pay for a cart order. By default, it renders as a single-page checkout form. The Enable multi-step checkout wizard option in the Cart settings switches it to the checkout wizard. |
| Checkout Wizard | The multi-step form of the cart checkout. It has three built-in steps, Basic, Billing, and Payment, and skips steps that do not apply. You can add custom steps. With the wizard disabled, the checkout renders as a single-page form. |
| (User Information) Fields | Registration forms, the cart checkout, and the Account form contain a number of basic fields (for example, the email address). You can add custom fields to these forms. Basic and custom fields are managed on the Fields tab in MemberPress settings. |
| Account Page | The page holding all user-related information. Every logged-in user can open their Account page. There, users view and manage their profile data, payments, subscriptions, orders, courses, and more. |
| Payment Method(s) | Payment options offered on registration pages and the cart checkout. Each payment method added on the Payments tab in MemberPress settings adds a payment option. Users choose the method they want to pay with. Payment methods are offline or online. Online methods include Stripe, PayPal*, Square*, and Authorize.net**. The cart checkout supports Stripe and offline payments only, and each method has its own Enable for cart option. *Available on Growth and Scale MemberPress plans **Available on the Scale plan only |
| Reminder(s) | Emails triggered before or after a specific subscription or registration event (for example, before a subscription renews). MemberPress sends them automatically at the set time. For example, you can send a reminder 7 days before a subscription renews, and in other similar cases. You can edit the template of each reminder. |
| Email(s) Notices | Default emails that notify members and admins about events on the website. Examples include an upgraded subscription or a cart order receipt. MemberPress sends them the moment the event occurs. You can edit the template of each email notice. |
| MemberPress Add-ons | Plugins with additional features that extend the MemberPress core plugin. You can activate several add-ons to run only the features you need. Add-on availability depends on your MemberPress plan. |
| Third-Party Add-ons | Add-ons that extend MemberPress but are not developed by the MemberPress team. Third parties create, maintain, and support them, and MemberPress has no control over how they work. |
