Membership Site
A membership site keeps some of its content behind a login, so only people who have signed up, and usually paid, can reach it.
In plain English
Public pages work as normal. Members only pages check who is asking: logged in with the right membership, come in; anyone else, here is the sign up page instead.
In WordPress this is a plugin’s job. It handles registration, payment, renewals, and the check that runs on every protected page.
Why it matters
It changes the shape of the income. Instead of selling one course to one person once, a monthly membership brings the same person back, which is easier than finding a new one every month.
It also fits teaching well. Courses grow over time, and members who joined a year ago get the new material rather than being asked to buy again.
How it works
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You define levelsFree, monthly, yearly, whatever the offer needs. Each level is a set of permissions.
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You protect the contentPer page, per post type, or per category. The plugin checks membership before rendering.
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Payment runs on a scheduleA payment provider handles the recurring charge and tells your site when it succeeds or fails.
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Access follows paymentA cancelled or failed subscription quietly drops the member back to whatever the free level allows.
Recurring payments raise the stakes
Failed renewals, refunds and cancellations are all normal and all need a sensible path. Decide what happens on a failed payment before you launch, not on the day it happens.