MemberPress

Plandalf for MemberPress puts your Plandalf checkout where the MemberPress signup form used to be. Buyers pay through Plandalf, and the plugin gives them the membership as soon as the payment clears. MemberPress keeps your members, rules and content. Setup takes about fifteen minutes.

Warning. Early access These steps are for version 0.2.1 of the plugin. Set it up on a staging site first, and keep your MemberPress signup form live until your test purchase works.

Before you start

WordPress 6.4 or later on PHP 8.2 or later, with MemberPress 1.12 or later active.
A staging copy of your site on HTTPS. Plandalf needs to reach it to send purchase events.
A Plandalf account.
Email that works from WordPress. New members get their set-password link by email.

1. Get Plandalf ready

Connect Stripe

In Plandalf, open Settings → Payments & Tax Integrations and connect Stripe. When it says Connected, you’re set. You never enter Stripe keys in WordPress.

Plandalf Settings, Payments and Tax Integrations, with Stripe connected — In Plandalf: Settings → Payments & Tax Integrations.

For staging, connect a Stripe test account so purchases use test cards and nothing is charged.

Publish a checkout

Open Checkouts and click Create New Checkout. Design the pages a buyer sees, then switch it to Active.

Plandalf Checkouts with the Create New Checkout button and the active Harbour Yoga membership checkout — In Plandalf: Checkouts.

WordPress uses this checkout’s design and swaps in each membership’s own price, so one checkout can sell every membership. Keep it to a details page and a payment page for now: the plugin moves buyers on as soon as they’ve paid, so pages after payment, such as an upsell, don’t show yet.

2. Install the plugin

Download plandalf-memberpress.zip from the 0.2.1 release. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add Plugin → Upload Plugin, choose the zip and click Install Now.

WordPress Add Plugins, Upload Plugin, with plandalf-memberpress.zip chosen and the Install Now button — Plugins → Add Plugin → Upload Plugin.

Click Activate Plugin, then Set up under Plandalf for MemberPress.

The WordPress Plugins list with Plandalf for MemberPress 0.2.0 active and its Set up link — Once it is active, Set up opens the plugin.

3. Connect to Plandalf

MemberPress → Plandalf walks you through three steps, and each one turns green when it’s done. Start with Connect with Plandalf.

MemberPress → Plandalf before connecting, with the Connect with Plandalf button in step 1 — MemberPress → Plandalf before connecting. Steps 2 and 3 open once you are connected.

Plandalf opens. Sign in if it asks, choose your account, pick Test for a staging site (or Live for your real one), and click Connect with your site’s address.

The Plandalf Connect MemberPress screen with the account picker, Live or Test, and the Connect button — In Plandalf: choose the account and Test or Live, then connect.

On Authorize Plandalf, check the account and click Allow access.

The Plandalf Authorize screen listing what the WordPress connection can do, with Allow access and Deny — Review what the connection can do, then allow it.

You’re back in WordPress, connected. There are no keys or webhook addresses to copy: the plugin registered its purchase-event address with Plandalf for you.

Step 1 connected to Harbour Yoga in test mode, with the purchase event address and the Disconnect and Reconnect buttons — Connected. WordPress registered its purchase-event address with Plandalf for you.

If a security or caching plugin protects your site, let /wp-json/plandalf/v1/events through.

4. Choose your checkout and link memberships

Choose the checkout

In step 2, pick the checkout you published, keep Use Plandalf checkout in place of the MemberPress signup form ticked, and click Save checkout.

Step 2, Choose your checkout design, with Harbour Yoga membership selected and Save checkout — One checkout design for every membership page.

Link each membership to a price

A membership is what someone gets access to; a Plandalf price is what they pay. Linking them means buying that price grants that membership.

Step 3 lists your memberships. Click Create Plandalf price next to one. The plugin creates a matching price in Plandalf from the membership’s own terms, links them, and the membership page switches to your checkout straight away.

Step 3: All-Access Membership linked to two Plandalf prices and selling through Plandalf; Lifetime Pass not linked yet, with a Create Plandalf price button — A linked membership sells through Plandalf. One click links the other.

Fine-tune a membership

Click Manage to open the membership’s Plandalf tab. Here you can link more prices to the same membership, such as a yearly plan, and see when a price differs from the membership’s own terms. Click Update MemberPress to match Plandalf to copy the price across, or Keep the difference if it’s on purpose.

The Plandalf tab in the All-Access Membership editor: two Plandalf prices that grant it, a note that the yearly price differs from MemberPress, and buttons to link or create a price — The membership’s Plandalf tab: every price that grants it.

Further down, choose how the page sells: which price, which checkout design, and whether the checkout is embedded in the page or opens from a button.

The checkout settings on the membership’s Plandalf tab: status, price sold on the page, checkout design, how it is shown, and opt out — How this membership’s page sells.

To sell a membership from another page, add a button with its membership ID (the number in the membership’s edit link):

[plandalf_buy membership="9"]Join now[/plandalf_buy]

5. Protect your content

Plandalf grants the membership; MemberPress rules decide what it unlocks. If your content is already protected, skip ahead. Otherwise, make a test page with a sentence you’ll recognise, then go to MemberPress → Rules → Add New Rule.

Choose A Single Page, pick your page, set the access condition to your membership and click Save Rule.

A new MemberPress rule protecting the Class Library page for All-Access Membership members — MemberPress → Rules → Add New Rule.

Then tell MemberPress where new members should land. In the membership, open Membership Options → Advanced and set Membership Access URL to the page.

The Advanced tab of Membership Options with the Membership Access URL set to the Class Library page — Membership Options → Advanced → Membership Access URL.

Log out and open the page. It should be locked. (Administrators skip rules, so always check signed out.)

The Class Library page signed out: MemberPress says you are unauthorized and shows a login form — Signed out, the page is locked.

6. Make a test purchase

Open the membership page in a private window. Your checkout sits where the signup form was, and in test mode a banner reminds you which card to use.

Pay with a new email address you can read and the test card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future date and any CVC.

The Plandalf payment step on the membership page with the buyer’s email, name and test card filled in, and the order summary — New buyers enter an email and card. There is no username or password to choose yet.

The thank-you page waits a moment while Plandalf confirms the payment.

The Harbour Yoga thank-you page: Thank you for your purchase, we are activating your membership — Straight after paying. It usually takes a few seconds.

A new member is then asked to choose a password. The same link arrives by email, in case they close the page. Someone already signed in just sees their membership confirmed.

The Harbour Yoga set-password page a new member is sent to after paying — A new member chooses a password, then lands on the membership’s Access URL.

Once they’ve set it, the protected page opens for them.

The Class Library page on harbouryoga.com, open for the new member — Signed in as the new member, it opens.

Back in WordPress, check both sides of the purchase. MemberPress → Plandalf → Events shows the purchase as Applied:

The plugin’s Events list: two invoice.paid events for the test purchases, both Applied — Every purchase event Plandalf sent, and what the plugin did with it.

And MemberPress → Transactions shows it as a normal transaction, numbered with its Plandalf invoice:

MemberPress Transactions with the test purchases numbered by their Plandalf invoices, Complete, paid through Checkout (Plandalf) — MemberPress → Transactions.

Before going live, also try a declined card (4000 0000 0000 0002), a purchase by a member who’s already signed in, a cancellation from the MemberPress account page, and a refund.

7. Go live

On your live site, connect in Live mode. To switch a site that’s already connected, click Disconnect, then connect again.
Connect your live Stripe account in Plandalf.
Link your memberships and open each membership page to check its price.
Let /wp-json/plandalf/v1/events through your firewall or security plugin, and leave membership pages out of page caching.
Make one small real purchase, then refund it.

Members already paying through a MemberPress gateway carry on as before. Plandalf takes new purchases, so both can run side by side.

After launch

Renewals extend the membership to the end of each paid period.
Cancelling from the MemberPress account page cancels the Plandalf subscription at the end of the period. The member keeps access until then.
Failed payments are retried by Stripe on your Stripe retry settings. If Stripe finally cancels the subscription, the membership ends.
Refunds are issued in Plandalf. A full refund ends the membership.
A daily check catches renewals and cancellations for subscriptions due in the next 48 hours, in case an event was missed.

What doesn’t work yet

Checkout pages after payment, such as upsells.
Promo pricing on membership pages. The page sells the linked price.
MemberPress coupons. Create discounts in Plandalf instead.
Proration when someone switches between memberships in a group.
Moving existing MemberPress subscriptions to Plandalf.

If something’s not right

Someone paid but has no membership. Look for their invoice in MemberPress → Plandalf → Events. If it’s missing, a firewall or caching plugin is blocking /wp-json/plandalf/v1/events. Let it through and Plandalf keeps retrying for about a day. Don’t charge them again.
The event says Ignored. The price they bought isn’t linked to a membership on this site. Link it on the membership’s Plandalf tab.
The page still shows the MemberPress form. The membership’s Plandalf tab has a Status line that says why. Clear your page cache after changing it.
No set-password email. Check WordPress email and your SMTP plugin.

Developers can find the events, signatures and data the plugin writes in the MemberPress reference. The plugin’s source and releases are on GitHub.