aMember Pro

Powerful Online Platform for Courses, Membership Program and Digital Products

Vorteile:

As an online educator and product creator, I needed a reliable, robust and easy-to-use online platform that would allow me to protect my content, provide a wonderful user experience and process payments. aMember delivers it all, and more. I've been using this software to run my business for over eight years.

Nachteile:

There are a lot of moving parts, so you'll need to have a detail-oriented person on your team or systems in place when adding new products. However, the customer support team is spectacular and they get back to you quickly with solutions and support.

Best DIY Membership if you know coding

Kommentare: We created a membership site selling coaching and video courses using aMember. Once the site is setup, aMember is great at keeping things going. I'd imagine if you use wordpress and is knowledgeable with building wordpress aMember is great for you. But if you are a no-coder and doesn't want to hire a developer, other SaaS membership/directory/LMS may be a better option. Overall, I'd recommend aMember to a technical person or someone who want a custom solution.

Vorteile:

It does billing, various kind of subscription - variable pricing subscription ($1 for first month then full price next month), one time payment, or month to month, annually, quarterly. Really you set the pricing. I'm using other new membership softwares too and they don't the kind of plan building flexibility like aMember. aMemberPro has a built-in CRM, allowing you to filter contacts, adds notes which can be useful if you don't want to pay for a whole bunch of other tools. Actually aMember is a membership software with marketing and sales built-in mind. Very thoughtful features.

Nachteile:

This may not be an accurate comparison for aMember Pro which is more a 1 time purchase with self-hosted/DIY membership management software - but comparing to the newer SaaS which is monthly cost (so huge in pricing difference long term), the newer membership apps include hosting, have very nice ui/ux (aMember has this very year 2006 looking ui by default). Since aMember isn't much of a SaaS but more of a DIY/self-hosted solution, you'll need to from time to time to get a technical person to help you set up things, or when you need a new pages added you need to create them 1 by 1 hiring developers (we did not use wordpress).

More Support!

Kommentare: Okay I get it these guys live and work in another time zone! I have been a customer for about 15 years. I hold many licenses for all the websites I have set up for myself and others over the years. Program pretty easy to install and get going. Never really had an issue with any of that. When I first started using this software the support was quick, and they answered support tickets as soon as they got into the office. This was great for me since their start time is my bedtime. I could resolve the issue in 12 - 24 hours by a quick exchange of emails / support tickets. Their coding structure was simple to use and has gotten very complex over the years. Their forum is pretty dead and the only people trolling over there are looking to get paid. It used to be full of helpful people willing to help. Over the years they have listened to their customers and added some cool features. However the documentation for the new features are very poorly written or does not explain all the features. Just a quick overview and the rest is I hope the customers can figure it out. The biggest issue I have had over the years are the themes, matching the look and feel of my website with aMember. The lack of docs on the subject over every version have made it extremely hard to make my own themes without help from their staff. Not too many people know how to work with aMember and if you do it wrong you will lose your updates when you update your software to a new version. Hire the wrong coder and you are throwing money away. So what do you do? You put up with their crappy support system that has gotten worse the more people they hire to provide support. If you catch anyone online (skype) they never answer, say they are on vacation, or tell you to open a ticket. When you tell them you have an you need a reply they ignore you. Go to bed and you will get half of what you need to complete your task at hand. Add to your support ticket give them your ftp access the next night and they will fix it by the time you wake up, if you are lucky. Otherwise it will be a few days of exchanging support tickets. If you understand php, phtml, css, and have the time to learn aMembers coding system you will be in business. If not I would stay clear of this software unless you want a half finished broke site for days at a time, or the crappy service!

Consistent support, assistance, updates, and new versions since I began using this back in 2008.

Kommentare: With this software I am able to create a simple, yet incredibly feature rich membership management site selling everything from subscription based products, subscription based services and even online webinars and in-person seminars - all for a fraction of the price it would take to develop a custom solution. This allows me to focus all my energy on customizing the website theme, layout and user experience, saving my customers a LOT of money and allowing me to bid jobs much lower than others while creating a superior product. Not only that, but when complete I can offload support on the aMember company for any project IF I choose to do so.

Vorteile:

This software/script is an incredible value for the money. Nowhere else on the internet have I found a membership management application that gives you as many features, options and customization ability than with aMember. On top of all that, you get access to the ENTIRE source code of the system, along with virtually unlimited access to the programmers and support staff that actually build the software for a year with the initial purchase, and after that year the annual support renewal is more than reasonable for the level of help they provide. This system is so versatile that I have been able to build 8 different sites with it, and within those 8 sites each one operates with a similar function but has its very own style and themes.

Nachteile:

The only real draw backs I have about this script is that the actual documentation they have created on their internal wiki is extremely limited, and the support team is based somewhere a bit west of Russia which can make talking with support in realtime a bit challenging at times. Their english is pretty good, but there are times when the language barrier becomes a bit challenging - but not enough to make it difficult or impossible by any means. Honestly, if they updated their documentation to be more up-to-date, clear and concise I would probably never need support.

My Choice of Shopping Cart

Kommentare: I use Amember for my ecommerce site. It functions as my shopping cart and affiliate program. I love the fact that I didn't have to purchase a separate affiliate program, and it helps affiliates find their links by logging into one area and not multiple sites.

Vorteile:

What attracted me to Amember Pro is that it was a shopping cart and affiliate program combined. That makes it easy for me to use to list my products and to run the affiliate program. I also liked the fact that while it works with Wordpress sites, it is a separate install. This keeps the backend of my business separate from the store end.

Nachteile:

There is a learning curve with the software but I found a great Facebook group that helps with additional tips. The customer service from Amember is very good, sometimes, due to their location it takes a while for a reply to come through. But they are excellent at troubling shooting and going out of their way to fix your issues.