I’m just about through my research on Membership Site Software, having viewed most of the content management systems, (CMS), full design membership site offerings and membership site scripts and I’ve come up with the most likely candidate for my upcoming memberships site.

I plan to charge around $297 dollars for a yearly subscription and I estimate that I will easily get 500 members in the first year. So in terms of change we are looking at around $150000 gross. Not bad - maybe I’m dreaming but even if I do only a quarter of that - it’s still well worth it.

Now for a brief coverage of different membership software, there are CMS or content management systems which are not really custom built for the purpose and may or may not have the required functionality to handle subscriptions and other features I require.

Then there are full service membership platforms - look at around $5000 US, just to get started not including custom tweaks later on. Not a good idea for a startup.

Then there are little scripts that handle bits and pieces. But I don’t want to spend my time installing scripts and tweaking. I just want to focus on providing the content.

Everything else must be automated.

Well the bad news is I couldn’t find a perfect system that did everything I wanted at a price I could afford.

But the good news is - I did find a membership site software platform and service that does %99 per cent of what I want at a great price.

VisionGatePortal Software is my choice for my future membership site. It has the right combination of price and features and it’s mostly automated.

Here is the benefit set: I don’t think you’ll find one more comprehensive.

• Fully Customizable To Your Web Site
• Content Management & File Protection
• Member Management & Subscription Sales
• Full-Featured Forums With phpBB Option
• Registration & Password Protection
• Member Image Gallery Built-In
• RSS Content Syndication & Aggregation
• Polls, Surveys, Questionnaires & Results
• Automated Digital Download Sales
• Top-Tier Data Center and Bandwidth
• Sequential Autoresponders
• CPanel/eMail/FTP/Domain Management
• Audio, Video and Flash File Storage
• Categorized Web Site Link Directories
• High-Powered Web Site Servers
• News, Articles & Newsletter Publisher Tools
• Built-In Customer Support Ticket System
• Website Maintenance & Reporting
• Flash or Static Banner Ad Management
• Membership Driven Navigation Links
• Sales Page Editor & Split Testing Tool
• Event Calendar & Schedule Description
• Java Chat Option Available
• Online Video Training & User Guide

The pricing also includes hosting and they have 2 plans depending on how many members you have. I will be starting off on the startup plan and then expand upwards.

If you visit the VisionGatePortal site you can see some sites that are already using this software. I will be providing tutorial type info to a specific niche, and some of these sites are
already doing that. Funny thing was, I’ve heard of many of them before, but I didn’t know they were using this membership site software.

Most of the other membership software providers are literally charging an arm and a leg. In fact VisionGatePortal is underpriced in my opinion and I wouldn’t be surprised if they put the price up soon.

So there you have it: VisionGatePortal Membership Site Software is my choice for my upcoming membership site and is a cool tool.

More Info on Vision Gate Portal