Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

WordPress

Posted by Travis Bouck
Travis Bouck
5,752 Points

Fork in the road - wordpress or own site... or alternative?

Hi - just looking for some advice from hopefully people that know a bit more than I do...

We have stated a Swedish language internet site with internet based membership much like Treehouse (which I think has been fantastic) focusing on the Swedish language together with my wife.

However, we do not want to dump a tonne of cash into it and risk too much. And therefore I have been trying to learn as much as possible to help out and hopefully we can get it up and running without too much capital.

Now - trying to figure out the right way to go. Wordpress looks like the best option but we have had a difficult time finding the functionality that we would like to have in plugins with respect to a membership site. There are tonnes of them out there and we have tried a lot of them but can't seem to get really what we want (and a few of these functions we believe are critical for long-term success).

Is the best bet to try and create our own Wordpress plugins that we think are missing? Develop own website from scratch (worried about updating everything here)? Kind of trying to figure out which way to jump.

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers!

9 Answers

Joey Petelle
Joey Petelle
1,682 Points
Joey Petelle
Joey Petelle
1,682 Points

Travis,

I would suggest you look at Drupal for your membership site. Its user based security for communities is amazing right out of the box. 100's of Sony (recording label) artist sites are built on this platform.

Kalen Johnson
Kalen Johnson
412 Points
Kalen Johnson
Kalen Johnson
412 Points

Might help to know what the functionality is that you are looking for, if you're able to discuss it.

There are larger plugins like Buddypress that handle a lot of membership content.

Travis Bouck
Travis Bouck
5,752 Points
Travis Bouck
Travis Bouck
5,752 Points

Joey - thanks - I will check it out - hadn't found it earlier and will see if it could possibly work.

Kalen - have looked at Buddypress and will probably go deeper into it also to see if would work. Critical to have a corporate/group function whereby the corporate admin administrates users, can see status, etc. Referral program function (not affiliate) similar to Treehouse whereby receive discount on monthly fee is also a function that would really help growth due to the product.

Thanks for the responses. I am new to the web so it is a challenge but always nice to learn something new.

Blair Rorani
Blair Rorani
6,658 Points
Blair Rorani
Blair Rorani
6,658 Points

I've had a similar question about the best way to create a paid membership site. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Zac Gordon
STAFF
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Zac Gordon
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Hi,

If it comes down to you not being able to find the exact plugin to meet your needs I think you have a few options:

1) See if you can hire one of the plugin developers that has almost all the functionality to give you a custom build. 2) Hire a WordPress developer to give you a custom plugin 3) Use another CMS 4) Build the site from scratch

I would suggest in this case that you look into some other CMS before exploring your other options. Particularly I would look at member management options for ExpressionEngine and Drupal.

Since you are limited in your budget, I would also suggest narrowing your scope to only having the absolutely necessary functionality at first and then add additional features if your site proves successful and generates money.

Travis Bouck
Travis Bouck
5,752 Points
Travis Bouck
Travis Bouck
5,752 Points

Thanks Zac - really appreciate you taking the time to give your thoughts. It will be bare bones to start with and then build on after. Looking forward to the Wordpress custom theme videos in the future.

Zac Gordon
STAFF
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Zac Gordon
Zac Gordon
Treehouse Guest Teacher

You're welcome Travis, I'm interested in seeing what you decide. Please post back up here!!

And I'm also excited you're looking forward to the upcoming theming videos :)

Michael Colman
Michael Colman
5,099 Points
Michael Colman
Michael Colman
5,099 Points

Hi Travis,

I use wordpress all the time for my customers and they love it. I did build a site using a membership plugin and it met all the clients requirements.

http://www.s2member.com/

Looking forward to seeing what you think.

Thanks, Michael

Ryan Carson
Ryan Carson
23,287 Points
Ryan Carson
Ryan Carson
23,287 Points

Very cool Michael! Thanks for sharing :)