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MemBuild
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MemBuild Community · free plugin

A community for your membership.
Free, and it lives in your WordPress.

Feed, stories, reels, courses that unlock by level, a leaderboard. The parts of Skool your members like, on a site you own. The community is free; premium add-ons are paid.

Download from GitHubSee it running →or read the docs
free, no account, no trial clock. premium add-ons come later, and you will see them coming.
The community feed on a phone: stories, a pinned welcome post and the tab bar
See it in action

Fifteen years of membership sites, and the community plugin I kept wishing existed.

Danica walks through the latest update: onboarding steps, topics, simpler courses, the Course Map and a map of members and places. Chapters let you jump to any part.

new here? watch why I built it (16 min) →
What is in it

Six things members come back for.

Nothing you have to configure for a week. Install it, invite three people, and it already looks like the screenshots.

1
A feed with stories

Posts, reactions, comments, pinned welcome, and stories that expire. The front page members open every morning, with no algorithm deciding what they see. Reels sit one tab over: short video from YouTube or your own uploads.

How it works
The community feed with a pinned welcome post, stories and comments
2
Courses that unlock by level

Modules, lessons, videos and files, with progress per member. Every course card says where you stand, and a lesson has its own discussion with Helpful votes and a best answer. Lock a course behind a level or a membership tier, so members earn the next thing instead of scrolling past it.

How it works
The classroom with course cards, progress bars and a locked course
3
Levels and a leaderboard

Up to nine levels, named by you, earned by posting, helping and finishing. The leaderboard shows the week, the month and all time, and every level says what it unlocks.

How it works
The leaderboard: the top three on a podium, this week, this month and all time, and every level with what it unlocks
4
Chats that stay private

Direct messages and small groups, like a launch-buddies chat for four people. Encrypted with a key kept on your server, so nobody outside the site can read them, including us.

How it works
A private group chat between four members
5
Events with reminders

A calendar of live calls, Q&As and workshops. Members tap I’m going, add it to Google, Apple or Outlook calendar with the join link inside, and get a reminder the day before and an hour before. Zoom and Meet open in a tap; a YouTube, Vimeo or Twitch stream plays right on the page, and you add the replay after.

How it works
Events: upcoming live calls and workshops with who is going and a Going button
6
Places on a map

Meetup spots, partners with a member perk, and venues, on a map. Members see who goes where and get directions in one tap. Admins add places; members can suggest them. It’s optional: switch it on when your community meets in person.

How it works
Places: meetup spots, member perks and venues pinned on a map, with photo cards below
Why it is free

Rented platforms keep your members. This one gives them back.

Skool and Circle charge every month and hold the list. A community that lives in your WordPress costs nothing to run and leaves with you. We make it free because the memberships that grow on it are the ones that later need the rest of what we build.

Your members, your data
Every member is a WordPress user on your domain. Export, email or move them, with no one to ask.
Free, and it stays free
No per-member pricing and no plan ceiling. Premium add-ons are paid extras, never the parts you rely on.
Grows into the rest
When retention becomes the hard part, we can design and build the rest with you, on the same site.
The community in dark mode on desktop: the feed with stories and a pinned welcome post, and the sections listed down the left
The community feed in dark mode on a phone, with the tab bar at the bottom
light or dark, members pick ↓
Dark mode is built in, on desktop and phone, and it follows the member’s setting. One toggle, no theme to buy.
How to install

Install it in five minutes.

It is not on the WordPress plugin directory yet. The zip on GitHub is the install, and updates arrive the same way.

  1. 1
    Download the zip. The button at the top of this page goes straight to the latest release on GitHub: membuild-community.zip. The repository has the source and the issues.
  2. 2
    Upload it to WordPress. Plugins › Add New › Upload Plugin, choose the zip, Install, Activate.
  3. 3
    Visit /community/. It’s ready straight away, no page to create. Post the welcome message and invite three people.
  4. 4
    Updates. The plugin checks GitHub for a new release and shows the usual WordPress update notice. One click, same as any plugin.Read the docs: every feature, step by step
Needs
WordPress
6.4 or newer
PHP
8.1 or newer
Theme
Any. The community has its own layout; your theme keeps the rest of the site.
Members
WordPress users. Works beside membership and shop plugins like WooCommerce; needs none of them.
Licence
GPL. Free to use, free to change.
private messages are encrypted with a key kept on your server. save a copy; we cannot recover it.
The Community overview page in wp-admin: stat cards for members, active this week, posts and comments, a 30-day activity chart and the latest activity
wp-admin gets one Community menu: overview, members, posts, comments, files, courses, export. nothing to tune.
See it running
Try it before you install it.

A live demo community on this plugin and nothing else: Membership Makers, a place for people who run a membership. Open it, click around, post if you like. If it works for a community about memberships, it will work for yours.

Open the demono password, just your first name and email
The Membership Makers demo classroom: course cards with progress, who is taking each course, and a locked VIP course
The demo classroom on a phone
Questions

The ones people ask first.

Is it really free, or free until it works?
The community is free: feed, stories, reels, courses, levels, leaderboard, chats, places. Premium add-ons are paid, and they are extras on top, not pieces taken out. The free plugin stays complete on its own.
Why GitHub and not the WordPress directory?
The directory review takes weeks and we ship every week right now. GitHub lets you have today’s version today. It will go on the directory once the pace settles.
Will it fight my theme or my other plugins?
The community pages carry their own layout, so your theme stays in charge of the rest of the site. Members are plain WordPress users, so membership and shop plugins see them like any other user.
Can I move from Skool or Circle?
Members, yes: Import, in the plugin’s Settings, brings them over from a spreadsheet (CSV or Excel), with steps for Skool and Circle. Posts and courses are rebuilt by hand, or by us as a done-for-you project.
How does it compare with BuddyBoss, FluentCommunity or Skool?
It is free and self-hosted: no per-member pricing, and your members stay WordPress users on your own domain. We wrote honest side-by-side pages: vs BuddyBoss, vs FluentCommunity, and the free Skool alternative for WordPress.
What about support?
Most answers are in the docs, step by step with screenshots. Still stuck? Email [email protected]. Bugs can also go on GitHub issues, where the fix helps the next person too.
Rather have it done for you?

We can design the member journey around your community, build it, and stay on to support it. Tell us about your platform and Danica replies within a working day.

Tell us about your platform