Memberful
Summary
Audience monetisation service to let publishers easily set up paid memberships.
Parent organisation: Patreon
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: Up & coming challenger
Pricing: Free-$100/month
Factors driving pricing: Additional features, More users (publishing-side), Ability to whitelabel or customise
Skills needed to set-up: Needs tool/domain expert to configure
Skills needed to use: Needs tool/domain expert for ongoing use
Requires audience sign-in to use: Yes, sign-in compulsory
Parent organisation: Patreon
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: Up & coming challenger
Pricing: Free-$100/month
Factors driving pricing: Additional features, More users (publishing-side), Ability to whitelabel or customise
Skills needed to set-up: Needs tool/domain expert to configure
Skills needed to use: Needs tool/domain expert for ongoing use
Requires audience sign-in to use: Yes, sign-in compulsory
Pros
Open Source alternatives available
Releases new features regularly
Transparent pricing model
Clear data policies
Allows data deletion
Shares diversity data
Cons
Lacks accessibility statement
Full Product Data Collection
Data collected January-February 2020
| Product name | Memberful |
| Product URL | https://memberful.com/ |
| Parent organisation | Patreon |
| Workflow category | Audience engagement & monetisation |
| Date product founded | 2013 |
| Product description | Audience monetisation service to let publishers easily set up paid memberships. |
| What type of company or organisation is the product owned by? | Privately-owned company (or group) |
| Is the company profit-making? | Cannot determine |
| How is this product funded? | Subscriptions |
| What market share does the tool have? | Up & coming challenger |
| Is there an Open Source alternative in this product space? | Yes. Cloud Patron |
| When did the company last release new features? | December 2019: Branded transactional emails |
| Have they shared details of the product roadmap? | No |
| Is there talk of the product raising further investment? | No |
| Is there talk of the product being acquired? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy business issues or challenges in the last 12 months? | No |
| Is there a pricing model listed on the website? | Yes |
| How clear & transparent is this pricing model? | Very: full pricing listed |
| What is the range of prices offered? | Starter: Free Pro: $25/month plus 4.9% transaction fee Premium: $100/month plus 4.9% transaction fee |
| What factors drive higher pricing? | Additional features, More users (publishing-side), Ability to whitelabel or customise |
| What skills are needed to get this tool set up & usable? | Needs tool/domain expert to configure |
| What skills are needed to USE this tool day-to-day? | Needs tool/domain expert for ongoing use |
| Does this tool use proprietary file formats for saving documents & outputs? | Cannot tell |
| Is the product reliant on 3rd-party APIs or interoperability to function? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy technical issues in the last 3 years? | No |
| How clear is the Terms of Service for users (i.e. publishing customers)? | Technical, legalistic TOS |
| Does the product have a data collection & usage policy on its website? (Can be a GDPR statement)? | Yes, comprehensive. |
| Is their data policy “GDPR everywhere”? | GDPR unclear on these details |
| Does the product require your audience to sign-in to use it? | Yes, sign-in compulsory |
| IF SIGN IN REQUIRED: Does audience sign-in use 3rd party platforms? | No 3rd party auth, just a user account |
| Does the public product website mention how to export or transfer your data to another service? | Only partial exports available |
| Does the public product website mention how to delete your data? | Yes: for both publisher and audience data |
| Have there been any newsworthy security breaches with this product in the last 3 years? | No |
| Does the company have an accessibility statement on its website? | No / cannot find |
| Does the company release information on the diversity of the workforce? | Yes |