Membervault Review 2023 : Why I Switched To Membervault

Updated for May 2023: This post contains affiliate links. Please read the disclaimer.

This post is a Membervault review where I take a deep-dive into the Membervault platform and talk about why I made the switch from Teachable to Membervault.

What is Membervault

Membervault Features

Membervault Cons

Membervault vs Teachable

Membervault Pricing

Would I recommend Membervault? 

Getting started with Membervault

 

What is Membervault? 

Membervault is an online course and membership site platform that you can use to provide free and paid content access to your students and clients.

It is comparable to course hosting and membership hosting platforms such as Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific and Podia.

Membervault can replace your website, landing page tools and shopping cart service.

All you need is an email service provider to send emails to your audience. Of course, you can also pair it up with front end sales funnels platforms like Clickfunnels, or a shopping cart service like Samcart.

If you are looking to set up your first (or next) course or membership site without the stress of too much tech, Membervault could be the solution for you.

How is Membervault different? 

Here are some amazing features that make Membervault different from other similar online course and membership hosting platforms:

1. Easy setup:

Being a marketing tech expert, I have worked with a bunch of other marketing platforms like Teachable, Kartra, Kajabi, etc. I found Membervault to be really easy to set up, even for someone who is scared of all the tech.

It is easy to set up modules, quizzes, upload videos on Vimeo or Youtube and input the video URL.

2. Dripped, Progressive and Bonus Module Options:

You can set up your content to be dripped or progressive, and you can also choose to add a module as a bonus module.

 

3. Amazing Facebook community:

The Membervault Facebook group is an amazing and supportive community, and customer support is phenomenal.

4. Gamification:

This is the one feature that made me fall in love with Membervault. 

I have always believed that one of the reasons for low course completion rates is the lack of engagement and accountability, and Membervault helps counter that.

Students get engagement points for taking action, and you can set up your modules in a way that they can only go to the next one if they have enough engagement points (EP).

There are numerous triggers that can be set up to reward and engage users.

The Leaderboard:

The leaderboard is a great way for adding social proof, and inspiring students to increase their points and rise up on the leaderboard.

 

Membervault cons: 

Although I do love Membervault, it is a newer player in the market and still lacks a few features.

1. Integrations

At the time of writing this review, Membervault lacks integrations with some big sales funnels builder tools.

For example, I use Clickfunnels for my front end sales page and Membervault as my course backend. I had to use Zapier and Webhooks to integrate these two so that anyone who signs up for my course or membership in Clickfunnels is added to the Membervault backend.

This was easy for me to do since I am a marketing tech expert, and I can see why some people wouldn’t want to move to Membervault just yet.

Membervault does have direct built-in integrations with all major email autoresponders including Convertkit, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp etc.

2. You don’t own the platform

This an issue that is common when using course hosting platforms like Teachable, Kajabi, etc. Since it is a third-party platform and not on your website, you don’t control what happens to the platform. 

But you also have the advantage of not worrying about hosting and servers.

Membervault vs Teachable

One of the biggest differences between Membervault and teachable is that Membervault includes gamification, which helps to keep members more engaged.

Membervault has one single pricing plan whereas Teachable has multiple tiers.

Teachable is capped at 10 members for the free version.

The teachable free plan does not include dripped content, and third-party integrations, which are both included in the Membervault free plan.

 

 

Membervault Pricing

 

 

Membervault used to offer a free plan, but not anymore. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial here.

Membervault has one single pricing plan of $99 / month.

They do offer a no-fee payment integration which is great.

The plan comes with the ability to host unlimited products, unlimited storage as well as chat or email support, which is always helpful.

You also have the ability to offer free trials and coupon codes, different payment options, as well as pixel tracking. You can also set up affiliates for your products.

Would I recommend Membervault? 

I would recommend Membervault 100%.

With the online courses and membership space getting more and more crowded, I think it is important to provide a platform to our students and clients that have some sort of engagement built it so that they can stay on track and take action. This also helps us as experts, to get higher completion rates for our courses, and retain members in our membership sites.

I feel that the gamification aspect of Membervault acts as the perfect engagement push that is much needed in the digital course space.

By creating a stop-shop for your products, Membervault also provides the advantage of cross-sells. For example, if someone gets into my free challenge, they are able to get a sneak peek into my paid offerings on the Membervault platform and are much more likely to purchase my paid offers.

I also like that Membervault has a one single pricing plan, without any upsells, which means all their customers are equal to them and will get the required support.

If you are looking for a well-built, less tech-heavy platform to host build out your first (or next) digital product, I would highly recommend Membervault.

Membervault is a relatively new platform and they are always adding new features, which means they might come out with fancy looking sales pages in the future.

Membervault Alternatives

Kajabi as a Membervault alternative

If you are looking for an all-in-one platform, Kajabi is a great one. Kajabi offers all features from course hosting, sales funnels, pages, communities and email marketing. I also really like Kajabi because of their great customer support. The Kajabi basic plan starts at $149 / month, and if you have to create an affiliate program , you will have to get on the Growth plan which is $199/month. You can check out a detailed post on Kajabi pricing plans.

Podia as a Membervault alternative

Podia is a good alternative to Membervault. Podia plans start at $39/month, the basic plan does not include the feature of selling memberships. The basic plan also does not include the affiliate marketing feature. Podia does offer better looking sales page features as compared to Membervault. Podia also offers the email marketing feature on all its plans.

Choose Podia over Membervault if you want a platform that includes email marketing, and if you are looking to sell online courses and not memberships.

If you want to use Podia to set up an affiliate program for your products and if you are looking to sell memberships as well, then you will have to sign up for the Podia Mover Plan which is $79/month.

Getting started with Membervault:

Step 1: Create your 14-day free trial Membervault account here.

Step 2: Under Appearance, set up your branding and footer ( You can come back to this later)

Step 3: In settings, add an integration for your email autoresponder

Step 4: Under Products, create your first product, add product information, and start adding your videos/ text.

When you actually start doing it, you will realize that it is not that difficult.

Everything is self-explanatory.

If you do decide to sign-up using my affiliate link, I would be happy to share a Membervault setup video training with you.

Once you sign up using my link, just send me an email at shweta(at)shwetadawar.com

Have you tried Membervault or thinking about it?

Let me know in the comments.