Amember works very well for my basic HTML/CSS site

This is a recommendation for Amember membership software.
I have been using Amember for over 2 months now and am completely satisfied.
I did a lot of research before choosing Amember. There are a few brands that are recommended in forums over and over but none of them provide the features I need and fit my requirements as well as Amember.

I am an old school HTML/CSS website builder. I believe in the basics: simplicity, good content, and fast loading. I don't like websites which are built on content management systems that provide 10 times the functionality required and make you pay the price with slow, slow loading. I wanted a membership system that would integrate with my existing HTML site, provide only the membership management function I need, and not slow down the site. Amember does that exceptionally well.

I have read that Amember has a bit of a learning curve, meaning that it is difficult to learn and use but I have not found that to be true. I installed Amember myself in one night using the directions provided. It took two or three hours because I am slow and methodical but I followed the directions and everything worked first time around. The only thing that surprised me during the installation process was that it suddenly became active using the default signup form and product without me realizing it. I had several members signed up for a non-existent product and had to go back and manually delete their "invoices".

I chose Authorize.net as my payment gateway and its recommended merchant account, cybersource, and that also worked as soon as I activated it. Amember has a plugin for Authorize.net which makes integration very simple. I later added PayPal as an alternative payment system, using the plugin provided, and it worked just as easily.

Their support has been responsive and effective. Note that it is not 24 hour support. They operate during European business hours which means that they are available for me in the afternoons and evenings which is when I am working on my site so it works out fine for me. So don't be put off if you don't get an immediate response. They are not ignoring you or annoyed by your constant questions. I have asked for advice, sanity checks, and for modifications and they have responded to all of them. They have:

- modified my sign up form so that it is easier to read and encourage signups
- showed me how to take advantage of my SSL certificate and ensure my signup form was secure
- taught me how to continue using my search engine to index content in protected folders while simultaneously keeping crawlers like Google out
- examined my hosting logs to determine if my backups were complete and appropriate
- provided several instances of general assistance after the initial install as I explored features

To be accurate, pulling this project together required learning new things: how to install an SSL certificate (which requires a lot of back and forth between the certificate provider (I used Comodo)) and choosing a payment gateway and merchant account (and learning the difference between them). The SSL certificate and payment systems are not required if you're not planning on charging for access. In that case, installation would be even simpler.

Amember has made it possible for me to turn my website, which I have run for years at my own expense and for no compensation, into a pay-for-access site that has transformed my bottom line from negative to profitable enough for me to easily maintain and improve it. It might sound cheesy but I am very grateful for both the product and the Amember team's assistance. The cost of the software ($179) is literally nothing compared to the difference it has made for me. I highly recommend it.

After 6 months, this is an update to my previous review above. The above is all true but what I didn't realize at the time was that there are two main functions required for running a membership site. First, there is controlling access and integrating with the website -which is still a big deal. But second, and just as important, members must be supported. Amember does a fantastic job of keeping track of my users. I have thousands of registered members now and every day I receive one or more e-mails from someone who is having problems accessing and no matter what the problem is, Amember helps me track down the problem in seconds. I have people who made more than one account and get confused and try to log in with an expired account, people who forget their log-in info, people who try to claim they paid when they didn't, and other unique situations which I can't remember at the moment. And by using Amember's search function I can dig out the most obscure information and pass it on to the customer. It makes me look like a frikkin' superman! Keep up the good work, Amember team!

Yes it does.. I love it here is my site ... www.lotteryprophet.com