ELM: Make Simple Membership Sites Minus the Headache
Wanna make an eLearning / LMS site like Udemy or Skillshare to sell your online courses?
Consider an alternative
ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. Is rated 5/5 and was last updated 6 years ago, and scores 28/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (<10 active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 6 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 5.5 (latest is 7.1)
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where ELM: Make Simple Membership… stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| ecourse | #1 |
| elearning | >100 |
| lms | >100 |
| membership | >100 |
| memberships | >100 |
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
About ELM: Make Simple Membership Sites Minus…
From the official readme · v1.2Description
Wanna make an eLearning / LMS site like Udemy or Skillshare to sell your online courses?
Been told by your developer that you need to buy both a membership plugin and a separate LMS plugin to make sure you have your bases covered??
No No No! Forget all that! We got you covered.
Just Install ELM – our eLearning & Membership plugin – and get everything you need to make and sell your online courses and protect any additional site content with ease thanks to our built-in membership features.
** Why Use ELM by Ristretto Apps?**
- No messing around with complex membership plugin features. Get just the membership features you need to manage your eLearning site, without complex configurations
- Built-in registration form for registering free new members (without payments) OR if you want to register with payments . . .
- Partial protection of any page/post with shortcodes
- Bulk protect any content in your site by protecting tags and/or categories
- Performance Focused and Light-Weight
- Gutenberg Compatible
- PLUS more….
Features Coming Soon
- Dead Simple User Management with easy Member Dashboard
- Built-in PayPal Registrations
- Detailed Member Tracking Reports
- Checkout and Register new members with amazing, flexible payment systems such as: Gravity Forms, Easy Digital Downloads (much more integrations coming soon!)
-
Subscription Support with Stripe, PayPal, or Authorize.net (via Gravity Forms, EDD for registrations)
-
Whatever else you want ([let us know] https://docs.ristrettoapps.com/submit-a-ticket/))
Note: This plugin is actively being developed. We’re far from done and are adding new features, functionality, and fixes daily. If there’s a feature you want but we don’t have yet, please let us know
Why We Made ELM by Ristretto Apps.
We made ELM because we wanted a simple way to add membership features to our eLearning LMS site we run without having to install and setup a big complicated membership plugin.
Installation
- Install either via the WordPress.org plugin directory, or by uploading the files to your server.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Go to the Memberships->Settings menu in your WordPress Administration area and edit your protection message as you see fit.
- In your Edit Page or Post screen, look for the Ristretto ELM box below the editor and select the ELM membership levels you’d like to use to protect this page or post. Doing so will ensure that only members of those levels will be able to see this content (with the exception of site administrators)
Changelog
1.2
- Fixed but preventing WP Users from being added to membership level
- Added filter on Member screen to show only active and deactivated members by default
- renamed user meta key from ‘_elm_user_level_data’ to ‘elm_user_level_data’
1.1
- Fixed issue with Unauthorized Access Message and Partial Access Message boxes not saving entered messages.
- Updated readme with new info and corrections to current features
1.0
- First version
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
FAQ
ELM: Make Simple Membership Sites M…: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 18, 2026
Is ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… free?
Yes. ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… safe to use in 2026?
ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. Is rated 5/5 and was last updated 6 years ago, and scores 28/100 on our health check.
How many websites use ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit…?
ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… is active on <10 WordPress websites and has been downloaded 5,049 times since it launched in October 2019. It was downloaded 67 times in the last 30 days.
Does ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… work with WordPress 7.1?
ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… is officially tested up to WordPress 5.5.23, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… last updated?
The latest version, 1.2, was released on August 14, 2020 (6 years ago).
Who makes ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit…?
ELM: Make Simple Membership Sit… is developed and maintained by Ristretto Apps.
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