Subscriby vs Memberful
Community access wherever members chat vs. website-based memberships
Prices checked on 28 September 2026
Memberful is designed for website-first creators — especially WordPress site owners, podcasters, and newsletter writers who want to add paid membership tiers to an existing web presence. Subscriby is built for the community itself, wherever it lives: on Telegram and Discord it automates invite links, renewals and access removal without you touching anything, and its connectors take the same plans to new platforms as they ship. These platforms solve different problems for different creators.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Subscriby | Memberful |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Telegram and Discord today, Slack, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams and more on the roadmap | Your website (WordPress plugin); Discord role integration |
| Telegram Integration | Full native bot — automated access control | None — no Telegram integration exists |
| Payment Gateways | 11 gateways | Stripe only (Apple Pay and Google Pay via Stripe) |
| Crypto Support | Bitcoin, ETH, USDT, USDC | No crypto support |
| Telegram Stars | Native support | Not supported |
| Regional Gateways | Razorpay (India), Paystack (Africa), Mollie (Europe), CeyPay (Sri Lanka) | Stripe only — limited regional coverage |
| Access Codes | Offline and gift subscription codes | Not available |
| Time-Limited Passes | Scheduled access windows: bought on Wednesday, admitted Sunday, removed that night | Not available |
| Disaster Recovery Program | Lost bot, channel or account detected in seconds; members re-admitted to a new one automatically | Not available |
| Coupon Codes | Percentage or fixed, capped in total and per subscriber, plan-restricted, scheduled; first payment only | Extensive, with retention and referral discounts; no Telegram integration, so a discount admits nobody |
| Referral Program | Members earn free days or cash for friends who pay; on Growth or as an addon | Referral discounts through its coupons; no referral program with rewards and a ledger documented |
| Smart Links and Embeds | Tracked links per channel with clicks, checkouts, paid members and revenue; embeds for your site | Purchase links and buttons for your site; no tracked links with a funnel documented |
| Portal Designer | Presets, colours, fonts, layout, blocks, your words and a stylesheet for the portal page, on every plan | A logo, a button colour and a background colour on the hosted pages |
| AI Operator | Subscriby Copilot: answers from your data and does the routine work with your permissions | Not available |
| Failed-Payment Recovery | A grace window you set, four notices, a cancellation screen with one offer, win-back sequences | Stripe's retries plus a retention discount at cancellation; no grace window or win-backs documented |
| Checkout and Lead Follow-up | Sequences in your words for leads, stalled checkouts and ending trials; every checkout ledgered | Follow-ups for a lead, a stalled checkout or an ending trial are not documented |
| Fee Transparency | A Transaction Fees ledger: every fee tied to its payment, rate and invoice, exportable as CSV | 4.9% plus Stripe's fee comes off each payment; no per-payment ledger documented |
| Partner Program | 5% to 30% of every invoice a referred creator pays, for 12 months | Not documented |
| MCP Server | 240 tools for AI-agent control | Not available |
| Website Required | No — works standalone via your portal link | Yes — designed for WordPress or existing websites |
| WordPress Integration | Not available | Native WordPress plugin — deep site integration |
What Memberful Does Well
- Memberful has a polished WordPress plugin — if your audience lives on your website, the integration is seamless and members get a native site experience.
- Solid for podcasters who want to gate premium episodes or give paying subscribers a private RSS feed for their podcast app.
- Well-established in the podcast and newsletter creator space, with Mailchimp, Discord, ConvertKit, and Klaviyo integrations built in.
We believe in honest comparisons. If Memberful is right for you, we'll say so.
Pricing
- Free$0/mo10% per transaction— 3 projects, no revenue cap
- Starter$39/mo3% per transaction— 10 projects, 12 billed annually, white-labelled bots and portal, no revenue cap
- Growth$89/mo1% per transaction— 20 projects, 25 billed annually, white-labelled bots and portal, Teams, no revenue cap
- Standard$49/mo4.9% transaction fee + Stripe fees— Every feature; Enterprise on custom, volume-based pricing
Put your own numbers in: the fee calculator ranks Memberful, Subscriby and 11 more tools for your month.
Open the fee calculatorWhere Subscriby Wins
Disaster Recovery Program — peace of mind when access is lost overnight
A lost channel, bot or account is detected in seconds, you are alerted, and every paying member is re-admitted to a new one automatically, with standby bots and failover on Growth. Fair use: for creators who lost access through no fault of their own; self-service once per 90 days, then our support team reviews the account, and a confirmed violation of the platform's or Subscriby's terms closes it.
Subscriby Copilot — an AI operator that does the routine work
Ask about your members and money: the Copilot answers from your own data, does the routine work with your permissions, asks before anything it cannot undo, answers members from what you taught it and writes you every Monday. Free turns on every plan. Memberful has no AI operator.
Portal Designer — a member page in your brand, on every plan
The portal page members buy and sign in on takes your design: presets with light and dark palettes, self-hosted fonts, the layout and the plan cards, content blocks, your own wording in every language, your pixels and a stylesheet, previewed live and published when you say, on every plan, with a demo to try first. Memberful's branding settings take a logo, a button colour and a background colour.
Revenue Recovery — a grace window, one offer, win-back sequences
A failed renewal keeps the member's access for a grace window you set, with notices carrying the way to pay again; a member who cancels is asked why and made one offer; one who left hears from you on the days you chose. Memberful offers a retention discount at cancellation and documents neither a grace window nor win-backs.
Lead nurture and checkout recovery
A lead who never bought, a stalled checkout and a trial about to end each enter a sequence in your words, with the way to the plan and a coupon on every step and a Stop for the member; the ones that come back are counted. Memberful documents no follow-ups of this kind.
Smart Links that say which channel pays
A tracked address per channel with clicks, leads, checkouts, paid members and lifetime revenue, a bot link and a QR code per link, campaign tags kept, and a button or your plan cards to embed on your own site, on every plan. Memberful gives you purchase links for your site and no funnel per link.
Referral Program — members bring members
Every member gets a code and a link; a friend who pays earns them free membership days or a cash commission you set, held behind your refund window, with approvals, payouts per currency and a reward for the friend as well. On Growth or as an addon. Memberful's referral discounts reward nobody for bringing a friend.
Partner Program — creators bring creators
Bring other creators to Subscriby and earn from 5% up to 30% of every invoice they pay for twelve months, the rate climbing with your promotion work, settled as Subscriby Credit on your own invoices or paid in cash once a month. Memberful documents no partner program.
A Transaction Fees ledger, line by line
Every fee Subscriby charges is one line with the payment it came from, whether it was taken at source or metered onto your invoice, and the invoice that billed it; filter a month by project, channel and kind and export it as a CSV. Memberful takes 4.9% plus Stripe's fee per payment and documents no ledger.
Time-limited passes — scheduled access windows
Sell access to a window you schedule rather than an open-ended membership: a customer buys the Sunday pass on Wednesday, is admitted on Sunday morning and removed that night with no manual invites, however many people bought, and a pass series sells a whole season as one purchase. Memberful has nothing comparable.
Coupons for a Telegram-gated membership
A Subscriby coupon discounts a plan that admits and removes members from your Telegram channels automatically: percentage or fixed, capped in total and per person, plan-restricted and scheduled, redeemed at checkout with the discounted total shown before anyone pays. Memberful's coupons are extensive, but with no Telegram integration a discount there admits nobody to your group.
No Telegram bot in Memberful — access is fully manual
Memberful is entirely web-based: no Telegram bot, no automated invite link, no automatic removal when someone cancels, so running a paid Telegram group on it means doing all of that by hand. Subscriby issues a unique invite link on subscribe, removes the member on cancel or expiry and tracks every renewal.
11 gateways vs Stripe only
Memberful processes every payment through Stripe. Subscriby adds PayPal, Polar and Kelviq as merchants of record, Razorpay for India, Paystack for Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya, Mollie for Europe, Skrill, CoinPayments and CeyPay for Sri Lanka, each connected in your own account and paying you directly, so a market where Stripe is unavailable or uncommon still pays you.
Crypto payments
Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, USDC and Litecoin through CoinPayments, and stablecoins through CeyPay, settle into your own wallet with the member admitted the moment the chain confirms, which suits a crypto-native audience that would rather not hand a card to anyone. Memberful accepts fiat only, through Stripe.
Telegram Stars
Telegram Stars is Telegram's own payment method: subscribers pay inside the app without a card or an external checkout, and Subscriby supports it natively on every plan beside the card and crypto gateways, so a member who never leaves Telegram can still pay you. Memberful has no integration with Telegram at all.
No website required
Subscriby works standalone: your subscription portal is hosted and ready the moment a project exists, so you share one link wherever your audience already is, and the bot does the rest. You need no WordPress site, no domain and no existing infrastructure, where Memberful is designed around a website you already run.
Access codes for offline and gift subscriptions
Generate single-use or batch codes that subscribers redeem without a card, for gifting, in-person sales, sponsors and markets where cards are uncommon; each code is tied to a plan, expires when you say, and reaches you as a CSV or as one message per code. Memberful has no equivalent.
MCP server for AI-native workflows
The Subscriby Model Context Protocol server exposes 240 tools, each declared read-only, additive or destructive and the destructive ones held behind an explicit human confirmation, so Claude, ChatGPT or an agent of your own can read your members, manage access and run reports. Memberful has no MCP server.
Two-way member support inside the bot
A member who messages your bot reaches you instead of an error: the thread lands in a shared inbox with their plan, join date and payment history, with assignment, notes and saved replies, and your answer arrives in Telegram under your own name, so they know a person read it.
Choose Subscriby if you…
- Telegram-first creators who don't need a website or WordPress
- Creators outside the US/EU who need Razorpay, Paystack, or CeyPay
- Communities wanting crypto payments or Telegram Stars support
- Creators who want revenue settled directly to their account without a platform intermediary
- Teams managing multiple Telegram communities
Stick with Memberful if you…
- WordPress site owners who want membership gated directly on their website — Memberful's WordPress integration is excellent for this use case.
- Podcasters who want to give paying subscribers a private RSS feed for their podcast app of choice.
- Creators whose entire audience discovery and engagement happens on their website, not on Telegram.
Common Questions
- Can Memberful automate Telegram group access?
- No. Memberful has no Telegram integration. You'd need to manually invite each paying subscriber and remove them when they cancel. Subscriby automates the entire lifecycle: unique invite links on subscribe, removal on cancel or expiry.
- Does Subscriby work without a website?
- Yes. Subscriby doesn't require a website. Your subscription portal is hosted at your Subscriby handle and ready to share immediately. No domain, no WordPress installation needed.
- How does Memberful pricing compare to Subscriby?
- Memberful's Standard plan is $49/mo + 4.9% transaction fee plus Stripe processing (2.9%+$0.30). Subscriby Starter is $39/mo + 3%, with your gateway's own processing fee applying on either platform. At higher volumes, Subscriby Growth (1% fee) is significantly cheaper.
- Can I accept Stripe payments with Subscriby like Memberful?
- Yes. Stripe is one of Subscriby's 11 supported gateways, including both recurring and one-time payments.
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