Podia and MemberPress have different integration philosophies.
Podia strives to be an all-in-one platform. They do allow for integrations, but if you’re using the platform to its fullest, you wouldn’t necessarily need to use them.
However, Podia does not offer the same advanced functionality in pipelines, segmentation, and email automation that you’ll find in a true CRM or email automation platform.
You may find yourself in a situation where you’ll have to either modify your setup within Podia because of their platform limitations or use an integration to support your preferred setup.
If you have selected to use Podia, but then you come up with a list of integrations you’ll need to implement and maintain, Podia may not be the right choice for you.
MemberPress on the other hand is the foundation you’ll need for a website with protected content. You’ll most likely need to use integrations in your initial build to complete your membership site setup, and likely need or want to add more integrations as it grows.
If you know you won’t want to implement, maintain, and work with other plugins, add-ons, and integrations, MemberPress isn’t for you.
All that being said, both Podia and MemberPress do allow for integrations. Podia offers CRM integrations and integration with other systems through a third-party tool like Zapier.
This integration is a one-way integration, which means that Podia will push information to your secondary system through the integration, but it’s not a deep, two-way integration where both Podia and the secondary system can communicate seamlessly.
An example of an integration you might use on Podia would be if you already have your CRM automations set up, and you’re not interested in migrating them to Podia, you’ll use a third-party tool like Zapier to help the two systems communicate.
It’s important to note that any time there’s an additional integration, there’s always the opportunity for an error, be it technical in the setup, or just a glitch between the two systems.
MemberPress has various add-ons and integrations available. This is in line with its plugin philosophy. You’ll use MemberPress as a foundation, and add on anything and everything you need to meet your business vision.
These plugins and add-ons aren’t usually supported directly by MemberPress. Instead, you may find a help article with a link to the plugin owner for support. For some, this process and flow work great, but others may find themselves frustrated searching for answers from different sources.
If having as few integrations as possible is important to you, then Podia may be a better choice. Be prepared to change your setup and flow to fit within the platform.
If you’re okay with all kinds of integrations, going to different sources for technical support, and maintaining all these add ons, then MemberPress may be a better option for you.