Membership Area Script or Service

[tauperkin]

I'm developing a website for a non-profit.

I need a great system to implement and manage a members-only area of the site.

I've been browsing here and on HotScripts but there are so many variables and options and I don't know how to choose or evaluate.

I've found a couple that look promising, but the cost is a problem since it's a non-profit. I'd like to find a way to do this open source or something similar. I'm sure it exists so I don't have to start from scratch.

Can you lead me in the right direction and give me some advice? I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Ravedesigns]

www.amember.com is the only affordable members area script I'm aware of and at under $200 I'd say it's pretty reasonable.

I don't know of anything comparable that's free, but you could just use htaccess and give out one username and password for the directory you want to protect - changing it whenever you wanted to.

[tke71709]

Any CMS that incorporates user groups would be able to do this...

Drupal
Xoops
WP with one of the membership plugins
Vbulletin

It really depends on what you need people to do in the member's area...

[c0mrade001]

http://www.crispwebdesign.co.uk/cris...oginscript.php

Required: mySql, PHP

This is the login system from Crisp Webdesign, it is fully
featured, includes login, logout, register user, lost password recovery
and admin panel. The admin panel is accessible for users with "user_level"
of "2".

I have customized it to make it work, for it to preform "out of the box"
it must be kept together in a folder named "loginsystem". The only thing
that needs changeing is the /include/constants.php file, where you add your
db and site info.

That is the best free login script I have found. Its, pretty good too.

[tauperkin]

I did find amember and it looks like the cream of the crop. Even though it's reasonable, they may not want to pay that much. I'm thinking that maybe they could use some of the advertising revenue to pay for it.

I was thinking that a CMS like drupal, xoops and others would allow this but I haven't worked with them. I need to look at them more.

I keep wondering if I could use a bulletin board system, like SMF to accomplish what I want. I need to be able to have newsletters, member directory, event listings and directions...those sort of things.

Thank you for your help!

[c0mrade001]

joomla is really easy to set up and comes with a login system.

Also, you can get a forum plugin that will automatically integrate with the joomla login system.

However, making your own template for joomla can be a lot harder than making a normal site template. So I found it a little restricting.