Some publishers gate content with WooCommerce Memberships rather than Access Control. If your site uses Memberships, gating is configured through WooCommerce. (Newspack is migrating publishers to Access Control — see below.)

If your site uses WooCommerce Memberships for content gating, gating is configured through WooCommerce rather than the Newspack Dashboard.

How it works

Memberships uses WooCommerce products and membership plans to control access:

  • A membership plan defines what content members can access.
  • A WooCommerce product (subscription or one-time purchase) grants the membership plan when purchased.
  • Content restriction rules on the plan define which posts, categories, or pages are gated.

Manage plans and restriction rules in WooCommerce → Memberships → Membership Plans.

Choosing a gate pattern

Add a content gate from the block inserter under the Memberships patterns category, then configure the block it contains:

  • Registration Wall — uses the Reader Registration block.
  • Donation Wall — uses the Donate block.
  • Paywall tiers — use the Checkout Button block; connect each button to the subscription product it sells.

Gate styles and settings

Use the gate’s Styles and Settings panels at right to control its appearance:

  • Styles — render the gate inline (with an optional fade on the last paragraph) or as an overlay modal, and choose its size and position.
  • Settings — set how many paragraphs appear before the gate, or check “Use ‘More’ tag to manually place content gate” to position it with a More block on specific posts.

Metering with Memberships

Metered access on Memberships is configured per membership plan. Set a free article count on the plan, and readers who aren’t members will see the meter tracked in a countdown banner on gated posts.

Anonymous vs. registered metering: anonymous readers are metered via browser storage, which can be circumvented in incognito mode. Registered readers are metered via user metadata stored in your site’s back end, which is more secure and accurate.

Migrating to Access Control

Newspack is migrating publishers from WooCommerce Memberships to Access Control. Migration is done by the Newspack team — publishers don’t run it themselves. Post in #newspack-help if you want to discuss your migration timeline.

Still stuck? Post in #newspack-help on Slack.