The ten reasons I built Memberfy

I started out building a community that spanned the continent, and I learned that in any country or field the challenges repeat — and get solved the same way: with someone who connects people, starts the conversation and shows up again the next week. Later I ran into that challenge in two more places. At iFood Benefícios, leading Engineering, Product and Design, I saw that a company is a community too, and that HR suffers when people’s development is scattered across tools that don’t talk to each other. At ONOVOLAB, which I co-founded, I saw that a coworking space lives less from its rooms than from the people who meet in them. Memberfy exists so that connection happens in the community, in the company and in the physical space. These are the ten frustrations that became this product.

1. 01

   Because almost no one manages to monetize their own community

   This is the reason that came before all the others. People with plenty of audience and no revenue aren’t missing a tool — they don’t know what to charge, to whom and for how much, and have no one to talk it through with. Handing over a dashboard and wishing them luck solves the easy part. I wanted the opposite: to be the right hand of whoever leads the community, not the vendor who disappears once the contract is signed.

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2. 02

   Because community and billing almost never come together

   We compared eight platforms and the pattern repeats: on one side, those who do community well and send you elsewhere to charge; on the other, pure checkout. LastLink charges the same fee per sale, with no monthly fee, and if all you need is a link that sells, it comes out cheaper. What it doesn’t do is feed, courses and events, or access that turns on when someone subscribes and cuts off when they cancel.

   See the comparison
3. 03

   Because the people who take part in a community should be recognized

   In every community I helped run, about 5% wrote and 95% only read. It isn’t lack of interest: nobody knows whether what they have to say counts. Eleven actions earn points, at the value you set, with leaderboards per community and per section, and badges on the profile of whoever earns them. You can turn off what doesn’t make sense — but you can have it, and I didn’t find that in the creator-economy competitors.

4. 04

   Because a real community doesn’t fit in a feed alone

   A community isn’t just a feed. Some need courses with per-student progress, a calendar with RSVPs, a gallery, a leaderboard — and some need a call for papers with a review committee, which I never found ready-made anywhere and had to build by hand more than once. There are eight space types, and all of them come with every plan.

   See all the spaces
5. 05

   Because people management shouldn’t live in five systems

   At iFood Benefícios I learned that HR’s pain is rarely a lack of tools: it is too many tools, each with its own login and its own people database. Reviews live in one system, goals in a spreadsheet, the IDP in another and training in an LMS nobody opens. With the Planning & HR extension, review cycles, goals, feedback, IDPs and recognition live in the same place where people learn and talk.

   See Planning & HR
6. 06

   Because a coworking space is a community with an address

   At ONOVOLAB I learned that the physical space is only half the business: what keeps a member is who they meet inside. Even so, room booking usually lives in one system, reception in another, tickets in a third and the community in a messaging group. With the Coworking extension, bookings, attendance, visitors and support share the same records as the community and the billing.

   See Coworking
7. 07

   Because charging in dollars, with a separate gateway, costs you sales

   Circle is good and its checkout is native, but subscriptions there are card-only (Pix works only for one-time payments, and there is no boleto), it charges in dollars, with IOF tax and exchange rates on top, and its 2% doesn’t include processing: the gateway comes on a second invoice. Added up, a sale there costs close to 6%, plus a monthly fee of about R$ 481. Here it is PIX, boleto and card in up to 12 installments, in reais, and the 6.99% + R$ 2.49 per sale already includes processing: no separate gateway.

   See the full math
8. 08

   Because your brand and your team shouldn’t be line items

   On Circle, removing the platform’s branding starts at US$ 199 a month, and each extra admin costs US$ 10, plus US$ 20 per ten moderators or spaces. I always found it odd to pay for the tool to leave my own house, and to watch volunteer moderators turn into a cost. Here domain, logo and colors are yours on any plan, and there is no charge per admin, moderator, space or course.

   See the plans
9. 09

   Because your community shouldn’t fit in one time zone

   I worked in fintech and in ticketing, and in both I learned that language and currency are not finishing touches. Each member picks their own language, among five languages in ten regional variants, and error messages arrive translated from the server instead of patched on the screen. The currency comes from the community’s country, among six, and applies to all of its prices.

   See languages and currencies
10. 10

    Because managing plans, products and balance shouldn’t be complicated

    Plans, products and coupons live on the same dashboard as the community, and so does the money. Every sale, fee, refund and withdrawal becomes a line in your statement, with date and amount. Nothing is deleted or rewritten afterward — not even by us. The balance is the sum of those lines, so you can check where every cent came from instead of trusting a ready-made number on the dashboard. Coming from where I come from, that was non-negotiable.

    See how money comes in and goes out

Who can post, per space

Any member, only the team or only admins — the rule belongs to each space, not to the whole community.

Moderation with pre-approval

A post appears only after someone on the team approves it.

Manual member approval

For when the community wants to choose who gets in, one by one.

Impersonation for support

With your permission, support sees the community the way the member sees it — the only way to fix a problem that only happens on their screen.

Compared with what exists

Getting paid is the platform’s job, not a partner’s

MemberKit answers "no" in its FAQ to anyone asking whether they can get paid through it: you need Hotmart, Eduzz or Monetizze on the side. Here PIX, boleto and card are built in, and that is exactly what makes access switch on and off by itself.

Community and courses in one place, not one bolted onto the other

The category is made of members’ areas with a community bolted on, or communities with courses bolted on. Here feed, archive, courses, events, gallery, ranking and call for papers are the same kind of thing: spaces, with the same visibility rule and the same place in the menu.

Admins and moderators are not line items

Circle charges US$ 10 a month per extra admin, US$ 20 per ten moderators and US$ 20 per ten spaces. Here the team is not a price: what sets the plan is how many people the community has, and nothing else.

We don’t sell AI credits on the side

The first question in MemberKit’s FAQ is whether the AI assistant’s credits are included in the plan. The answer is no: they are separate packs, bought as needed. Here there are no credits and no usage quota: anything beyond the plan and the fee is on the pricing page, with a price.