The best types of membership to start in 2026

If you're thinking about starting your first membership this year, the question I get asked more than any other is "but what kind should it be?"

It's a good question, and the honest answer has shifted a bit since I started teaching this back in 2013.

What's changed for 2026

The big shift is this: information is now close to free. Anyone can ask an AI tool a question at midnight and get a well-organised answer in seconds. So a membership that's only "here's a big pile of content" is a harder sell than it was even two years ago. It's not impossible, but it is harder.

What people still can't get from a chatbot is the human stuff. The nudge to actually do the thing. The room full of people going through the same thing they are. Someone who knows their world and answers the question behind the question.

That doesn't mean throwing out the content-led models. It means knowing which type suits what you're selling, and being clever about the ones that rely on information alone.

So here are five of the twelve types I teach, with a 2026 angle on each. There isn't one correct type. Some will suit you perfectly and some won't, and most good memberships are a combination of two or three of these anyway.

1. The community-only membership

Primarily about connection. A private space where people with something in common can support each other, share, ask questions, and feel less on their own. Light on content, heavy on belonging, and it can run beautifully on a few hours a month. Think business clubs, networking groups, women's circles - no teaching needed, just chatting and community.

This is one of the strongest membership models for 2026, because community is exactly the thing no tool can hand someone. If your people are a bit isolated in their day to day, this one is hard to beat.

2. The calls-only membership

Another strong one for 2026. You, live, answering the real question behind the question, is something a Google can't replace. And because the calls are the membership, there's no preparation required.

Regular live sessions, whether that's weekly, fortnightly or monthly, where you teach, coach, or answer questions. The content is the calls. No library of pre-recorded modules required, which makes it straightforward to run and deeply valued by members. If your client based needs access to you, rather than access to learning this could be perfect for you. It's how my client, Ann, runs her Horse Riding Confidence Club - her members don't want lessons; they want to chat to Ann when their horse spooked at a bin bag and figure out how to handle it next time. She offers 2 x Zoom calls per week and the replays go into the vault. She's been running it a few years now and she's built up an impressive, searchable library of content just via her replays.

3. The accountability membership

Focused on helping members actually do the thing. Challenges, check-ins, worksheets, progress tracking. The value is in the structure and the people around it, not just the content.

People will happily pay every month to keep moving instead of stalling, and that's never been truer than now, when there's no shortage of information and a real shortage of follow-through. Light to run, and easy to love.

4. The library membership

A growing library of templates, swipe files, tools, or resources that members use on an ongoing basis. Lawyers with contract templates. Photographers with presets and editing guides. Copywriters with caption banks. You build it once and add to it over time.

This one still works well in 2026, but with a twist. The value isn't raw information, because that's everywhere now. The value is that it's done for them, it's the right thing for their exact world, and it saves them hours. Sell the saved time and the "this is made for someone like me," not the size of the library.

5. The monthly deep-dive membership

Regular new content: modules, training or masterclasses on a predictable schedule. Members stay because there's always something new coming, and it works especially well if you have a lot to teach.

This is the one to walk into with your eyes open in 2026. "Fresh content every week" requires a lot of content, and it's also the one that signs you up to a deadline that never ends. It can definitely work, especially paired with a community or coaching element so people stay for more than the modules. Just go in knowing what you're committing to.

Most memberships are a mix or hybrid

Here's the bit people miss. You don't have to pick one. Most memberships are a combination of two or three of these or some of the other models I teach. A community with a monthly coaching call. A resource library with an accountability challenge running through it. The best starting point is the simplest version of whatever feels most natural to you, not the most elaborate version of what you think a "proper" membership should look like.

A quick word on the maths

Whichever shape you pick, the numbers are better than people expect. Here's what I always come back to:

You do not need thousands of members. Forty members at £25 a month is a thousand pounds of recurring income, every single month, before you've done a single sales push. That's the whole point of recurring income: you never start a month at zero.

So which one is right for you?

Start with your life, rather than the format. How much time do you want to spend on your membership each month. What do you enjoy doing? How flexible do you want it to be? You have to design your membership to suit you before anything else. Then think about your people. What do they most want help with, and what's the thing they can't get from a free tool or a quick search? Usually it's company, accountability, shortcuts or someone who actually knows their world. Build the simplest possible membership around that, open the doors before it's perfect, and add to it as you go.

Lots of people make the mistake of choosing complicated, convoluted memberships that take ages to set up and lots of time to run. Before long they start begrudging it, especially in the early days when they only have a handful of members and they feel like they are doing 'all this work' for hardly any return. That's why we always design our membership to suit us and keep it as light-touch™ as possible.

If you're not sure which type of membership might be best for you, take my Membership Quiz. There's definitely one to suit you and your business.