Outseta review: Can this membership platform really help your business make $10m?

It’s fair to say, the online membership economy is booming. With creators desperate to capitalize on this new-found market, dozens of online membership platforms are battling it out to be the number one choice.

One of these competitors is Outseta, an all-in-one platform designed to help all kinds of businesses to ‘make it big’ online. Outseta certainly isn’t short of confidence, setting out its aim to take startup businesses from the ground up to their first $10 million. 

In this article, we’ll dissect the platform’s main features, finding out whether it really is the place to set out your digital stall. 

What is Outseta?

Outseta is an all-in-one platform that provides users with the tools they need to run all kinds of online businesses. The platform is primarily used for the creation of recurring payment membership sites, although one-time payments are possible.

The platform includes a wealth of useful features, including built-in customer relations management (CRM) and email marketing tools. However, unlike a lot of membership site platforms, it doesn’t allow users to create and sell courses. 

Who is Outseta for?

While there is no specialized demographic for Outseta, it is primarily aimed at SaaS companies and membership organizations. The platform is designed to navigate businesses from startup to their first $10 million in revenue.

The platform suits those who want to run their entire business on one platform. Unless you have multiple employees, keeping your business organized across multiple platforms can feel like carrying a tray of drinks from bar to table; you’re only ever one slight error away from disaster.

So, if you are a small startup with just yourself or a couple of others on the company books, Outseta is a viable option. 

Outseta’s features

Being the all-in-one platform that it is, Outseta is packed with more features than a lot of membership website builders can boast. This can make it feel slightly overwhelming, but once you get to grips with what’s on offer the potential is clear. Here are some of the platform’s best features. 

Customer relations management (CRM)

Some businesses pay extraordinary figures to sign up for a CRM system, but with Outseta, it comes as part of the service. CRMs are incredibly useful tools for businesses for a variety of reasons, including the organization of data gathered from your customers. CRMs can also:

• Help you manage leads: CRMs can segment your customer base for you, which can help dictate the promotional content that you send them. By categorizing your customers, you’ll know exactly where they are in your marketing funnel, allowing you to nurture them properly and secure sales.
• Automate your workflow: Businesses that make use of a CRM will be able to use it to automate their workflows. This means that you won’t have to fulfill repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on more engaging aspects of your business.
• Improve customer relationships: The customer is at the heart of every CRM; the clue’s in the title. By using a CRM, you’ll be able to respond quickly to customer queries, as you’ll have all their data at your fingertips.

Membership management

Outseta can be used by a range of businesses, but the platform excels when hosting recurring revenue membership sites. The platform allows you to create multiple membership tiers, set at prices you choose, while keeping content secure and leak-proof. 

You can also decide whether you want to sell memberships to individuals or groups. Group memberships are not a common sight, which helps to separate Outseta from the crowd. They involve selling a membership to an organization, which will then be afforded multiple membership accounts for a raised price. This will help you drive up your monthly income. 

Because of Outseta’s all-in-one nature, managing your memberships and the content you put out can all be done in one place. This is a lot simpler than having to integrate third-party programs into the mix.

With Whop's native apps, like Forums and Chat, you can build a home on the internet to host your community and streamline membership payments.

Customer support

One of Outseta’s best features is its customer support help desk. This works in both your and the customer’s favor, as it makes responding to queries and problems simple. 

Customer queries will drop in your support inbox in a similar manner to social media direct messages. You can either respond yourself or allocate the question to another person working for your company. When you’re online, you can man live chats to give your customers a personal customer service experience.

When you’re offline, you can make use of the platform’s automated response features, directing your customers to documents that outline and solve their problems. 

Overall, Outseta’s customer support features will help you manage, respond, and solve your customers’ biggest problems. This will go a long way toward creating relationships with your audience, driving brand loyalty.

Email marketing

Despite looking as though they were going to be phased out, emails are still at the very heart of many businesses’ marketing campaigns. If done correctly, marketing emails can have a drastic impact on your business’ success, improving sales and customer relationships. 

Of course, Outseta’s email features aren’t just limited to marketing, as you can also send out product and transactional emails. Here are the types of emails that you can send to customers and subscribers using Outseta:

📰 Newsletters: If you want to keep your loyal subscribers in the know, Outseta allows you to send out newsletters without requiring a third-party app. This will help people to remain engaged with your business.

🛳 Onboarding emails: Outseta will help you send out automated onboarding emails to help integrate new subscribers into your business. These emails can often help you build strong relationships with customers.

🧾 Transactional emails: With Outseta’s email capabilities, you can create a variety of different automated transactional emails. These include forgotten password emails, account confirmation emails, and order confirmation emails.

Integrations

While Outseta is an all-in-one platform, it allows for third-party integrations with sites such as WordPress and Webflow. This is ideal if you run a pre-existing business with a customer base already in place. 

The platform also has a Discord bot, which can be used to help you run and monetize a Discord server. 

So, if you already have your business up and running, Outseta may still be a viable option for you.

Outseta benefits and drawbacks

How to use Outseta

Create your account

The initial process of creating an Outseta account is simple. You have to enter your name, email address, the name of your organization, and what sort of site you want to set up. 

You will notice that above the data entry form is a tab that reads ‘Founder’s Plan’ alongside a bill of $47. Don’t be put off by this, as you’ll instantly be put on the platform’s seven-day free trial. You will be charged if you don’t cancel this before the seven days are over, mind. 

Once you’ve entered your information and verified your email address, you’ll be redirected to the platform’s Setup page.

Setting up Outseta

One thing that Outseta needs to be commended for is its setup process. The platform will be there to direct you along every step of the way, complete with tutorial videos in case you get stuck.

It will allow you to set the foundations for your site before you continue to explore some of the more complex features at your fingertips. The first step will be to sort out your general settings, including your brand logo, color scheme, and overall aesthetic.

After you’ve done some basic customization, you can then move forward to connecting a Stripe account to process payments. This is a slight limitation, as Stripe isn’t yet available in all nations and territories. Outseta doesn’t currently accept any other payment processing apps, so if you want to receive money from customers, Stripe may be a potential deal breaker. 

Your dashboard

Outseta’s clean and easy-to-navigate user interface is on display once again with the platform’s dashboard area. Here you’ll be able to leap to all sections of your site, whether you want to create premium content or set up an email campaign.

You can also track the activity and goings on that occur on your site from the bottom of your dashboard. Overall, this section is ideal for an overview of your site. However, you can also use the sidebar for navigation. 

The sidebar

Outseta’s sidebar (which you can see on the left side of the above images) contains all the options you need to ensure that your site is effective in dealing with customers and making sure everything runs smoothly. Here are the rest of the options:

• CRM: A feature that sets Outseta apart from a lot of membership sites is its CRM capabilities. This gathers customer information to help you streamline processes and make relationships easier to form. 
  This data can help you with personalized email automations as well as completing repetitive tasks for you. This will save you time, giving you more freedom to work on other aspects of your business.
• Email: Email marketing is a key part of business, helping you to create leads and close sales. Outseta has all the features you need to create email marketing campaigns, which will boost your profile and generate profits.
• Help Desk: The Help Desk section of the sidebar isn’t Outseta’s customer service, but instead a hub where you can help your customers. Customer service will help your business become reputable, leading to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Billing: The Billing section is where you can set the prices of your subscriptions, set how many tiers you want, and create invoices. Despite most subscription platforms often being fairly limited, there are plenty of billing options to choose from with Outseta.
• Auth: This section is where you can really focus on sealing the deal with new subscribers. You can create automated signup emails that get sent to new subscribers, while also handing out VIP discounts and other incentives.
• Reports: Statistics are highly useful for business owners, helping them work out what’s going right and what needs improving. You can access your engagement reports here, although you may find they lack detail.
• Design: Lastly, you have the design section. Here is where you can really make your site feel like home. The design features aren’t nearly as detailed as some other subscription sites, but they do allow you to create a consistent aesthetic.

How much does Outseta cost?

Outseta has an extensive but easy-to-understand pricing structure, featuring four paid plans. These include:

• Founder
• Start-up
• Growth
• 50K

As you progress onto the more expensive plans, you unlock and expand more features, allowing you to scale your business at a quicker rate. That’s not to say you can’t make any money with the cheaper options, as they offer useful features like CRM and email marketing tools.

There are currently no free plans on offer with Outseta, although you will have access to a seven-day free trial of all the platform’s features. Let’s take a closer look at the basics of each plan: 

How does Outseta’s pricing compare?

As you likely already know, Outseta isn’t the only platform of its kind fighting for your custom. So, how does its pricing compare to its main competitors? 

1. Whop

Not only does Whop offer Outseta some stiff competition in regards to its main features like CRM, subscription management, and customer support, but it also bypasses it completely with its pricing structure. You see, Whop doesn’t command any monthly payments from its users.

Instead, it takes a commission of as little as 3% once you make your first sale or secure your first monthly subscriber. Yep, you read that correctly. Getting started with Whop is completely free, with absolutely no upfront costs. 

2. Memberstack

Memberstack has a similar pricing structure to Outseta, although it pushes the scale in both directions. It has four offerings overall:

• Basic: $29/mo + 4% commission fee
• Professional: $49/mo + 2% commission fee
• Business: $99/mo + 0.9% commission fee
• Established: $499/mo 

Memberstack’s cheapest plan is $8 less per month than Outseta’s basic offering, but this difference pales in comparison to the two platforms’ most expensive plans.

You’ll have to contend with various commission fees, too. The only plan that doesn’t include a commission fee is the Established plan, which is fair enough when you consider its monthly cost.

3. Circle

Circle is one of the most expensive platforms of its ilk to join, with its cheapest plan starting at $89/mo. However, to sweeten the deal, the plan comes with a 14-day free trial to help you work out if the features suit you. 

There are two other prices to bear in mind. The Business plan, which will set you back $199/mo, and the Enterprise plan which costs $360/mo. There’s also the option of the mysterious Custom Pricing plan, which will vary depending on your needs. 

Build your community with Whop 🙌

If you’re looking for a place to call home on the internet but don’t want to pay ridiculous monthly fees to stay there, try Whop. 

Whop is a social ecommerce platform that allows its members to sell digital products, build online communities, and monetize their knowledge. Whop will put your products, courses, and membership programs in front of an audience eager to see what you have to offer.

As we already mentioned, Whop provides all the features you need to manage your customers, process payments, and build your community. Simply add native Whop apps to your "whop" for seamless functionality.

Best of all, it is completely free to join and doesn’t require you to pay any monthly subscription fees. Instead, payments work on a commission structure. You won't pay anything until you make your first sale, putting more of your profit into your pocket. 

So, what are you waiting for? Get started with Whop today and see where your online potential can take you.

Outseta FAQs

Does Outseta have a free plan?

Outseta currently does not have a free plan. Prices start from $37/mo when billed annually, or $47/mo if you want to pay monthly. If you don’t want to dive straight into a paid plan, there is an option of a seven-day free trial.

Will I have to lose my WordPress site if I switch to Outseta?

If you have a pre-existing WordPress site, you can integrate it with Outseta. The process takes a matter of minutes and doesn’t require a great deal of technical expertise. However, to ensure things integrate smoothly, you will have to navigate your way around a handful of embed codes. 

Do Outseta sites require coding?

Creating a membership site with Outseta doesn’t require any coding knowledge or technical experience. You can have your own site created in minutes by following the instructions offered to you once you have completed the signup process. 

Can you sell physical products with Outseta?

Outseta isn’t designed for selling physical products, as it lacks distribution features.

Can you create courses with Outseta?

Unfortunately, Outseta lacks the features required to create and sell courses. If you are interested in selling courses, there are plenty of other options to be found, including Whop.