Requirements

What you need to run SocietyPress on your own server. Short answer: not much.

The short version

If your society already has a WordPress website, SocietyPress will almost certainly work on it. If you're starting fresh, any reputable shared-hosting plan will do the job.

  • A web hosting account that offers WordPress — $5–15 a month at most hosts
  • A domain name (yoursociety.org) — typically $12–20 a year
  • A current version of WordPress (6.0 or newer — most hosts install the latest for you)
  • About 30 minutes and a cup of coffee to run the installer and answer the setup questions

You do not need: a developer, a credit card, a SaaS subscription, a special server, or any technical training. The plugin handles its own database setup. The installer handles the file uploads. The setup wizard handles the configuration.

Server Environment

The technical specs your hosting provider needs to meet. If you're not sure what any of this means, send this table to your host's support team — they'll know whether their servers qualify.

Requirement Minimum Recommended
PHP (the language WordPress is written in) 8.1 8.3 or newer
WordPress 6.0 Latest stable release
Database MySQL 8.0 / MariaDB 10.6 MySQL 8.4+ / MariaDB 11+
PHP Memory (how much RAM PHP can use per page load) 128 MB 256 MB
Disk Space About 8 MB for the download; a running society site usually sits under 500 MB including uploaded PDFs and images
SSL / HTTPS Strongly recommended. Most hosts provide free SSL via Let's Encrypt — ask support to enable it if it's not already on
No special extensions required. SocietyPress uses only standard PHP functions and WordPress APIs, plus libsodium (bundled with PHP 7.2+) for encrypting member data at rest. If your WordPress installation works, SocietyPress will work.

Database

SocietyPress creates its own tables alongside your existing WordPress data — never inside it. Roughly 60 tables across 16 feature modules, all prefixed so they're easy to identify and back up.

Area What it stores
sp_members* Member records, membership tiers, dues, renewals, directory privacy settings
sp_events* Events, categories, registrations, waitlists, ticket tiers
sp_records* Genealogical record collections, surname databases, research queries
sp_library* Library catalog, circulation, loans, holds
sp_newsletters* Newsletter archive PDFs, covers, member-only access control
sp_donations* Donation ledger, campaigns, recurring gifts, Stripe/PayPal transactions
sp_committees* Committees, officer positions, volunteer assignments and hours
sp_store* Store products, orders, and inventory (frontend display today, full checkout in progress)
sp_gallery* Photos and videos, nested folders, YouTube embeds
sp_votes* Ballot elections, questions, responses, audit trail
Clean uninstall, clean backups. Every SocietyPress table uses the sp_ prefix under your WordPress prefix. Your database backup picks them up automatically, and if you ever remove SocietyPress the uninstaller cleans up after itself.

How big a society can it handle?

The live demo site runs on a basic shared host and carries numbers larger than most local societies will ever reach. What you see below is not a theoretical ceiling — it's what's actually running in production right now.

1,100+ members with full profiles
6,500+ genealogical records indexed and searchable
19,000+ library catalog items
15 feature modules running simultaneously
Comfortable range. For context: most local genealogical societies have 50–500 members. Regional and state-level societies run 1,000–5,000. SocietyPress handles all of that on standard shared hosting without breaking a sweat. If you're running a 10,000+ member national organization, talk to your host about a managed WordPress plan — not because the software can't scale, but because any WordPress site at that size benefits from dedicated resources.

Hosting

You don't need a dedicated server — standard shared hosting is plenty for a society. The easiest setups pair cPanel with the Softaculous one-click installer, which gets SocietyPress running in a few clicks. Any of the hosts below work well.

Bluehost

One of the hosts WordPress.org itself recommends, so it's a name most people already trust. It includes cPanel and the Softaculous one-click installer. On Bluehost you reach Softaculous through their portal: Hosting → cPanel → Software → Softaculous Apps Installer.

A few dollars/month

HostGator

A long-established, budget-friendly host with standard cPanel and the Softaculous one-click installer right on the cPanel home screen. A solid, inexpensive choice for a small society that wants the simplest possible setup.

A few dollars/month

Skystra

The cPanel host we run our own demo site on. It includes cPanel and the Softaculous one-click installer, so setup is the same few clicks as the others — with the bonus that we use it ourselves and know it runs SocietyPress well.

A few dollars/month
No vendor lock-in. SocietyPress runs on any standard WordPress host. If you're unhappy with your provider, you can export your entire site and migrate to another provider at any time. See Your Data Is Yours.

Ready to install?

Download SocietyPress and follow the step-by-step installation guide. Most societies are up and running in under 30 minutes.

Download SocietyPress Installation Guide