This guide moves your readers from Restrict Content Pro (now Kadence Memberships) to PaywallProject on the same WordPress site. Readers who pay with Stripe keep their card, price and renewal date, and everyone keeps their login. PaywallProject reads its data directly, even while it’s deactivated. This works for the free Restrict Content plugin too.
Before you start
- Update to PaywallProject 4.2.0 or later. You need administrator access to WordPress and to your Stripe account.
- Connect the Stripe account your readers already pay into, under PaywallProject → Settings → Stripe.
- Create one level for each old plan, with the same price and billing interval. Steps 1 and 2 of the walkthrough show how.
- Do a test run on a staging copy of your site first.
Method 1: Import directly from Restrict Content Pro (recommended)
- Go to PaywallProject → Tools. On the Import subscribers card, select Start an import.
- Check that Import directly from Restrict Content Pro is chosen. PaywallProject reads your members at once.
- Under Match plans to levels, check the level for each old plan. A level with the same name is chosen for you. Choose Leave out to skip a plan.
- Under Match statuses, check the status chosen for each old status. Change any you want.
- Select Preview import and read the preview. Nothing is saved yet.
- Select Import now and confirm. Then select Download report (CSV) to keep a record.
Method 2: Import an export file
Use this if Restrict Content Pro ran on a different WordPress site.
- In Restrict Content Pro, go to Restrict → Tools and open the Export tab.
- Choose Memberships, pick Active, and select Process Export. Repeat for Cancelled to include readers with paid time left, and import each file in turn.
- Go to PaywallProject → Tools. On the Import subscribers card, select Start an import.
- Under Upload an export file, choose Restrict Content Pro (Kadence Memberships).
- Under Add your export file, add the memberships export.
- Under Check the columns, select Show the column matches and fix any wrong match.
- Under Match plans to levels, check the level for each old plan. A level with the same name is chosen for you. Choose Leave out to skip a plan.
- Under Match statuses, check the status chosen for each old status. Change any you want.
- Select Preview import and read the preview. Nothing is saved yet.
- Select Import now and confirm. Then select Download report (CSV) to keep a record.
After the import
- Don’t delete WordPress users while Restrict Content Pro is active. Deleting a user cancels their billing in Stripe.
- In Stripe, under Developers → Webhooks (or Workbench → Webhooks), disable the endpoint that ends in
?listener=stripe. Disable it rather than delete it, so you can roll back. - Deactivate Restrict Content Pro.
- Cancel the recurring payments of readers who pay with PayPal, in your PayPal account.
- Tell readers their subscription carries over. They sign in as before.
Good to know
- Logins: the import matches readers by email and never changes a username, password or user ID. Moving to a new WordPress site too? See Readers who get a new account.
- Readers who pay with PayPal or another gateway and renew automatically keep their end date and are marked to subscribe again. PaywallProject sends them the Renewal reminder email before that date (details).
- Each reader gets one level. A reader with several memberships keeps the one with the best status and latest end date, and the preview names the others.
- On a site in another language, Restrict Content Pro translates its export’s column names. Match them under Check the columns.
- If you connected Stripe with Restrict Content Pro’s Connect button, only Restrict Content Pro can change its subscriptions through Stripe. If a cancellation or plan change from WordPress doesn’t go through, make it in your Stripe Dashboard (why).
- Read the preview explains every result and warning.
- Prefer an AI app? Claude, ChatGPT or another connected app can run the same import. See Move subscribers with an AI app.