Member categories, such as Founders and Investors or Students and Alumni, are access groups in Mateflow (previously called member tiers). Each category is one access group, and each group unlocks its own spaces. You decide how people get their category: you add it yourself, they pay for it after joining, or they pay for it when they sign up.
Who can do this: Community owners and admins. · Where: Web (admin console). · Plan: Access groups and paid plans depend on your platform plan. Check Admin → Billing → Plan & Usage.
Choose how members get their category
Member categories can be free or paid. Pick the setup that matches how your community charges.
| Setup | How members get their category | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Free categories | An admin adds the access group to each member | Categories describe who people are, and nobody pays for them |
| Paid after joining | Members subscribe to an Access group plan | Joining is free, and each category has its own price |
| Paid at sign-up | Visitors choose a Community access (paid signup) plan that adds them to a group | The whole community is paid, and the price depends on the category |
In a paid community, members need a subscription to get in. A category you add by hand doesn't count as one, so a paid community uses the paid at sign-up setup.
Set up free member categories
Free member categories need no subscription plan at all.
- Create one access group per category in Admin → Members → Access Groups. See Create an access group and choose what it unlocks.
- Link each group to the spaces it should open, as described below.
- Add the group to each member on their page in Admin → Members → All Members. See Add or remove a member's access group.
You add groups one member at a time. The member list has no bulk action for access groups, and invitations sent from Admin → Members → Invitations and CSV imports can't assign them. Invitations created with the Open API can include access groups. See Integrations overview: API, webhooks, and Zapier.
Set up member categories that members pay for after joining
Paid categories for existing members use one Access group plan per category.
- Create one access group per category, and link each one to its spaces.
- Go to Admin → Monetization → Subscription Plans and click Create Plan.
- Under Plan type, choose Access group.
- On the Access & Benefits tab, under Member access, choose the category's group. Each plan grants one group.
- Repeat for each category, then send each person the link to their plan. Click Copy link on the plan to get it.
To keep a plan off your pricing page, turn off Publicly listed on its Display & Visibility tab. The plan's link still opens it. See Create a subscription plan: pricing, trials, and benefits.
Set up member categories that visitors pay for at sign-up
Categories sold at sign-up use one Community access (paid signup) plan per category, and the community's registration mode must be Paid.
- Connect Stripe and create one access group per category. See Make your community paid to join.
- Go to Admin → Monetization → Subscription Plans and click Create Plan. Under Plan type, choose Community access (paid signup).
- On the Access & Benefits tab, under Access group (optional), choose the category's group.
- Repeat for each category.
- Go to Admin → Settings → Registration and, under Registration mode, choose Paid.
The sign-up page then lists your plans, and each new member arrives in the group their plan carries. A member who signed up with one plan can't switch themselves to another sign-up plan. To change their category, add the other group to them by hand.
Link each member category to its spaces
A member category opens nothing until its access group is linked to a space, and this step is easy to miss. You can make the link from either side, and both count:
- From the access group: edit it in Admin → Members → Access Groups and add spaces on its Space Access tab.
- From the space: in the space's Access Policy, set Payment mode to Access Group and pick the group under Access groups that unlock this space.
Linking matters for Private and Secret spaces; anyone can already join a Public space. A group that no plan sells to existing members still unlocks spaces; the space's settings just show it with a No plan on sale badge. See How access groups work.
Things to know about member categories
- Categories aren't ranked. Founders and Investors are separate groups, not levels. Their order only affects how they're listed.
- One subscription at a time. A member has one subscription per community. Moving to another plan replaces it.
- A member can hold several categories. One can come from their subscription and the others from an admin.
- Plan type and prices are fixed. You can't change a plan's type, currency, prices, or free trial after you create it. To change them, archive the plan and create a new one, which also gets a new link.
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