Hosting Plus Custom PMPro Plugins for Two Membership Sites

Overview

Matz Gaming runs two membership sites that ARE the business, one focused on Madden and one on college football. Marcus needed reliability, performance, and the freedom to keep iterating on a paid-membership product without fighting his hosting environment. We migrated both sites and his domain onto our managed hosting platform, gave him full server access with staging environments to test changes safely, and ran a 2am cutover to keep downtime invisible to subscribers. From there the work shifted to product. Marcus saw real opportunities to improve the membership experience tied to Paid Memberships Pro, so we built custom plugins that hook into PMPro to deliver a polished pricing table and a much better designed checkout page. Marcus had already mocked up the design he wanted, and our job was to bring those mockups to life cleanly inside WordPress and PMPro. We continue to collaborate on new content and features.

Services delivered

• Managed WordPress Hosting
• Domain & Site Migration
• Staging Environment Setup
• Low-Downtime Launch Coordination
• Custom WordPress Plugin Development
• Paid Memberships Pro Integration
• Custom Pricing Table Development
• Custom Checkout Page Design & Build
• Design Mockup Implementation
• Ongoing Content & Feature Development

The problem

WinMadden is a paid membership product, which raises the stakes on every part of the platform. Marcus came to us with a few interconnected problems:

• Hosting That Had to Be Reliable. With paying members relying on the site daily, the hosting environment had to be performant, stable, and visible. Marcus needed real server access and a real staging environment, not a black-box shared host.
• Migrating Without Disrupting Subscribers. Moving the domain and both sites (Madden and college football) onto new hosting had to happen with minimal downtime. Members logging in to manage their subscriptions could not be greeted with errors during the cutover.
• A Membership Funnel That Could Convert Better. Paid Memberships Pro handles the billing logic, but the default pricing table and checkout experience left a lot of polish on the table. The pages that close the sale needed to actually feel like part of WinMadden.
• A Design That Wasn't Translating. Marcus already had strong design instincts and had mocked up exactly what he wanted the site to look like. The problem was getting WordPress and PMPro to faithfully render those mockups instead of fighting them.

Our solution

We split the engagement into a hosting layer and a product layer, so Marcus could rely on the platform underneath while we kept iterating on the experience on top:

• Managed Hosting With Full Server Access. We migrated WinMadden, the college football site, and the domain onto our managed hosting environment. Marcus retains full access to the server and to dedicated staging environments, so he can test changes in a real mirror of production before anything ships to members.
  • Full server access for Marcus
  • Staging environments for safe iteration
  • Both Matz Gaming sites on one managed platform
  • Performance and uptime monitoring built in
• 2am Coordinated Cutover. We scheduled the migration cutover for 2am specifically to keep downtime out of view of paying members. Both sites went live on the new infrastructure during the lowest-traffic window with monitoring active throughout.
• Custom PMPro Pricing Table Plugin. We built a custom plugin that hooks into Paid Memberships Pro to render WinMadden's pricing tiers exactly the way Marcus mocked them up, instead of relying on PMPro's default level-list output.
  • Hooks directly into PMPro membership levels
  • Renders Marcus's pricing-table mockup faithfully
  • Stays in sync with PMPro level configuration
  • Works inside the standard WordPress editing flow
• Custom PMPro Checkout Page. We rebuilt the checkout flow on top of PMPro with a custom-designed page that matches the rest of WinMadden. Members move from pricing to checkout without the visual jolt of a default PMPro form, which is exactly the kind of detail that affects conversion on a paid product.
• Mockups Brought to Life. Marcus came in with clear design mockups. Our job was to implement them cleanly in WordPress and PMPro, not redesign them. The result is a site that finally looks the way Marcus pictured it, instead of fighting against template defaults.
• An Ongoing Build Relationship. With the platform stable and the membership funnel in shape, we continue to work with Marcus on new content and features as the business grows. The hosting and plugin foundation is set up so future work is iteration, not rework.

The process

1. 01

   Hosting Audit & Migration Plan

   We started by understanding Matz Gaming's setup end to end so the migration plan accounted for both sites and the live membership product.

2. 02

   Managed Hosting & Staging Setup

   We provisioned the managed hosting environment with the access and tooling Marcus needed to work confidently on a live membership site.

3. 03

   2am Coordinated Cutover

   We executed the migration during the lowest-traffic window of the day to keep downtime invisible to paying members.

4. 04

   Custom PMPro Pricing Table Plugin

   With the platform stable, we shifted to product work. The pricing table was the first place Marcus's mockup needed to land precisely.

5. 05

   Custom PMPro Checkout Page

   Next we replaced the default PMPro checkout with a designed page that matched the rest of the site so the funnel stopped breaking visual continuity at the most important step.

6. 06

   Ongoing Content & Feature Work

   With hosting and the membership funnel in shape, we moved into a continuous collaboration on new content and features as the business expands.

Outcomes

WinMadden now runs on infrastructure and a membership funnel that match the seriousness of the business:

• Both Matz Gaming Sites On Managed Hosting. WinMadden and the college football site are both on our managed hosting platform with full server access and staging environments. Marcus has the reliability he needed without losing the freedom to control his own stack.
• Member-Invisible Migration. The 2am cutover delivered the migration without disrupting paying subscribers. The sites came up on the new infrastructure during the lowest-traffic window of the day.
• A Pricing Table That Closes. The custom PMPro pricing table plugin renders Marcus's mockup faithfully, so the page that members see right before they subscribe finally looks like part of WinMadden instead of a default PMPro level list.
• A Checkout That Matches the Brand. The custom PMPro checkout page replaces the default form with a designed experience that flows visually from the pricing page. The funnel feels intentional from start to finish.
• Marcus's Vision On the Page. The site finally renders Marcus's mockups the way he drew them. WordPress and PMPro stopped being a constraint on the design and started being the canvas for it.
• A Platform Built to Keep Growing. Hosting, plugins, and staging environments are all in place, so adding new content and features is incremental work rather than rebuild work. The foundation is set up for the next round of improvements.