Hide ads for paying members on WordPress

Ad-free reading is one of the simplest things to sell to readers who already like a site. In RedeemID it is a feature: a site behaviour a customer unlocks through the same Shopify tags that open content. Shopify decides who has it, and WordPress decides what the page leaves out.

1. Register the feature

A theme or a small plugin registers the feature once:

add_filter( 'redeemid_features', function ( array $features ): array {
	$features['ad-free'] = [
		'label'       => 'Ad-free reading',
		'description' => 'Hides the ad slots in stories and on section fronts.',
		'enforcement' => [ 'php', 'block', 'body' ],
		'cache'       => 'private',
		'primary'     => true,
	];

	return $features;
} );

primary lists it in the member menu and on the account page, so members can see what they’re getting. See Register.

2. Choose who gets it

On RedeemID → Access → Features, give Ad-free reading one line per way to get it:

gold
Ad-free add-on = tag:ad-free-addon

Gold members get it with their plan. Anyone tagged ad-free-addon gets it too, whatever plan they’re on, so you can sell it as a cheap add-on product with a Shopify Flow workflow that tags the buyer. See Map: the condition.

3. Leave the ads out

Pick the one that matches how the ads get onto the page.

• Ad slots in blocks: select the block or group that holds the ad, open Access in the block sidebar, choose the feature Ad-free reading and does not hold it. The block is left out on the server for holders, so the ad never loads.
• Ad scripts in the theme or a plugin: wrap the code that prints or enqueues them in if ( ! redeemid_has_feature( 'ad-free' ) ). This also stops the ad network’s script, which a hidden block can’t.
• Styling only: holders get a redeemid-feature-ad-free class on <body>, for small layout changes once the slots are gone. Hiding an ad with CSS still loads it, so don’t rely on the class alone.

See Enforce.

Caching

Guests can’t hold the feature, so every guest gets the same page and guest pages stay cached. A signed-in member’s page that uses the feature is sent as private, so a page cache never shows one member’s ad-free page to someone else. If your cache can vary on a cookie, the vary option keeps one cached copy per member instead. See Caching.

Try it

The live demo works this way: stories carry a sponsor slot that Gold members, and holders of an ad-free add-on tag, don’t get. On your own site, RedeemID → Access → Test shows who holds the feature and which line grants it.

Limits

• Registering needs code. The feature is declared by a theme or plugin. Who gets it is set in the admin.
• Ads served outside WordPress aren’t covered, such as auto ads an ad network injects from a script you can’t wrap, or ads in emails.
• It follows the tag. When Shopify removes the tag, or the member’s level ends, ads come back on the next page they open.

Written for: Publishers, Membership sites