ProfessionalEdge ran a certification program for project management professionals across Southeast Asia. Their existing membership system was a combination of spreadsheets, manual PayPal invoicing, and email-based document delivery. With 12,000 members and renewal cycles generating 90-day admin sprints, they needed automation — but no existing plugin handled their specific combination of: tiered membership, exam scheduling, certificate issuance, CPD tracking, and regional chapter management.
The Approach
Off-the-shelf plugins like MemberPress or Paid Memberships Pro would have required $15,000+ of customization to meet their requirements. We scoped a custom plugin that would integrate natively with WordPress, work alongside Elementor Pro for the frontend, and be architecturally clean enough to eventually license to similar organizations.
The Solution
We built a full WordPress plugin with a custom database schema (5 additional tables), REST API endpoints for mobile access, a Stripe and PayNow (Singapore) payment gateway integration, automated certificate PDF generation, and a CPD activity logger. The admin panel was built with a React frontend compiled into the plugin. A member dashboard built in Elementor Pro displayed all live data via the plugin’s shortcode and block system.
Results
Renewal processing time dropped from 3 weeks to automated. Certificate issuance went from 5-7 business days to instant. ProfessionalEdge licensed the plugin to two partner organizations within 8 months, generating additional revenue. The plugin now has 200+ active installations.
“Fasih built something we genuinely use every day. The plugin handles complexity we couldn’t find anywhere else on the market, and the code quality is evident when our technical team reviewed it. We’ve already recommended him to our partner organizations.”
— Tan Wei Ming, CTO, ProfessionalEdge Asia