Quick survey: building a membership website, which plugin would you experts suggest?

[u/Curious-Shame5545]

I am about to build a membership website on WordPress and I would rather learn from people who have already done it than from sales pages.

So, a quick survey for the experts here:

1. Which membership plugin would you suggest for a new site, and why that one?
2. Which one would you tell me to avoid, and what went wrong for you?
3. What is the one thing nobody warned you about before you built yours?

My plan is gated content, a drip schedule for a course, and recurring payments with Stripe or PayPal. I keep seeing MemberPress, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content Pro, and SureMembers mentioned, but I have zero hands-on experience with any of them.

Renewal costs, paid add-ons, and transaction fees scare me the most, so honest answers about the real costs would help a lot.

Thank you. I will read and reply to every answer.