Simple Membership maintains its own user identity layer separate from wp_users. Members live in swpm_members_tbl with member_id, user_name, email, membership_level, account_state (active, expired, inactive, pending), member_since, and last_accessed_from_ip as columns. Levels themselves live in swpm_membership_tbl, and every payment lands in swpm_payments_tbl with the linked member_id and gateway transaction reference.

The default Simple Membership admin gives Members, Membership Levels, and Payments their own screens with their own filters. Joining a member to their last payment or their lifetime spend means jumping between screens and matching by member_id manually. The members screen lists account state but doesn't show the linked level name, the expiry date, or the last-payment outcome alongside it. Per-level cohort retention, dunning queues, and lifetime-spend rankings all sit somewhere between the default screens and a manual SQL query.

SleekView reads the three tables directly, joins members to their level via membership_level and to payments via member_id, and produces a single member-centric roster with state, level name, expiry, last payment, and lifetime spend as columns. Bulk state flips and inline level changes route through the SWPM API where supported.

Simple Membership earns its name on configuration, not on operations. The plugin is straightforward to set up and serves smaller membership sites well, but its admin treats members, levels, and payments as three separate concerns with their own screens. Operationally that's fine for a hundred members and gets painful past a thousand, where every retention question, every dunning workflow, and every cohort analysis needs all three tables read together.

Did this member's last payment fail? Are they still listed as active despite that? How much have they paid since signup? SWPM stores the data to answer all of those, but reaching it from the default admin means three screens, manual member_id matching, and the occasional SQL query. SleekView's joined view collapses that into a single workspace where the row-level question is one filter away. Finance running monthly close, support handling chat, and growth running cohort retention all benefit from the same simplification — one screen instead of three.