If the WordPress website’s owner has grown his website and can not handle the website all alone then he needs more users in order to keep the website running. The users have includes administrator, editor, author, contributor, and subscriber. Each user’s role and permission define what he can or can not do on your website. Users’ roles and permissions are important for the WordPress website to grow safely and quickly.
By assigning the users, their roles, an owner can allow them to contribute to his website without worrying about any damage. In this article, we will dive into the depth of WordPress users’ roles and permissions.
What are WordPress user roles and permissions?
When you created your first website, then you can not handle the website alone. A user role is mainly comprised of certain capabilities or permissions. As an administrator, you can have complete control over the functionality of the website. In short, the Administrator is the boss. The remaining user roles ( author, editor, manager, subscriber, contributor ) work under the administrator.
There are mainly five default roles
- Administrator
- Editor
- Author
- Contributor
- Subscriber
Let’s dive into the depth of each user’s roles and permissions
1) Administrator
The administrator is the boss. He/she is the most powerful role. He can add new posts, and edit or delete the posts. He has permission to change other users’ roles, to change the website’s theme, to add or remove plugins, and to add or delete pages.
Since the administrator has complete authority to be active and be able to trust the other person in the same role. The other person has the same authority and can update WordPress as well. Administrator’s main capabilities include.
- activate_plugins
- delete_others_pages
- delete_others_posts
- delete_pages
- delete_posts
- delete_private_pages
- delete_private_posts
- delete_published_pages
- delete_published_posts
- update_core
- update_plugins
- update_themes
- install_plugins
- install_themes
2) Editor
The editor has full control over the content section of the website. The editor’s role is the trusted one as he can add new content, can edit the published posts written by others but won’t be able to edit website operations. He has authority only over the content section of the website.
Editor’s role includes:
- Adding new posts and pages
- Edit or eliminate the published posts and pages
- Create categories
- Handle comment section
- Change external or internal links
3) Author
Users with an author role can create content for a website. He can add or remove the media files from the content. The editor and author have similar responsibilities. The difference is the author does not have full access to the website’s settings. He can work only on his content, while the editor can work on the other’s content.
The author’s role includes:
- Create, edit or eliminate his/her own post or page
- Add, delete or change media files from their content
- Change external or internal links to their content
4) Contributor
The contributor’s role is similar to the author’s role with a minor difference that contributors can not publish any content to the website. They will be able to create posts and pages but are not able to publish them on the website. While writing posts they can select existing categories and can create their own tags. They are not able to upload files. They can view comments but can not approve or disapprove them.
In short, the contributor’s role includes:
- Create pages or posts but can not publish them
- Can create blog posts but is not able to upload files.
5) Subscriber
Subscriber has an access to log in to your WordPress site and can handle the member’s section only.
they are not able to make any changes to the website. They can not even write posts, or view comments but they are able to update their own profiles and can change passwords.
In short, subscribers’ role includes:
- Can contribute in members only area of the website
- Can create an account and update their profile
How to assign roles to users?
The process of assigning roles to users is very easy and is carried out by the administrator. All you need is to select Users from the left menu bar and then hit on the Add New Button on the left menu section in the dashboard.
Now enter the username of the basic details of the user.
Select the basic role of the user and then hit on the Add New User button at the end.
Once you have added the user, he or she will appear in the users’ list with the given role.
How to change existing users’ roles?
As we already discussed that admin has complete authority over the website. So he has the ability to change the role of any existing user at any time.
To change a role of an existing user select Users from the left menu bar in the dashboard and hit on the edit option of the user that you want to modify. Change the role and hit on the update user button at the end.
How to create custom WordPress user roles and capabilities?
By default, WordPress has the five roles and permissions we have mentioned above. But sometimes we need more roles and capabilities to make our WordPress website grow quickly. For this purpose, we need to create custom roles according to the requirements
Plugins
If you are a WordPress user, you may have knowledge about WordPress plugins. For creating custom roles, there are 5 best WP plugins that you need to install.
- WP Front User Role Editor: A free WP plugin that helps in controlling the roles and capabilities within WordPress.
- User Role Editor: A competent WP plugin that helps in assigning roles and provides useful tools for managing users. It’s free but would be in need a premium version as well to work well.
- Member WordPress Plugin: It’s another capable plugin that helps in handling users’ roles and capabilities. Free and Premium versions are available.
- PublishPress Capabilities: It’s a fully featured plugin with a simple checkbox system to add capabilities
- Advanced Access Manager: It’s the most useful plugin for controlling users and is simple to use with excellent documentation and tools to manage permissions
Create custom user role
By using the above-mentioned plugins you’ll be able to create custom user roles and capabilities. You can create them manually with a little code wizardry but plugins make it easier.
To create a custom role in WordPress:
- Select Roles and Add New from the WordPress dashboard
- Name your new role where it says Display Name and Role Name
- Check the boxes next to each capability you want to add to the role
- Select the blue Add New Role button at the bottom of the page to add your new role.
Eliminate user role
In order to remove a user role, you will first need to reassign any user within that role. Once done, perform the following steps to remove the role from your website.
Remove a user role in WordPress:
- Select Roles and All Roles from the WordPress dashboard
- Select a role from the table in the Roles screen
- Hover underneath until you see Delete
- Select Delete and confirm your choice
Conclusion
User roles and permissions are a powerful method to control what people can or can not do with the website. A website owner can handle the website alone, he needs users to function the website properly. Hopefully, we have explained in detail the user’s roles and permissions. If you still need any assistance, feel free to contact us.