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WordPress User Roles: A complete guide

WordPress contains a powerful Users module as part of its core platform. In the module, you can essentially invite your team to collaborate on the website.

This is a very useful feature for website developers using WordPress. Creating and managing a website is often a collaborative process. The Users module essentially makes it easy for site owners to invite team members in different roles.

Each role in the WordPress User module comes with a specified level of access. This allows site administrators to control the level of access they grant to each invited user. The Users module is also used by various third-party membership plugins as a basis for user access and management.

Since AppMySite is integrated with all the core functionalities of WordPress, it also provides support for the Users module. Anyone registered on your website as a user can also log in to the app you build using the AppMySite mobile app builder software.

In this article, we discuss the various roles offered in the WordPress Users module. First, let’s discuss how you can add a user to your WordPress admin panel.

How to add a user to your WordPress?

Adding a new user to your WordPress admin panel is fairly simple. The steps below explain the process:

  • Login to your WordPress admin panel.
  • Navigate to the Users module and click on Add New.
  • Enter the username and email address of the user you wish to invite.
  • Choose a role for the user.
  • Click on Add New User.

The user you’re inviting would receive an invitation email.

Super administrator

Super administrators is a role generally associated with websites that have Multisite enables.

In a multisite setup, every subdomain or subdirectory has a different admin. The super admin essentially oversees the admins managing each website. As the name of the role suggests, a super admin can do anything across all the websites in a multisite network.

This includes adding and deleting websites in the network, making changes in the plugins and themes, and more.

If a multisite setup has a particular user designated as the super admin, the access level of site admins is reduced. This is because the additional access levels are then transferred to the super admin.

These access levels include the ability to add themes and plugins. With a super admin involved, site admins can only activate and deactivate,  and not install a new theme or plugin.

Administrator

The administrator is a role we’re all familiar with. When we create a new website and log in, we’re essentially its admin.

As the sole admin of a website, you can make any change you like. This includes adding new themes, installing plugins, the list goes on. Administrators also have the ability to invite new users through the WordPress Users module.

As the admin, you can assign another user as the administrator as well. This can be a useful feature in case you wish to let someone else manage and build the website on a day-to-day basis.

Since the administrator has unfettered access to every module of your website, it’s important you assign this role responsibly.

Editor

WordPress is a content management system, so it is only natural that most of its roles are based on content publication access and control.

The Editor role is a level below administrator. It is an ideal role for users who have to manage and post content on a website.

Let’s assume you have a news website on WordPress. The editor of your platform should ideally have control over what is published on the website. At the same time, the editor doesn’t need to be concerned about the plugins, themes, and other functionality of the site.

The editor role is ideal for such a user. Editors can manage and update content written by other users on the website as well. Additionally, they can manage comments, post categories, and supervise other users in a lower user role.

Author

Just like an editor, an author can also edit, update, and publish content on a WordPress site. The only line of difference between editors and authors is that the latter cannot edit content created by other users.

Authors can only update their own content. Additionally, users in this role cannot change other attributes of the website such as post categories and comments.

They can update their own profile information. The author role is ideal if you have a hierarchical team of creators led by an editor. This allows editors to control the content published on the website, and authors to keep pushing new posts.

This role is generally reserved for an in-house professional.

Contributor

Let’s assume you wish to start a contributor program on your website. It would naturally be unwise to let any contributor login to the website and publish the content they like.

There is a natural need to vet the content submitted by a contributor before pushing it live on the website.

The contributor role is similar to the author role. Users in this role however do not have the authority to publish their content. The final go-ahead can only be given by the editor or admin.

Such a role is ideal for websites that have a guest author program. WordPress-based websites generally use this role to streamline the guest post submission process. Otherwise, site admins have to manually get content from the contributor email, which is not ideal.

Subscriber

Subscribers are basically users who can read the content published on your website. Besides this, subscribers can only change their user profiles.

Any user that arrives on your website and reads the published content is a subscriber by default.

You can additionally encourage website visitors to officially create an account on your website and become subscribers. This way, you can regularly connect with your subscribers over email campaigns.

In conclusion

WordPress offers a range of useful user roles that allow site admins to collaborate with their team members. You can simply add new users through the Users module of your WordPress admin panel.

Additionally, every app you build on AppMySite with the free app builder also comes integrated with the official WordPress Users module. In short, your website users can seamlessly log in to the app and vice versa.

In this article, we discuss each role offered in the WordPress User module. You can invite new users and assign them roles to manage their access to the website.

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