by Website owners need to utilize the built-in levels of WordPress to limit access. This is an important feature that many website owners WordPress sites tend to overlook. When you take charge of who can do what on your website by restricting levels of access, you are eliminating a lot of problems right out of the gate. You understand the implications of giving a guest blogger an Administrator role, but the overzealous business owner or marketing intern may not.
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Table of Contents
Getting to know the WordPress levels of Access
The WordPress levels of access are as follows:
1. Super Admin:
Available on Multisite installations only. Permits access to the site network administration features and all other features.
2. Administrator:
Access to all the administration features within a single site.
3. Editor:
Can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users.
4. Author:
Can publish and manage their own posts.
5. Contributor:
Can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.
6. Subscriber:
Can only manage their profile.
Now that you know the various different level of WordPress access, now you need to figure out who has access and at what level. First thing first – create a list of every necessary user. The boss’ cousin who helped with social media that one time may not be necessary. The employee you terminated for theft a few years back probably doesn’t need to have access any longer either. Once, you’ve identified those who need access, determine what is the highest level of access they may require. Nothing more, nothing less. If they don’t need to edit code, they don’t need access at a level that would allow them to do so.
Upon installing WordPress, an Administrator account is automatically created. The default role for new users can be set in Administration Panels > Settings > General. A user’s role can be changed in their user Profile.
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1. Super Admin Level WordPress Access
Multisite Super Admins have, by default, all capabilities. The following Multisite-only capabilities are therefore only available to Super Admins:
- create sites
- delete sites
- manage network
- manage sites
- manage network users
- manage network plugins
- manage network themes
- manage network options
- upgrade network
- setup network
In the case of single site WordPress installation, Administrators are, in effect, Super Admins. As such, they are the only ones to have access to additional admin capabilities.
2. Administrator Level WordPress Access
The capabilities of Administrators differs between single site and Multisite WordPress installations. All administrators have the following capabilities:
- activate plugins
- delete others pages
- delete others posts
- delete pages
- delete posts
- delete private pages
- delete private posts
- delete published pages
- delete published posts
- edit dashboard
- edit others pages
- edit others posts
- edit pages
- edit posts
- edit private pages
- edit private posts
- edit published pages
- edit published posts
- edit theme options
- export
- import
- list users
- manage categories
- manage links
- manage options
- moderate comments
- promote users
- publish pages
- publish posts
- read private pages
- read private posts
- read
- remove users
- switch themes
- upload files
- customize
- delete site
Additional Admin Capabilities
Only Administrators of single site installations have the following capabilities. Most installations are single site. In Multisite, only the Super Admin has the following abilities:
- update core
- update plugins
- update themes
- install plugins
- install themes
- upload plugins
- upload themes
- delete themes
- delete plugins
- edit plugins
- edit themes
- edit code files
- edit users including passwords
- create users
- delete users
- unfiltered html
3. Editor Level WordPress Access
- delete others pages
- delete others posts
- delete pages
- delete posts
- delete private pages
- delete private posts
- delete published pages
- delete published posts
- edit others pages
- edit others posts
- edit pages
- edit posts
- edit private pages
- edit private posts
- edit published pages
- edit published posts
- manage categories
- manage links
- moderate comments
- publish pages
- publish posts
- read
- read private pages
- read private posts
- unfiltered html
- upload files
4. Author Level WordPress Access
- delete posts
- delete published posts
- edit posts
- edit published posts
- publish posts
- read
- upload files
5. Contributor Level WordPress Access
- delete posts
- edit posts
- read
6. Subscriber Level WordPress Access
- read
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