If you all by yourself run your website and want to divide your work, then WordPress gives you the opportunity to do so. You can add new users to your website and give them certain access according to their roles.

For this, you must need to have a proper idea of WordPress user roles. In this article, you will get to know-

• Definition of user roles and capabilities,
• Why it is important and
• A complete idea of it.

What are WordPress user roles and capabilities?

WordPress user roles are the set of actions that users are allowed to do on the WordPress site and the action users are allowed to do is called capabilities.

Example: An administrator installed a new plugin for the website. Now, installing a new plugin is the capability of the administrator.

Why WordPress user roles are important?

User roles are very important for the WordPress websites, because:

Provides security:

They provide security to your website. Users have limited access according to their roles. Users can’t do the unassigned work on your website.

Like an editor can’t install plugins because it is the duty of the administrator. Again a contributor can’t publish his/her post because it is the duty of upper-class users.

Maintains workflow:

User roles maintain proper workflow on your website. like you can hire a contributor for your website. contributor will only create posts. Then you can hire an editor who will edit the work of the contributor.

Like this you can have a proper workflow in your WordPress website.

WordPress User roles and capabilities

There are Five user roles in WordPress. Different user is capable of doing different things. User roles are:

Administrator:

It is the most powerful user role of WordPress. The administrator has full control over all other WordPress users. One site should have only one administrator.

Capabilities of an Administrator:

• Can add and modify new pages and posts.
• install and modify new plugins and themes.
• change the role of WordPress users.
• add and delete users.
• Deletes and edits published post.

You need to choose the most trusted person for the administrator role. If you choose the wrong administrator then he/she can make damage to your website and brand.

Editor:

The editor is the one who monitors the work of authors and contributors and manages the content of the website. He/She can’t modify his/her role. An editor can’t make any changes to plugins and themes.

Capabilities of an editor:

• Creates, edits, and deletes content.
• monitors the work of authors and contributors.
• can create, modify, and delete pages.

Author:

An author is the one who can’t make any change to another’s post but can make changes to his/her post. He/She can’t create pages.

Capabilities of an author:

• Can create a new post.
• capable of Editing, deleting, and publishing his/her post.

Contributor:

A contributor is the one who can’t publish any post on the website. The contributor’s work is the same as the Author’s but has some limitations.

Capabilities of a contributor:

• Can write, manage and delete the post.

Subscriber:

Subscribers are basically the users of the site. They have no control over the site.

Capabilities of a subscriber:

• Only sees the post of the site.
• Can subscribe to the site.
• Have authority to modify their personal profile.

If you still have some questions then check out the following video:

Comparison of roles that WordPress users have

Different user has different roles and capabilities. Comparison of user roles:

Checkout what the official site has to say about the roles and capabilities.

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system. It has gained it’s popularity because of it’s unique features that make user’s work easier.

WordPress user roles are another facility that makes website handling easier. It provides security and proper workflow to your website.

For gathering more knowledge about WordPress, you can check out the following article.