Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin

What is Members?

Members is a roles and capabilities plugin for WordPress. It gives site owners a simple interface to manage user permissions. Developed by Blair Williams, this plugin has been actively maintained for 17 years. It currently holds 300,000+ active installs and a 4.9 out of 5 star rating from 1,259 reviews. A total of 94% of those reviews are five-star ratings, reflecting strong user satisfaction.

The plugin acts as a front-end for WordPress’s native roles and capabilities system. Traditionally, editing roles required custom code. Members provides checkboxes and menus instead. It allows you to create new roles, edit existing ones, and assign specific capabilities to each. You can also restrict content access based on a user’s role. The plugin is free and includes all previous premium add-ons at no extra cost.

Key Features of Members

• Role Editor: Create, edit, or delete roles and their associated capabilities from a single screen.
• Multiple User Roles: Assign more than one role to any single user account on your site.
• Explicitly Deny Capabilities: Block specific capabilities for a role, overriding any inherited permissions.
• Clone Roles: Duplicate an existing role to use as a starting point for a new custom role.
• Content Permissions: Restrict access to any post or page based on user role or capability.
• Administrator Rescue (Magic Link): Request a time-limited email link to restore admin access if you lock yourself out after editing roles.
• Role Import / Export: Export roles and settings to a JSON file, then preview and import them with options to skip, overwrite, or rename.
• Block Permissions (Included Add-on): Hide or show individual blocks in the block editor based on user login status, role, or capability.

Who Should Use Members?

Members is built for site owners who need granular control over user access. It suits beginners who want to restrict dashboard access or hide content from certain users. It also fits developers who need to create custom roles without writing PHP. With 300,000 active installs, it serves a wide range of use cases, from small blogs to multi-author news sites.

If you need to charge for access or manage subscriptions, consider pairing Members with MemberPress. Members handles roles and permissions. MemberPress handles payments, courses, and community groups. For sites that only need free membership tiers or content restrictions, Members alone is sufficient. Its 94% five-star rating indicates it meets this need reliably for most users.

Installation & Setup

Install Members like any other plugin. Upload the folder to /wp-content/plugins/ and activate it from the Plugins screen. After activation, go to Settings > Members to configure your options. The interface is beginner-friendly, with clear labels for each setting. No coding is required to create roles or restrict content.

Support & Community

Support data from the last two months shows 11 open threads and 10 resolved threads. That gives a resolution rate of 91%. The plugin’s support forum handles issues like role conflicts and permission setups efficiently. The low number of open threads (11) relative to 300,000 installs suggests a stable plugin with clear documentation.

The rating distribution reinforces this stability. With 94% five-star reviews and only 2% one-star reviews, most users find the plugin works as expected. The included add-ons, such as Privacy Caps and Admin Access, reduce the need for third-party tools. This all-in-one approach likely contributes to the high satisfaction score.