WordPress has a user role management system which states about a specific user and what he/she can or cannot do on your website. It is important to know about the user roles and permissions as it will help to grow your WordPress site. In this guide, we will learn the function of every user and will compare them with each other.
Whenever someone installs WordPress, five default user roles can be seen, which are:
1. Administrator
2. Editor
3. Author
4. Contributor
5. Subscriber
1. Administrator: – on a daily WordPress install, the role of the Administrator is the most powerful one. Users having an Administrator can add new posts, can edit other’s posts, can delete posts, and also can change themes. The notable thing about this position is that an administrator can add a new user and can delete the old user as well. The role of administrator is given to the site owner, who has full control over his/her, WordPress site. People who are running multi-user WordPress sites have to be careful before assigning an administrator using a role.
2. Editor: – users who are having the editor role in WordPress have complete control over the content part of your website. Editors can add, edit, publish, and delete any posts of their own as well as of others on a WordPress site. An editor can look after the comment of the sections as well, and he/she can edit or delete the comment. Unlike Administrators, Editors don’t have the power to add new users, change site settings, or change themes.
3. Author: – the function of the Author role is exactly like the name as this user can write, edit, and publish their posts, and if they want they can delete that as well. While writing posts authors are not allowed to create their categories, but they can choose from the existing ones, and also they can add a tag to their posts. Authors can view all the comments even those are pending but they cannot edit or delete any comment. In the author’s role, the risk factor is low as they don’t have the access to change settings of the site.
4. Contributor: – people in the contributor’s role can add new posts and edit their posts, they are not allowed to publish anything, not even their posts. While writing posts, authors are not allowed to create their categories, but they can choose from the existing ones, and also they can add a tag to their posts. The main drawback of this position is that they cannot upload any files, which means they are not allowed to add pictures for their article. Contributors can review comments but cannot edit or delete them.
5. Subscriber: – users having the subscriber role can log in to your WordPress site, can update their user profile, and can change the password if they are willing to. But they cannot write posts, see comments, or do anything else in the admin section. Subscriber user role is especially helpful if you need users to login before they can view a post or write a comment.
There is another user role WordPress, which is Super Admin, but this role is only available on a WordPress having a multisite network. Default WordPress user roles are planned to have abilities that fulfill the needs of almost every website. For instance, if you are running a magazine site, then you can give the editor position to your experienced staff and the author position to a learner. You can allow the role of the contributor to your guest authors and subscriber role to your site visitors.
