Do you want to allow users to register on your site?
You can enable user registration in WordPress to allow users to add posts, comment, or perform other actions on your website.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily allow user registration on your WordPress site and how to manage users.
Here is the list of topics we will cover in this tutorial:
- Enabling User Registration in WordPress
- Adding Login and Register Links in WordPress
- Adding Meta Widget in WordPress
- Creating Custom Login and Registration Pages using WPForms
- Creating Custom Login Page using SeedProd
- Managing Users in WordPress
Note: This guide focuses on adding users to your WordPress site with default user roles and capabilities. If you’re looking to make money online by allowing users to pay for premium content and access to a community, then you should see our ultimate guide to creating a WordPress membership site instead.
Enabling User Registration in WordPress
WordPress comes with built-in functionality to manage user registrations. It is turned off by default, but you can easily turn it on.
Simply head over to the Settings » General page in your WordPress admin area. Scroll down to the ‘Membership’ section and check the box next to ‘Anyone can register’ option.
Next you need to select the default user role. This is the user role assigned to each new user who registers on your website.
Each user role in WordPress comes with its own permissions and capabilities. See our guide on WordPress user roles and permissions to learn more about user roles in WordPress.
The default user role is ‘Subscriber’, which you can change to any other user role available.
For example, if you want users to write posts on your website then you can change the default user role to Contributor or Author.
Important: Never use ‘Administrator’ as the default user role for user registrations, or a new user may be able to take over your website and lock you out.
Don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button to store your settings.
Now your WordPress site is open to user registrations. You can visit your WordPress login page, and you’ll see an option to register as a new user.
Adding Login and Register Links in WordPress
After opening your website for user registration, you would want to let users know that they can sign up and login to their account.
There are multiple ways to do that.
You can simply add links in your WordPress sidebar to your login and registration page, or you can create custom login and registration pages for your website.
We’ll show you 3 different methods, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.
Method 1: Adding The Meta Widget to WordPress Sidebar
The simplest way to add a login link is by adding the meta widget to your sidebar.
Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘Meta’ widget to a sidebar. You can see our guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress for detailed instructions.
The meta widget includes links to register, log in / log out, RSS feed, comments feed, and WordPress.org website.
This is how it appears on our example website:
Method 2: Creating Custom Login Pages Using WPForms
The problem with the first method is that there is no way to customize the registration or login forms. You can’t add form fields or change the design of the forms, and they wouldn’t match the design of your website.
By using your own custom login pages, you can offer a much better user experience. You can embed your forms on any page on your website, and add form fields to collect any information you want.
We’ll show you different ways to create your own custom login pages. The easiest one is by using the WPForms plugin.
WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin on the market. It comes with a user registration addon that allows you to easily add login and registration forms anywhere on your website.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Note: You will need at least Pro license to access user registration addon.
Upon activation, you need to visit WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can get this license key from your account on WPForms website.
After verification, you need to head over to WPForms » Addons page.
On this page, scroll down to ‘User Registration Addon’ and click on the Install Addon button next to it.
WPForms will install the addon, and then you will need to click on the activate button to start using it.
You are now ready to create custom registration and login forms using WPForms.
Creating a Custom Registration Form
Simply visit the WPForms » Add New page to launch the WPForms’ form builder.
First you need to enter a form name and then search for user registration template under the ‘Select a Template’ section.
Click on the ‘Use Template’ button to continue, and WPForms will create a simple WordPress user registration form for you.
You can now add new fields from the left panel as well as customize the order of existing fields by using a simple drag and drop interface.
Once you are done adding the fields, click on the ‘Settings’ menu on the left.
Then select the ‘User Registration’ tab.
Here you can map each form field to information in the user’s profile, select the user role, enable notifications, select the confirmation page, and enable user activation.
The user activation feature helps you reduce spam user registration in WordPress.
If you select the manual method, then all users must be approved by an admin before they can login to your site.
If you select the email method, then the user must click on an activation link before they can login to your website.
Besides adding form fields, you can also connect your form with other WPForms addons.
For instance, you can connect to your email marketing service provider and automatically add new users to your email list. Similarly, you can connect WPForms to payment services like PayPal and Stripe to receive online payments.
When you’re finished, don’t forget to click on the Save button at the top right corner of the screen to save your form settings.
You can now exit the form builder by clicking on the close button.
Your user registration form is ready to be added to your WordPress site.
Simply create a new WordPress page or edit an existing page that you would like to use as the registration page.
On the page edit screen, you need to add WPForms blocks to your content area.
From the WPForms block, simply click on the drop down menu and select the ‘User registration form’ you created earlier.
You can now save or publish your page, and then visit the page to see your custom user registration page in action.
Creating a Custom Login Form
Now that your custom user registration page is active, let’s add a custom login form to your WordPress site.
To get started, visit WPForms » Add New. This will launch the form builder interface of WPForms.
You need to provide a name for your custom login form and then select ‘User Login Form’ as your template.
WPForms will now create a new login form.
By default, it only has the username and password fields.
You can add additional fields to the form by adding them from the left panel.
Next, you need to click on the settings tab and then click on the ‘Confirmation’ tab. This is where you can define what to do after a successful login.
You can show users a message, redirect them to the page they came from, or redirect them to any other page on your site.
Click on the Save button on the top right corner of the screen to store your form settings.
You can now exit the form builder interface by clicking on the close button.
Your custom login form is ready to be added into your WordPress site.
You can add your custom login form to a page by creating a new page and then adding the WPForms block to the content area.
You can also add your custom login form to a sidebar.
Simply head over to Appearance » Widgets page and add the WPForms block or the legacy widget to a sidebar.
Select the custom login form you just created from the drop-down menu, and then click on the Update button to store your widget settings.
You can now visit your website to see your custom login form in action.
For more on this topic, see our guide on how to create a custom login page for WordPress.
Method 3. Create a Custom Login Page using SeedProd
Now if you use WPForms alone to create a custom login page, then the design of your login page will still depend on your WordPress theme.
What if you wanted to design a custom login page that looks more professional and sleek?
SeedProd allows you to easily create a beautiful custom login page for your website.
It is the most powerful WordPress page builder plugin on the market. You can use it to create any type of page without writing any code or learning any special design skills.
First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you’ll be asked to enter your SeedProd license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.
Next, you need to visit the SeedProd » Landing Pages page and click on the Set up a Login Page button.
Next, you will be asked to choose a template for your login page.
SeedProd comes with several professionally designed templates to choose from, or you can also start with a blank canvas.
Next, you need to provide a name and URL for your custom login page.
Then click on Save and Start Editing button to continue.
This will launch the SeedProd’s page builder interface.
You’ll see a live preview of your login page where you can point and click to edit any item.
You can also add new blocks to your login page from the left column.
Once you are satisfied with the design, switch to the Page Settings tab.
From here, you can redirect users from the default WordPress login page to your custom login page. You can also run your login page under isolation mode, which disables any WordPress header and footer scripts from loading.
Once you are satisfied with your changes, you can simply click on the Save button and publish your login page.
You can now open a new browser tab in the Incognito mode and visit your login page to see it in action.
For more details, see our ultimate guide on how to create a custom login page in WordPress.
Managing Users in WordPress
You can view all registered users on your website by clicking on Users in the WordPress admin. WordPress will show you a list of users with their usernames, names, role, and email addresses.
As an administrator, you can delete any user at any time you want.
You can also edit user profiles, change their roles, and you can even change their passwords.
This gives you full control over what users can or cannot do on your WordPress site.
That’s all! We hope this article helped you learn how to allow user registration on your WordPress site. You may also want to learn how to choose the best web design software, or see our expert pick of the best email marketing services for small business.
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Bamidele Omonayin says
How can i develop a site that users needs to pay before they sign up
WPBeginner Support says
You are thinking of a membership site, we cover how to create that in our guide below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/ultimate-guide-to-creating-a-wordpress-membership-site/
Admin
John says
Is there a way to have login access required to access a specific page or set of pages and not the entire site?
WPBeginner Support says
For that, you would want to use a membership plugin such as one from our list below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/5-best-wordpress-membership-plugins-compared/
Admin
Brandon says
Hi, I’ just started using WordPress 3 days ago to start developing my e-commerce website but my general setting doesn’t include the membership option to enable users to register on my website nor the option to choose the new user default role. I’m wondering if it’s because I’m using the multi-site network. Please help me out I’m lost.
WPBeginner Support says
If you are using multisite then you would need to go to your network admin site and allow registrations in the settings for that site to allow your subsites to accept registrations.
Admin
Esme says
Hi there,
There is no ‘Membership’ section in my WP Settings. Have these settings been moved since this article was written?
WPBeginner Support says
If you are on WordPress.com instead of WordPress.org it would be the most common reason, you can see our guide on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/
Admin
Norma says
Hello. What if you don’t want people to register on your website, but rather you assign a username and password and then they just go on to log in? Can that be done?
WPBeginner Support says
You can do that and manually create users for each person in which case you do not need to enable user registration.
Admin
Norma says
Is there an addon to upload a csv list with 5000 usernames and passwords?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to take a look at the plugin in our article below for importing users:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-easily-import-and-export-wordpress-users
Karen says
My son runs the school newspaper and wants to set up an online version. The IT staff at his school want to set up a WordPress site and his head teacher wants to limit the people who can view the paper to pupils only. Is the best way to do this by setting up usernames and passwords as per this article (and only allowing subscribers with a school email address) or is there a better way?
WPBeginner Support says
It would be personal preference question on what would be the best method but you can certainly do it that way for one option to limit access.
Admin
Mohammad Ashraf Patel says
Hi, I want to force ‘number only’ in username field in new user registration. This is to force the user to enter his mobile number as his username.
Does WPFORMS new user registration have this facility/function?
WPBeginner Support says
You would need to use an input mask for what you’re wanting and WPForms would be able to do what you’re wanting.
Admin
David Barker says
This tutorial was extremely clear and helpful!
I followed the tutorial for creating a Login WPForms widget. One problem I had was that after the user logged in, they could still see the widget. After a user registers on the User Registration page, then logs in, they can still see the User Registration page. Is there a way to hide pages from users that are logged in?
WPBeginner Support says
We do not have a specific recommendation at the moment, we will be sure to keep an eye out for a plugin we would recommend.
Admin
Louise Harris says
I work on a WooCommerce site and about 5 or 6 of us in the office use the same admin user account.
We quite often get server errors, 503 I think.
Is this because we’re all using the same user account at the same time?
Thanks!
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to try having a user for each person if possible to see if that is the issue.
Admin
Keren Shavit says
I use Woocommerce website. If I uncheck “anyone can register”, will people still be able to create an account and buy? people who have purchased show up as “customers” and people who register show up as “subscribers”.
WPBeginner Support says
Rather than that, you may want to go under Settings>General and set the default user role to customer. That way any user who signs up to your site by default is a customer
Admin
Dee says
Hi,
Is there any way by which the user automatically gets added to subscription list when he posts a comment on any post with their email id?
WPBeginner Support says
You are required to make that an option rather than automatic to comply with laws like GDPR
Admin
Lucho says
Hi, just something I am doing some research and didnt find any solution yet. Many plugins offers the ADMIN APPROVAL feature for new users registration. Is there a way to allow EDITORs to approve? The reason why is to keep the admin profile to the developers, no one else.
Thanks in advande!
Best,
Lucho.-
WPBeginner Support says
You could change user permissions for your editors using the method from our guide here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/wordpress-user-roles-and-permissions/
Admin
Rick says
Hello,
Can you have the details page, edit details, edit password, logout on a post page?
WPBeginner Support says
We do not have a recommended method for placing that on the front end of your site at the moment.
Admin
Minerva says
The tutorial is a great help. Very imprtessive! HOWEVER, the way the steps are decribed goes extremely fast. I have to keep replaying five times, at least, to be able to get one instruction then move on… then replay again… then move in 3 seconds, then replay again… Extremely fast. I wish you could speak even just 20 percent slower. Thank you
WPBeginner Support says
Thank you for your feedback on our video, you should have the option using the cog in the bottom right of the video to change the playback speed
Admin
Vince Weeks says
I want to allow users to register on my site. When I follow the tutorial, it tells me to go to wp admin – settings – general – membership and select allow anyone. I don’t see this option. What now?
WPBeginner Support says
You may want to ensure you are an admin of your site and that you are actually in the wp-admin area of your site.
Admin
Dennis says
Before I go crashing around and mess something up … Is there a way to *require* registration?
WPBeginner Support says
For that, you would want to create a membership site using one of the plugins in our list here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/5-best-wordpress-membership-plugins-compared/
Admin
Badr says
what is the role for online store
should be subscriber or customer ?
Thanks,
WPBeginner Support says
Normally the ecommerce plugin should set them as customers and not subscribers
Admin
John Pendleton says
Hello Team, I wish to follow the here numbered steps to create a user registration mechanism but “Settings” tab within WPForms is missing “User Registration” option and controls.
Why would this be and how do I enable it to follow steps in article please?
WPBeginner Support says
For the WPForms method, the user registration is under the addons section to install and enable the addon.
Admin
Dharmesh says
Hello,
I am new to PHP and WordPress hence i need some help. There is website, where they use wp-members plugin for user registration and it is working fine. I need to call one rest service after user registration is successful.
Can you provide me some hint?
WPBeginner Support says
WordPress should send you an email when a new user is registered to the email you have under Settings>General so you can know about new users being registered.
Admin
Ravikiran says
Can I give my subscribers the role to edit any of my pages – just like Wikipedia where anybody can edit anything? or Do I need some extra Plugins to do so?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Ravikiran,
Subscribers do not have permission to edit posts in WordPress. For editing privileges they will need to be assigned the editor user role.
Admin
Frank says
Having a new subscribers, does it contributes to the website traffic!
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Frank,
It depends on why you are allowing users to register and what they can do on your website.
Admin
Kunal Sarin says
How can I change preference of a particular page to be seen only by logged in user and not by copy/pasting the URL?
Best Regards,
KS
Shubhangi Srivastava says
one of my site i have not given registration link but people are registering without my permission what should i do
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Shubhangi,
Go to Settings » General page in your WordPress admin area. Scroll down to the ‘Membership’ section and make sure that the option ‘Anyone can register’ is unchecked.
Admin
Mujtaba says
Hello admin, that was nice article, but my problem is bit defferent, i want many roles… Im working on a website where i want to allow the users to signup as author, as publisher, as advertiser, as creator and as simple user, every type of rule has defferent work to do, like creator can upload and create their stories…publishers can publish articles and can make their own audiance like the publisher, the advertiser can advertise his own content to audience of my website…?? How can i do that.
Thanks in advance…
Mohammed Ashour says
Hello,
If I use WpForms, do I need to check the “Any one can register” in the wordpress dashboard?
thanks
WPBeginner Support says
Hello Mohammed Ashour,
No, you don’t need to.
Admin
thanakan anukool says
i have basic plan but i can not download registeration addon for wordpress
WPBeginner Support says
Hello Thanakan Anukool,
You are probably using WordPress.com. Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Admin
danupondrake says
Please help me. I can’t find the “allow user registration box”. I went to the general settings and I couldn’t find it (Note: I’m using the free plan).
WPBeginner Support says
Hi,
Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Admin
Oliver says
Is there a way I can have a set list of people, and only allow the people on this list to leave comments? Also, I do not want the people on this list to require a password, instead, to login using just their email address – Is this possible?
Mike says
I couldn’t find how to implement and customize registered user’s private dashboard or portfolio.
For example, I’ll allow user registration on website, but I’m not sure how to manage their dashboard and functions (like shopping cart review, personal information, history of paid products from my site…).
Can you help me with that?
Todd says
This. I need help with this.
Mark Abahi says
Thank I love the tutorial nice.
vikash says
hi i want to allow users to register only with gmail, outlook yahoo ect. i dont want to allow ant business or blog domain email. there is any trick for it? please help me. tank you
Asher Jocos says
My website doesn’t have the “allow anyone to register” option on the admin menu;Menu > settings > general.
What do I do pls?.
erwinkeliat says
This stuff is very confusing
Syed Sabah Ur Rehman says
Hi there,
I have transferred my wordpress.com blog to the self hosted wordpress.org blog with the same address.
I have added a “wordpress.com follow button” on my new self hosted site at blue host .i.e
What is happening is people visits my self hosted blog & click on the follow button placed as widget on my self hosted blog,but the followers are added to my old wordpress.com blog & every time I have to mIgrate the followers to my new self hosted site.
so please tell me what to be done so that followers may added directly to my self hosted wordpress.org site
my new site & the older site at wordpress.com are interconnected with each other with JETPACK plug
Also I have setted the primary domain in my old site as ,so that all clicks on my old site at wordpress.com my redirected to my newer site
my wordpress.com site address has now become as example.wordpress.com
PLEASE help.
I just want new followers to be added in my self hosted wordpress.org site
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Syed,
Please contact JetPack support, they will be able to help you better.
Admin
Kash+Mike says
I know this sounds silly…but why do people want to register in my site. Is it so they can get new content? Post? I can’t figure it out. Thank you
WPBeginner Support says
Hi,
It depends on how you want to use user registration feature on your site. For example, you can offer some content only to logged in users or you can invite users to join as authors and write posts on your website. You can also limit comment functionality so that only registered users can comment on your website.
Mohsin says
I have made a custom sign up form for user registration, when any user register himself for my website, I need this user to verify and check his / her entered values for custom fields manually before activating him. Is there any wordpress plugin or any other way for verification of user’s customs values manually?
Somdeep Acharyya says
Is this feature of registrations of multiple users available only for paid hosted websites on WordPress? Or does the free websites have this feature too?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Somdeep,
Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Admin
Sarah says
Thanks for the article. Is it possible to require registration/subscription for specific content within a public post? I offer free, downloadable content on my blog, but I would like to require users to subscribe in order to download the material. I want the post to be viewable to all – not just restricted to members or subscribers – but in order to actually download the files they need to be a subscriber. Is there any way to do this? Any help much appreciated!
lee birchenough says
if you add woocommerce you can add downloadable content. you could then restrict this page to members only.
Charles Dermer says
How does one output a list of email addresses for use to send emailings?
Rob says
I have no membership heading under Settings-General. I wish to make ‘Anyone can Register’ . Thank you
lee birchenough says
it is under the “users” header in the menu on dashboard
Seema Sharma says
how to delete a user ?
WPBeginner Support says
Hi Seema,
Login to your WordPress dashboard and then click on Users in the admin bar. Take your mouse to the user that you want to delete. and then click on the Delete link.
Admin
IJIEH PRINCE says
1 does wordpress store my wesite registration data in mysql
2 can i use a plugin like adminer to manage the registration data
3 how many registration accounts can wordpress allow cause i wanted to make it a public login ( about 25,000 accounts)
Thank You
Daniel Taylor says
1. Yes WordPress stores all user data within the database. Within the tables wp_users and wp_usermeta
2. Yes you can.
3. You can have as many as you want. But keep in mind it uses more resources, so you’ll need to get a better server I’d recommend.
IJIEH PRINCE says
1 does wordpress store my wesite registration data in mysql
2 can i use a pluin like adminer to manage the registration data
3 how many registration accounts can wordpress allow
Thank You
Carol says
I’ve been trying to add the option of letting users register and login to my blog so it can be multiauthored, but for some reason, my admin settings/general page doesn’t have the ‘Membership (Anyone Can Register)’ with checkbox, or the ‘New Member/default role’ dropdown on it. It can’t be a WordPress.com issue, since a buddy of mine has the register/login option on his page. Was the option deleted from recent versions of WordPress, or has it been moved? If you could please, please help me out, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for your time!
Seneja Daniel says
I have tutorials on my website and i need only registered users to have access to those tutorials, i created a register and login form with Visual composer but i don’t know how to redirect registered users to the tutorial page after login.
sasi says
New user registration verification mails not getting, what can I do?
please guide me
WPBeginner Support says
Please see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.
Admin
Mike says
I’ve been searching the web for while, and can’t seem to pinpoint what I need. I’m creating a business site where most of the site is customer info, but I’d like to have a section where employees can log in to access proprietary info and online business tools. It would only be about 25-30 members and not public accessible. Is there a way to create a restricted collection of pages so that only employees can access? Is there a way to do this directly through WordPress, or do I need a plug-in? Thanks for your time-much appreciated!
Geraldine says
I hired a freelancer to do my SEO and after a few weeks the website had gone down in traffic, not a good sign I assume?
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Lizette says
I see you have registered https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-allow-user-registration-on-your-wordpress-site/ for a while,
is that to help with search engine optimisation?
How to Allow User Registration on Your WordPress Site – The
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Nate says
Lets say I set up my register, login, logout and rest password pages. How do I get the Login page in the nav bar, and replace it with the logout page when the user has logged in?
Thapelo says
I am new on WP, I have a project to design a site where people can register. They are supposed to have different forms when registering. Struggling with How to come up with that. Anybody?