How to Add Conditional Logic to Menus in WordPress (Step by Step)

Sometimes, you might need your WordPress menu to change based on the page or user. Maybe you want a unique menu for logged-in members or different navigation options for specific sections of your site.

However, WordPress shows the same menu everywhere, which isn’t always ideal. A one-size-fits-all menu can be limiting.

Adding conditional logic to your menus can help with this problem!

In this guide, we’ll show you how to customize your WordPress menus the smart way. Once up and running, you can control what visitors see based on specific conditions – giving them a more personalized experience.

Why Add Conditional Logic to Menus in WordPress?

Navigation menus give your website structure and help visitors find what they’re looking for.

By default, your WordPress website will display the same navigation menu to all users and on all posts and pages.

However, there may be times when you wish to display different menus to different users or on different pages on your website.

For example, an online store, a WordPress membership site community, or an online learning platform can all benefit from personalized navigation menus.

Using conditional logic, you can customize menus for logged-in users so they can manage their accounts, renew their subscriptions, or view the online courses they purchased.

💡 You can think of it as WordPress menu access control.

With that in mind, we will show you how to add conditional logic to WordPress menus. Here are the topics we will cover in this tutorial:

Ready? Let’s get started.

Creating New Navigation Menus in WordPress

The first step is to create the additional navigation menus you wish to display in WordPress. After that, you can use conditional logic to decide when each menu will be displayed.

From here on out, we will show you how to add conditional menus to WordPress for both classic and block editors.

Creating New Navigation Menus in WordPress Using the Classic Editor

This method works for classic theme users.

To create new navigation menus, simply head over to the Appearance » Menus page in the WordPress dashboard. If you already have a navigation menu that you use on your website for all users, then this can be your default menu.

Next, you’ll need to click the ‘create a new menu’ link to make a new menu item. For example, you could create one menu to show to logged-in users and another to display on a certain WordPress page or category.

On the left-hand side of the screen, you can see a list of your website pages. Simply check the box next to any page you want to add to your menu and click the ‘Add to Menu’ button.

You can also drag and drop the menu items on the right side of the screen to rearrange them.

Further down the page, you can choose a location to display your menu. But you don’t need to assign a location to this menu now. We’ll do that in the next step.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Menu’ button to store your changes.

For more details on creating menus, you can take a look at our beginner’s guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.

Creating New Navigation Menus in WordPress Using FSE

To create new navigation menus in a block theme with Full Site Editing (FSE), you will need to navigate to Appearance » Editor from your WordPress dashboard first.

Once you’re inside, you can click the ‘Navigation’ tab to expand it. If you’re wondering, we’re using the Twenty-Twenty Three theme for this guide.

Next, let’s click ‘Edit’ next to the ‘Navigation’ label. This will open the full site editor on your screen.

From here, all that’s left to do is click the ‘+’ icon to add a navigation menu item. You’ll then see a prompt showing a dropdown menu where you can select an option.

For more detailed instructions, you can see our guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.

Showing a Different Menu to Logged-In Users in WordPress

It’s often useful to display different navigation menus to users depending on whether they have logged in to your site or not.

For example, you can include login and registration links for logged-out users and add a logout link to your menu for logged-in users.

If you are running a WooCommerce store, then you could include items for your customers that are hidden from the general public.

Showing a Different Menu to Logged-In Users Using the Classic Editor

To get started, you need to install and activate the Conditional Menus plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll want to navigate to Appearance » Menus and switch to the ‘Manage Locations’ tab.

From here, you will see the list of available menu locations and the menus that are currently displayed. These will vary depending on the WordPress theme you are using.

For example, on our demo website, it is showing that our ‘Primary Menu’ location is showing a navigation menu titled ‘Main Menu’.

We can tell the plugin to show a different menu when a certain condition is matched by clicking on the ‘+ Conditional Menu’ link and selecting another menu from the drop-down menu.

For this tutorial, we will select ‘Logged in Menu’.

Next, you need to click on the ‘+ Conditions’ link.

This will bring up a popup where you’ll see a bunch of conditions to choose from.

Simply check the box next to the ‘User logged in’ option, and then click on the ‘Save’ button.

You can now visit your website to see the logged-in user menu in action. You can log out of your website to see the navigation menu that is shown to all other users.

For more detailed instructions and to learn how to do this using code, take a look at our guide on how to show different menus for logged-in users in WordPress.

Showing a Different Menu to Logged-In Users Using FSE

If you’re using a block theme, then you’ll need the Conditional Blocks plugin. So, let’s install and activate the plugin first. If you need help, then you can see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activating it, you can open the FSE feature by navigating to Appearance » Editor. Then, you’ll want to click ‘Patterns’ and then ‘All template parts.’

You should now see all of your template parts, which might include a footer, header, and comments. Let’s click the three dots in the ‘Header’ section and then select ‘Edit.’

This will redirect you to the block editor.

Now, you’ll need to click on the navigation menu block to add conditionals. After that, simply switch to the ‘Block’ tab on the right-hand side panel to start customizing.

If you scroll down the ‘Block’ tab, you’ll see the ‘Conditional Blocks’ section. Simply give it a click to open the customization options.

Then, go ahead and click the ‘Edit Visibility’ button.

A pop-up window where you can set conditions for your chosen navigation menu will appear.

Here, you can open the ‘CONDITION’ dropdown and select the ‘User Logged In’ option.

Simply close the window by clicking on the ‘X’ button at the top right corner.

You should then see a condition added to the ‘Conditional Blocks’ section. Go ahead and click ‘Save’ to update your navigation menus.

Now, if you visit your website, here’s what it might look like for logged-out and logged-in users:

Showing a Different WordPress Menu Depending on User Role

Once a user has logged in, you can also display a different navigation menu depending on the user role you have assigned to them.

For example, you could include extra menu items for an administrator and more limited items for a contributor. On a membership site, you could grant different levels of access to different membership levels.

Showing a Different WordPress Menu Depending on User Role Using the Classic Editor

As in the previous section, you’ll need to install and activate the Conditional Menus plugin.

Then, you can go to the Appearance » Menus page and switch to the ‘Manage Locations’ tab.

You should add the appropriate conditional menu for your selected user role. For this tutorial, we’ll select the ‘Nav Menu Administrator’ menu.

After that, you can click the ‘+ Conditions’ link to choose the user role.

You will need to click on the ‘User Roles’ tab to see checkboxes for each user role on your website. Simply click the user roles that will see this menu, and then click the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

Showing a Different WordPress Menu Depending on User Role Using FSE

To show a different menu depending on user roles in FSE, you’ll be using the Content Control plugin. If you need help installing and activating it, please refer to our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can navigate to Appearance » Editor » Patterns » All template parts. Then, simply click the three dots in the ‘Header’ section and then select ‘Edit.’

In the editor, you can select a navigation menu to add conditionals to.

For example, we’re going to make our ‘Blog’ page exclusive to our subscribers only. So, we’ll click ‘Blog’ to open its customization options.

From here, let’s head over to the right-hand panel and toggle the ‘Enable Controls’ switch in the ‘Block Controls’ section.

Then, you’ll want to scroll down to the ‘User Rules’ section to set up the conditions.

First, simply open the ‘WHO CAN SEE THIS CONTENT’ dropdown menu and choose ‘Logged In User.’

Then, for the ‘USER ROLE’ dropdown, you can choose ‘Matching.’ And in the ‘CHOSEN ROLES,’ let’s select ‘subscriber.’

Once done, you can go ahead and click the ‘Save’ button.

Showing a Different Menu for Different Pages in WordPress

You can display a different menu for different pages in WordPress.

For example, you could display extra menu items on your privacy policy page, such as a link to your cookie notice.

Showing a Different Menu for Different Pages in WordPress Using the Classic Editor

To do this, you need to install and activate the Conditional Menus plugin. Then, you’ll want to navigate to Appearance » Menus » Manage Locations.

After choosing the appropriate navigation menu, you can click the ‘+ Conditions’ link. This time, you should click the ‘Pages’ tab. You will see a list of every page on your website.

You’ll then need to place a checkmark next to each page where you wish to display the navigation menu. Once done, go ahead and click the ‘Save’ button.

Showing a Different Menu for Different Pages in WordPress Using FSE

Block theme users can use the Block Visibility plugin. If you need help with installation, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, let’s navigate to Appearance » Editor » Patterns » All template parts. And after opening the Header’s editor, you can head over to the ‘Visibility’ section.

From here, you can open the dropdown and select ‘URL Path.’

Then, you can add the Privacy Policy page’s URL path to the ‘URL PATH (CONTAIN)’ area.

A URL path is the part of a web address that comes after the main website name and shows a specific page or item.

For example, in the address https://example.com/about, the /about part is the URL path.

If you don’t know what your Privacy Policy page’s URL path is, you can go to Pages » All Pages. Then, you’ll want to find the Privacy Policy page and hover over it.

Simply click the ‘Quick Edit’ button, and you’ll want to see the ‘Slug’ section. The URL path should be the ‘/’ symbol followed by the page’s slug.

Or simply visit the page and copy and paste the bit after the domain name.

That’s it! Go ahead and click ‘Save’ to store the changes.

Hiding the Navigation Menu on Landing Pages in WordPress

There may be pages on your website where you don’t want to display a navigation menu at all, such as your landing pages.

A landing page is designed to increase sales or generate leads for a business. On these pages, you’ll want to minimize distractions and provide users with all the information they need to take a specific action.

In our guide on how to increase your landing page conversions by 300%, we suggest that you minimize distractions by removing navigation menus and other links from the page.

Hiding the Navigation Menu on Landing Pages in WordPress Using the Classic Editor

You can do that using the Conditional Menus plugin. This time, you’ll choose ‘Disable Menu’ from the dropdown when selecting the conditional menu.

Next, let’s click the ‘+ Conditions’ link to choose when to display the menu.

You should click on the ‘Pages’ tab and place a checkmark next to the ‘My Landing Page’ item.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store and apply your settings.

Hiding the Navigation Menu on Landing Pages in WordPress Using FSE

Now, for block theme users, you can use the Block Visibility plugin, but this time, you’ll enter the URL path to the ‘URL Path (Does Not Contain)’ field.

So, let’s install and activate the plugin. If you need help, then feel free to see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can head over to Appearance » Editor » Patterns » All template parts. Once inside the Header editor, let’s find the ‘Visibility’ section.

From here, you can choose ‘URL Path’ and enter the path of your landing page into the ‘URL Path (Does Not Contain)’ field.

Once done, simply click the ‘Save’ button.

Further Reading: Doing More With WordPress Navigation Menus

Navigation menus are powerful web design tools. They allow you to direct users to the most important sections of your WordPress blog or website.

Now that you are showing different navigation menus on different pages and for various user roles, you may wonder how to customize them further.

To improve the functionality of your navigation menus, be sure to check out these tutorials:

• How to add custom items to specific WordPress menus
• How to add custom navigation menus in WordPress themes
• How to add a fullscreen responsive menu in WordPress
• How to create a vertical navigation menu in WordPress
• How to add a mega menu to your WordPress site
• How to style WordPress navigation menus
• How to display breadcrumb navigation links in WordPress

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to add conditional logic to menus in WordPress. Next, you may want to learn how to add titles in the WordPress menu without linking to a page and see our expert tips for using conditional logic in WordPress forms.

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