WordPress uses a concept of Roles, designed to give the site owner the ability to control what users can and cannot do within the site. A site owner can manage the user access to such tasks as writing and editing posts, creating Pages, creating categories, moderating comments, managing plugins, managing themes, and managing other users, by assigning a specific role to each of the users.
WordPress has six pre-defined roles: Super Admin, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor and Subscriber. Each role is allowed to perform a set of tasks called Capabilities. There are many capabilities including “publish_posts“, “moderate_comments“, and “edit_users“. A default set of capabilities is pre-assigned to each role, but other capabilities can be assigned or removed using the add_cap() and remove_cap() functions. New roles can be introduced or removed using the add_role() and remove_role() functions.
The Super Admin role allows a user to perform all possible capabilities. Each of the other roles has a decreasing number of allowed capabilities. For instance, the Subscriber role has just the “read” capability. One particular role should not be considered to be senior to another role. Rather, consider that roles define the user’s responsibilities within the site.
- Super Admin – somebody with access to the site network administration features and all other features. See the Create a Network article.
- Administrator (slug: ‘administrator’) – somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site.
- Editor (slug: ‘editor’) – somebody who can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users.
- Author (slug: ‘author’) – somebody who can publish and manage their own posts.
- Contributor (slug: ‘contributor’) – somebody who can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.
- Subscriber (slug: ‘subscriber’) – somebody who can only manage their profile.
Upon installing WordPress, an Administrator account is automatically created.
The default role for new users can be set in Administration Screens > Settings > General.
A Role defines a set of tasks a user assigned the role is allowed to perform. For instance, the Super Admin role encompasses every possible task that can be performed within a Network of virtual WordPress sites. The Administrator role limits the allowed tasks only to those which affect a single site. On the other hand, the Author role allows the execution of just a small subset of tasks.
The following sections list the default Roles and their capabilities:
Super Admin
Multisite Super Admins have, by default, all capabilities. The following Multisite-only capabilities are therefore only available to Super Admins:
In the case of single site WordPress installation, Administrators are, in effect, Super Admins. As such, they are the only ones to have access to additional admin capabilities.
Administrator
The capabilities of Administrators differs between single site and Multisite WordPress installations. All administrators have the following capabilities:
Additional Admin Capabilities
Only Administrators of single site installations have the following capabilities. In Multisite, only the Super Admin has these abilities:
Editor
Author
Contributor
Subscriber
Special Cases
The following capabilities are special cases:
- unfiltered_upload – This capability is not available to any role by default (including Super Admins). The capability needs to be enabled by defining the following constant:
define( ‘ALLOW_UNFILTERED_UPLOADS’, true );
With this constant defined, all roles on a single site install can be given the unfiltered_upload capability, but only Super Admins can be given the capability on a Multisite install.
Capability vs. Role Table
Note that the capabilities of Administrators differs between single site and Multisite WordPress installations, as described above .
| Capability | Super Admin | Administrator | Editor | Author | Contributor | Subscriber |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| create_sites | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| delete_sites | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| manage_network | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| manage_sites | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| manage_network_users | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| manage_network_plugins | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| manage_network_themes | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| manage_network_options | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| upload_plugins | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| upload_themes | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| upload_network | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| upgrade_network | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| setup_network | yes | x | x | x | x | x |
| activate_plugins | yes | yes (single site or enabled by network setting) |
x | x | x | x |
| create_users | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| delete_plugins | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| delete_themes | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| delete_users | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| edit_files | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| edit_plugins | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| edit_theme_options | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| edit_themes | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| edit_users | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| export | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| import | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| install_plugins | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| install_themes | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| list_users | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| manage_options | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| promote_users | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| remove_users | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| switch_themes | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| update_core | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| update_plugins | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| update_themes | yes | yes (single site) | x | x | x | x |
| edit_dashboard | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| customize | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| delete_site | yes | yes | x | x | x | x |
| moderate_comments | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| manage_categories | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| manage_links | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| edit_others_posts | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| edit_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| edit_others_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| edit_published_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| publish_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| delete_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| delete_others_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| delete_published_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| delete_others_pos | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| delete_private_posts | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| edit_private_posts | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| read_private_posts | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| delete_private_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| edit_private_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| read_private_pages | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| unfilthered_html | yes | yes (single site) | yes (single site) | x | x | x |
| unfilthered_html | yes | yes | yes | x | x | x |
| edit_published_posts | yes | yes | yes | yes | x | x |
| upload_files | yes | yes | yes | yes | x | x |
| publish_posts | yes | yes | yes | yes | x | x |
| delete_published_posts | yes | yes | yes | yes | x | x |
| edit_posts | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | x |
| delete_posts | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | x |
| read | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
switch_themes
edit_themes
- Since 2.0
- Allows access to Appearance > Theme Editor to edit theme files.
edit_theme_options
install_themes
activate_plugins
edit_plugins
install_plugins
edit_users
edit_files
- Since 2.0
- Note: No longer used.
manage_options
- Since 2.0
- Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Settings > General
- Settings > Writing
- Settings > Reading
- Settings > Discussion
- Settings > Permalinks
- Settings > Miscellaneous
- Since 2.0
- Allows users to moderate comments from the Comments Screen (although a user needs the edit_posts Capability in order to access this)
manage_categories
manage_links
upload_files
import
unfiltered_html
- Since 2.0
- Allows user to post HTML markup or even JavaScript code in pages, posts, comments and widgets.
- Note: Enabling this option for untrusted users may result in their posting malicious or poorly formatted code.
- Note: In WordPress Multisite, only Super Admins have the unfiltered_html capability.
edit_posts
- Since 2.0
- Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Posts
- Posts > Add New
- Comments
- Comments > Awaiting Moderation
edit_others_posts
- Since 2.0
- Allows access to Administration Screens options:
- Manage > Comments (Lets user delete and edit every comment, see edit_posts above)
- user can edit other users’ posts through function get_others_drafts()
- user can see other users’ images in inline-uploading [no? see inline-uploading.php]
- See Exceptions
edit_published_posts
- Since 2.0
- User can edit their published posts. This capability is off by default.
- The core checks the capability edit_posts, but on demand this check is changed to edit_published_posts.
- If you don’t want a user to be able to edit their published posts, remove this capability.
publish_posts
- Since 2.0
- See and use the “publish” button when editing their post (otherwise they can only save drafts)
- Can use XML-RPC to publish (otherwise they get a “Sorry, you can not post on this weblog or category.”)
edit_pages
read
publish_pages
edit_others_pages
edit_published_pages
delete_pages
delete_others_pages
delete_published_pages
delete_posts
delete_others_posts
delete_published_posts
delete_private_posts
edit_private_posts
read_private_posts
delete_private_pages
edit_private_pages
read_private_pages
delete_users
create_users
- Since 2.1
- Allows creating new users.
unfiltered_upload
edit_dashboard
customize
- Since 4.0
- Allows access to the Customizer.
delete_site
- Since 4.0
- Allows the user to delete the current site (Multisite only).
update_plugins
delete_plugins
update_themes
update_core
list_users
remove_users
add_users
promote_users
- Since 3.0
- Enables the “Change role to…” dropdown in the admin user list.
- This does not depend on ‘edit_users‘ capability.
- Enables the ‘Add Existing User’ to function for multi-site installs.
delete_themes
export
create_sites
- Since 3.1
- Multi-site only
- Allows user to create sites on the network
delete_sites
- Since 3.1
- Multi-site only
- Allows user to delete sites on the network
manage_network
- Since 3.0
- Multi-site only
- Allows access to Super Admin menu
- Allows user to upgrade network
manage_sites
- Since 3.0
- Multi-site only
- Allows access to Network Sites menu
- Allows user to add, edit, delete, archive, unarchive, activate, deactivate, spam and unspam new site/blog in the network
manage_network_users
manage_network_themes
manage_network_options
manage_network_plugins
upload_plugins
- Since 4.0
- Multi-site only
- Allows user to upload plugin ZIP files from the Network Plugins -> Add New menu
upload_themes
- Since 4.0
- Multi-site only
- Allows user to upload theme ZIP files from the Network Themes -> Add New menu
upgrade_network
- Since 4.8
- Multi-site only
- is used to determine whether a user can access the Network Upgrade page in the network admin. Related to this, the capability is also checked to determine whether to show the notice that a network upgrade is required. The capability is not mapped, so it is only granted to network administrators. See #39205 for background discussion.
setup_network
- Since 4.8
- Multi-site only
- is used to determine whether a user can setup multisite, i.e. access the Network Setup page. Before setting up a multisite, the capability is mapped to the `manage_options` capability, so that it is granted to administrators. Once multisite is setup, it is mapped to `manage_network_options`, so that it is granted to network administrators. See #39206 for background discussion.
