How to manage user permissions in WordPress

Write down each user type and the actions they need: viewing lessons, creating posts, publishing content, editing other users’ work, uploading media or managing plugins. Treat these as capabilities rather than job titles.

Keep high-risk capabilities such as installing plugins, editing themes and managing users limited to trusted administrators. WordPress roles are bundles of capabilities, and the standard roles range from Subscriber through Contributor, Author and Editor to Administrator. Multisite also has a Super Admin role.

Use the smallest standard role that meets the requirement. A Subscriber can manage their profile, a Contributor can write but not publish posts, an Author can publish their own posts, and an Editor can manage posts from other users. Administrators can manage the site’s administration features.

Do not make every course tutor an Administrator simply because they need to manage lessons. A broad role can also grant access to settings, users or content outside the LMS.

Go to Users, select a user, choose Edit, set the appropriate role and save the account. You can also select several users in the users list and use the bulk role action where it is available. A user’s role determines the capabilities WordPress gives that account.

For new registrations, review Settings > General and check the default role. Leaving registration open with an overly powerful default role is a common permission mistake.

When no built-in role is a close fit, create a custom role containing only the required capabilities. This normally requires a small site-specific plugin or a carefully maintained custom-code snippet. WordPress provides add_role() for new roles and role methods such as add_cap() and remove_cap() for changing capabilities.

Run role-creation code once during plugin activation or inside a conditional block, not on every page load. Repeatedly adding or removing capabilities in an always-running snippet makes later changes harder to track and can leave a site with unexpected access.

Create test accounts for each role and check the real workflows: logging in, opening the dashboard, creating content, editing another user’s content, publishing, uploading media and accessing lessons or protected pages.

Test with a separate browser or private window so you do not accidentally rely on your administrator session. If a user can edit a post but cannot edit a particular item, remember that WordPress checks object-specific capabilities such as edit_post and maps them to underlying capabilities. Code that checks access should use current_user_can() with the relevant capability and object ID where required.

Built-in WordPress roles are suitable for broad responsibilities, but they do not provide a complete interface for restricting individual posts, pages, lessons or custom post types to selected users or groups. If your LMS needs tutors to edit only certain courses, or members to see only specific content, use a permissions plugin rather than trying to multiply standard roles.

Fast way: use PublishPress Permissions for custom roles, capability changes and content access rules. It is a practical choice when standard WordPress roles are too broad and you need permissions that apply to particular content or users.