Last updated - July 8, 2021
How will you manage to keep content hidden to certain audience on your WordPress site? You will be able to manage this by making your posts and pages protected by a password. That way, only those users who have the password will be able to access the content. WordPress offers several options to password protect content. You can make the entire site password protected, or only specific posts or pages. In this article, we will discuss a few ways to password protect WordPress Content including posts.
How to Password Protect WordPress pages and posts?
You can manage to password protect WordPress pages and posts individually using the default functions of WordPress. WordPress provides options for this in the Visibility settings.
To manage this, go to the specific post or page that you want to password protect. Under Post Visibility, choose Password Protected, and specify a password. After this, you can publish the post or page just like you would do on any other post or page.
When a user tries to access the page or post, it will not show the content, but prompts for the password.
Those users who know the password can enter that and access the content.
In the Posts section, you can easily distinguish the password protect content, as it will be marked as Password Protected.
Password protected pages and posts are one of the simplest ways to restrict content on your WordPress site. This can be used if you are planning a membership strategy where you want to provide access to certain content only to some users. You might have noticed WordPress also allows to create private content. You can mark a post or page private, and only your site administrators and editors will be able to access those.
How to password protect a section of a WordPress post?
There are plugins that will help you password protect only a particular section of a post. Here is a look at a popular plugin that will help you manage this.
Passster – Password Protection
If you are looking for options to partially protect your content, look no further. This plugin helps you protects parts of your WordPress posts using passwords and CAPTCHA. It helps to generate shortcodes, within which you can embed the content that needs to be protected. For each shortcode, you can customize the headline, instruction text, placeholder and button text. Passster plugin supports some of the popular page builder plugins such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, etc.
How to Password Protect WordPress categories?
The default option to password protect WordPress content can be quite handy when you have only minimal content on your site. However, it can become quite taxing if you have a lot of content on your site. In such a scenario, making a category password protected will be more effective. All the posts under that category will have selective access in this manner. Let’s see how you can password protect WordPress categories.
Access Category Password
This is a simple password that will help you restrict access for users to posts based on the categories they are included in. The plugin lets you specify the categories that need to be restricted and set up a password. When users try to access the content or excerpt, the plugin prompts a form asking for the password. You can also define the text for the description of WordPress generated feeds.
Moreover, the plugin allows you to provide access to certain users without entering the password. You can also set a message informing the users to use the password to gain access to the content. Also, you can set up a message when users enter the wrong keyword. Moreover, you can define if the excerpt of the content should be displayed or not. The plugin is relatively more secure as it uses PHP sessions instead of cookies to validate logged in users. Also, the plugin encrypts the password, and filter the regular feed content to avoid displaying restricted content.
Password Protected Categories
Another plugin you can use to password protect WordPress categories is Barn2Media Password Protected Categories plugin. This plugin helps you password protect any type of category on your WordPress site. On your blog, you can create hidden sections by making specific categories password protected. The plugin also helps you create private portfolio on your site which you can share with only selective users.
You can add one or more passwords to a plugin, which offers protection to all the sub categories and posts included in that category. It will redirect the users to the right category when they enter the password. Moreover, the plugin ensures that all posts in a category are accessible with a single password entry. The plugin supports all custom post types including, events, products, portfolios, etc. Moreover, you can create private categories on your site, which will be visible only to site administrators and editors. The plugin prevents the password protected categories’s content from indexing by the search engines.
The single site license of this plugin would cost you $49.
How to password protect the entire WordPress site?
There is no default option on WordPress to make the entire site password protected. You will have to use a third party plugin to manage this on your site.
Now, let’s look at two popular plugins that you can use to Password Protect the entire WordPress site.
Password Protected
This plugin offers a simple option to protect your entire WordPress site using a single password. It offers a login page that is similar to WordPress login. So your users can enter the password and access the content on your site. Please note, this plugin protects only WordPress generated content. That means your image files can be accessed through the direct url.
The plugin lets you offer selective access to RSS feeds. Similarly, you can let site administrators access the content without the need for entering the password. Moreover, you can also specify IP addresses, which you want to allow access without password. The plugin is quite easy to use and can be a simple solution to protect your WordPress site and allow selective access to it.
Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode
Sometimes you may want to work on your site, while you don’t want to provide access to users. In such scenarios, this plugin can be quite useful. You can create a coming soon page for your users, while you will be able to make changes on your site. The plugin is responsive and works with any WordPress theme that you may be using on your site. It gives you the flexibility to customize the page according to your tastes. This plugin also allows to use custom CSS and HTML codes to personalize the page.
How to Password Protect WooCommerce Store?
We have seen several ways to password protect content on your WordPress site. Now, is there a way to set a password and provide selective access to your WooCommerce store? Let’s quickly explore the available options.
WooCommerce Private Store
This plugin will let you hide the WooCommerce area of your site from specific customers. The rest of the site will be accessible to these customers. With the help of this plugin, you can set up one or multiple passwords to protect your WooCommerce area. You can also make the WooCommerce area accessible only to logged in users of your site. For a logged in customer, you can optionally provide automatic access to WooCommerce area. The plugin also hides your store from search engines automatically. The single site license of this plugin would cost you $79.
WooCommerce Protected Categories
This plugin will help you password protect particular categories on your WooCommerce store. You can selectively provide access to specific customers or user roles. This plugin can be really helpful for stores that sell customer-specific products such as membership clubs or photography stores. It also effectively offers an option for wholesale stores, as you can make the store accessible only to specific customers or user roles.
Once you create password protected categories, your customers will be directed to the right category when they enter the password. You can set up the plugin in such a way that logged in users will automatically able to see their protected categories. When you apply password protection to a particular category, all the sub categories and products under that category too will be protected. Moreover, the plugin offers you the flexibility to decide whether to show or hide specific portions of your site. The single site license of this plugin has a price tag of $89.
Password Protect WordPress Content Effortlessly
When you have a blog or an eCommerce store, you may want to provide restricted access to users. A simple way to do this would be by setting up passwords so that only specific users can access it. Individual WordPress posts and pages can be password protected by the default option of WordPress. However, you may have to use different plugins to password protect categories, WooCommerce products, etc. Hope you have understood different ways to password protect WordPress content, including pages, posts, categories and WooCommerce store from this article. Leave us a comment to share your opinion.
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