9 Best Roles & Capabilities Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Roles & Capabilities has 1,000+ active installs on WordPress.org. These 9 plugins share its category or its tags on WordPress.org, are actively maintained, and each has at least 100 active installs. They are ordered by how closely they match, not by our opinion.
The 9 closest alternatives to Roles & Capabilities
- 1
PublishPress Permissions
Closest matchPublishPress Permissions: Control User Access for Posts, Pages, Categories, Tags
4.3 (66) 10,000+ active installsThe permissions plugin for posts, pages, categories, tags and more. You can control permissions for roles, individual users, and even custom groups.
Shares the capabilities, permissions tags on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated 6 days ago.
- 2
4.5 (26) 2,000+ active installsRestrict permissions with Simple Client Dashboard. Our new "Admin" user role between Administrator and Editor is perfect for clients and Webmasters.
Shares the admin, role tags on WordPress.org. About 2 times the installs, last updated 4 days ago.
- 3
4.9 (22) 500+ active installsEnable tabs in the edit screen and manage them from the back-end.
Shares the admin, edit tags on WordPress.org. About half the installs, no update since February 28, 2021.
- 4
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin
4.9 (1,275) 300,000+ active installsThe best WordPress membership and user role editor plugin. User Roles & Capabilities editor helps you restrict content in just a few clicks.
Shares the capabilities, permissions tags on WordPress.org. About 300 times the installs, last updated 13 days ago.
- 5
PublishPress Capabilities – User Role Editor, Access Permissions, User Capabilities, Admin Menus
4.7 (143) 100,000+ active installsPublishPress Capabilities is the access control plugin. You can manage user capabilities, permissions, user roles, admin menus and more.
Shares the capabilities, permissions tags on WordPress.org. About 100 times the installs, last updated 13 days ago.
- 6
4.8 (62) 10,000+ active installsLimit access to visitors who are logged in or allowed by IP addresses. Includes many options for handling blocked visitors.
Shares the permissions tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated 10 days ago.
- 7
Restrict User Access – Ultimate Membership & Content Protection
4.3 (94) 10,000+ active installsCreate Access Levels and restrict any post, page, category, etc. Supports bbPress, BuddyPress, WooCommerce, WPML, and more.
Shares the capabilities tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated 11 days ago.
- 8
5.0 (49) 2,000+ active installsThis plugin provides a shortcode that lets you hide some parts of the content from your posts and pages.
Shares the role tag on WordPress.org. About 2 times the installs, no update since February 12, 2018.
- 9
4.8 (45) 10,000+ active installsGive a temporarily limited admin access to themes designers, plugins developers and support agents.
Shares the role tag on WordPress.org. About 10 times the installs, last updated 18 days ago.
Switching from Roles & Capabilities: common questions
What is the best alternative to Roles & Capabilities?
PublishPress Permissions is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 10,000+ active installs with a 4.3 out of 5 rating.
Which Roles & Capabilities alternative has the most users?
Members, with 300,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Roles & Capabilities alternative is rated highest?
Members, rated 4.9 out of 5 by 1,275 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Roles & Capabilities alternatives free?
Every plugin listed here is free to install from WordPress.org. Where WordPress.org marks a plugin as commercial, the developer also sells a paid version or add-ons, and that is shown on each plugin.
How are alternatives chosen?
Automatically, from WordPress.org data: plugins that share a category top 10 with Roles & Capabilities score highest, then plugins that appear in the same WordPress.org rankings, then plugins with the same tags, weighted so rare tags count more than common ones. Plugins by the same author and plugins rated under 4.0 are left out.
How we choose these alternatives
Nothing on this page is picked by hand. Every day we walk the whole WordPress.org directory, then score every plugin against Roles & Capabilities on three signals: sharing a category top 10 counts most, then appearing in the same WordPress.org rankings, then carrying the same tags, with rare tags counting for more than common ones like "wordpress". Plugins by the same author are excluded, so an author's own add-ons cannot fill the list, and so is anything rated below 4.0 or with fewer than 100 active installs. The ten highest scores are what you see, in that order. Full methodology.
The bottom line
PublishPress Permissions is the closest match to Roles & Capabilities by the data we track, and Members has the widest reach with 300,000+ active installs. Simple Client Dashboard shipped the most recent release, on September 3, 2026. The list is rebuilt every day from WordPress.org, so a plugin that stops being maintained drops out on its own.
Weekly · free
What moved this week
One email a week, built from the same daily snapshots these rankings come from: the plugins that climbed, what launched, and one ranking worth a look.