10 Best Privilege Menu Alternatives in 2026
Updated September 7, 2026 · Ranked by how closely each plugin matches, from WordPress.org data · How this works
Privilege Menu has 1,000+ active installs on WordPress.org. These 10 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 10 closest alternatives to Privilege Menu
- 1
Nav Menu Roles
Closest match4.9 (219) 70,000+ active installsHide custom menu items based on user roles.
Shares the menu, menus, nav menu tags on WordPress.org. About 70 times the installs, last updated March 26, 2026.
- 2
4.7 (23) 1,000+ active installsAdds search box as a choice of item in navigation menus admin area.
Shares the menu, nav menu, nav menus tags on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, no update since November 28, 2017.
- 3
5.0 (20) 5,000+ active installsAdd navigation menu field type to Advanced Custom Fields
Shares the menu, menus, nav menu tags on WordPress.org. About 5 times the installs, no update since June 10, 2025.
- 4
User Menus – Nav Menu Visibility
5.0 (1,278) 80,000+ active installsShow/hide menu items to logged in users, logged out users or specific user roles. Display logged in user details in menu. Add a logout link to menu.
Shares the menu, menus, nav menu tags on WordPress.org. About 80 times the installs, last updated May 23, 2026.
- 5
5.0 (20) 2,000+ active installsAutomatically all of a nav menu item's descendants as submenu items. Designed for pages but will work with any hierarchical post type or taxonomy …
Shares the menu, nav menu tags on WordPress.org. About 2 times the installs, no update since September 6, 2022.
- 6
4.2 (37) 6,000+ active installsDisplay image as a menu item content.
Shares the menu, nav menu tags on WordPress.org. About 6 times the installs, no update since November 28, 2017.
- 7
4.9 (74) 2,000+ active installsAll admin links available in a neat horizontal drop down menu. Saves lots of screen real estate!
Shares the menu, menus tags on WordPress.org. About 2 times the installs, no update since June 9, 2020.
- 8
5.0 (20) 1,000+ active installsSeamlessly adds 3 new menu locations to the admin toolbar.
Shares the menu, menus tags on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, no update since June 2, 2024.
- 9
4.8 (24) 7,000+ active installsAllow and control Editor and Shop Manager access to the menus, widgets and appearance menu, plus other menus and adminbar items.
Shares the menu, menus tags on WordPress.org. About 7 times the installs, no update since June 2, 2021.
- 10
5.0 (25) 1,000+ active installsImprove the internal link popup manager with time-saving enhancements and features.
Shares the nav menus tag on WordPress.org. A similar number of installs, no update since December 2, 2016.
Switching from Privilege Menu: common questions
What is the best alternative to Privilege Menu?
Nav Menu Roles is the closest match: it shares the same WordPress.org tags and has 70,000+ active installs with a 4.9 out of 5 rating.
Which Privilege Menu alternative has the most users?
User Menus, with 80,000+ active installs reported by WordPress.org.
Which Privilege Menu alternative is rated highest?
User Menus, rated 5.0 out of 5 by 1,278 reviewers. Only plugins with at least 50 reviews are counted.
Are these Privilege Menu 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 Privilege Menu 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 Privilege Menu 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
Nav Menu Roles is the closest match to Privilege Menu by the data we track, and User Menus has the widest reach with 80,000+ active installs. User Menus shipped the most recent release, on May 23, 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.