How to Limit Dashboard Access in WordPress

As a WordPress administrator, you have the power to control who can access your site’s dashboard. By default, anyone who has an account on your WordPress site can access the dashboard. However, there may be times when you want to limit access to only certain users.

Fortunately, limiting dashboard access in WordPress is easy to do. In this article, we will show you how to easily limit dashboard access in WordPress.

Why Limit Dashboard Access in WordPress?

The WordPress dashboard is where you manage all the aspects of your website. This includes adding and managing content, installing plugins and themes, and managing settings.

As the site owner, you may want to limit access to the dashboard to only yourself and a few trusted users. This is especially important if you have a multi-author WordPress site.

For example, you may want to give authors access to only their own post and pages. Or, you may want to give editors access to all the content on your site but not allow them to change your site’s settings.

In any case, limiting dashboard access is a great way to keep your WordPress site secure.

How to Limit Dashboard Access in WordPress

There are two methods you can use to limit dashboard access in WordPress.

The first method is to add a simple line of code to your site’s .htaccess file. The second method is to use a WordPress plugin.

We will show you both methods below.

Method 1: Add Code to .htaccess File

This method requires you to add a small piece of code to your site’s .htaccess file.

The .htaccess file is a server-side file that controls how Apache (your web server) serves files on your WordPress site.

First, you need to connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client. For more information, see our article on how to use FTP to connect to your WordPress site.

Once connected, go to the /public_html/ folder. This is where your WordPress site’s files are stored.

From here, look for the .htaccess file. If you don’t see it, then it means that your FTP client is configured to not show hidden files.

You need to change that. In Filezilla, you can do that by going to Server » Force Showing Hidden Files.

Once you have found the .htaccess file, right-click on it and select View/Edit.

This will open the file in your default text editor.

Next, you need to add the following code at the top of the file:

AuthType Basic AuthName “Restricted Area” AuthUserFile /full/path/to/.htpasswd Require valid-user

Don’t forget to replace /full/path/to/.htpasswd with the actual path to your .htpasswd file. This file stores the username and password for your site’s dashboard.

If you don’t have a .htpasswd file, then you can create one using a text editor like Notepad or TextEdit.

Save the file and upload it to your WordPress site’s root directory (i.e. /public_html/).

You can now go ahead and try to access your WordPress dashboard. You should see a popup asking you for a username and password.

That’s it! You have successfully limited dashboard access in WordPress.

Method 2: Use a WordPress Plugin

If you don