Priyanshu Kast

<p>DP Admin Access Menu is a powerful WordPress plugin that allows administrators to control which backend menu items are visible to specific users. This is perfect for customizing the admin experience for different user roles and improving security by limiting access to unnecessary menu items.</p>
<p>Whether you’re managing a team of content creators, restricting access for client accounts, or creating a streamlined admin experience, DP Admin Access Menu gives you granular control over what each user can see in the WordPress admin area.</p>
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>User Selection</strong>: Easy-to-use dropdown to select any WordPress user</li>
<li><strong>Menu Control</strong>: Checkbox interface for all WordPress admin menu items including child menus</li>
<li><strong>Superadmin Protection</strong>: First administrator (superadmin) always has full access</li>
<li><strong>Useradmin Support</strong>: Configure menu access for other administrators (useradmins)</li>
<li><strong>Unlimited Users</strong>: Configure menu access for unlimited users</li>
<li><strong>Unlimited Menus</strong>: Select unlimited menu items per user</li>
<li><strong>Real-time Filtering</strong>: Menu items are automatically hidden/shown based on saved settings</li>
<li><strong>User-friendly Interface</strong>: Clean admin interface with select all/deselect all options</li>
<li><strong>Edit & Delete</strong>: Manage configured users with edit and delete functionality</li>
<li><strong>Parent-Child Menu Logic</strong>: Selecting a parent menu automatically selects its children</li>
<li><strong>Menu Counter</strong>: Real-time counter showing selected menus</li>
<li><strong>URL Protection</strong>: Prevents direct access to restricted admin pages via URL</li>
</ul>
<h4>How It Works</h4>
<ol>
<li>Go to <strong>Menu Access</strong> in the WordPress admin sidebar (under DP Admin Access Menu)</li>
<li>Select a user from the dropdown (or edit an existing configured user)</li>
<li>Check/uncheck the menu items you want to show/hide for that user</li>
<li>Click <strong>Save Settings</strong></li>
<li>The selected user will only see the checked menu items when they log in</li>
</ol>
<h4>Use Cases</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Client Management</strong>: Give clients access only to specific sections of their website</li>
<li><strong>Team Collaboration</strong>: Limit access for editors, authors, or contributors to their relevant areas</li>
<li><strong>Security Enhancement</strong>: Hide sensitive admin sections from users who don’t need them</li>
<li><strong>Customized Admin Experience</strong>: Create a cleaner, focused admin interface for specific users</li>
<li><strong>Multi-Administrator Sites</strong>: Manage menu access for multiple administrators with different responsibilities</li>
<li><strong>Training Environments</strong>: Simplify the admin interface for users learning WordPress</li>
<li><strong>Agency Workflows</strong>: Control what clients can access when managing their own sites</li>
</ul>
<h4>Superadmin vs Useradmin</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Superadmin</strong>: The first administrator user (lowest user ID) always has full access to all menus and cannot be restricted. This ensures you never lock yourself out of your WordPress admin.</li>
<li><strong>Useradmin</strong>: Other administrators can have their menu access configured and will only see assigned menus. This allows you to create different admin experiences for different administrator accounts.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Unlimited Users</strong>: Configure menu access for as many users as needed</li>
<li><strong>Unlimited Menus</strong>: Select unlimited menu items per user</li>
<li><strong>Fully Functional</strong>: All features are available without restrictions</li>
</ul>
<h3>Requirements</h3>
<ul>
<li>WordPress 5.0 or higher</li>
<li>PHP 7.0 or higher</li>
<li>Administrator access to configure settings</li>
</ul>
<h3>Privacy</h3>
<p>This plugin does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data. All settings are stored locally in your WordPress database. No external services are used.</p>
<h3>Security</h3>
<ul>
<li>All menu restrictions are enforced server-side</li>
<li>Direct URL access to restricted pages is blocked</li>
<li>Superadmin protection prevents accidental lockout</li>
<li>Settings are stored securely in WordPress database</li>
<li>No external API calls – all functionality works locally</li>
</ul>
<h3>Performance</h3>
<p>The plugin is lightweight and optimized for performance:<br />
* Minimal database queries<br />
* Efficient menu filtering using WordPress hooks<br />
* No impact on frontend performance<br />
* Settings cached for fast menu rendering</p>
<h3>Compatibility</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>WordPress</strong>: 5.0 – 6.8+</li>
<li><strong>PHP</strong>: 7.0 – 8.3+</li>
<li><strong>Multisite</strong>: Limited support (single site recommended)</li>
<li><strong>Other Plugins</strong>: Compatible with most WordPress plugins</li>
<li><strong>Themes</strong>: Works with all WordPress themes</li>
</ul>
<h3>Development</h3>
<h4>Contributing</h4>
<p>Contributions are welcome! Please ensure your code follows WordPress coding standards and best practices. You can contribute by:<br />
* Reporting bugs<br />
* Suggesting features<br />
* Submitting pull requests<br />
* Improving documentation</p>
<h4>Support</h4>
<p>For support, feature requests, or bug reports, please visit the plugin support forum on WordPress.org.</p>
<h4>Changelog Policy</h4>
<p>We maintain a detailed changelog for all versions. Major updates are announced in the upgrade notice section.</p>
<h3>Credits</h3>
<p>Developed by devpriyanshu following WordPress coding standards and best practices. Built with security and user experience in mind.</p>
<h3>Additional Notes</h3>
<ul>
<li>The plugin is fully functional with unlimited users and unlimited menus</li>
<li>All core functionality works locally without any external services</li>
</ul>


DP Admin Access Menu

Control which WordPress backend menu items are visible to specific users. Perfect for managing user access and customizing admin experience.

Konstantin Obenland

<p>This plugin lets you approve or reject user registrations.<br />
While a user is unapproved, they can’t access the WordPress Admin.</p>
<p>On activation of the plugin, all existing users will automatically be flagged Approved. The site admin will never experience restricted access and does not need approval.<br />
This plugin is probably not compatible with WooCommerce.</p>
<h4>Translations</h4>
<p>I will be more than happy to update the plugin with new locales, as soon as I receive them!<br />
Currently available in:</p>
<ul>
<li>Dutch</li>
<li>Deutsch</li>
<li>English</li>
<li>Hebrew</li>
<li>Persian</li>
<li>Russian</li>
</ul>
<h4>Plugin Hooks</h4>
<h3>Actions</h3>
<p><strong>wpau_approve</strong> (<em>int</em>)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>User-ID of approved user.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>wpau_unapprove</strong> (<em>int</em>)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>User-ID of unapproved user.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Filter</h3>
<p><strong>wpau_default_options</strong> (<em>array</em>)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Default options.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>wpau_update_message_handler</strong> (<em>string</em>)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Allows to return custom update messages.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>wpau_message_placeholders</strong> (<em>array</em>)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Filters the placeholders in approve/unapprove emails.</p>
</blockquote>


WP Approve User

The plugin is not working as promised, so

1. No Settings
2. It didn't display Custom Menu for each user


Thanks, but need to uninstall.

Not Working!

This site has over 360k registered users. Upon activating the plugin, it timed out as it tried to add >720k user meta keys. Not sure why it doesn't just meta select only users who do not have the fields (which would have still timed out, but at least it would continue on the next time Activate was attempted). I "fixed" that by adding them with my own script and then uncommented the activation hook. It appeared to be working fine after that, but then I discovered (via Query Monitor) that it was adding over 6 seconds (with Redis caching!) to every admin page load because the constructor pulls a list of all unapproved users.

It would also have been nice if there was a checkbox like "Delete plugin data when uninstalled" or whatever so I didn't have to re-add over 720k meta fields to my dev box after deleting the plugin to move it as a submodule (obviously, I should have just deleted the directory, but I didn't look at the code and realize that it was going to asplode everything on my dev instance).

I get it - 360k+ users is a lot, but for plugins (plural: the others failed too, for the same reason) that assume a site is soliciting registrations from anon, you'd expect them to handle a lot of registrations. If you don't have many users/registrations, you don't really need a plugin to manage them, right?

I'm assuming that it loads a list of every unapproved user on every admin page load solely for the unapproved user count badge on the admin menu (I didn't look - I stopped trying to hack it and just decided to tell the users to manage it manually, which was unpopular).

+3 stars because it's free and doesn't use Freemius.

EDIT - Also, you can change the instantiation because I don't think it needs to run during cron or Ajax requests:
if( !wp_doing_cron() && !wp_doing_ajax() ) new Obenland_Wp_Approve_User();

You can probably check for is_admin() before running code in various places, too.

Does Not Scale


We are looking for a way to minimise the amount of emails which we send out to dead addresses (often Gmail) via fake bbPress signups to our forum. The first step is user approval.



Konstantin's plugin is simple and focused, with straightforward settings in a settings panel. There's no top level left column item (frankly any plugin which wants to put its settings in the main left window should require approval from the plugin moderation team, if in the plugin directory, the left top-level menu is now hopelessly cluttered on most WordPress sites). The main interface are simple text additions to the existing user table Approve | Unapprove.



Frankly user approval should be built into WordPress. But until it is, thank heavens for simple solutions. No adware, no pro version, no bloatware frills, native interface.



I like the idea of a previous reviewer to allow unapproved users to be kept in the database to prevent additional signups with the same address. We'd also like an improved workflow where no email goes out to users until admin approval, at which point the signup email would arrive.



What would happen to a new user is that s/he would be auto-logged in at the time of signup with very limited privileges until approved or unapproved but no email would be sent without approval. This would allow simple comments to be left on a weblog post or bbPress without sending out emails to dead addresses (and damaging sender reputation).



We can add these features fairly easily ourselves, but it would be great to see them in the core functionality of WP Approve User.



Thank you Konstantin for your hard work on WP Approve User and for making it free.


Nice, simple and focused

Adds action links to user table to approve or unapprove user registrations.

DP Admin Access Menu vs WP Approve User