Jordan Hlebarov

<p>Frontend Gatekeeper hides the public frontend of your WordPress site unless visitors arrive with a configured URL parameter and value. It is useful for staging sites, soft launches, client previews, and pre-release content where you want to share a single shareable link instead of issuing individual user accounts.</p>
<p>Logged-in users always see the site normally, so editors and administrators are never blocked.</p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Hide the entire public frontend with a single toggle.</li>
<li>Configurable parameter name and secret value, set per site.</li>
<li>Custom blocked message shown to unauthorized visitors (served with a 404 status).</li>
<li>Same-site link propagation: WordPress-generated links, menus, and block content automatically carry the access parameter forward, so visitors stay authorized while browsing.</li>
<li>Footer-script fallback that adds the parameter to links and forms rendered outside normal WordPress filters.</li>
<li>Gutenberg and block-theme aware through the <code>render_block</code> filter and <code>WP_HTML_Tag_Processor</code> when available.</li>
<li>Multisite-aware URL scoping for subdomain and subdirectory networks: access on <code>/site-a/</code> will not leak the token to <code>/site-b/</code>.</li>
<li>Logged-in users, wp-admin, REST API, AJAX, cron, and <code>wp-login.php</code> are always allowed through.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Typical use cases</h4>
<ul>
<li>Sharing a staging or pre-launch site with clients and stakeholders.</li>
<li>Gating a soft launch behind a single link instead of provisioning accounts.</li>
<li>Hiding draft or campaign content until you are ready to publish.</li>
</ul>


Frontend Gatekeeper

Hide the public WordPress frontend behind a secret URL parameter. Anyone with the link gets in; everyone else sees a 404.

Matt Burnett

<p>The Require Login Plugin allows you to easily restrict access to your WordPress site to only users with login credentials, Providing functionality perfect for intranets or restricted development sites.</p>
<p>Below are some of its features:</p>
<ul>
<li>Require users to log in</li>
<li>Customise login page</li>
<li>Redirect users after logging in</li>
<li>Custom login logo support</li>
<li>Disable password reset and “back” link</li>
</ul>


YumJam Require Login

Disable the public site functionality, always prompt for a login before showing any content, make WordPress and intranet style site

Frontend Gatekeeper vs YumJam Require Login