BLACK FRIDAY
Save 59% on PageForge Annual $191/year $485/year
Claim 59% Off →
Members Restricted Access icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 4.4.34 #30 in members

Members Restricted Access

This plugin create shortcodes to restrict the access to Visitors, Members or specific role. You can create sections in your page/post only visible to members (logged users), visitors or for an specific role.

Active installs100+100+ tier
Downloads · 30d74▲ +32.1% vs prev. 30d
Rating5/54 reviews
Health score32/100At risk
All-time downloads7.3KSince Mar 2015
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 3.0.1PHP any
Downloads · 7d19▲ +5.6% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Members Restricted Access shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 100+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 32/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (100+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in 10 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 4.4 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

246Jul 11Aug 24Oct 8
Yesterday1
Daily average (1y)1
Peak day8Aug 1, 2026
Last 12 months543

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where Members Restricted Access stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
members >100 3,597 Best members plugins →
restric by role #4 4 Best restric by role plugins →
Restrict access >100 1,677 Best Restrict access plugins →
visitor >100 10,000 Best visitor plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 3.0100.0%

Rating breakdown

★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 4 reviews

  • 5★100.0%
  • 4★0.00%
  • 3★0.00%
  • 2★0.00%
  • 1★0.00%

About Members Restricted Access

From the official readme · v3.0

Description

This plugin create shortcodes to restrict the access to Visitors, Members or specific role. You can create sections in your page/post only visible to members (logged users), visitors or for an specific role.

To use you need to create the content and wrap it with these shortcodes: [visitor], [member] or [showifrole].

  • You can use the parameters ‘is’ and ‘msg’. If you not specify them, the default value will be use instead.
  • The paramater ‘is’ is use it with the shortcode [showifrole] to check for that specific user. The default value is ‘administrator’.
  • And ‘msg’ is the message the system is going to show. You can use html code with single apostrophes (‘). The default value is null.

Examples:

‘[visitor]
content only visible to visitors
[/visitor]

[member msg=”You need to Login to see this content.”]
content only visible to members
[/member]

[showifrole is=administrator]
content only visible for administrators
[/showifrole]

[showifrole is=author msg=”You don’t have the required role.”]
content only visible for authors
[showifrole]’

Installation

To install this plugin just follow the standard procedure.

or

  1. Upload members-restricted-access.php to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Changelog

3.0

  • Now you can use nested shortcodes, so you can use a any shortcode inside our shortcode verification.

2.1

  • Add the parameters for message in the members, visitors and showifrole shortcodes.
  • Add a default value for ‘is’ and ‘msg’.

2.0

  • Added the shortcode to check by role.

1.0

  • Just launch the plugin!

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

For developers

Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.

Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.

Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

Best Members Restricted Access alternatives

All members plugins →
Alternatives
Rank Plugin Active installs Rating Updated Health
1 BuddyPress BuddyPress Get together safely, in your own way, in WordPress. by BuddyPress 90K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 (375) 2 months ago 79
2 Simple Membership Simple Membership Simple membership plugin adds membership functionality to your site. Protect members only… by wp.insider 40K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 (475) 2 weeks ago 87
3 Simple Membership After Login Redirection Simple Membership After Login Redirection An addon for the simple membership plugin to configure after login redirection to a… by wp.insider 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 (15) 2 months ago 80
4 WCFM Membership – WooCommerce Memberships for Multivendor Marketplace WCFM Membership A simple woocommerce memberships plugin for offering free and premium subscription for your… by WC Lovers 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4 (25) 1 month ago 65
5 Buy Me a Coffee – Button and Widget Plugin Buy Me a Coffee – Button and Widget Plugin A free, fast, and friendly way to accept donations and memberships (recurring payments)… by Buy Me a Coffee 6K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 (18) 2 months ago 59
6 BP Profile Search BP Profile Search Member search and member directories for BuddyPress and the BuddyBoss Platform. by Andrea Tarantini 5K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (71) 1 month ago 89
7 Simple Membership Form Shortcode Simple Membership Form Shortcode Simple Membership Addon to generate registration form shortcode for specific membership… by wp.insider 2K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (2) 2 months ago 74
8 Authenticator Authenticator This plugin allows you to make your WordPress site accessible to logged in users only. by Syde GmbH (formerly Inpsyde) 1K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (8) 9 months ago 54
9 Team Section Block – Showcase Team Members with Layout Options Team Section Block Showcase your team members in various layouts and designs. by bPlugins 1K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 3 (1) 23 hours ago 71
10 Groups 404 Redirect Groups 404 Redirect Redirect 404's when a visitor tries to access a page protected by Groups. by itthinx 1K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 (10) 2 weeks ago 80

FAQ

Members Restricted Access: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 9, 2026

Is Members Restricted Access free?

Yes. Members Restricted Access is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Members Restricted Access safe to use in 2026?

Members Restricted Access shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 100+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 32/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Members Restricted Access?

Members Restricted Access is active on 100+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 7,343 times since it launched in March 2015. It was downloaded 74 times in the last 30 days.

Does Members Restricted Access work with WordPress 7.1?

Members Restricted Access is officially tested up to WordPress 4.4.34, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Members Restricted Access last updated?

The latest version, 3.0, was released on March 3, 2016 (11 years ago).

Who makes Members Restricted Access?

Members Restricted Access is developed and maintained by Manny Costales.

What are the best alternatives to Members Restricted Access?

The most popular alternatives to Members Restricted Access are BuddyPress (90K+ installs), Simple Membership (40K+ installs) and Simple Membership After Log… (10K+ installs).

Powered by PageForge

Want thousands of pages that rank like these? Build them in an afternoon.

This directory runs on the same engine as PageForge. Turn any spreadsheet, CSV or API into thousands of fast, SEO-ready WordPress pages — with schema, internal links and AI-written copy baked in.

  • CSV, Google Sheets & API data sources
  • AI content, schema & internal links per page
  • Works with Elementor, Gutenberg, Yoast & Rank Math
  • Free on WordPress.org — no credit card
Sarah is here to help!
Hi there! 👋 Need help finding what you're looking for?
Sarah
Sarah
Online & Ready to Help
Hi there! 👋 Need help finding what you're looking for?

We'll use this to continue our conversation

Just now ✓ Verified

Join 500+ SEO Pros Scaling Their Strategy

Get exclusive programmatic SEO tactics, AI content workflows, and the latest PageForge updates delivered straight to your inbox. Stay ahead of the algorithm.

We care about your data in our privacy policy.