Post Lockdown
Stop non-admin users trashing, deleting or unpublishing your site-critical posts and pages. Lock content down in seconds - no code required.
Safe pick
Yes — Post Lockdown is a safe, well-maintained plugin to use in 2026. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 4.6/5 and was last updated 3 weeks ago, and scores 80/100 on our health check.
- Actively developed — last update 3 weeks ago
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Post Lockdown stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| delete | >100 |
| lock | #11 |
| permissions | #46 |
| protect | >100 |
| user roles | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 from 9 reviews
About Post Lockdown
From the official readme · v4.1.1Description
Your homepage. Your contact page. The landing page that took three weeks to sign off. One accidental click from a contributor
or a well-meaning editor and it’s in the trash – or worse, gone for good.
Post Lockdown puts your site-critical content out of reach. Choose which posts and pages matter, and Post Lockdown stops
non-admin users from trashing or deleting them – no custom code, no role editor, no rebuilding permissions from scratch.
Two levels of safety
- Protected – the post can still be edited, but it can’t be trashed, deleted, or unpublished. Editors keep working; the page stays live.
- Locked – the post can’t be edited, trashed or deleted at all. Use it for content that must not change.
Set it up in under a minute
Post Lockdown adds a single settings page under Settings > Post Lockdown. Start typing to search every post, page, attachment
and custom post type on your site, click an item to add it to the Locked or Protected box, then hit Save Changes. That’s it.
Built to stay out of the way
- Locked and protected items are clearly flagged in a status column on your post and page lists, so nobody wonders why an action is missing.
- Works with both the block editor and the classic editor. If someone tries to unpublish a protected post, the change is reverted and a notice explains why.
- Optional bulk actions let you lock or protect items straight from the post list.
- Manage everything from the command line with WP-CLI – run
wp postlockdownto see the available commands. - A full set of filters lets developers change which capability counts as “admin”, set locked and protected posts programmatically, and customise the status column. See the FAQ for the complete list.
See the screenshots for exactly what an Editor sees when they open a list of locked and protected posts.
Installation
- In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin and search for “Post Lockdown”
- Click Install Now, then Activate
- Go to Settings > Post Lockdown and add the posts and pages you want to lock or protect
- Click Save Changes
Prefer to install manually? Download the plugin, then either upload the zip file via Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin,
or extract it and upload the post-lockdown folder to /wp-content/plugins/. Activate it from the Plugins menu and continue
from step 3 above.
Frequently asked questions
What is a “non-admin user”?
By default, the plugin classes a non-admin as a user who does not have the manage_options capability e.g an Editor. The capability can be filtered using the postlockdown_admin_capability filter.
Are there any other filters I can use?
The following filters are used throughout the plugin: postlockdown_admin_capability – The capability a user must have to bypass locked/protected posts restrictions. Default is manage_options. postlockdown_capabilities – Array of capabilities to restrict. postlockdown_excluded_post_types – Array of post types to exclude from search. postlockdown_get_posts – Array of args to pass to get_posts(). postlockdown_locked_posts – Array of locked post IDs. Allows you to programmatically add or remove post IDs. Both the key AND value must be set to the post ID. postlockdown_protected_posts – Array of…
Changelog
This is a major version release. Please read the changelog before updating.
4.1.1
- Fixed a fatal error on activation caused by the BlockEditorNotice class file being omitted from the 4.1.0 release package
4.1.0
- New feature: when a non-admin tries to unpublish a protected post in the block editor, the change is reverted and a notice is shown – matching the existing classic editor behaviour
4.0.5
- Removed a couple of development files erroneously included in previous release
4.0.4
This is a security release. Please update as soon as possible.
- Added a capability check and nonce to the autocomplete AJAX request to prevent unauthorised access to the post list (Thanks to Krzysztof Zając)
- Added sanitization to autocomplete search term
- Added sanitization to the plugin’s settings
- Added version string to the plugin’s enqueued CSS and JS files to prevent caching issues
- Added missing text domain to the plugin’s settings page footer text
- Added wp_kses to the Post Lockdown status column to only allow certain HTML tags
4.0.2
- Fixed a warning in WordPress 6.7 related to loading translations too early
4.0
This is a major version release. Please read the following notes carefully before updating.
- Fixed a bug which caused the plugin to not work correctly with the new block editor (Gutenberg). This is fixed by loading the plugin for all requests (including REST requests) rather than just the admin area
- Fixed a bug which caused the uninstall hook to not be called when the plugin was deleted
Screenshots
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.
Best Post Lockdown alternatives
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FAQ
Post Lockdown: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 3, 2026
Is Post Lockdown free?
Yes. Post Lockdown is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Post Lockdown safe to use in 2026?
Yes — Post Lockdown is a safe, well-maintained plugin to use in 2026. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 4.6/5 and was last updated 3 weeks ago, and scores 80/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Post Lockdown?
Post Lockdown is active on 1K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 28,179 times since it launched in May 2015. It was downloaded 911 times in the last 30 days.
Does Post Lockdown work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested Post Lockdown up to WordPress 7.1.2, the latest release. It requires WordPress 4.6 or newer.
What PHP version does Post Lockdown need?
Post Lockdown requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Post Lockdown last updated?
The latest version, 4.1.1, was released on September 10, 2026 (3 weeks ago).
Who makes Post Lockdown?
Post Lockdown is developed and maintained by andyexeter.
What are the best alternatives to Post Lockdown?
The most popular alternatives to Post Lockdown are WP Bulk Delete (90K+ installs), Bulk Delete (30K+ installs) and Simple Revisions Delete (10K+ installs).
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