How To Make WordPress Private In 5 Different Ways – Single Posts To Your Entire Site
Need to make WordPress private?
Sometimes you don’t want everything on your WordPress site to be available to the public. And when that happens, you’re off to the hills trying to find a way to make your WordPress site private.
To help you out, I’ve collected everything about creating a private WordPress site in one place. I’ll cover various degrees of making your site private, starting narrow with making a single post or page private and working up to making your entire site private.
In total, I’ll cover how to create a private:
Individual post, page, or custom post type
Category (and all posts contained therein)
WordPress site, either permanently or just while you’re working on it
And I’ll also cover some more flexible solutions – like membership plugins.
1. How To Make A Single WordPress Private Page Or Post
It’s easy to create a WordPress private page or post because the functionality is already built into the WordPress core.
To access it, just go to the WordPress editor for the specific post, page, or custom post type that you want to make private.
Then, look for the Visibility option in the?Document sidebar. Click on it to open the sub-panel. There, you can choose to either:
Add a password – users will be prompted to enter a password before they can view the post.
Make it 100% private – only users with the read_private_posts capability will be able to view the post. By default, this is only users with the role of Editor or Admin. You can give additional user roles this capability using the User Role Editor plugin, though.
Here’s what it looks like when someone tries to view a Password Protected post:
And here’s what it looks like when someone without the read_private_posts capability tries to view a Private post:
If someone is logged in and does have the capability, they’ll just see the post like normal.
2. How To Make A Private WordPress Category
Ok, let’s say that instead of making a single piece of content private, you want to make an entire category of content private.
Here, I think the best option is to use a premium plugin if you can afford it. With that being said, I’ll also share a free option in the second half of this section if you’re on a budget.
Premium Plugin
If you’re willing to pay €39, the Password Protected Categories plugin from Barn2 Media extends the same functionality detailed above to WordPress categories.
When you make a category private, only authenticated users will be able to view:
The main category
Any content inside that category (like posts or custom post types)
Any subcategories
And the cool thing is that it’s not limited to regular post categories – you can also extend it to custom taxonomies to make private event categories, private product categories, and more.
When you have the plugin installed and activated, you’ll get a new Visibility setting when creating or editing a category that you can use to make it:
Password Protected – visitors need to enter a password before they can view the category and posts contained therein.
Private – only users with the read_private_posts capability can view the category and the posts contained therein. This is the same capability as viewing individual private posts. Only Admin and Editor user roles have this by default, but you can grant it to other user roles by using the free User Role Editor plugin.
In addition to extending the core private/password protected functionality to categories, this plugin also has some other helpful features that let you:
Automatically unlock different categories from one single login page depending on which password a user enters. For example, if someone enters “PasswordA” they unlock “Category A”, whereas “PasswordB” unlocks “Category B”.
Automatically show/hide categories from navigation menus depending on whether the user has permission to see them.
Choose how long entering the password unlocks content for (before visitors need to enter it again).
You can access these settings by going to?Settings > Protected Categories:
If you need to make categories of WooCommerce products private, you can also use the separate WooCommerce Password Protected Categories plugin from the same developer. It functions nearly identically – it’s just focused specifically on WooCommerce.
Free Plugin
If you need a free option, the free version of the WordPress Password Protect Page plugin also lets you password protect WordPress categories.
This plugin isn’t quite as flexible as the previous one because it only lets you use one password for all of the categories that you want to protect. Additionally, it only lets you use password protection – it doesn’t add the “private” method that the previous plugin does.
However, if that works for you, it gets the job done and it’s free.
To get started, install and activate the free plugin from WordPress.org. Then, go to Posts ¡ú Categories.?There, you should see a new?PPWP Lite: Category Protection?option. Use the toggle to turn the feature on. Then, you can configure the password protection:
Search for the categories that you want to password protect in the?Select your private categories box.
Enter the password that you want to unlock those categories in the?Set a password box.
If you want to customize the password form, you can use the WordPress Customizer.
3. How To Make Your Entire WordPress Site Private
So making individual posts or categories private isn’t enough for you, eh? Let’s take things a bit further and make your entire WordPress site private.
For this, you’ll need a third-party plugin. But you can find plenty of free solutions that get the job done. Of these free solutions, the most popular option is Force Login.
As the name suggests, it forces users to log in before they can see your site’s content. You can then further choose between only manually creating accounts for authorized users or letting users register themselves.
As soon as you install and activate it, it starts working right away. Anyone who tries to view your site and?isn’t logged in will see the “standard” WordPress login page.
To control who can register for an account, you can use WordPress’ built-in features:
If you want to let anyone register, you can enable public registration by going to?Settings > General and checking the box for?Anyone can register by?Membership.
If you don’t want to allow public registration, you can manually create accounts for the people you want to have access by going to?Users > Add New.
And that’s it! Once people log in, they’ll be able to see your site. The plugin will even automatically send them back to the page they were originally trying to view.
Because the plugin uses the native WordPress login/register page, you can also customize the login page using any one of the many login customizer plugins. The free LoginPress plugin is a good option, but you can find plenty of other tools if you search at WordPress.org.
4. How To Make WordPress Private While Under Construction
Sometimes you only want to make WordPress private while you’re actively developing your site. Once you finish development, you want it to be public to the world. But until then, it makes sense to keep things private while you’re working.
In that case, you’ll be better off with a maintenance plugin. These plugins are designed to:
Allow authorized users to see the site like normal
Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, here’s how to use it:
Step 1: Activate Under Construction Mode
To get started, go to Settings ¡ú UnderConstruction and toggle the Under Construction Mode setting to On:
Step 2: Configure Design And Content
To configure how your under construction page looks, you can choose a template in the Design tab.
Then, you can edit the actual content on that template in the Content tab:
Step 3: Choose Who Has Access To Your Actual Site
By default, the plugin only gives access to users with the Admin user role. In the Access tab, you can give access to additional user roles:
If you’re willing to pay for the Pro version, you’ll also be able to:
Give access to specific IP addresses
Share a special link that lets anyone see your actual site
5. How To Make Your WordPress Site Private With A Membership Plugin
Depending on why you want to make WordPress private, you might be better off going with a more robust membership plugin instead of trying to do things yourself with the methods above.
A membership plugin is specifically designed to make parts of your content only accessible to authorized users.
Membership plugins will usually let you:
Restrict partial content, single pieces of content, or entire categories
Create multiple membership levels that each have access to different content
And depending on how much functionality you need, you might also be able to accept payments and do lots more.
If you just want something lightweight (and free!), give the WP-Members Membership Plugin a look.
And there you have it! Five different ways to make WordPress private.
Whether you want to make a single private page or create an entire private site or membership site, I hope one of these solutions helped you out.
If you’re interested in creating a specific type of private site, some good further reading is the previously mentioned list of membership plugins, as well as our list of learning management systems (LMS) plugins, that can help you create a private online course.
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That again was no use: he but got another smile and a friendly look of the sort he no longer wanted. I said I thought I could gallop if Harry could, and in a few minutes we were up with the ambulance. It had stopped. There were several men about it, including Sergeant Jim and Kendall, which two had come from Quinn, and having just been in the ambulance, at Ferry's side, were now remounting, both of them openly in tears. "Hello, Kendall." We have this great advantage in dealing with Plato¡ªthat his philosophical writings have come down to us entire, while the thinkers who preceded him are known only through fragments and second-hand reports. Nor is the difference merely accidental. Plato was the creator of speculative literature, properly so called: he was the first and also the greatest artist that ever clothed abstract thought in language of appropriate majesty and splendour; and it is probably to their beauty of form that we owe the preservation of his writings. Rather unfortunately, however, along with the genuine works of the master, a certain number of pieces have been handed down to us under his name, of which some are almost universally admitted to be spurious, while the authenticity of others is a question on which the best scholars are still divided. In the absence of any very cogent external evidence, an immense amount of industry and learning has been expended on this subject, and the arguments employed on both sides sometimes make us doubt whether the reasoning powers of philologists are better developed than, according to Plato, were those of mathematicians in his time. The176 two extreme positions are occupied by Grote, who accepts the whole Alexandrian canon, and Krohn, who admits nothing but the Republic;115 while much more serious critics, such as Schaarschmidt, reject along with a mass of worthless compositions several Dialogues almost equal in interest and importance to those whose authenticity has never been doubted. The great historian of Greece seems to have been rather undiscriminating both in his scepticism and in his belief; and the exclusive importance which he attributed to contemporary testimony, or to what passed for such with him, may have unduly biassed his judgment in both directions. As it happens, the authority of the canon is much weaker than Grote imagined; but even granting his extreme contention, our view of Plato¡¯s philosophy would not be seriously affected by it, for the pieces which are rejected by all other critics have no speculative importance whatever. The case would be far different were we to agree with those who impugn the genuineness of the Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, the Phil¨ºbus, and the Laws; for these compositions mark a new departure in Platonism amounting to a complete transformation of its fundamental principles, which indeed is one of the reasons why their authenticity has been denied. Apart, however, from the numerous evidences of Platonic authorship furnished by the Dialogues themselves, as well as by the indirect references to them in Aristotle¡¯s writings, it seems utterly incredible that a thinker scarcely, if at all, inferior to the master himself¡ªas the supposed imitator must assuredly have been¡ªshould have consented to let his reasonings pass current under a false name, and that, too, the name of one whose teaching he in some respects controverted; while there is a further difficulty in assuming that his existence could pass unnoticed at a period marked by intense literary and philosophical activity. Readers who177 wish for fuller information on the subject will find in Zeller¡¯s pages a careful and lucid digest of the whole controversy leading to a moderately conservative conclusion. Others will doubtless be content to accept Prof. Jowett¡¯s verdict, that ¡®on the whole not a sixteenth part of the writings which pass under the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves, can be fairly doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have taken place in his philosophy.¡¯116 To which we may add that the Platonic dialogues, whether the work of one or more hands, and however widely differing among themselves, together represent a single phase of thought, and are appropriately studied as a connected series. Before entering on our task, one more difficulty remains to be noticed. Plato, although the greatest master of prose composition that ever lived, and for his time a remarkably voluminous author, cherished a strong dislike for books, and even affected to regret that the art of writing had ever been invented. A man, he said, might amuse himself by putting down his ideas on paper, and might even find written178 memoranda useful for private reference, but the only instruction worth speaking of was conveyed by oral communication, which made it possible for objections unforeseen by the teacher to be freely urged and answered.117 Such had been the method of Socrates, and such was doubtless the practice of Plato himself whenever it was possible for him to set forth his philosophy by word of mouth. It has been supposed, for this reason, that the great writer did not take his own books in earnest, and wished them to be regarded as no more than the elegant recreations of a leisure hour, while his deeper and more serious thoughts were reserved for lectures and conversations, of which, beyond a few allusions in Aristotle, every record has perished. That such, however, was not the case, may be easily shown. In the first place it is evident, from the extreme pains taken by Plato to throw his philosophical expositions into conversational form, that he did not despair of providing a literary substitute for spoken dialogue. Secondly, it is a strong confirmation of this theory that Aristotle, a personal friend and pupil of Plato during many years, should so frequently refer to the Dialogues as authoritative evidences of his master¡¯s opinions on the most important topics. And, lastly, if it can be shown that the documents in question do actually embody a comprehensive and connected view of life and of the world, we shall feel satisfied that the oral teaching of Plato, had it been preserved, would not modify in any material degree the impression conveyed by his written compositions. breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five The bargaining was interminable, something in this manner:¡ª Then follows a long discussion in Hindi with the bystanders, who always escort a foreigner in a mob, ending in the question¡ª There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of the torches of the Druids. So the Babylonian queen might have rested in the midst of her victorious armies, or she of Palmyra, after the lion hunt in the deserts of Syria. Her eyes, red lighted beneath the shadowing lashes, met his. Then she glanced away into the blackness of the pine forest, and calling her dog to lie down beside her, stroked its silky red head. The retreat was made, and the men found themselves again in the morning on the bleak, black heath of Drummossie, hungry and worn out, yet in expectation of a battle. There was yet time to do the only wise thing¡ªretreat into the mountains, and depend upon a guerilla warfare, in which they would have the decided advantage. Lord George Murray now earnestly proposed this, but in vain. Sir Thomas Sheridan and other officers from France grew outrageous at that proposal, contending that they could easily beat the English, as they had done at Prestonpans and Falkirk¡ªforgetting that the Highlanders then were full of vigour and spirit. Unfortunately, Charles listened to this foolish reasoning, and the fatal die was cast. "They said they were going for our breakfast," said Harry. "And I hope it's true, for I'm hungrier'n a rip-saw. But I could put off breakfast for awhile, if they'd only bring us our guns. I hope they'll be nice Springfield rifles that'll kill a man at a mile." "Dod durn it," blubbered Pete, "I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around." He came nearly every night. If she was not at the gate he would whistle a few bars of "Rio Bay," and she would steal out as soon as she could do so without rousing suspicion. Boarzell became theirs, their accomplice in some subtle, beautiful way. There was a little hollow on the western slope where they would crouch together and sniff the apricot scent of the gorse, which was ever afterwards to be the remembrancer of their love, and watch the farmhouse lights at Castweasel gleam and gutter beside Ramstile woods. "Yes, De Boteler," continued the lady, "I will write to him, and try to soothe his humour. You think it a humiliation¡ªI would humble myself to the meanest serf that tills your land, could I learn the fate of my child. The abbot may have power to draw from this monk what he would conceal from us; I will at least make the experiment." The lady then, though much against De Boteler's wish, penned an epistle to the abbot, in which concession and apologies were made, and a strong invitation conveyed, that he would honour Sudley castle by his presence. The parchment was then folded, and dispatched to the abbot. "A very pretty method, truly! You know not the miners and forgers of Dean Forest!¡ªwhy I would stake a noble to a silver-penny, that if you had discovered he was hidden there, and legally demanded him, he would be popped down in a bucket, to the bottom of some mine, where, even the art of Master Calverley could not have dragged him to the light of day until the Forest was clear of the pack:¡ªbut, however, to speak to the point," perceiving that the steward's patience was well nigh exhausted¡ª"I saw Stephen Holgrave yesterday, in the Forest." HoMEÅ·ÃÀÒ»¼¶ Ƭa¸ßÇå
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