Do you want to protect your WordPress site or blog with a password?
There are times when you might not want every page or post on your website to be visible to the public. It’s fine if you want to protect the whole website with a password. WordPress makes it easy to add password protection to your site as a whole, to specific pages or blog posts, or to any other type of content.
This article will show you how to password-protect your whole website, certain WordPress posts, or all the posts in a certain category. Here we go.
Password protecting the entire WordPress site
Ben Huson’s “Password Protected” plugin is one of the most reliable ways to protect a WordPress site with a password. It is used on more than 200K websites right now, and users give it high marks.
This plugin makes it easy to add password protection and protect your whole site and all of its content with a single password. You can easily get it from WordPress.org or the WordPress plugin repository.
You can choose to allow access to feeds through the plugin. Also, let the people who run your site see the content without entering a password.
One thing to keep in mind is that the plugin will only protect the content that WordPress makes. If someone goes to your site and uses a direct link to get to the images, they will be there.
Setting up the plugin
Follow the steps below to get the plugin and put it in:
- Go to the section of your WordPress dashboard called “Plugins.” Select “Add New.”
- Now, use the search bar to look for “Password Protected.” The Ben Huson plugin will be at the top. Press Install Now.
- Install the plugin and turn it on after installation.
- Now go to the Installed Plugins page and look for this plugin. Click on the option for Settings.
- To change the settings, click on the Password Protected link.
- Turn on the status that is password protected.
- If you want Admins or Logged-In users to be able to get into the site without a password, check the boxes under “Protected Permissions.”
- In the “New Password” box, type in the password you want to use to get into the site.
- Click the Save button.
With a website, you can now protect your website, whether you use it for a blog or a business site.
Alternate plugins or Methods
You can also use these reliable plugins besides Password Protected:
- By Justin Saad: Hide My Site
- The WordPress Password Protect Page Plugin by BWPS
- You can also use VPNs to keep your website and data safe. There are many different kinds of VPNs. You can read reviews of NordVPN, ExpressVPN, PIA, and other plugins to find the best one for your needs.
Password-protecting WordPress posts or pages
You don’t have to download a plugin if you just want to password-protect individual WordPress posts or pages instead of the whole website. No matter what web hosting plan or SSL certificate you use for your site, you can do it.
You can add a password to protect your posts and pages right from the editor in WordPress. This is a function that is built in.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Open the post or page you want to protect with a password from the WordPress dashboard.
- Visibility is an option that can be found in the same area as the Save Draft and Publish buttons. Click the Edit button next to the word “Visibility.”
- Visibility is set to Public by default, which means that anyone who visits the site can see that post or page. You need to change the visibility from “Public” to “Password protected.” When
- You click “Edit,” and you’ll see options for making the post or page public, private, or password protected. Check the box next to Password protected.
- Now, enter the password you want to use for the page or post. Click “OK.”
- Finally Click on Change.
You can now protect your post or page with a password. Users won’t be able to see it unless they know the right password.
Password-protecting categories in WordPress
Sometimes you don’t want to protect the whole site, just a certain section of it. You don’t have to protect each post in that category individually with a password. Instead, you can protect the whole category with a password. With this, your chosen password will protect all of the posts in that category.
What to do?
You will need to download a plugin to protect WordPress categories with passwords. For example, you could use the Access Category Password by Jojaba. The plugin inserts a password form in protected categories’ posts. It will also change the feeds that WordPress makes. For example, you can change the description by adding any sentence you want.
Here’s how to install this plugin and make sure the categories are safe:
- Install and activate the Access Category Password plugin from your WordPress dashboard’s plugins section.
- After activating the plugin, move your mouse over it and click Settings.
- Click on Category Access Password.
- All the settings for the plugin can be found on this page. Among these settings are the password, the categories that will be affected, the users who will be given permission, and the option to protect only a single post.
- In the Password field, type the password you want to use. Choose the categories you want to keep private, and then check the users you want to let in without a password.
- Lastly, Click Save Changes when you’re done.
Done!
Access Category Password also lets you set a message to show users when they type in the wrong password, set validation text, and style the form, among other things.
Wrapping up
No matter why you want to put a password on your WordPress site, the methods above will work perfectly. These are good ways to add password protection not only to the whole WordPress site, but also to individual pages, posts, and even whole categories. Plugins can handle everything, so you don’t need a developer.
So, let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.
