This is a detailed guide on how to approve users in WordPress following front-end user registration.
Setting up a front-end user registration form for your users on your website is the initial step.
After the registrations start flooding in, you might desire a certain level of moderation among these new users.
So, as an admin, you’ll need to approve or decline each new WordPress user registration manually.
This article offers a short guide on approving new users in WordPress.
Hence, ensure you read till the end.
Default WordPress User Approval and Its Limitations
First and foremost, you should know the default user registration approval process in WordPress.
When users fill out the default registration form and submit it, they’re sent login credentials to their email address, which they must use to log in.
However, WordPress auto-approves new users even before login. The admin doesn’t get to moderate the registrations in any way.
That means:
- You can’t filter through registrations and approve or reject users for limited membership programs.
- There’s no way to ensure that only users relevant to your niche are members of your WordPress site.
But, don’t worry. WordPress plugins enabling new user approval will help you overcome these limitations without sweat.
Best Way to Approve Users in WordPress after Front-end Registration
If the default user approval method is not for you, admin-approval WordPress plugins should be your go-to.
You’ll find plugins strictly made for approving new users through default registration forms like New User Approve.
However, if you find WordPress’s core registration or the WooCommerce registration form basic, look no further than User Registration.
You’ll be able to create beautiful custom user registration forms and enable admin approval for users registering through these forms. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone.
Let us give you an overview of the admin approval feature in User Registration:
- When a user registers through a front-end form, an approval request is sent to the admin’s email address.
- The new user remains pending until approved or denied by the admin.
- The admin can approve or deny the new user from the WordPress Users tab.
- The user awaiting approval receives email notifications about whether their registration was approved or denied. If approved, they’ll be able to log into their account.
- You can customize the front-end messages the user sees after registration and email templates for the admin and the user.
There’s no better WordPress plugin than User Registration that we can recommend, considering that you get the admin approval feature for free.
So, we’ll be using this same plugin to answer your question about how you can approve users in WordPress in the next section.
How to Approve Users in WordPress after Front-end Registration?
We’ve prepared a short tutorial to show you how to approve users in WordPress using the User Registration plugin.
So, let’s jump right into it.
Step 1. Install and Activate the User Registration Plugin
Before anything else, install the free User Registration plugin in your WordPress dashboard.
We have a separate guide on installing and setting up the plugin, so check that out first.
After the installation, you can move on to the next step.
Step 2. Create a New Registration Form and Customize
The next step is to create and customize user registration form. You can later approve users who register on your WordPress website using this form.
Hence, go to the User Registration tab and choose Add New. After that, you can follow this detailed guide to create your first registration form.
Step 3. Set Up Admin Approval After User Registration
Here comes the crucial part of this whole guide. And that is enabling admins to approve new users in WordPress.
It’s easier than you can imagine with the Form Settings. The first thing you’ll see here is the User Approval and Login Option.
Let’s review all four options to help you understand them more.
- Auto Approval and Manual Login: If this option is selected, the user can register on the site and must manually log in via the User Registration My Account page or the WordPress Core Login.
- Auto Approval and Auto Login: In this case, the user is automatically logged in after registration. They don’t have to bother with a login form.
- Admin Approval: The registered users cannot log into their account until the admin approves them. The site admin reviews users’ approval requests, which they can accept or deny.
- Auto Approval After Email Confirmation: The user will receive a confirmation email at the address provided during registration. They can only log in after clicking on the link sent in the email.
Further, with the pro version of the User Registration plugin, you get an option of Admin Approval after Email Confirmation.
It’s a neat option to protect your forms from spam or give access to valuable clients only.
Thus, select the desired option from the dropdown and save the changes.
That’s not all. The Form Setting has many other features, such as form templates, Captcha protection, default user roles, etc.
So you can configure the user registration form to fit your heart’s content.
Step 4. Publish the Form on Your Website
Now that the registration form is ready, you must display it on your WordPress website.
Copy the form shortcode and go to the Registration page you previously installed during the plugin setup process. Then, replace the default form shortcode with your new one and hit Update.
An alternative way is to use the User Registration block instead. You can select the form to display from the dropdown. As simple as that!
It’s not compulsory to use the Registration page. You can display the form on any other page or post.
However, this is still not enough. There must be a link the users can follow to access the Registration page.
Some themes automatically add top-level pages like Registration and My Account to the menu. If that’s not the case for you, don’t panic. We’ll show you how to add them to your website’s menu.
Navigate to Menus under Appearance to create a new menu. First, give the menu a name, choose a location, and click Create Menu. The availability of location might differ depending on the theme you’re using.
After that, select the Registration and My Account page from the Add menu items box. Then, click Add to Menu.
If you already have a menu, Add menu items, and click Save Menu.
Now your website menu will display Registration and My Account pages that your users can easily access.
Wrapping Up!
That concludes our article on how to approve users in WordPress after front-end registration.
By now, you should know that WordPress doesn’t let admins approve users by default. Instead, you can use a plugin like a User Registration with which you can moderate new registrations by simply enabling admin approval in the settings.
We hope our step-by-step guide to approving users after front-end registration is easy to follow and implement on your website.
Besides approving users, you’ll also need to block spam submissions on your registration forms. So, we recommend you refer to our blog for more helpful articles like this.
We’d be happy to hear your feedback in the comments below. Also, don’t forget to share this article on your social media.