What are the roles of WordPress?

WordPress uses a concept of Roles, which have been designed to give the site owner the ability to control what users can and cannot do within the site.

WordPress has six pre-defined roles: Super Admin, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor and Subscriber, each with their own set of tasks called capabilities. A default set of capabilities is pre-assigned to each role, but other capabilities can be assigned or removed using the add_cap ( ) and remove_cap ( ) functions. New roles can be introduced or removed using the add_role() and remove_role ( ) functions.

The Super Admin is the only role that has all capabilities.

Summary of Roles

• Super Admin – somebody with access to the site network administration features and all other features.
• Administrator – somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site.
• Editor – somebody who can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users.
• Author – somebody who can publish and manage their own posts.
• Contributor – somebody who can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.
• Subscriber – somebody who can only manage their profile.

The default role for new users can be set in Administration Panels > Settings > General