FAQ: How to Password Protect WordPress

WordPress default “Password Protected” feature only allows you to create one password which applies to all visitors and users of your website. That means even admins have to enter the same password to view the content.

On the other hand, Password Protect WordPress Pro allows you to set not only multiple passwords for all user roles but also a different password for each and every user role. In other words, you can set one password for your contributors, one for your subscribers and so on. It comes in handy when you want to block certain user roles from accessing your content, you just need to deactivate or delete the password for that role. The other user roles will not be affected.

Here's the detailed comparison between WordPress “Password Protected” and our PPWP plugin.

No, users don’t have to re-enter passwords to access content in 7 days by default. You can lengthen or shorten this period of time by changing cookies expiration time in the Settings page.

Yes, you can generate multiple passwords to protect a page or post. Each user can use a different password to unlock the protected content.

Related question: Why can’t I submit thousands of passwords?

No, there is no limit on the created passwords.

If there is one, it's likely that your hosting server put a restriction on the input data. In fact, your password submission is restricted by the PHP max_input_vars config option, which is defaulted to a value of 1,000 passwords. The default value varies across different hosting servers as well.

You can either increase the value or use Password Suite extension to import multiple passwords at once via a CSV file.

Yes, you can. There are 4 ways for users to enter the password once and access all related pages and posts:

1. Parent-child pages: unlock any page and the rest under this parent-child pages will be accessible too
2. Master passwords
3. Access Levels extension
4. Group extension
5. Category posts (coming soon in our Pro version)

Yes, you can make child pages public while password protecting the parent page by disabling the Password Protect Child Pages feature in the Settings page.

No, the plugin will block search engines from finding and indexing your password protected content by default. If you want to allow your private content to be indexed, disable the Block Search Indexing feature in the Settings page.

Yes, you can allow admins to access your private content without entering the password by setting the whitelist role to admins.

There are also other whitelist roles options:

• Post’s author
• Logged-in users
• Custom roles - you can choose multiple roles at the same time

Yes, our plugin allows you to exclude specific pages from your site-wide protection while protecting the entire site with a password.

Anyone with the right password can unlock your protected content. To prevent this, you can either:

• • • Set the password expiry to 1 or 2 days OR
    • Restrict the password usage to 3 or 5 times

After the limit is reached, the password will become invalid.

Yes, your password will become invalid once entered correctly if you set its usage limit to one time. You can do so under our password management pop-up. Simply set the usage limit to 1 when creating a new password.

Managing passwords under popup is you can create, deactivate and delete passwords under WordPress admin via our friendly popup UI.

We don’t offer a free trial of Password Protect WordPress Pro. You can try the Lite version to experience its basic protection features.

When your content is password protected, only the post title and the password form are displayed under the RSS Feeds by default. If you want to show other information under RSS Feeds, e.g. an introduction, follow one of the options below:

• Turn on options to display content on RSS feeds
• Add the introduction in the post excerpt
• Display the introduction under a custom field
• Protect private content sections with [ppwp] shortcode. Other sections will still be public, and as a result, display under RSS feeds.

Password Protect WordPress Pro works smoothly with WordPress 4.7 and greater.

Since our PPWP Pro is frequently tested and updated on the leastes version of WordPress, you should use the leatest version of WP for all the features work properly.

Follow this instruction to install the Pro version. Remember that the Free version is required for our Pro plugin to work properly.

Please do NOT delete the Free version 1.1.2.2 and below when our Pro is activated.

Definitely. Both Lite and Pro version of PPWP are translation ready. You can easily translate the entire password forms including its introduction, button, and error message on your multilingual website.

We recommend using the awesome Weglot plugin to translate our password forms.

No, our Free (Lite) version will not support extensions.

Our Pro version acts as a bridge between the Free version and our extensions. In fact, all our core functions are included in the Pro, which is technically an "add-on" of the Free version.

That’s why it's not possible to use the extensions with PPWP Free version.

No, the extensions are not included in the PPWP Pro Personal and Business plans. The Agency - 15-site license plan does come with the Statistics add-ons though.

You can purchase the extensions individually according to your needs.

We're going to provide Membership plans where you can purchase top popular extensions at cheaper prices.

First of all, there are 2 versions of Password Protect WordPress (PPWP): Free (lite) and Pro.

Our PPWP Pro then comes with 3 main licenses: Personal, Business, and Agency license.

Depending on how many websites you want to install our PDA Gold plugin on, you should pick the right license accordingly:

• • • Personal license allows you to install our PPWP on: 3 sites only
    • Business: 10 sites
    • Agency: 15 sites

Yes, you can. We have offered one-time payment with lifetime usage and unlimited updates for all our license types.

No, except you manually cancel the subscription. The annual license is automatically renewed every year to avoid service disruption. If you do not want to renew your license in the following year, you can cancel the subscription by clicking on the link sent via SendOwl when you purchase the plugin.

Support, updates for Password Protect WordPress Pro and some non-essential features will be disabled if your license expires. However, the basic features of our PPWP Pro will continue to function on your site.

We set the download limit to the installation (ZIP) files just to prevent spams. We can reset it for you at any time upon request.

In reality, you can just download the ZIP file once and activate our plugin on as many sites as your license permits.

No, you can't. Here's is the reason why.

Yes, absolutely. If you would like to use Password Protect WordPress Pro on more sites, just let us know. We'll handle all the hassle and you’ll just pay the difference in cost.

Yes, you can.

Your license subscription is auto-renewed every year for you to continue getting our important updates or priority email support. However, you can cancel the subscription at any time after purchase.

No, you cannot. Cancelled subscriptions cannot be reactivated due to a restriction from our payment partner SendOwl.

If you reactivate the subscription, it will count as a new order and you will be charged again right after that.

There are a few solutions for this:

1. Reactivate the subscription manually when the expiration date is nearly due
2. Upgrade to our lifetime license which is cheaper in the long run as well as enabling you to pay once for the extensions

Anyway, even though your subscription was cancelled, you can use our plugin till your license expires.

We accept all credit and debit cards supported by our payment partner Stripe including but not limited to Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Discover, and Diners Club.

You can also pay using PayPal.

Yep. We offer a 30-day money back guarantee as long as you follow our refund process.

Go to the Settings page and set the main basic settings. Our detailed tutorial will help you get started with Password Protect WordPress Pro.

Password Protect WordPress Pro offers two ways to generate and manage your passwords:

• • • Password protection popup - You’re able to generate and manage all your passwords at the same place. Making changes to password settings are supported.
    • While editing content - You can create and manage passwords while editing your content.

You can send passwords to your users manually. Password Protect WordPress Pro can also be integrated with Email Marketing software such as ActiveCampaign and MailChimp to send out passwords to your subscribers automatically.

PPWP Pro can protect unlimited WP pages and posts and all custom post types including WooCommerce products.

Please check out this list of confirmed compatible plugins with our Pro version and its extensions.

Our plugin would be able to work well with most popular themes and plugins including caching plugins and server.

Please contact us if you face any plugin compatibility issues. We will be glad to help.

Yes. Our plugin works well with the default Timber theme template and other common PHP templates as well.

There are 2 main reasons that you shouldn't cache all protected pages on your private site:

1. For the sitewide protection to work properly, our plugin has to clear the cache of every protected page after users enter passwords.
   • Otherwise, the cached version won't ask the next user for a password, thus losing protection of that page.
   • If we have to keep clearing cache, i.e. making connection to the database, constantly, then what’s the point of caching in the first place?
2. By default, caching plugins don't cache content for logged-in users anyway. So, once they enter the right password, all content, both protected and unprotected, is no longer cached.

Yes, you can. When you protect your content partially, part of the content will be secured with a password form. The rest is visible to the public.

As of now, users can repeatedly enter wrong passwords without any restrictions. Unwanted users could make use of brute force attacks to access your private content though. To prevent such attacks, you can set the maximum failed attempt such as 3 or 5 times per user. They will be locked out for a period of time before making another access attempt.

Yes, you can unprotect multiple pages and posts at the same time in 2 different ways:

• • • Unlock the parent page or the category. All child pages under that parent page and all posts under that category will be unprotected automatically.
    • Use bulk actions when you want to unlock multiple pages secured by different passwords (WIP).

Our plugin helps protect WordPress content only. Media files in the protected pages and posts will be accessible via their direct URLs. Password Protect WordPress Pro can be integrated with Prevent Direct Access Gold plugin seamlessly to protect both your files and content.