PROTECT YOUR WORDPRESS CATEGORIES

Password Protected Categories makes it easy to password protect any WordPress category on your website. It provides a ‘Visibility’ option for each category (similar to that for posts and pages) allowing you to set the visibility to Public, Protected or Private:

• For ‘Password Protected’ WordPress categories, you can type a password which must be entered to unlock and view that category and its sub-categories and products. 
• ‘Private’ WordPress categories are only visible to logged in users with the correct role. This gives you a choice of options for creating private categories in WordPress.

The Password Protected Categories WordPress plugin lets you password protect (or make private) an entire category. This is quicker and more user-friendly than password protecting individual posts because entering a single password unlocks the whole category.

When you password protect a category, the category page, its sub-categories and all the posts within are protected with the same password(s). People must enter a correct password to access any of this protected content.

Each category can have one or more passwords and you can protect as many categories as you like within your website, while leaving others public.

You can either add a single password which will apply to the category and all its posts and sub-categories; or you can set different passwords for each category – for example, if you need to provide a separate hidden category for each person.

Yes, you can password protect page categories.

By default, WordPress pages don’t have categories but you can easily change this with a bit of custom coding, or by installing the free Create And Assign Categories For Pages plugin. Once you have done this, you can use the Password Protected Categories plugin to password protect page categories.

Yes, you can create multiple passwords to protect each category – for example, to give a different password to each user. On the Categories page, use the plus or minus icons to add/remove passwords. The category can be unlocked by entering any correct password.

Yes, the Password Protected Categories WordPress plugin is fully compatible with sub-categories. If you password protect a parent category, all sub-categories (and their products) will automatically inherit the password protection of the parent category.

This lets you have multi-level category structures, all protected with a single password. Just password protect the parent category and you’re good to go.

Private WordPress categories work in the same way as private posts or products, which are built into WordPress itself. Private categories are completely invisible from your public website and are only visible to logged in Administrators or Editors. (You can edit the user roles to make private categories visible to other levels too.)

You can link to private WordPress categories from menus, widgets etc. and these links will only appear for logged in users with the correct privileges.

The WordPress Password Protected Categories plugin has a setting which optionally shows or hides your protected categories and posts from the public areas of your website. This includes the main blog page (if you’re protecting standard WordPress posts), menus and widgets. If you choose to hide your protected categories and posts, the only way people will know they exist is if they have the direct link.

The Password Protect Categories plugin takes a secure approach where possible. If a post is in a public and a password protected category then it will be password protected. A post can only be in one password protected category at a time.

The plugin works with standard WordPress posts, plus any custom post type that uses hierarchical taxonomies (often known as categories). This includes post types created by other plugins, such as the ‘Events’ post type created by events plugins and the ‘Products’ post type created by WordPress e-commerce plugins. You can protect WordPress pages if your website supports page categories.

These questions will confirm whether the plugin will work with your content type:

• Does it have its own section in the left of the WordPress admin, with each item added as an individual ‘post’ (which may be called something else such as Products, Downloads, Portfolios or Events)?
• Can it be divided into categories, which are selected by ticking boxes on the Add/Edit Post screen (which may be called Add Product/Download/Portfolio/Event/etc.)?

If you’ve answered Yes to both questions then it will work with the WordPress Password Protected Categories plugin.

Yes, but you might prefer to use our dedicated WooCommerce plugin, WooCommerce Protected Categories. We also have a plugin called WooCommerce Private Store for creating completely hidden online stores.

The plugin adds a “noindex,nofollow” meta tag to all password protected categories and posts, and also sets the “X-Robots-Tag” response header. This should prevent search engines from indexing protected content but we can’t guarantee this. For example, any previous links to these categories/posts indexed before the plugin was installed will still exist in Google.

The plugin removes protected categories and posts from XML sitemaps. It is compatible with the sitemaps in WordPress SEO and All in One SEO Pack.

We have tested the plugin thoroughly with many free and premium WordPress themes and are confident it will work with yours.

You can use our WordPress Password Protected Categories plugin with most multilingual plugins including WeGlot, TranslatePress and WPML. They make it easy to translate your login page and protected categories into any language.

You can try Password Protected Categories FREE OF CHARGE for a full 14 days!

1. Select the ‘Free trial’ option from the pricing table.
2. Complete the checkout as usual, including adding your payment details. No payment will be taken initially. Your first annual payment will be taken at the end of the trial unless you cancel before then.
3. You will receive an email containing your plugin download, license key and quick setup instructions. (You can also find these on the order confirmation page.)
4. You can install the plugin, activate your license key and use it on your website for a full 14 days. You will have access to the plugin’s full functionality, with no limitations.
5. We’ll email you 3 days before the free trial ends with instructions on how to cancel, and to remind you when payment will be taken.
6. If you cancel, the plugin will stop working on your site. You can use it again in future by buying a new license key.

If you forget to cancel or change your mind after the first payment, then you can still take advantage of our 30-day money back guarantee. This starts when the free trial ends, so you effectively get 6 weeks to test drive the plugin!

Your plugin purchase comes backed by our service. We work hard to continually add new features, important security updates, and provide customer support.

When you buy Password Protected Categories, you can choose whether to purchase an annual or lifetime license:

• The annual subscription ensures we can continue improving the plugin and supporting you long-term. You’ll be charged automatically once a year, and we’ll remind you before this happens. You can, of course, cancel any time. If your license expires, you can keep using the plugin but won’t receive any more support or updates.
• The lifetime license will be valid forever and will never expire or need renewing.

This gives you a choice of whether to pay a smaller amount each year, or make a one-off payment for life. Our service and commitment to you are the same either way.

Password Protected Categories is fully tested with the latest version of WordPress. We always recommend running the most up-to-date version, but we also support older installations: