How to Password Protect WordPress (Entire Site, Products, Categories, And More)

Want to know how to password protect WordPress? There you go! We have got you covered. 

There could be several reasons for protecting your WordPress. And, no doubt, there are also many benefits of protecting your WordPress website. You would be happy to know that we can easily protect our WordPress website. 

There are multiple ways to protect our WordPress websites. You can either protect them with WordPress plugins or with the help of programming. Yet, to make the process easy to use, we will be using WordPress plugins. Some of you might be looking to protect their WordPress categories, while some to protect their blog posts or products. 

To help you in this, I have created a tutorial guiding you on protecting your WordPress website. I have explained each step in detail with screenshots to make it easy to understand. In this tutorial, I will be showing you six different ways to password protect WordPress. 

  1. How to Password Protect Entire WordPress Website
  2. How to Password Protect WordPress Posts and Pages?
  3. How to Protect the Entire WooCommerce Store?
  4. How to Protect WooCommerce Products?
  5. How to Password Protect WordPress or WooCommerce Categories?

Continue reading to find out all the ways to password protect WordPress. Else, skip to the section you are looking for. 

Why Should You Password Protect WordPress?

Most website owners choose to protect their WordPress site to keep their website safe from unauthorized users. At the same time, some protect their websites when they want to serve only a few customers. You don’t want other visitors to see that product, blog, or content from a particular category. 

There could be different causes behind protecting a WordPress website. This depends on your requirements. Read the next section to know when you should protect WordPress. 

When To Password Protect WordPress?

Here are the reasons when you should choose to protect your WordPress website. 

Age Restricted Products Or Content: If you are offering age-restricted products or content, you don’t want some visitors to take a full view of those products. Then, you should protect WordPress so that age-restricted users can’t see them. You can create a new user role and hide products or content from younger visitors. 

Premium or Exclusive Content: If your website provides premium or exclusive content that comes at a price. Then, you can protect your WordPress website with a password so that only a few visitors or paid visitors can access the content. You can choose who can view the content. You can try this on your website then.

Site Is Under Construction: You can choose to password-protect your WordPress website when it is under construction. In simpler terms, no one can see it even if they visit the website when it is being built. 

These are the situations when you can think of password-protecting WordPress. Read the following section to find out the actual ways to do that. 

5 Ways to Password Protect Your Site

Here are the 5 ways to password protect your WordPress website. 

How to Protect Entire WooCommerce Store

To protect the entire WooCommerce store, I will be using the Restriction Rules plugin by Woosuite. In case, you haven’t purchased the plugin; you can purchase the plugin from the Woosuite official site. 

Step 1. Install and Activate the Woosuite Plugin and License 

The first step is to install and activate the Woosuite plugin and license. I’m not going to tell you how to install and activate the plugin. I have created a separate Quick Start Guide that will guide you through how to install and activate the plugin. 

Step 2. Configure the Plugin

Head over to the Addons section under the Woosuite submenu, and search for the Restriction Rules plugin. After that, click on the Manage button.

It will send you to a new page that will contain some settings. On the new page, you will see four different sections: Hide Website/Force Login, Hide Product Rules, Password Protected Rules, and Password Settings.  

Each section will include different options. Now, we will start configuring the required settings individually. Follow the given step carefully. To be extra sure, you can cross-check the setting with the image attached in each step.

Password Protected Rules

Now, set the password to the selected items. Follow the given setting to do that. 

2.1 Applies To: In this setting, select the user roles to which you want to apply this rule. This lets you choose from Everyone, Guests, Specific Users, and Specific Roles. If you select Everyone, it means everyone will be required to enter the password to view that particular product. 

Note: Guests are those who haven’t created an account with your WooCommerce store. 

2.2 Filter By: From this setting, select all three options – Categories, Tags, and Products.

Choose Category: Select all the categories present on your website. 

Choose Tags: Select all the tags present on your website. 

Choose Products: Select all the products present on your website. 

2.3 Password: In this field, you will need to enter the password you want to set for the selected ones. I’ll advise you to add a strong password – a combination of alphabets, numbers, and symbols. 

2.4 Password Expiry Date: You can use this feature to set an expiry date to the password. If you set the expiry date, the password will stop working after a certain period. 

Password Setting

2.5 Password Entry Form: If you have enabled the Password feature, you can use this feature. Else, it is not important. You can leave this field blank or write something like ‘Enter the Correct Password’ or anything of your choice. 

2.6 Submit Button Text: This text would be visible on the Submit button. You can write Submit in the given field. 

After making all the required changes click on the Add New Rule button. Later on, click the Save Changes button to save the settings. Now, we have made all the changes perfectly. Before heading towards it, I’ll advise you to check the settings once again. 

How to Protect WooCommerce Products

Again, to carry out this section, I will be using the Restriction Rules plugin by Woosuite. Follow the given steps to do it.

Also read: How To Create WooCommerce Private Products

Step 1. Configure Password Protected Rules

If you want to set a password on a certain category or product, you can use this feature to do that. 

1.1 Applies To: In this setting, select the user roles to which you want to apply this rule. This lets you choose from Everyone, Guests, Specific Users, and Specific Roles. If you select Everyone, it means everyone will be required to enter the password to view that particular product. 

1.2 Filter By: From this setting, pick the products on which you want to apply the rule. It offers three options – Categories, Tags, and Products. You have to select Product from the options. 

Choose Product: In this setting, select the products you want to password-protect. You can select multiple products. 

1.3 Password: In this field, you will need to enter the password you want to set for the selected ones. I’ll advise you to add a strong password – a combination of alphabets, numbers, and symbols. 

1.4 Password Expiry Date: You can use this feature to set an expiry date to the password. If you set the expiry date, the password will stop working after a certain period. 

Step 2. Modify Password Setting

2.1 Password Entry Form: If you have enabled the Password feature, you can use this feature. Else, it is not important. You can leave this field blank or write something like ‘Enter the Correct Password’ or anything of your choice. 

2.2 Submit Button Text: This text would be visible on the Submit button. You can write Submit in the given field. 

After making all the required changes click on the Add New Rule button. Later on, click the Save Changes button to save the settings. 

Check the next section to protect WordPress and WooCommerce categories. 

How to Password Protect WordPress Categories

In this section, I am going to use the Restriction Rules plugin by Woosuite. Follow the given steps to do it. 

Step 1. Password Protected Rules

If you want to set a password on a certain category or product, you can use this feature to do that. Head over to Restriction Rules settings to find this setting. 

1.1 Applies To: In this setting, select the user roles to which you want to apply this rule. This lets you choose from Everyone, Guests, Specific Users, and Specific Roles. If you select Everyone, it means everyone will be required to enter the password to view that particular product. 

1.2 Filter By: From this setting, pick the category on which you want to apply the rule. It offers three options – Categories, Tags, and Products. Now, select the Categories from the options.

1.2.1 Choose Category:  Select the categories you want to protect. 

1.3 Password: In this field, you will need to enter the password you want to set for the selected ones. I’ll advise you to add a strong password – a combination of alphabets, numbers, and symbols. 

1.4 Password Expiry Date: You can use this feature to set an expiry date to the password. If you set the expiry date, the password will stop working after a certain period. 

After modifying the setting, click on the Save Changes button. This is how you can protect WordPress and WooCommerce categories. 

How to Password Protect Entire Website

To password protect the entire site, we will be using a WordPress plugin. You can install the plugin from WordPress’s Plugin section or follow the given step to figure that out. 

Step 1. Install the Password Protected Plugin 

To install the plugin, log in to your WordPress dashboard and look for the Plugin section. Then, click on the Plugin option. 

After clicking on the Plugin, you will see a new option called Add New. Click on the Add New button. 

In the search bar, type Password Protected and press Enter. After that, install the very first plugin you see. You can see the same in the given image. 

Click on the Install Now button, and wait until it gets installed. Then, click on the Activate button to activate the Password Protected plugin. 

Now, you can find the plugin in the Plugin section for your WordPress dashboard. 

Step 2. Configure the Plugin

In this step, we will configure the setting to password protect WordPress. Head over to the Plugin section, and look for the Password Protected plugin. After that, click on the Setting option under the plugin name. 

Follow all these settings now.

2.1 Password Protect Status: Enable this option by checking the check box. This will enable a password protection feature. 

2.2 Protected Permissions: Select Allow Administration and Allow Logged In Users. 

2.3 New Password: In this field, enter the Password you want to set. In some cases, if you want to change the password, re-enter the new password in the same field.

2.4 Allow Remember Me: Turn on this option if you want users to stay logged in for a long time. Because of this, they don’t need to log in again and again. 

After making all the changes, click on the Save Changes button. 

Test the Feature

Now, it’s time to check whether it’s working fine or not. When a non-authorized user tries to access the log-in page, they will need to enter the password. Here’s how the page will look like. 

This is how you can protect your entire WordPress website with the help of this plugin. Read the coming section to check out how to protect WordPress pages and posts. 

How to Protect WordPress Posts and Pages With WordPress?

WordPress easily allows us to protect our posts and pages without any need for a plugin. In this section, I will be instructing you on how to protect your WordPress posts and pages. Follow the given steps to do it. 

A. Protect WordPress Pages 

To protect your WordPress pages, head over to your WordPress dashboard and look for the Pages option in your WordPress toolbar. Go to your Pages section and edit the page you want to protect. 

Look for the Visibility section in the right sidebar and click on it. By default, it will be set to Public. After clicking on Public, you will see three options – Public, Private, and Password Protected. You have to select Password-Protected. 

After that, type the password you want to set. After doing this, click on the Update or Publish button. 

B. Protect WordPress Posts

To protect your WordPress post, head over to your WordPress dashboard and look for the Posts option in your WordPress toolbar. Go to your Posts section and edit the post you want to protect. 

In the right sidebar look for the Visibility section, and click on it. By default, it will be set to Public. After clicking on Public, you will see three options – Public, Private, and Password Protected. You have to select Password-Protected. 

Password Protect WordPress

After that, write the password you want to set. After doing this, click on the Update or Publish button. 

This is how you can password protect WordPress pages and posts. You can read the next section if you are looking to protect the entire WooCommerce store. 

Conclusion

In this article, we figured out how to password protect WordPress. We discovered different methods to protect your WordPress website with passwords. In this article, we figured out how to protect the entire WordPress website, WooCommerce store, post, pages, and categories. I hope you understood everything properly and implemented the same to your WordPress and WooCommerce site. That’s all for this article.
Keep Visiting Woosuite for More Tutorials and Guides Around WordPress and Woocommerce.

Brian
Brian

Welcome to the AovUp blog, where we discuss all things WooCommerce. I hope we can help you achieve something today...

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