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/ Disable Toolbar

Disable Toolbar

By Michael Dance

Site Administration & Utilities / URL Redirects & 301 Management

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Disable Toolbar Review - In-Depth Analysis

Control the visibility of the WP Toolbar based on user roles. Simple and clean.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

7.16/10

User Rating

4.9/5 (based on 17+ reviews)

Active Installations

1,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This humble plugin adds an option in Settings > General that controls who sees the WP Toolbar when viewing your site.

You can turn the Toolbar on or off per user role.

Note that this controls the public, front-end version of your site. When viewing the dashboard, the toolbar always appears.

How is this different from other plugins that do similar things? It's smaller, cleaner, and doesn't add any unnecessary settings pages. It's also smart enough to hide the Toolbar option on user profiles if that user is already restricted from seeing the toolbar.

Comparing to Alternatives

Disable Toolbar is a straightforward plugin designed to disable the WordPress admin toolbar for selected user roles. It competes with several similar plugins that offer toolbar management with varying degrees of customization.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Simple and easy to use with no configuration fuss
Allows disabling toolbar per user role including bbPress roles
Lightweight and integrates seamlessly into WordPress settings
Highly reliable with no reported security vulnerabilities
Works well with other plugins like Theme My Login

Weaknesses

Lacks advanced customization features found in some alternatives
No pro version or premium support options
Limited to disabling toolbar only, no additional toolbar management features
No recent security updates since 2017, though no vulnerabilities reported

User Sentiment Analysis

With a near-perfect 4.9 rating from 17 reviews and no low-star ratings, users overwhelmingly appreciate the plugin's simplicity and effectiveness.

Positive highlights

"Simple & Works Great" — fahadalbakri
"Does what it says. Perfect." — Craig
"Works great with TML!" — infowan
"Super useful!" — agustin866
"Simply brilliant" — rickjohns

Common complaints

Weaknesses

No advanced customization options
No premium support or paid version
No recent updates since 2017

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users who want a lightweight, no-fuss solution to disable the WordPress admin toolbar for specific user roles without additional features.

Not ideal for

Users seeking advanced toolbar customization, premium support, or frequent plugin updates might find this plugin lacking.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes all core features to disable the admin toolbar per user role, providing excellent value for users needing this functionality.

Final Verdict

Disable Toolbar excels at its core purpose with a simple, reliable, and lightweight approach that users highly appreciate. Its compatibility with other plugins and absence of security issues make it a trustworthy choice for managing toolbar visibility by user role.

However, it lacks advanced customization features and has not seen recent updates, which may deter users looking for more comprehensive toolbar management or active development. Overall, it is an excellent free option for straightforward toolbar disabling needs.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Disable Toolbar plugin.

admin bar

hide admin bar

toolbar control

Screenshots

FAQ

Automatic Install

Log into your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins → Add New
Search for “Disable Toolbar”
Click “Install Now” under the Disable Toolbar plugin
Click “Activate Now”

Manual Install

Download the plugin from the download button on this page
Unzip the file, and upload the resulting disable-toolbar folder to your /wp-content/plugins directory
Log into your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins
Click “Activate” under the Disable Toolbar plugin