The strongest alternative to PublishPress Capabilities for most sites is User Role Editor, a mature, focused tool for editing roles and capabilities in fine detail. For a free, polished option with content restriction built in, Members is the best pick, and Advanced Access Manager is the standout for complex, granular access rules. We ranked these from our index of 55,000+ WordPress plugins.

Why people switch from PublishPress Capabilities

• People who want the most established, dedicated role editor move to User Role Editor for its depth and reliability.
• Sites that also need content restriction and shortcodes move to Members.
• Admins wanting login redirects and per-role menu control move to WPFront User Role Editor.
• Users needing advanced, rule-based access control move to Advanced Access Manager, or to Remove Dashboard Access for a simple dashboard lockout.

User Role Editor – Focused role editing

User Role Editor is a long-standing, dedicated tool for adding roles and toggling individual capabilities with checkbox precision. Against PublishPress Capabilities, it is squarely focused on the role-and-capability job and is trusted for exactly that. The drawback is that its interface is functional rather than modern, and features like per-plugin permissions and multisite management are reserved for the Pro version.

Choose User Role Editor if you want a proven, dedicated editor for roles and capabilities.

Members – Roles plus restriction

Members, maintained by the MemberPress team, combines a clean role editor with content restriction, multiple roles per user, and shortcodes, all free. Against PublishPress Capabilities, it adds front-end content control on top of role editing without a paywall. The drawback is that its content protection is fairly basic compared with a full membership plugin, so complex paywalls and drip content still need a dedicated tool.

Choose Members if you want free role editing with built-in content restriction.

WPFront User Role Editor – Roles with redirects

WPFront User Role Editor edits roles and capabilities and adds handy extras like login redirects and per-role admin controls. Against PublishPress Capabilities, it bundles login-flow management with role editing in one place. The drawback is a smaller community and slower pace of updates than the leading options, so you will find fewer guides and less momentum behind it.

Choose WPFront User Role Editor if you want role editing together with login redirects and menu control.

Advanced Access Manager – Granular access rules

Advanced Access Manager offers deep, rule-based control over roles, capabilities, content visibility, and API access. Against PublishPress Capabilities, it goes much further into fine-grained access governance for complex sites. The drawback is complexity: its breadth and terminology make it the steepest to learn here, and it is easy to over-configure, so it is overkill for simple role tweaks.

Choose Advanced Access Manager if you need detailed, rule-based access control across the site.

remove-dashboard-access – Dashboard lockout

Remove Dashboard Access does one focused job: it blocks lower-level roles from the wp-admin dashboard and redirects them elsewhere. Against PublishPress Capabilities, it is a dead-simple way to keep members and subscribers out of the back end. The drawback is that narrow scope: it does not edit capabilities or manage roles at all, so it complements a role editor rather than replacing one.

Choose remove-dashboard-access if you simply want to keep certain roles out of the WordPress dashboard.

When to stay on PublishPress Capabilities

Stay on PublishPress Capabilities if you value its blend of role editing, capability backups, and integration with the wider PublishPress suite. It lets you copy and restore role setups and manage capabilities cleanly, which is reassuring on sites where a wrong toggle can lock people out. If it already covers your roles and permissions comfortably, switching mostly means relearning a different interface for the same result.

How we ranked these

Every plugin here is scored by the WPS Score, a single 0 to 10 rating built from 21 signals covering maintenance, support responsiveness, compatibility, performance, and ratings quality across our index of 55,000+ plugins. Rankings are derived from that data, not editorial preference, and no plugin author can pay to change a score. How the WPS Score works.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free alternative to PublishPress Capabilities?

Members, from the MemberPress team, is a strong free choice because it combines a clean role editor with content restriction and shortcodes. User Role Editor is another well-regarded free option focused specifically on editing roles and capabilities in detail.

Can I create a custom user role in WordPress?

Yes. Plugins like User Role Editor, Members, and PublishPress Capabilities let you create custom roles and choose exactly which capabilities they have, without writing code. This is useful for giving editors, clients, or contributors precisely the access they need.

Which role plugin is best for restricting content?

Members is a good fit because it pairs role editing with built-in content restriction and shortcodes for free. For more advanced, rule-based restrictions across content and even APIs, Advanced Access Manager offers deeper control, though it is more complex to set up.

The verdict

The best all-round alternative is User Role Editor for focused, reliable role editing, with Members the free pick that adds content restriction and Advanced Access Manager the choice for granular access rules. That said, PublishPress Capabilities handles roles cleanly and fits the PublishPress ecosystem, so if it already meets your needs, staying on it is entirely reasonable.