/ Plugin Category

/ Security & Privacy

/ Restricted Site Access

Restricted Site Access

By 10up

Security & Privacy /

Restricted Site Access Review - In-Depth Analysis

Limit access to your site for visitors who are not logged in or not on an allowed IP list. Customize behavior for blocked visitors.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

7.02/10

User Rating

4.8/5 (based on 62+ reviews)

Active Installations

10,000+

Update Frequency

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

Security Score

5 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin allows you to limit access to your site for visitors who are not logged in or are not accessing from specified IP addresses. You can send restricted visitors to the login page, redirect them, or display a custom message or page. It is an excellent solution for Extranets, publicly hosted Intranets, or parallel development and staging sites.

The plugin adds several configuration options to the Reading settings panel and the Network Settings panel in multisite. You can enable or disable site restriction, change the restriction behavior, and add IP addresses to an unrestricted list, including ranges. Additionally, you can quickly add your current IP to the unrestricted list and customize the redirect location.

Furthermore, you can define a simple message for restricted visitors or select a page to show them, which is great for displaying 'coming soon' teasers.

Comparing to Alternatives

Restricted Site Access is a straightforward plugin designed to limit site access based on user roles or IP addresses. Compared to other plugins, it focuses on simplicity and essential functionality without extra features.

Top alternatives

Restricted Site Access

Strengths

Simple and easy to configure.
Effectively restricts access based on IP or user login status.
Lightweight without unnecessary features.
Reliable for intranet or extranet use cases.

Weaknesses

Limited customization options.
No advanced access control features.
Lacks integration with other membership or security plugins.

User Sentiment Analysis

Users appreciate the plugin's simplicity and effectiveness in restricting site access without complications.

Positive highlights

'Works 100%, super helpful.' - con
'Easy use and powerful plugin.' - maoflager
'Does exactly what I was looking for.' - Hans-Gerd Gerhards
'Simple, effective and without unnecessary frills.' - Orsp
'Perfect job delivering what it announces.' - pf92

Common complaints

Limited features beyond basic access restriction.
No updates or enhancements over time.

Weaknesses

Lacks advanced configuration options.
No premium support or additional modules.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users needing a simple, reliable way to restrict site access based on IP or login status without extra complexity.

Not ideal for

Those looking for advanced membership management or extensive customization options.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes all core features necessary to restrict site access effectively based on IP addresses or user login status.

Final Verdict

Restricted Site Access is a dependable and straightforward plugin ideal for users who want to control access to their WordPress site without unnecessary complexity.

While it lacks advanced features and a premium version, its simplicity and reliability make it a solid choice for intranet, extranet, or basic access restriction needs.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Restricted Site Access plugin.

Limit access

IP restrictions

Visitor permissions

Screenshots

FAQ

Restricted Site Access settings are added to the Reading page, with WordPress’s built in site privacy options. (It was moved there from a separate Privacy settings page in 3.5.)

Developers can use the restricted_site_access_is_restricted filter to override normal restriction behavior. Note that restriction checks happen before WordPress executes any queries; it passes the query request from the global $wp variable so developers can investigate what the visitor is trying to load.

For instance, to unblock an RSS feed, place the following PHP code in the theme’s functions.php file or in a simple plug-in:

add_filter( 'restricted_site_access_is_restricted', 'my_rsa_feed_override', 10, 2 );  function my_rsa_feed_override( $is_restricted, $wp ) {     // check query variables to see if this is the feed     if ( ! empty( $wp->query_vars['feed'] ) ) {         $is_restricted = false;     }     return $is_restricted; }

Visitors that are not logged in or allowed by IP address will not be able to browse your site (though be cautious of page caching plugin incompatibilities, mentioned above). Restricted Site Access does not block access to your “real” files, so direct links to files in your media and uploads folder (for instance) are not blocked. It is also important to remember that IP addresses can be spoofed. Because Restricted Site Access runs as a plug-in, it is subject to any other vulnerabilities present on your site.

Restricted Site Access is not meant to be a top secret data safe, but simply a reliable and convenient way to handle unwanted visitors.

In 7.3.2, two new filters were added that can be utilized to help prevent IP spoofing attacks. The first filter allows you to set up a list of approved proxy IP addresses and the second allows you to set up a list of approved HTTP headers. For any sites that were using Restricted Site Access prior to version 7.5.0, a handful of HTTP headers are trusted by default. To change this, utilize the rsa_trusted_headers filter to modify the HTTP headers you want to trust. If your site is not running behind a proxy, we recommend doing the following:

add_filter( 'rsa_trusted_headers', '__return_empty_array' );

This will then only use the REMOTE_ADDR HTTP header to determine the IP address of the visitor. This header can’t be spoofed, so this will increase security. Note that this is now the default for all new installs since version 7.5.0.

If your site is running behind a proxy (like a CDN), you usually can’t rely on the REMOTE_ADDR HTTP header, as this will contain the IP address of the proxy, not the user. If your proxy uses static IP addresses, we recommend using the rsa_trusted_proxies filter to set those trusted IP addresses:

add_filter( 'rsa_trusted_proxies', 'my_rsa_trusted_proxies' );  function my_rsa_trusted_proxies( $trusted_proxies = array() ) {   // Set one or more trusted proxy IP addresses.   $proxy_ips       = array(     '10.0.0.0/24',     '10.0.0.0/32',   );   $trusted_proxies = array_merge( $trusted_proxies, $proxy_ips );    return array_unique( $trusted_proxies ); }

And then use the rsa_trusted_headers filter to set which HTTP headers you want to trust. Consult with your proxy provider to determine which header(s) they use to hold the original client IP:

add_filter( 'rsa_trusted_headers', 'my_rsa_trusted_headers' );  function my_rsa_trusted_headers( $trusted_headers = array() ) {   // Set one or more trusted HTTP headers.   $headers = array(     'HTTP_X_FORWARDED',     'HTTP_FORWARDED',   );    return $headers; }

If your proxy does not use static IP addresses, you can still utilize the rsa_trusted_headers filter to change which HTTP headers you want to trust.

In 6.2.0, the behavior in a multisite install changed from allowing any logged-in user to see a site to checking their role for that specific site. This is a safer default given the varying ways multisite is used; however, if you would prefer to rely on the previous behavior rather than explicitly adding users to each site, place the following PHP code in the theme’s functions.php file or in a simple plug-in:

add_filter( 'restricted_site_access_user_can_access', 'my_rsa_user_can_access' );  function my_rsa_user_can_access( $access ) {     if ( is_user_logged_in() ) {         return true;     }      return $access; }

As of version 7.0.0, CLI integration has been added. To see the available commands, type the following in your WordPress directory:

$ wp rsa

In 7.0.0, the capacity to define a pipe delimited array of whitelisted IP addresses via constant was introduced.

In your wp-config.php file, you can define the following:

define( 'RSA_IP_WHITELIST', '192.0.0.1|192.0.0.10' );

In 7.1.1, the capacity to programmatically add / remove / set access IPs programmatically was introduced.

The following are valid statements:

Set IPs, ignoring all stored values (but not the constant defined values), if you’re going to use the approach with array indices rather than mixing the two.

Restricted_Site_Access::set_ips( array( '192.168.0.1', '192.168.0.2', '192.168.0.3' ) ); Restricted_Site_Access::set_ips( array( 'labelfoo' => '192.168.0.1', 'labelbar' => 192.168.0.2', 'labelbaz' => 192.168.0.3' ) );

Add IPs, if they’re not already added.

Restricted_Site_Access::append_ips( array( '192.168.1.5' => 'five', '192.168.1.6' => 'six' ) );

Remove IPs, if they are in the list.

Restricted_Site_Access::remove_ips( array( '192.168.1.2','192.168.1.5','192.168.1.6', ) );

As of version 7.1.0, two constants were introduced that give you the ability to specify if the site should be in restricted mode.

You can force the plugin to be in restricted mode by adding the following to your wp-config.php file:

define( 'RSA_FORCE_RESTRICTION', true );

Or to ensure your site won’t be in restricted mode:

define( 'RSA_FORBID_RESTRICTION', true );

Make sure you add it before the /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */ line.

Please note that setting RSA_FORCE_RESTRICTION will override RSA_FORBID_RESTRICTION if both are set.

add_filter( 'restricted_site_access_user_can_access', 'my_rsa_user_can_access' );  function my_rsa_user_can_access( $access ) {     if ( is_user_logged_in() ) {         return true;     }      return $access; }