The term user describes anyone who interacts with your website who may need to edit or create content, post comments or purchase products.
Each user is granted permissions based on the role they have been assigned.
User Roles
WordPress allows you to create several user roles that grant access to your website to make specific changes.
The five common user roles are as follows:
Administrator
This is the highest level user and grants access to the complete WordPress feature set allowing you to managing content, update plugins and control all aspects of your website.
Editor
The editor role allows content creation of pages and posts and is suited for general users who wish to update their website.
Author
The author role has similar features to the editor, but is only granted permission to edit their own content.
Contributor
The contributor role is a more reduced version of the author and is allowed to write and edit existing posts but cannot publish any content unless it has been approved by one of the higher levels.
Subscriber
The subscriber is the lower user role and only has limited permissions. These roles are typically useful for users who wish to make comments on posts and those who follow your content.
WooCommerce Users
If you have an ecommerce website you will have two additional roles; the shop manager and customer.
Shop Manager
The shop manager role allows access to the website to make content changes and can add or edit products, customer details and general shop settings.
Customers
The customer role allows users to create an account to purchase products from your website. This account can then be used to track their orders and amend their personal account details.
