Adds action links to user table to approve or unapprove user registrations.
As of April 2026, WP Approve User is a WordPress user plugin with 3.0K+ active installations and a 4.2/5 rating from 41 reviews. It has been downloaded 104K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 4.3+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2012. Last updated 2 years ago — may have compatibility concerns. Downloads are down 11% this week. Top alternative: User Role Editor.
This plugin lets you approve or reject user registrations.
While a user is unapproved, they can’t access the WordPress Admin.
On activation of the plugin, all existing users will automatically be flagged Approved. The site admin will never experience restricted access and does not need approval.
This plugin is probably not compatible with WooCommerce.
I will be more than happy to update the plugin with new locales, as soon as I receive them!
Currently available in:
wpau_approve (int)
User-ID of approved user.
wpau_unapprove (int)
User-ID of unapproved user.
wpau_default_options (array)
Default options.
wpau_update_message_handler (string)
Allows to return custom update messages.
wpau_mess…
For a free plugin, this is quite powerful. Would be nice to be able to add the users full name (i.e. first and last name) in the approval email (rather than just the username), but the ability to edit the email the template (or turn off emails) puts it head and shoulders above the competition.
We are looking for a way to minimise the amount of emails which we send out to dead addresses (often Gmail) via fake bbPress signups to our forum. The first step is user approval.
Konstantin’s plugin is simple and focused, with straightforward settings in a settings panel. There’s no top level left column item (frankly any plugin which wants to put its settings in the main left window should require approval from the plugin moderation team, if in the plugin directory, the left top-level menu is now hopelessly cluttered on most WordPress sites). The main interface are simple text additions to the existing user table Approve | Unapprove.
Frankly user approval should be built into WordPress. But until it is, thank heavens for simple solutions. No adware, no pro version, no bloatware frills, native interface.
I like the idea of a previous reviewer to allow unapproved users to be kept in the database to prevent additional signups with the same address. We’d also like an improved workflow where no email goes out to users until admin approval, at which point the signup email would arrive.
What would happen to a new user is that s/he would be auto-logged in at the time of signup with very limited privileges until approved or unapproved but no email would be sent without approval. This would allow simple comments to be left on a weblog post or bbPress without sending out emails to dead addresses (and damaging sender reputation).
We can add these features fairly easily ourselves, but it would be great to see them in the core functionality of WP Approve User.
Thank you Konstantin for your hard work on WP Approve User and for making it free.
this plugin does what it says simple. glad i found it. one thing would make this plugin so so so much better. The possibility to add a list of email domains for auto approval. For instance i want everyone from a particular company to register and bypass the plugin. That would be golden. If possible i would be happy to hack the plugin and incoperate if you like. But as it is your plugin i would prefer you did it.
I like this plugin so useful and easy to user, Good job to the developer on this plugin
I’m very happy with this plugin. It’s simple and it works as expected.
| WordPress | 4.3+ requiredTested up to 6.4.8 |
| PHP | false+ required |
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