Limit a board to specific user roles

This page shows you how to limit a private board to one or more WordPress user roles. For example, you can let only Editors and Administrators see a board, and hide it from Subscribers and Customers. Use this when you want a board to be visible to staff only, or to one specific group of customers.

Before you start

• SimpleBoards Pro is active and your license is in the Active state.
• The board you want to limit already exists.
• You know which user roles you want to allow. If you are not sure which roles exist on your site, go to Users > All Users and look at the Role column.

Step by step

1. In your WordPress admin, go to SimpleBoards > Boards.
2. Click the title of the board you want to limit. The board edit screen opens on the General tab.
3. Scroll down to the row labeled Visibility.
4. Tick the checkbox next to Make this board private.
5. A new row appears below, labeled Allowed roles. It shows a list of all user roles on your site.
6. Click the role you want to allow. To allow more than one, hold the Ctrl key (Windows) or the Cmd key (Mac) and click each role you want to add.
7. Click the Update button at the bottom of the page.

What changed

The board now uses two rules together:

• Visitors who are not logged in see the private notice and cannot read the board.
• Logged-in users see the board only if their role is in the Allowed roles list. Users in other roles see the private notice too, even though they are logged in.

Administrators always see private boards, even if their role is not in the list. This is so you cannot lock yourself out of your own site by mistake.

If you later clear all roles from the Allowed roles list and save, the board returns to the "any logged-in user" behavior described in Limit a board to logged-in users only.

A common setup

Many sites use Allowed roles to run a private customer board. The recipe:

1. Install a membership or e-commerce plugin that assigns a custom role to paying customers, for example customer or member.
2. Make the board private.
3. In Allowed roles, pick that customer role and any staff roles you want, such as Administrator and Editor.

Only paying customers and your staff can now reach the board.

See also

• Limit a board to logged-in users only
• Hide a single item from the public board
• Private boards and item visibility

Last updated

2026-05-23 · SimpleBoards Pro 1.0.1