84
PublishPress Capabilities – User Role Editor, Access Permissions, User Capabilities, Admin Menus
Granular role control that hides its best menu tricks behind a paywall.
HealthyGrowing
84/100
The plugin provides excellent permission control and support despite some misleading title claims.
Active installs
~150,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 100k+
Rating
4.7★
142 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+60%
Growing fast
639 → 1,023 installs/day
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Growing fast · +60% in the last year
639/day a year ago→1,023/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayPublishPress Capabilities is well-regarded as a flexible and powerful user role and permissions manager, with consistently praised support, though the free version's advertised features — notably admin menu hiding — can mislead users into thinking they're fully available without a paid upgrade.
What people like
- +Highly flexible and granular control over user roles, capabilities, and permissions×6
- +Support team is consistently described as patient, responsive, and competent×5
- +Reduces the need for additional plugins by consolidating role and permission management×3
- +Built-in user switching/testing feature simplifies diagnosing permission issues
- +Works well for complex, custom user role structures over long-term use×2
- +Comprehensive and easy-to-understand online documentation
Common complaints
- −Admin menu hiding is a Pro-only feature but is listed in the free plugin's title/description, which users find misleading
- −Full customization can become complex quickly, sometimes requiring support intervention
- −Key advanced features (e.g., permission groups, full menu control) require a paid Pro license×2
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.74★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.70★
- 4%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-08-192025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 142 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-01-12★★★★★Excellent support and full customizationshandonc
- 2025-11-13★★★★★working wellpanduka
- 2025-10-08★★★★★Great!DolbyPR
- 2025-09-18★★★★★Keep up the good work!ulcra
- 2025-09-04★★★★★Super flexible permissions systemvaclavek
- 2025-07-25★★★★★Great pluginnaresh11381
- 2025-06-24★★★★★Really helpful plugin with great supportFilip Krejcik
- 2025-05-21★★★★★Just what I needed. Thanks a million!sosa7181-shot
- 2025-05-19★★★★★Easy to use and useful pluginwocmultimedia
- 2025-05-09★★★★★Usefuldidier59450
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNFor developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
760
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
1,000
Prior 7-day baseline
813
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
6,678
Mean release-day peak (30d)
1,640
Latest day · 2026-06-03(tail)
-24.0%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
10%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
0.92
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
91%
5★ share in analyzed sample
4%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
-83%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.76 → 4.74★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered