Grade C

Nav Menu Roles

Name: Nav Menu Roles
Rating: 5.0 (218 reviews)
Author: HelgaTheViking

⤓ Download v2.1.3 on WordPress.org ↗

by HelgaTheVikingupdated 2026-03-26🌟The Rising Star

A tiny gatekeeper for your navigation bars.

Growing

77/100

This focused utility reliably hides menu items based on user roles.

Loved34/40

Trustworthy11/15

Fair & Honest15/15

Maintained15/18

Momentum12/12

Composite 87, adjusted to 77 (×0.88) for a low verified rating or signs of review manipulation.

✂️

You might not need this plugin. Its core job is small enough to live in your theme's functions.php.

Show the snippet

add_filter( 'wp_nav_menu_objects', function( $items ) {
    foreach ( $items as $key => $item ) {
        $visibility = get_post_meta( $item->ID, '_nav_menu_role', true );

        if ( 'logged_in' === $visibility && ! is_user_logged_in() ) {
            unset( $items[ $key ] );
        } elseif ( 'logged_out' === $visibility && is_user_logged_in() ) {
            unset( $items[ $key ] );
        } elseif ( ! empty( $visibility ) && is_array( $visibility ) ) {
            // Role-specific: check if current user has any of the required roles.
            $user = wp_get_current_user();
            $allowed = array_intersect( $visibility, (array) $user->roles );
            if ( empty( $allowed ) ) {
                unset( $items[ $key ] );
            }
        }
    }
    return $items;
} );

Keep in mind:This snippet handles the core visibility logic but omits the admin UI checkboxes in the menu editor; you would set meta values manually or via a custom walker.

More plugins you can skip →

Active installs

~75,000

our estimate · wp.org shows 70k+

→ on track for 80k+in ~2 weeks

Rating

4.9★

218 ratings

Trend · vs a year ago

+285%

Growing fast

73 → 281 installs/day

What to watch out for

MAJORnear-100% 5★ in bursty pattern

Downloads over time

real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend

2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03

organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median

Growing fast · +285% in the last year

73/day a year ago→281/day today

Reviews

what people actually say

Nav Menu Roles is a well-regarded, focused plugin for controlling WordPress menu visibility by user role, consistently praised for reliability and ease of use, with no significant complaints surfacing across reviews.

What people like

+Reliable and works as expected for showing/hiding menu items by role×10
+Easy to set up and use with an intuitive interface×7
+Responsive and helpful support from the author×4
+Works well alongside third-party plugins and themes (e.g., membership plugins, Astra theme)×2
+Maintained and compatible with recent WordPress versions×2

Common complaints

−No built-in way to show the same menu item to both non-logged-in users and specific logged-in roles simultaneously

Review trustMostly organic

4.99★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.90★
3%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
past spikeReview timing — up to 33% of all reviews landed in a single month

Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower

2023-07-202025-01-102026-06-04

5★ reviews1–4★ reviews

All-time ratings · 218 total

5★

212

4★

3★

2★

1★

Latest reviews · 90 analyzed

2025-06-08★★★★★Super Duper marcusvernon
2025-06-08★★★★★Excellent, worked like a dream artvueuk1-shot
2025-02-01★★★★★I like good plugins rapidasia
2024-08-17★★★★★Exactly what I wanted Topher
2023-09-26★★★★★Easy to use, simply works!Constantin Boiangiu
2023-07-15★★★★★works well A Z
2023-01-26★★★★★Great plugin. Easy to use. Excellent, responsive support.oldcreakyknees
2022-10-13★★★★★Simple and usefull V.
2022-09-13★★★★★What a great little plugin SSmeredith
2022-08-29★★★★★Wonderful plugin canuhelpmepls

Releases

recent versions from WordPress.org SVN

2026-03-26v2.1.3
2026-02-20v2.1.2
2023-01-07v2.1.1
2022-06-22v2.1.0
2021-12-18v2.0.2
2021-03-18v2.0.1
2020-08-29v2.0.0
2020-07-06v1.10.2

For developers & the curious

the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary above

Download 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.

254

Baseline · median of last 7 organic days

268

Prior 7-day baseline

206

Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days

1,460

Mean release-day peak (30d)

280

Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)

-5.2%

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.

33%

Max month share · biggest single 30-day window

2.65

Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty

99%

5★ share in analyzed sample

Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity

—

Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo

4.99 → 4.99★

Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered