How to Add a New User in WordPress

Whether you’re bringing on a new team member, giving a client access to review content, or adding a guest contributor, you’ll need to create individual WordPress accounts rather than sharing login credentials.

Sharing passwords is bad for security. Period. It is much better that you create a new account for each user of your site. If each user has just the rights they need, and every account has a good password, you’re better off than you are by sharing a secure password with everyone securely.

Why? Great question. It comes down to control and auditing. If you kick Sam out of the group, you can just disable his account. If Jenna goes rogue and tries to ruin your site, with her own login you can tell it was her. Both of those are useful features, and you simply don’t get them with a shared login.

That’s why you should make individual accounts for every user on your WordPress site. Here’s how you create a new WordPress account.

How to create a new user account in WordPress

1. Go to Users > Add User in the left menu on your WordPress site.
2. Enter the username and email address for the new account
3. If you need/want, set a password. If you’re not sure, don’t.
4. Choose the role that the user account needs. Based on the principle of least access, it’s essential that you give that user a role that has just the capabilities they need and no more. Here’s our longer article on that topic. You also might find this page in the WordPress Codex helpful.
5. Click the Add User button.

If everything is configured correctly, the user will get an email inviting them to log in to their new account.