WordPress Admin Approval based on User Role with Profile Builder

Admin Approval for new users is one of those must have features for every website that allows user registration. Sometimes, deciding who gets to be a user on your website is a good way to keep your user base clean and fight user registration spam.

Taking it further, there are times when you need to approve only certain types of users (user roles) and allow the rest to register without any approval. It’s when admin approval based on user role comes into play.

When to use Admin Approval based on User Role?

A common scenario is when you need to allow registration of two distinct types of users, let’s say Consumers and Service Providers. Each user group should have a unique role, profile type and a separate registration page with different fields.

Note: Custom user roles can easily be created using the Roles Editor module from Profile Builder.

Setting up multiple registration forms with different user fields and also making sure users who register through different forms will get different roles assigned is something we already discussed in this tutorial.
The Multiple Registration Forms module for Profile Builder was designed with this scenario in mind.

The next step would be to figure out how to set up Admin Approval based on User Role, so that only Service Providers need to be approved by an administrator. Consumers should skip approval upon registration.

Setting up Admin Approval based on User Role with Profile Builder

Profile Builder allows you to enable admin approval per user role.

After installing the plugin, simply navigate to the “General Settings” tab and activate Admin Approval. Once active, you’ll be able to select the user roles which will require admin approval upon registration. In our case, Service Providers.

Click “Save Changes” and you’re done.

Service Providers will now need to have their account approved by an administrator. All users requiring admin approval will be listed under the “Admin Approval” page (Users > All Users > Admin Approval) from where they can easily be approved/unnaproved by an admin.

Note: For creating custom user roles tied to a subscription plan and even accepting paid accounts, you can use Paid Member Subscriptions. It’s free and fully compatible with Profile Builder.

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