Force Login

Description

Easily hide your WordPress site from public viewing by requiring visitors to log in first. As simple as flipping a switch.

Make your website private until it’s ready to share publicly, or keep it private for members only.

Features

  • WordPress Multisite compatible.
  • Login redirects visitors back to the url they tried to visit.
  • Extensive Developer API (hooks & filters).
  • Customizable. Set a specific URL to always redirect to on login.
  • Filter exceptions for certain pages or posts.
  • Restrict REST API to authenticated users.
  • Translation Ready & WPML certified.

Bug Reports

Bug reports for Force Login are welcomed on GitHub. Please note that GitHub is not a support forum.

Installation

Upload the Force Login plugin to your site, then Activate it.

1, 2: You’re done!

FAQ

1. How can I specify a redirect URL on login?

By default, the plugin sends visitors back to the URL they tried to access. However, you can redirect users to a specific URL by adding the built-in WordPress filter login_redirect to your functions.php file.

2. How can I add exceptions for certain pages or posts?

You can bypass Force Login based on any condition or specify an array of URLs to allow by adding the following filter to your functions.php file.

You may also use the WordPress Conditional Tags.

/**
 * Bypass Force Login to allow for exceptions.
 *
 * @param bool $bypass Whether to disable Force Login. Default false.
 * @param string $visited_url The visited URL.
 * @return bool
 */
function my_forcelogin_bypass( $bypass, $visited_url ) {
  // Allow all single posts
  if ( is_single() ) {
    $bypass = true;
  }

  // Allow these absolute URLs
  $allowed = array(
    home_url( '/mypage/' ),
    home_url( '/2015/03/post-title/' ),
  );
  if ( ! $bypass ) {
    $bypass = in_array( $visited_url, $allowed );
  }

  return $bypass;
}
add_filter( 'v_forcelogin_bypass', 'my_forcelogin_bypass', 10, 2 );

Checkout the Force Login Wiki on GitHub for additional examples of some different methods for allowing dynamic URLs.

3. How do I hide the “← Back to {sitename}” link?

The WordPress login screen includes a “← Back to {sitename}” link below the login form; which may not actually take you back to the site while Force Login is activated. You can hide this link by adding the following action to your functions.php file.

Requires: WordPress 2.5 or higher

// Hide the 'Back to {sitename}' link on the login screen.
function my_forcelogin_hide_backtoblog() {
  echo '<style type="text/css">#backtoblog{display:none;}</style>';
}
add_action( 'login_enqueue_scripts', 'my_forcelogin_hide_backtoblog' );

Reviews

January 7, 2021
Force Login worked like it should. I had an issue with a Social login plugin and Kevin sent me a line of code to address it ( actually a choice of 2 ) check him out! This dude is busy, so hang tight if he doesn't get back to you right away. Thank you Kevin!
December 19, 2020
It's only logical to give admins an option to allow users access to the registration page, when creating a force login plugin (please remember this in your next update) Tried switching themes, deactivated plugins nothing worked Keeps redirecting to login page when user tries to register
July 15, 2020
The plugin works very well to require everyone to login before entering the site. Exactly what I was looking for. I had a little problem with my theme using custom registration urls, but the plugin's author helped me out. Very impressed with both the author and the plugin. Recommended!
June 4, 2020
Finally a private blog plugin that actually works! Tested on multisite.
Read all 79 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Force Login” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Force Login” has been translated into 12 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Force Login” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

5.6.2

  • Fix – Fixed issue for sites with a custom login URL.

5.6.1

  • Fix – Fixed too many redirects issue for Multisite users.

5.6

  • Feature – Added filter for Multisite unauthorized error message.
  • Tweak – Allow logged-in Multisite users to access bypassed pages of other sites.

5.5

  • Tweak – Deprecated whitelist filter, use v_forcelogin_bypass instead.

5.4

  • Tweak – Improved the visited $url variable.
  • Tweak – Changed code to comply with WordPress standards – props Alex Bordei.

5.3

  • Feature – Added nocache_headers() to prevent caching for the different browsers – props Chris Harmoney.
  • Tweak – Removed $url parameter from whitelist filter.

5.2

  • Feature – Added $url parameter to bypass and whitelist filters.
  • Tweak – Updated Multisite conditionals which determine user access to sites.
  • Tweak – Moved ‘v_forcelogin_redirect’ filter to improve performance.

5.1.1

  • Fix – Improved the REST API restriction to allow alternative modes of authentication.

5.1

  • Tweak – Restrict access to the REST API for authorized users only – props Andrew Duthie.
  • Tweak – Added load_plugin_textdomain() to properly prepare for localization at translate.wordpress.org.

5.0

  • Feature – Added filter to bypass Force Login redirect for allowing pages without specifying a URL.
  • Tweak – Changed the hook for Force Login to run at a later stage in the WordPress tree.
  • Fix – Replaced deprecated function – props Just-Johnny.

4.2

  • Tweak – Made plugin translation ready.

4.1

  • Fix – Multisite ‘Super Admin’ users do not need assigned sites to access the network.

4.0

  • Feature – Added exceptions for AJAX, Cron and WP-CLI requests.
  • Fix – Only allow Multisite users access to their assigned sites.

3.3

  • Fix – Check for existence of explicit port number before appending port – props Björn Ali Göransson.

3.2

  • Tweak – Removed v_getUrl() function to reduce possible duplicates of global functions – props Joachim Happel.

3.1

  • Fix – Rewrote v_getUrl() function to use HTTP_HOST instead of SERVER_NAME – props Arlen22.

3.0

  • Feature – Added filter for the redirect URL on login.
  • Feature – Added filter to allow whitelisting of additional URLs.

2.1

  • Fix – Rewrote v_getUrl function to include the server port – props Nicolas.

2.0

  • Feature – Added redirect to send visitors back to the URL they tried to visit before logging in.

1.3

  • Fix – Fixed password reset URL from being blocked – props estebillan.

1.2

  • Tweak – Streamlined code

1.1

  • Fix – Allow access to the registration and the lost password page URLs – props jabdo.