WPThumbs
Themes Plugins By purpose By industry Best-of lists Fix it guides
Free Plugin by KeystrokeClick v2.1.6

Protect Admin

Protect admin accounts from being deleted or modified by other users. This plugin will always be hidden from all users other than the admin who instal …

Protect Admin

The facts

Rating
5★ from 5
Active installs
2k+
Price
Free
Last updated
3 Mar 2026
Added
Jan 2020
Requires WP
4.7
Tested up to
WP 6.9.7
Requires PHP
5.3
Downloads
29,954

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Protect Admin is a WordPress plugin designed to safeguard selected admin accounts from being edited or deleted by other users. Once activated, it allows the user who installed it to choose which admin accounts to protect, ensuring that only those accounts can be modified by the administrator. The plugin operates silently, hidden from all other users except the one who activated it.

This plugin is particularly useful for situations where multiple administrators share access, such as in IT teams or development environments. It helps prevent accidental changes to critical admin accounts, logging any attempts to modify protected accounts for review. However, it does not prevent file editing, which users may need to manage separately.

Best for: This plugin suits WordPress administrators who need to protect specific admin accounts from changes by other users.

What it does well

  • Protects selected admin accounts from deletion or editing
  • Only visible to the activating user
  • Logs modification attempts for review
  • Email notifications available in PRO version

Where it falls short

  • Not tested with other user management plugins
  • Deactivation reveals the plugin to all users with plugin management capabilities

Verdict

Protect Admin provides a straightforward solution for securing admin accounts, though its compatibility with other plugins is uncertain. It is a practical choice for teams needing to manage admin access carefully.

From the developer

KeystrokeClick's own description of Protect Admin, lightly tidied.

This plugin protects selected WP Admin accounts, and standard posts created by those Admins, from being deleted or edited by other users. This plugin is hidden from all users other than the Admin who installs it. Only users with the “Administrator” role can be protected.

This plugin might be useful if you want to share admin access with other users (i.e. IT team, developers, etc) but don’t want to risk impacting the accounts of certain Admins. Or, perhaps you’re the developer or IT member who might need this plugin to prevent other non-technical Admins from accidentally deleting your account or key Admins on specific projects.

How It Works

  • As soon as the plugin is activated, it will store the ID of the user that activates the plugin. The plugin will then be hidden from all users other than this user.

  • You can choose which Admin accounts (yours or others) to protect. Only the Admin who activates the plugin can save its settings. Other users won’t see the Settings page or the menu.

  • Once protected admin accounts are selected on the Settings page, other users and admins will NOT be able to:

    • delete the protected Admin accounts.
    • access the profile edit page for the protected Admin accounts.
    • change the role of the protected Admin accounts.
    • select the protected Admin accounts in the bulk actions on users list page.

    Additionally, if other users or Admins, under unlikely circumstances, are able to access the user profile page of the protected Admin accounts using other plugins, this plugin will prevent any modifications from being saved.

    Similar to the above, if other users or Admins are able to change the protected Admin account’s email address via the Profile page, this plugin will revert it back to the original email address.

    Also, should someone attempt to edit a protected Admin’s account, the attempted action will be logged to the database. You can view recent attempts under Logs within the plugin’s section.

    Important Reminder

    Once you deactivate the plugin, all users with the ability to manage plugins (activate_plugins capability) will be able to see the plugin. It is advised to only deactivate the plugin when you feel safe to do so. Otherwise you can just enable or disable protection from the plugin’s Settings page.

    If you want to be extra cautious (depending on your needs), you should also manually disallow file edit. This plugin doesn’t do that because some people might still need it.

    define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true );
    

    This plugin has NOT been tested with other user management plugins or role editor plugins. Hence its use alongside these types of plugins is not guaranteed to work as intended.

    Email Notification

    You can choose to get notified by email when someone attempts to modify your protected Admin accounts. Easily enable or disable email notification when you upgrade to Protect Admin PRO.

    Protect Admin PRO

    • Be the first to know when someone is attempting to modify your protected admin accounts.
    • Get access to all logs and data of users who try to modify the protected admin accounts (the FREE version only records the most recent attempt).
    • Protect standard posts and pages made directly by protected Admins.
    • See more.

    Read the full description on the official page →

Tagged as

Alternatives

Other plugins for managing users.

Members

Members

94

The best WordPress membership and user role editor plugin. User Roles & Capabilities editor helps you rest...

Free 300k+ installs 4.9★ (1,274)
User Role Editor

User Role Editor WordPress plugin makes user roles and capabilities changing easy. Edit/add/delete WordPress u...

Free 700k+ installs 4.5★ (288)
LoginPress

LoginPress is a Custom Login Page Customizer plugin allows you to easily customize the layout of login, admin...

Free 200k+ installs 4.8★ (1,075)
User Registration & Membership

Build membership sites with tiered plans, content restriction, drag-&-drop custom registration & login...

Free 50k+ installs 4.8★ (828)
Custom Login Page Customizer

Customize your WordPress login page with live preview. Change logo, background, colors, and form styling witho...

Free 50k+ installs 4.9★ (474)
User Profile Builder

Powerful user profile plugin to create front-end user registration forms, login & user profile forms. Incl...

Free 40k+ installs 4.7★ (735)