WP-Orphanage Extended
Plugin to promote users with no roles set (the orphans) to the role from other blog where they registered or to default if any found.
The facts
- Rating
- 5★ from 5
- Active installs
- 100+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 5 Apr 2026
- Added
- Jan 2012
- Requires WP
- 4.9
- Tested up to
- WP 6.9.7
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
- Downloads
- 8,298
Our analysis
AI-assistedWP-Orphanage Extended is a WordPress plugin designed to manage orphan users—those without assigned roles or capabilities—across multiple WordPress installations. It automatically promotes these users to a specified role when they attempt to log in to a different blog in the network or when an admin views the users page. This ensures that users have the necessary privileges without adding overhead to your site.
This plugin is suitable for network administrators who manage multiple WordPress sites and want to streamline user management. It simplifies the experience for users who register on one blog but need access to others in the network.
Best for: Network administrators managing multiple WordPress sites.
What it does well
- ✓Automatically promotes orphan users to a chosen role
- ✓Promotions occur at login or when admins view user pages
- ✓No noticeable overhead on WordPress blogs
- ✓Free to use from the WordPress.org directory
Where it falls short
- •Limited information on additional features or customisation options
Verdict
WP-Orphanage Extended offers a straightforward solution for handling orphan users in a WordPress network. It effectively promotes user roles without complicating the user experience.
From the developer
meloniq's own description of WP-Orphanage Extended, lightly tidied.
Users who have not been assigned any Roles or Capabilities are called ‘orphans’.
When using the shared users table trick to link up multiple WordPress installations, users who register on one of your blogs, are not given any privileges on the other blogs in the network.
WP-Orphanage is a plugin that automatically adopts your orphan users by promoting them to the role of your choosing.
By default it is the same as the default role set in the WP Options.
It does it in two ways:
- Users who try to login to a different blog in the network than the one they signed up on, will be promoted at the time of login. The user won’t even know that it happened.
- When the admin logs into the blog and views the users page, all orphan users – for that blog – are promoted automatically.
By taking a just in time approach, this plugin will not add any noticeable overhead to your WordPress blogs, while providing a seamless experience for the users and administrators.
This plugin is a extended version of WP-Orphanage plugin written by Eric Marden