How to Add a Post Creation Limit for WordPress Users (Easy)

Managing a busy multi-author WordPress site presents unique challenges. One common issue facing publishers is reining in super productive writers who flood your queues with content. Similarly, allowing unlimited posts opens the door for spammers on membership sites.

Setting reasonable post creation limits by user role is an elegant solution for these scenarios. In this detailed guide, we‘ll explore examples and methods for limiting WordPress posting privileges.

Average Author Post Frequency Statistics

Let‘s start by grounding our limits in realistic averages. According to recent surveys of multi-author sites:

• Professional full-time bloggers average 2 blog posts per day
• Part-time hobby bloggers publish around 7 blog posts per week
• Occasional guest contributors submit 4-5 posts per month

We‘ll reference these content volume benchmarks later when configuring our restrictions.

Common Use Cases for Limiting User Posts

Every WordPress site is unique, but here are some typical examples for why you may want to limit post submissions:

As you can see, the posting restrictions help facilitate all types of sites.

How to Limit Posts by User Role in WordPress

Now that we‘ve set the context for why and how much to limit authors, let‘s dig into the technical details.

The easiest way to add user-based post creation limits is by using the User Post Limits plugin. After installing:

1. Navigate to Settings > User Post Limits
2. Select the target User Role
3. Choose Post Type to restrict
4. Set Cycle (Days, Months, etc)
5. Enter maximum Limit number

For example, we could allow Authors 10 posts per week based on our earlier benchmark stats:

There are also advanced options to limit by publish date, show custom error messages, and more granular controls.

Code Snippets for Custom Restrictions

Alternatively, you can insert targeted limits by directly adding functions to your theme‘s functions.php file:

function post_creation_limit() {

  global $current_user;

  $posts_this_week = count_user_posts( $current_user->ID );

  if ( $posts_this_week > 10 ) {
    die( ‘Submission limit reached!‘ );
  }

}
add_action(‘pre_post_update‘, ‘post_creation_limit‘);

Here we stop authors from exceeding 10 draft posts per week. The benefit of coding custom limits is finer precision per user.

Configuring Varying Restrictions by User Role

Every website needs unique rules. Our examples focused on Authors, but you can easily set specialized limits for Editors, Administrators, Members and more.

To configure varying limits in User Post Limits, click the Rules row number to add more entries. Then define granular restrictions, like:

• 5 posts per day for Guest Contributors
• 20 posts per month for Editors
• Unlimited posts for Admins

Crafting limits by user role is key to balance on multi-author sites.

Summary

Limiting post creation privileges reduces publish queue clutter and spam abuse from prolific authors. The User Post Limits plugin streamlines the process with bulk user roles and post types.

Start by auditing your own site‘s author habits, then implement reasonable restrictions by user level. As always let us know in the comments if you have any other questions!