A user role determines what a specific person can do on your WordPress site — whether they can publish posts, manage plugins, or only leave comments as a subscriber.
WordPress includes several built-in roles by default: Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber, each with a progressively narrower set of permissions.
Choosing the Right Role
A common mistake is giving everyone Administrator access for convenience. It’s usually better to assign the lowest role that still lets someone do their job — a guest writer typically only needs Contributor or Author access, not full admin control.
Custom Roles
Beyond the defaults, plugins can create entirely custom roles suited to specific needs — a “Shop Manager” role for an online store, or a “Moderator” role for a community site, each with permissions tailored to that particular job.