2026年11月14日

How to Set Up the User Registration Plugin: Forms, Approval, Emails

Plugins

This article is a localized edition of the Japanese original. Read the Japanese original

User Registration is a plugin for building WordPress registration forms with any fields you like. As of November 2026 it is distributed as "User Registration & Membership" (slug user-registration, version 5.3 series) and now also includes paid memberships and content restriction.

This article covers the basic setup, from creating a registration form to publishing it. The setting names were checked against the plugin's source code (5.3.2), and the English names are given to match screens shown in English.

Enable registration in WordPress

To register through this plugin's forms, WordPress's own user registration must be enabled. If it is disabled, submitting the form gives the error "Registration is currently disabled." and no account is created.

In the admin, open Settings → General.
Under "Membership", check "Anyone can register" and save.

"New User Default Role" is the value used by the standard WordPress registration screen. The role of users who register through the plugin's form is set in each form's settings (User Role After Registration, described below).

Installation

Go to Plugins → Add New Plugin, search for "User Registration", then install and activate "User Registration & Membership". With WP-CLI:

wp plugin install user-registration --activate

After activation, a "User Registration & Membership" menu is added to the admin.

Create the registration form

Open "User Registration & Membership" → "Registration Form" ("Registration Forms" when there are several forms), and edit an existing form or add a new one. On the form edit screen, drag fields from the list on the left to arrange them.

Keep the fields needed to create an account, such as username, email address and password. Too many fields make more people give up partway through registration, so start with the minimum.

Form settings

In the form edit screen's settings (Form Settings), decide what happens after registration. The main settings are:

Setting	Default	Meaning
User Approval And Login Option	Auto approval and manual login	How users are approved and logged in after registering (see the next table)
User Role After Registration	Subscriber	The role given to registered users
Redirect After Registration	—	Where to go after registering (a page or URL)
Require Strong Password	Off	Require a strong password
Minimum Password Strength	3	The strength required when it is mandatory

Leave User Role After Registration as Subscriber. If you give a role that can change posts or the site, such as Editor or Administrator, anyone can create an account with that power.

Approval and login options

User Approval And Login Option sets when registered users are able to log in.

Option	Behavior
Auto approval and manual login	Approved on registration. Users log in themselves
Auto approval and auto login	Approved on registration and logged in right away
Admin approval	Users cannot log in until an administrator approves them
Auto approval after email confirmation	Approved when the user clicks the confirmation link in the email

On a public site where anyone can register, choosing email confirmation (Auto approval after email confirmation) or administrator approval (Admin approval) cuts down on bot registrations and is easier to manage.

With administrator approval, users awaiting approval who try to log in see "Your account is still pending approval." To approve them, go to the list under "User Registration & Membership" → "Users" ("Members" if you use the membership features) and change the user's status to Approved.

Add the form to a page

Place the form on a page with a shortcode or a block. The "Shortcode" column of the form list shows the shortcode for each form, so copy it from there.

[user_registration_form id="123"]

Replace 123 with the real form ID. In the block editor, paste it into a Shortcode block or use the blocks the plugin adds.

There are also shortcodes for login and account management.

Shortcode	What it shows
`[user_registration_login]`	A login form
`[user_registration_my_account]`	The logged-in user's account page (a login form if not logged in)
`[user_registration_edit_profile]`	A profile edit form
`[user_registration_edit_password]`	A password change form

For the account page, create a page and put [user_registration_my_account] on it (if the plugin's initial setup already created a "My Account" page, use that). Adding links to it and to the registration form page in your site menu makes it easier for members to log in and change their profiles.

Set up email notifications

Configure the emails to send under "User Registration & Membership" → "Settings" → "Emails".

General: the sender name ("From" name) and address ("From" address), stopping all emails (Disable emails), and sending a test email (Send Test Email)
To Admin: emails sent to administrators (such as new registration notices)
To User: emails sent to users (registration complete, email address confirmation, awaiting approval and so on)

Which user emails are used depends on the approval and login option. For example, with email confirmation "Email Address Confirmation" is sent, and with administrator approval "Awaiting Admin Approval" is sent. You can use Smart Tags in the body to insert values such as the username (see the list via "Smart Tags Reference" on each email's screen).

When you finish, send yourself a test email with Send Test Email and check that it arrives. If it does not, review the site's email sending setup (SMTP and so on).

Check that it works

Open the registration form page in a private browser window and register with a test email address.
Check that it behaves as the chosen option should (a confirmation email arrives, the account waits for approval and so on).
Under Users in the admin, confirm that the registered user's role is Subscriber.
When you are done, delete the test user.

Cautions

A site with registration enabled gets bot registrations. Use email confirmation or administrator approval, and consider adding a CAPTCHA to the form (the Captcha settings under "Settings") if needed.
State the purpose and handling of personal information collected by the registration form in your privacy policy.
Paid memberships, payments and content restriction belong to this plugin's membership features or the paid version. If you use them, set up and test payments separately.

Summary

Unless "Anyone can register" is enabled under Settings → General in WordPress, nobody can register through the plugin's form either.
In the form settings, choose the approval and login option and the role after registration (Subscriber).
Place the form on a page with [user_registration_form id="…"]; use [user_registration_login] for login and [user_registration_my_account] for the account page.
Configure emails under "Settings" → "Emails" and confirm with a test email that they arrive.

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