How to Restrict Usernames and User Emails in WordPress

Have you ever looked for ways to prevent users from using specific usernames on your WordPress website?

If you can register on your WordPress website for the general audience, it’ll help you catch regular potential visitors to your website. Also, having a way to register on your website helps achieve the sustainable goal of your website. 

Suppose you allow people to register for your website. In that case, there is some risk that people might register usernames that include foul language, trademark words, official-sounding names, false names, or have other issues.

This article will guide you on how to restrict usernames and user email in WordPress.

Why Restrict Usernames in WordPress?

If you want to run a WordPress membership or community website, you’ll need to allow user registrations. During the registration process, new users can choose any username and email when they sign up.

Users can choose a username similar to the admins, authors, moderators, and support staff. They could even pretend to be a member of your team, which could be a security risk to your entire website. That is not recommended at all. 

Sometimes, users could also use offensive words, inappropriate words, or trademark words when registering an account on your WordPress website.

That’s why it’s best to restrict usernames and email addresses in WordPress subscription forms. It prevents foul language and helps keep high standards in your forums and communities.

Okay, let’s see how you can limit usernames in WordPress.

Restricting Usernames in WordPress

We’re going to know the best way to prevent the use of specific words and phrases in usernames is by using the Restrict Usernames Emails Characters plugin.

Restrict Usernames Emails Characters plugin is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to restrict specific usernames, email addresses, symbols, domain names, and more. The interesting fact about this plugin is it offers an option to allow the use of a specific language, like Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, or any language.

Installing Restrict Usernames Emails Characters plugin

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Restrict Usernames Emails Characters plugin. Installing the plugin is just like the same process as installing other plugins. To install  Restrict Usernames Emails Characters plugin, you may follow these steps. 

You need to go to your WordPress dashboard and Plugins > Add New to install the plugin. 

Now type  Restrict Usernames Emails Characters plugin into the search bar. Then find the plugin, click on Install Now to install it, and activate it. 

Restrict specific usernames to use

After the activation, you need to go to Settings » Restrict Usernames Emails Characters from your WordPress dashboard. Now ensure that the plugin is enabled; it is under the ‘General Settings‘ tab.

After enabling the plugin, you can easily set some specific words you don’t allow the users to use. To do this, you need to scroll down to the ‘Not allow these names’ section in the plugin and type words or phrases to restrict their username use.

The plugin also has a unique ‘make lowercase equal uppercase’ feature. It will be enabled by default, but if you want to disable it, you can disable it from the dropdown menu.

Restrict specific User Emails to use

Sometimes you have to restrict some email address that is not recommended to use by the users during the subscriptions. 

You can also prevent the use of specific email addresses. It is just like the similar process of restricting usernames.

To set this, look Under the ‘Not allow these emails’ section and enter the email addresses that you don’t allow to users can’t use when registering. It will help filter out spam emails and fake emails, and users will have to use their actual email addresses.

Special Settings

Let’s talk about some extra features of this plugin. The plugin has more optional settings to customize the restrictions on usernames and email addresses.

For instance, you can prevent using specific email domains, restrict usernames containing specific words, avoid using characters and symbols that WordPress allows, and allow special characters.

The plugin also comes with special options to limit the use of spaces in usernames, won’t allow users only to use numbers in the username, prevent uppercase usernames, and more.

Now you’ve to save all the changes. And to do that, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you’re done.

Set An Error Message

Ah, there is an extra feature for you in this plugin; you can set an error message for your subscribers. To set an error message, go to the ‘Error Message’ tab in the plugin.

There are already pre-written error messages for different situations by default in this plugin. However, you can customize any error message under this section.

If someone attempts to use a restricted username and email address when registering for your website, it’ll show an error message to the user, and they will have to choose another username and email.

Let’s look at what it seems like on our demo website when we tried to register using a restricted username and email address.

Conclusion

Sometimes, it’s essential to restrict usernames and user emails in WordPress due to unexpected hassle. You maybe feel insecure when someone tries to use a similar username or email address as your official username or email address. 

To prevent all these problems, the best solution is to restrict usernames and user email on the WordPress website. I tried to show you how to do this in this article with the Restrict Usernames Emails Characters plugin.

It’s a useful plugin that doesn’t cost you a single penny. Isn’t it so fantastic? Besides, this plugin comes with some unique and smart features that allow you to restrict username, email, characters, etc. 

Overall, this plugin is a package of a bunch that makes your wish to restrict usernames and user emails in WordPress more effortless and smooth. 

Hopefully, this blog will be helpful for you. If you’ve any queries, please let us know in the comment section below. We’ll love to answer back to you. 

You may follow this blog: How To Create Restricted Content Page Using Elementor.

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