Description
SAA Admin Menu Controls gives you complete per-role control over the WordPress admin menu. Decide exactly which links each role can see — hide the clutter or show only the essentials — including menus added by third-party plugins like Elementor and WooCommerce.
Perfect for agencies and freelancers shipping sites to clients: each role gets a tailored admin menu while administrators keep the full toolkit.
Official Plugin Website | Documentation & Setup Guide
Administrators are always protected: the plugin never applies its effects to administrators unless they deliberately enter Preview Mode to see exactly what a role sees. A built-in safe-mode bypass (?saamc_safe=1) guarantees you can never lock yourself out.
Key features:
- Per-role admin menu control — independent rules for each role (Editor, Author, Contributor, Subscriber, plus any custom roles).
- Two menu modes — “Hide selected” (tick what to remove) or “Show only selected” (tick what to keep, hide everything else).
- Automatic menu detection — every registered admin menu appears as a tickable choice, including third-party plugin menus.
- Admin toolbar control — also hide admin bar nodes per role.
- Optional client dashboard — replace default widgets with a welcome panel (title, message, quick links, help box).
- Preview Mode — see the admin exactly as any role sees it, with a bright “Exit Preview Mode” button.
- Lockout-proof — administrators are never affected unless previewing, and
?saamc_safe=1instantly restores every menu. - Modern tabbed settings screen, no external dependencies, no build step, translation ready.
Screenshots
Installation
- Upload the
saa-admin-menu-controlsfolder to the/wp-content/plugins/directory, or install the plugin through the WordPress Plugins screen directly. - Activate the plugin through the “Plugins” screen in WordPress.
- Go to Settings > SAA Admin Menu Controls to configure the plugin.
- Select the target roles, choose a menu mode (Hide selected / Show only selected), and tick the admin menu links.
- Use Preview Mode to verify the menu as that role sees it, then Save.
For a complete walkthrough, see the Setup Guide.
FAQ
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Will this affect administrators?
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No. Administrators (users with the
manage_optionscapability) are always protected and never have effects applied, unless they explicitly enable Preview Mode from the settings page. -
I hid too much and cannot find the settings. What do I do?
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Add
?saamc_safe=1to any admin URL (for example/wp-admin/index.php?saamc_safe=1). This instantly disables all effects for administrators and clears Preview Mode. -
No. Hiding a menu item only removes it from the admin menu for the selected roles. It does not change WordPress capabilities. Use a dedicated role/capability plugin if you need to restrict access itself.
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Yes. The plugin detects every top-level admin menu currently registered — including menus added by plugins such as Elementor and WooCommerce — and lists them automatically as tickable choices, so you no longer have to type them by hand.
If a menu is not listed (for example one that only appears in certain contexts), you can still add it via the “Custom menu slugs” textarea, one slug per line. Use the menu slug the plugin registered, not the URL: for example
elementor, notadmin.php?page=elementor. The plugin also accepts the fulladmin.php?page=...form and normalises it for you. Core custom post type menus use their full slug, for exampleedit.php?post_type=product. -
What is the difference between “Hide selected” and “Show only selected”?
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Each role’s Admin Menu section has a mode switch. In “Hide selected” mode (the default) the items you tick are removed and everything else stays. In “Show only selected” mode the plugin keeps only the items you tick and removes everything else — ideal when a client should see just a couple of menus. The Dashboard is always kept in “Show only” mode so the client still has a home screen.
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Does the plugin store any personal data?
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No. It stores a single settings option and a per-administrator preview flag in user meta. Both are removed when you uninstall the plugin.
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Is the plugin translation ready?
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Yes. All user-facing strings use the
saa-admin-menu-controlstext domain and a POT template is included in thelanguagesfolder.
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Contributors & Developers
“SAA Admin Menu Controls” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “SAA Admin Menu Controls” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.1
- Patch: Force CSS cache refresh to ensure styling loads correctly after updates.
1.0.0
- Initial release.
- Independent per-role configuration — each role has its own hidden menus, hidden toolbar items, and client dashboard.
- Automatic detection of all registered admin menus, including third-party plugin menus.
- Per-role “Hide selected” / “Show only selected” mode for admin menus.
- Modern settings screen with hero header, tabbed navigation, and per-role panels.
- Branded client dashboard widget with gradient header, quick links, and help box.
- Preview Mode to experience the admin as any configured role.
- Safe-mode bypass (
?saamc_safe=1) for lockout protection. - Translation ready.