We are often asked what the differences of the various user roles in WordPress are so we thought we’d give the very quick rundown.
- Administrator – Somebody who has access to all the administration features
- Editor – Somebody who can publish posts, manage posts as well as manage other people’s posts, etc.
- Author – Somebody who can publish and manage their own posts
- Contributor – Somebody who can write and manage their posts but not publish posts
- Subscriber – Somebody who can read comments/comment/receive news letters, etc.
Also, note that some plugins take advantage of the user roles so you’ll need to consult each individual plugin to see if that’s the case and if so, see what the user role differences are for that particular plugin.
More detailed information can be found on the WordPress Codex.