HM Multiple Roles

by Hossni Mubarak

View on WordPress.org

45 Quality Score

Active Installs

14/30

With about 1,000 active installs, this is a niche tool used by a small slice of WordPress sites.

Update Freshness

6/25

The plugin was updated on 6 February 2025 and is tested against WordPress 6.7.5, but the maintenance footprint is small and there is no visible changelog depth or contributor activity to confirm ongoing care.

User Rating

11/15

A score of 72 from just 5 ratings is a passable but very thin signal, since so few users have weighed in.

Support Health

8/15

There are zero support threads and zero resolutions, which means the author has not had to address any public issues yet, a neutral rather than positive sign at this volume.

WP Compatibility

8/15

It supports WordPress 5.4 and up and PHP 7.2 and up, which covers most sites, but no premium or multisite-specific testing is documented.

Scores higher than 1% of indexed plugins

About

It hides the default role dropdown list and displays a list of role checkboxes to select multiple roles for a user.

Active Installs 1k+

Rating ★★★½ 3.6/5

Last Updated 2025-02-06 8:33pm GMT

Requires WordPress 5.4+

Tested Up To 6.7.7

Requires PHP 7.2+

Security History

2 known vulnerabilities, all patched

1 High 1 Medium

Most recent: March 4, 2022

View details ▸

What It Does

HM Multiple Roles replaces the standard single-select role dropdown on the WordPress user edit screen with a set of checkboxes, letting administrators assign more than one role to a single user at the same time. It focuses purely on the assignment interface and does not add, edit, or delete roles or capabilities on its own. The change is scoped to the user profile page and otherwise leaves WordPress role handling untouched.

Who It's For

This plugin suits sites where a person genuinely needs overlapping permissions, such as a community manager who is also a moderator, a teacher who is also a content editor, or a volunteer coordinator who can also publish posts. It works best as a small companion tool on sites that already have their roles defined elsewhere and only need a friendlier assignment UI. Smaller organizations with mixed staff responsibilities will get the most immediate value.

Who Should Skip It

If you only need a standard one-role-per-user setup, the default WordPress dropdown is already enough and this plugin adds no value. Anyone needing a full role and capability editor should look at a heavier plugin instead, since HM Multiple Roles does not let you create new roles or tweak capabilities.

The Bottom Line

HM Multiple Roles does one narrow thing and does it reasonably well, but a 48.63 quality score, a 1,000 install base, and zero public support history make it a cautious recommendation. It is a fine lightweight add-on for sites that already know exactly which roles exist and just want checkbox selection. For anything beyond the assignment UI, a more established plugin like Members or User Role Editor is the safer bet.

Pick Members if you also need to create, clone, or restrict content by role, since it is a much fuller role and capability toolkit.

User Role Editor 87/100

Pick User Role Editor if your real goal is fine-tuning what each role can do rather than assigning multiple roles at once.

User Switching 86/100

Pick User Switching if you mainly want to log in as another user to test their view, a totally different problem this plugin does not solve.

One User Avatar | User Profile Picture 84/100

Pick One User Avatar if your admin workflow problem is around profile images rather than role assignment.

PublishPress Capabilities 84/100

Pick PublishPress Capabilities if you need detailed permission editing and admin menu control in addition to multi-role workflows.