Do you have a multi-user or WordPress membership website?
Great!
Running a WordPress membership or multi-user website isn’t that easy as many WordPress site owners face the issue of users sharing passwords with others.
If your website has a membership area or members-only content, then you would never want account sharing. This is where you should stop users from sharing passwords in WordPress.
The problem is, with the release of WordPress 4.5, it enables multiple sessions from a single account. The question is how do you stop users from sharing passwords in WordPress?
In this post, we have added a step-by-step guide to help you disable the account sharing and concurrent logins.
Here’s a quick index to help you navigate this article:
But before rushing to the guide, let’s understand how WordPress handles user sessions.
How Does WordPress Handle User Sessions?
As a WordPress website owner, you should know how WordPress handles the user sessions.
Like other CMS and applications, the WordPress CMS also uses cookies to identify a logged-in user easily.
But these cookies don’t contain your passwords; they just contain your username and a special key that proves that you actually know the password.
The problem arises when you access your WordPress website from a public location and somehow clicked on the “Remember Me” button.
Anyone from your PC or laptop can easily log in to your WordPress website. This happens because WordPress actually allows the same usernames to be logged in from two distinct locations.
Now, this creates a pitfall in the security of your WordPress site. This could be even worse if you’re running any WordPress membership site selling memberships and plans.
Related Reading: Membership Resources to Grow Your Membership Website.
Users can easily share their password with others using the same login credentials to access the membership content/services for free.
But you can easily prevent this password sharing and keep other users from accessing the same account from multiple IPs and locations.
To help you stop users from sharing passwords on your WordPress website, we have listed an easy tutorial step.
So let’s get started here.
Does Password Sharing Actually Hurt?
WordPress is safe and secure with a lot of top-notch security measures in one place. The question is: does password sharing actually hurt?
The answer – yes, if you’re running a WordPress membership or a multi-user website.
The thing is, WordPress enables users to log in to their account from multiple locations at the same time. The multiple location login features could potentially compromise a multi-author WordPress website.
What’s more, if you have or plan to create a membership website, the password sharing issue can potentially hurt your online venture.
Picture This: you run a membership website where a user purchases a membership plan and shares the login credential with another user.
Now, both the users can use the service by sharing the login credential. No membership website owner wants such scenarios with their WordPress membership website.
So these are a few prime reasons which indicate that password sharing actually hurts.
Step-by-step Guide to Prevent Users From Sharing Passwords
Preventing users from sharing passwords is easy and straightforward. There are several complex ways to prevent access to sharing and stop concurrent logins.
However, installing a plugin like Inactive Logout is a quick and effective way to stop password sharing and concurrent logins.
The Inactive Logout plugin comes with tons of useful features for account management, terminating access sharing and stopping concurrent logins.
This plugin automatically terminates the idle user sessions, protecting your WordPress website, and even prevents the multiple location logins.
If you run a WordPress membership website or are looking to stop access sharing, the Inactive Logout plugin worth a try.
The best part is, the Inactive Logout plugin is easy to use and configure. Right after installing and configuring, the plugin will terminate the multiple location login, concurrent logins, and idle user sessions.
Let’s dive into the step-by-step process to install, activate, and configure the Inactive Logout plugin to prevent users from sharing passwords.
Step #1: Install & Activate Inactive Logout Plugin
The initial step is to install and activate the Inactive Logout plugin on your WordPress website. Navigate to your WordPress dashboard and then to Plugins >> Add New.
Once you’re there, search for “Inactive Logout” and then check the plugin and click on the “Install Now” button.
After the plugin is installed on your website, you need to activate it then and there only.
Step #2: Disabling Concurrent Logins (Preventing Password Sharing)
The Inactive Logout plugin comes with tons of useful features such as preventing idle login, concurrent login (preventing password sharing), etc.
We’re now going to prevent the concurrent login on your WordPress website. Enabling this module will end password sharing as it will prevent two users from logging into the same account.
To configure and disable the concurrent login feature, navigate your WordPress dashboard to Settings >> Inactive Logout. Once you’re on the Inactive logout settings page, scroll a bit to enable the concurrent login feature.
All you need to do is enable the “Disable Concurrent Login” module on the Inactive Logout settings page and click on the “Save Changes” button.
Once you click to configure the settings and make it live, it will disable the concurrent login, which will help you stop users from sharing passwords and having concurrent logins.
Note: All other settings available with the Inactive Logout plugin will be there by default. Everything is set to default; however, the idle timeout is set to 15 minutes.
Here, if you want to prevent unnecessary logouts, you should change the time to at least 60 minutes or so.
So this was the complete walkthrough of this Inactive Logout plugin setup to help you prevent concurrent logins and password sharing.
You can also check other features offered by this plugin, such as disabling timeout countdown, enabling redirect, and so on.
Conclusion: How to Stop Users From Sharing Passwords in WordPress
This is our quick step-by-step guide to stop users from sharing passwords in WordPress. You can follow the step-by-step walkthrough to restrict your website users from concurrent login sessions.
Once you complete your WordPress website’s setup, only one person can log in to your WordPress website with one account. The concurrent login will be disabled with the help of this Inactive Logout plugin.
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