The WordPress admin dashboard is a critical component of your business or blogging website. It provides you with the necessary tools to create pages, change themes, and set up your entire site with ease. The dashboard is user-friendly, easily accessible, and intuitive for both novice and experienced website owners.
What is the WordPress Admin Dashboard?
The WordPress admin dashboard, also known as the WP admin panel or WP admin area, is a private section of your WordPress website where you can perform administrative tasks. Within the admin dashboard, you can customize your site’s theme, create or edit pages, install plugins, upload content and media, add custom CSS to your website code, and more.
In addition to modifying your website’s design and managing content, you can also edit post categories, create header and footer links, customize navigation menus, establish permalink structures, and even hide dashboard elements when creating a site for a client.
How Do I Access My WordPress Admin Dashboard?
The simplest way to access the admin panel of your WordPress website is by adding the /wp-admin slug to your domain.
Simply go to your domain name and add /wp-admin right after your TLD.
Here’s an example:
example.com/wp-admin
If you installed your website on a subdomain, follow the same steps.
subdomain.example.com/wp-admin
If you installed your website in a subdirectory, add the /wp-admin slug after the subdirectory.
example.com/my-subdirectory/wp-admin
Once you’re there, enter your unique username and password. Please note that these login details are different from your WordPress.com or website host login. If you can’t recall your login credentials, reset your password or contact your website host for assistance.
How Can I Customize My WordPress Admin Dashboard?
For some users, the default WordPress admin dashboard might have certain limitations.
Aesthetically, it may not align with your desired look or the branding you want to convey to clients. While WordPress websites offer extensive front-end customization options, there are limited native options for visually customizing the back-end. Although you can change colors, there’s not much more you can do.
Functionally, you may feel restricted by the lack of personalization options. For instance, you might want to add a custom dashboard item called "Products," but that’s not possible in WordPress’s native dashboard.
The solution is to install an admin dashboard plugin that allows you to fully customize various aspects, including the sidebar width, features, and functionalities of the admin panel.
The following WordPress admin dashboard plugins empower you to style your admin area according to your preferences, providing a fully personalized back-end experience.
WordPress Admin Dashboard Plugins
- White Label CMS
- WordPress Hide Admin Menu Plugin
- Ultra WordPress Admin Theme
- SmartEnd WordPress Dashboard
- Material WordPress Admin Theme
- Client Dash
- Ultimate Dashboard
- Admin Columns
- Admin Menu Editor
- Aquila Admin Theme
- ExactMetrics Google Analytics Dashboard
- Adminimize
- User Role Editor
1. White Label CMS
If you’re creating a website for a client using WordPress, this plugin allows you to customize the admin area to meet their specific needs and requirements. Aside from creating a branded login page, it offers three preset CMS profiles—Website, Blog, or Custom—that you can modify for the menu system.
You can also provide customized instructions to your clients on how to use and navigate the admin section. Additionally, White Label CMS enables you to add your own logo to the admin header and footer sections, incorporating your developer branding.
What we like:
This plugin focuses on WordPress admin customization, making it an excellent choice for developers. Not only can you provide detailed instructions to clients, but you can also include your own logo to promote repeat business.
2. WordPress Hide Admin Menu Plugin
The Hide Admin Menu plugin is ideal for hiding specific items in the WordPress admin menu and admin bar. You can control which users can access certain menu items while retaining full functionality. This lightweight plugin has minimal impact on site performance.
This plugin is useful when collaborating on a WordPress website with others. You can restrict administrative permissions, preventing unauthorized changes by team members.
If you’re a freelance WordPress developer, you can simplify the backend experience for your clients using the Hide Admin Menu plugin. This ensures that clients don’t accidentally make irreversible changes.
What we like:
Sometimes simplicity is key. The Hide Admin Menu plugin allows you to hide unnecessary elements, streamlining the user experience and safeguarding critical functions from unintended modifications.
3. Ultra WordPress Admin Theme
Ultra WordPress Admin Theme is a modern and feature-rich dashboard plugin that enables you to change the design of your site’s admin area. It offers unlimited color options, allowing you to customize the color scheme to match your branding.
This plugin provides 34 pre-designed admin themes, as well as the option to create a fully customized theme. You can choose different fonts, add your logo, and even use a background image in the sidebar. The plugin also allows you to create a customized login page.
Under the "Ultra Admin Addon" option in the sidebar, you can rename and reorder menu items and change their icons.
What we like:
Design plays a crucial role. The Ultra WordPress Admin Theme plugin enables you to replace the standard admin pages with visually appealing frameworks, helping users find what they need more easily.
4. SmartEnd WordPress Dashboard
Built on the Laravel 8.0 framework, the SmartEnd CMS plugin offers full control over your admin dashboard and provides easy access to key functions through Restful APIs. Backend features include secure dashboard logins, the ability to add custom fields to any section, user permission controls, and SEO modules for every page.
The regular license for SmartEnd costs $35. While it may have fewer installations compared to other plugins on the list, it has received consistent updates over the past five years.
What we like:
SmartEnd has you covered, no matter what you need. It offers frontend and backend features, along with powerful API functions, making it a comprehensive plugin.
5. Material WordPress Admin Theme
Like other options on this list, Material allows you to customize colors, menu items, and the overall design of your WP admin dashboard.
It provides 100 pre-designed themes and the ability to create a custom design. Material also offers an extensive collection of dashboard widgets that provide information on your website’s performance, including visitor and user statistics.
To edit menu items, you’ll need the Material Admin Addon, which allows you to modify names and icons. The plugin also enables you to create a customized login page.
This plugin is especially useful for freelance WordPress developers, as it allows you to create an interactive dashboard that provides clients with an overview of their website’s performance.
What we like:
The more clients know about their site’s performance, the better. The Material Admin Addon allows developers to create data displays that showcase site performance at a glance.
6. Client Dash
Client Dash is a powerful WordPress admin dashboard plugin that helps you create custom dashboards for your clients and restrict access to specific menu items. It provides a drag-and-drop interface for easy configuration of personalized menus.
With Client Dash, you can offer clients a user-friendly dashboard tailored to their specific needs.
What we like:
Client Dash focuses on the big picture. This plugin simplifies navigation for users, allowing you to customize icons and menus and guide users in the right direction.
7. Ultimate Dashboard
Ultimate Dashboard enables you to create a clean and simple WordPress control panel for yourself or your clients. You can customize the dashboard by removing widgets and creating custom admin pages.
The plugin also allows you to create a branded login screen and remove the WordPress logo from the top bar. For additional advanced features, the Ultimate Dashboard Pro version is available, which removes third-party widgets and supports multi-site projects.
What we like:
Clean dashboards eliminate complexity. Although not suitable for everyone, Ultimate Dashboard is an excellent choice if you’re seeking a streamlined site that provides exactly what you need, without unnecessary information.
8. Admin Columns
With the Admin Columns plugin, you can organize the WordPress content management panels using columns, making it look organized and user-friendly. You can easily filter content and navigate pages using advanced customized columns that display specific information about each page or post.
This plugin is particularly useful for large websites or complex product inventories. It can also be used to assign priority badges to pages and color-code posts.
What we like:
Don’t like complexity? Add more columns. This plugin allows you to quickly organize content into easily manageable columns, making it easier to filter results and find exactly what you’re looking for.
9. Admin Menu Editor
If you want to customize your menu’s design, rename items, or add custom menu items, the Admin Menu Editor plugin is the best tool for the task. This lightweight and simple plugin features a drag-and-drop interface for rearranging menu items in the admin area. You can create custom menu items that link to any external URL, and customize the login page while removing WordPress branding from the top bar.
What we like:
Sometimes all you need is a bit of customization to enhance your admin page’s functionality. Admin Menu Editor allows you to make quick menu changes that have a significant impact with minimal effort.
10. Aquila Admin Theme
Aquila Admin Theme enables you to create a highly customized dashboard for yourself or your clients. It offers a color-picker for choosing colors, custom icons for menu items, and the ability to change the WordPress logo in the top-left corner.
This plugin is compatible with Gutenberg and supports multi-site configurations.
What we like:
Looking for a dashboard that goes beyond the ordinary? Aquila offers custom icons and colors, allowing you to create a unique dashboard that stands out.
11. ExactMetrics Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress
With over 1 million users, this plugin provides easy access to Google Analytics metrics directly from your WordPress dashboard. Setting up accurate analytics tracking that delivers real-time data to your admin page is just a few clicks away.
The plugin supports both versions of Google Analytics and includes built-in CCPA and GDPR compliance, ensuring you can view the data you need without risking regulatory issues.
What we like:
For real-time analytics data, Google Analytics is the go-to choice. However, installing Google Analytics manually can be time-consuming. The ExactMetrics plugin simplifies this process, making it quick and streamlined.
12. Adminimize
Managing user permissions is crucial when creating a WordPress website for a client or providing access to multiple users. Although WordPress has a built-in process for editing user roles, you can make more granular changes with a dedicated user role plugin.
Adminimize is a useful WordPress admin plugin for multi-author WordPress blogs or client websites. It helps you hide items from the WordPress dashboard, restricting access as necessary and preventing unwanted changes.
This plugin includes a powerful admin panel where you can customize the items you want to show or hide.
What we like:
If you’re designing or managing a multi-user site, Adminimize allows you to customize who can see and access key functions, as well as edit specific pages to keep your content secure.
13. User Role Editor
User Role Editor is an excellent plugin for websites with multiple authors and administrators. With this plugin, you can easily change and restrict users’ access to administrative tools.
User Role Editor is extremely user-friendly. Simply enable checkboxes to grant admin permissions. For example, if you want to allow a contributor to add media files, you can easily do so by checking the corresponding box.
This plugin is an excellent choice for large companies with different departments, as you can create custom user types and assign permissions based on their roles within the company.
A customized dashboard will make the back-end of your website feel more sophisticated and tailored to your or your client’s needs. With these plugins, you’ll be able to include your logo, modify menu items, restrict user permissions, leave notes for clients, and more.
What we like:
Taking permission control a step further, User Role Editor allows you to create custom access profiles for specific users, making it a great choice for larger organizations.
Maximize the Potential of WordPress with an Admin Dashboard Plugin
WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS) because it offers all the features you need to build a robust website.
However, it’s not perfect. While it provides extensive customization options on the front-end, the back-end lacks in native customization options. Admin dashboard plugins for WordPress enable you to enhance both the form and function of your site’s management tasks, making them easier, more visually appealing, and more efficient.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.