The Role Editor gives you precise control over what each WordPress user role can do inside Divi 5.
By enabling or restricting access to builder features, settings, and modules on a per-role basis, you can hand off sites to clients without exposing controls that could break your design.
What Is the Role Editor?
The Role Editor maps WordPress user roles - Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and others - to specific Divi builder capabilities.
For each role, you can enable or disable access to builder features, settings tabs, individual modules, and top-level theme options.
This is particularly useful when handing off a site to a client. You can give them enough access to update content without exposing layout controls, global modules, or advanced settings that could break the design.
How to Access the Role Editor
The Role Editor is available in the WordPress Dashboard.
Log in to your WordPress website
Navigate to Divi → Role Editor to open it.
Role Editor Interface
The Role Editor opens to a tabbed dashboard. Each tab corresponds to a WordPress user role. Selecting a tab scopes all settings on the page to that role. Changes to one role don't affect others.
The toolbar at the top of the editor includes:
Save Divi Roles - commits all changes across all role tabs.
Portability - imports or exports Role Editor configurations as a JSON file.
Undo - reverts the most recent unsaved change.
Toggle All - enables or disables every option within a settings group at once.
User Roles
Out of the box, the Role Editor will display the standard WordPress User Role:
Administrator - Administrators have full access to all builder features by default. All options are enabled. Restrict these only if your setup requires it.
Editor - Editors can write, edit, publish, and manage posts from other users. This role is commonly used for clients who need content editing access without structural control. It's the most frequent target for Role Editor restrictions.
Author - Authors can publish and manage their own posts only. They cannot access or modify posts created by other users.
Contributor - Contributors can write and save draft posts, but cannot publish them. They have no access to other users' content.
Shop Manager - Available when WooCommerce is active. Shop Managers can manage WooCommerce products, orders, and settings without WordPress admin access. Their Divi builder access mirrors the Editor role by default.
⚠︎ Note: Using 3rd party plugins, you can also create custom roles. Those custom Roles will also appear alongside the default ones.
What You Can Restrict
General Functionality
Controls access to top-level Divi features outside the builder itself, including Theme Options, Theme Builder, Divi Library, Theme Customizer, Divi AI, Quick Sites, and Portability.
Builder Interface
Restricts high-level actions inside the builder - editing, moving, and deleting modules, rows, and sections. You can allow content editing while preventing structural changes, or disable builder access for a role entirely.
Library Settings
Controls whether a role can access the Divi Library and edit Global Modules. Restricting global module access is recommended for client-facing roles, since changes to globals propagate across the entire site.
Settings Tabs
Each module, row, and section in Divi has three settings tabs: Content, Design, and Advanced. You can disable the Design and Advanced tabs for a role, limiting them to content-only edits.
Settings Types
Provides finer control within settings tabs. You can restrict specific setting types - for example, allowing text edits while blocking color and layout controls.
Module Use
Disables specific modules for a role entirely. A disabled module can't be edited or added to a page. Limiting a client to only Text and Image modules, for instance, significantly simplifies their editing experience.
Support Center
Controls whether a role can access the Divi Support Center, contact support, enable Safe Mode, or grant remote access to the Elegant Themes support team.
Portability
Determines which portability actions a role can perform — specifically, what they can import to or export from the site.
Testing Role Configurations
After saving, log in to the site as a user with the role you configured to verify that the restrictions behave as expected.