You can password protect a single product by changing its visibility from the product edit page, but WooCommerce doesn’t allow you to password protect the whole category.

Don’t worry, I got you covered here!

In today’s article, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step process to password protect the categories with the help of the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin.

This plugin lets you add a password to protect a category and its products, or restrict it to specific logged-in users or roles. Here’s a preview of what we’ll be achieving today.

But first, let’s see what is a password-protected category and why should you password protect a category?

What is a WooCommerce Password Protected Category?

A WooCommerce-protected category means that the products in that category won’t be accessible and visible to the users without a password. Users won’t be able to purchase any product from the category unless they enter the correct password. 

You can call it the Private or the Restricted Category, as the products in the password-protected category won’t be visible to the users unless they enter the correct password.  

Why Should You Password Protect a WooCommerce Category?

There are various reasons why you might want to password protect WooCommerce categories, and here are a few.

1. Wholesale Stores

If you’re a wholesaler, you probably don’t want your prices to be exposed to the general public, therefore password protection helps to limit access to just qualified customers.

2. Members Only Store

You can create an entire store that is only accessible to members by password-protecting the WooCommerce categories.

3. Private Client Store

To sell a unique product to each client, you can create separate categories for them.

4. Age Restricted Products

If you are dealing with age-restricted products, this feature can be handy. Let’s say you’re selling alcoholic beverages and don’t want young people to see or buy them. This is when you can use this function to prevent children from viewing and purchasing alcoholic products.

So without further ado let’s dive into the tutorial. 

How to Password Protect the WooCommerce Categories?

You can follow the following step-by-step process to password protect the categories in WooCommerce. 

You can send the password to the users with the email when they’ll register on your site. Follow the User Registration tutorial to allow the users to register on your site and send them customized user registration emails. 

Note: I am assuming that you already have created some categories on your store that you want to password protect so I won’t be showing you how to create a category in WooCommerce. 

1. Install and Activate the WooCommerce Restriction Rules Plugin

Note: You can skip this step if you have already installed and activated the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin. 

To install the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin, you will need to install the Woosuite Core plugin and activate it with the help of a license key. We have created a Quick Start Guide for you to figure out how to install and activate the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin.

2. Navigate to Restriction Rules

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, now navigate to the Woosuite » Restriction Rules from your WordPress dashboard.

3. Navigate to the Password Protected Rules Tab

Now we need to add password protection to the category so that the products in the category can only be accessible by the users who have the correct password.

To do so, expand the Password Protected Rules tab by clicking on the (▾),  from the settings of the plugin. 

In this tab, you’ll see a few options that will help you add password protection to the product categories. 

4. Password Protect the Category

Now we’ll create a rule that will password protect the selected category from all the users. 

You can select the users from the “Applies To” dropdown to create a rule. You’ll get four options: 

• Everyone
  
• Guests
  
• Specific Roles
  
• Specific Users

As I want to password protect a category from all the users so I have selected “Everyone”

4.1. Select Filter By Category

Now from the “Filter By” field, select the “Category” you want to password protect from all the users. You can filter the products by: 

• Category
  
• Tags
  
• Products

Once you select any filter, you’ll see a new field below it. 

As I have selected the “Category” filter so I can see a new field below it from where I can select the product categories. 

I have selected one category that I want to password-protect. You can also select multiple categories. 

4.2. Lock the Category

Now we need to lock the category that we just filtered. You can only lock the product categories and the tags. 

By locking the category, users won’t be able to see the products in it until they enter the correct password. 

So to enable it, toggle the “Lock the Parent Categories/Tags” button. 

4.3. Enter the Password

Now in the “Password” field, you need to enter the password that users will use to access the category.  You can also set an expiry date for the password. 

Note: Users will be able to view the product image and description but they won’t be able to buy it until they enter the correct password. 

5. Save the Changes

Once you have created the rule, click on the “Save Changes” button at the top right corner to save all the settings. 

6. Final Results

Now let’s test the rule. 

To test it, I visited my site’s shop page and could see the products in the category, but when I visited the Makeup product category, I couldn’t see any of the products in the category. 

Once I entered the password, the products were visible to me. Now the users won’t be able to see any of the products in this category without the password. 

Also, users have to enter the password for each product they want to buy. You can only send the password to specific users so they can use it and buy the product. 

Conclusion

So that’s it, this is how you can password protect the WooCommerce categories.

This way, you can run a private store where users will need to enter a password to view and purchase products in the password-protected category. You can use the Dynamic Pricing Rules Plugin to offer discounts to the users who can access the products in the category.

Also, if you have any queries, you can ask them in the comments or contact our customer support. Our dedicated customer support team typically replies within 48 hours.

Ready to get started?

Download the WooCommerce Restriction Rules plugin today!