Let’s admit that the default WordPress login and registration pages are really boring. If you are creating a website for your client or want to show true professionalism then you might have to consider building custom front-end login and registration page. If you think you need expert level coding for creating front end login feature then you are wrong. You can actually create front-end login without writing single line code. In this article we will show you steps for adding front end login feature with Theme My Login plugin.

Adding Front End Login Feature with Theme My Login Plugin

Theme My Login plugin is a popular and highly rated plugin for creating login and registration pages. It creates the custom pages matching your theme that you can use instead of default wp-login page. You can easily find the plugin in the WordPress plugin repository. To install the plugin follow these steps.

Login to your admin dashboard. Navigate to Plugins > Add New
In the search plugin box, search for keyword “Theme My Login”.
Install the plugin by Jeff Farthing and activate it.

There is also an alternative way to install the plugin. You can download the plugin from this link. You can then upload the plugin’s folder to the wp-content > plugins in your themes folder. Once the plugin have been activated, it will automatically create pages for login, login Out, lost password and register.

Now when you visit these pages or when you try login via wp-admin you can see the new contact forms in action. The design of your contact form will vary according to your theme design.

That’s it. Now you have actually successfully replaced the old default WordPress login with the new front end login system.

Adding Theme My Login Form as the Widget in Sidebar

You can also use Theme My Login as the widgets. You can add the plugin’s widget to sidebar or any other location of your website and allow users to login easily. To use Theme My Login widget as the sidebar, simply go to Appearance > Widgets and add Theme My Login Widget to the sidebar. If you want to know more about Widget you can check our article on “How to Add and Use WordPress Widgets“.

Setting up the TML Modules

If you wish to take even more control then you can configure the plugin by going to TML link in your dashboard menu.

There are some basic settings you can configure. If you wish to load the default stylesheet of the plugin then you can simply check the checkbox. You can also decide the login type to be username or email or both.

Setting Up The Theme My Login Modules

There are some modules checkbox for advance settings. You can enable any module if you feel like you need them. Once saved, for every module you enable, a sub menu of that module under the TML menu will be created. Here is the detail description of what each module does.

1. Custom Email

This module allows you to send the custom emails. You can change the default email sent by WordPress and add your own custom email. After saving the setting you can customize the email by going to TML > Email in your dashboard menu.

Also Read: Steps to Remove Search Feature from WordPress Completely

2. Custom Passwords

Custom password simply adds a password field in the registration form. This module does not have a setting page.

3. Custom Redirection

When any user logs in, they are redirected to the dashboard. With this plugin you can change the login and logout redirection to any page that you want. You can also set different redirects for author, contributor and subscriber. You can configure custom redirects by going to TML > Redirection.

4. Custom User Links

This module allows you to add custom user links for dashboard, profile and any other pages. To configure the custom user link go to TML > User Links. To know more about permalinks you can check our article on “How to Create Custom Permalinks in WordPress”.

5. reCAPTCHA

This module simply shows recaptcha in the registration pages. Visit TML > reCAPTCHA after saving for configuration. You will need to enter the secret key and the site key. These keys can be generated from reCAPTCHA website.

6. Security

It’s a very useful module for the security of your website. You can force users to login before viewing the site. Furthermore, you can also disable the wp-login.php login and limit login attempts. You can set security by going to TML > Security.

7. Themed Profiles

This enables the themed profiles. Users can edit their profiles from the front-end. For configuration visit TML > Themed Profiles.

8. User Moderation

It enables the user moderation feature by making new users to confirm their email and requiring admin to confirm the new user. You can configure this setting by going to TML > Moderation.

Apart from TML plugin there are many other alternative plugins that you can use.

User registration & user profile – Profile Builder
User Meta
RegistrationMagic-Custom Registration Forms
Gravity Forms
BuddyPress

We hope that the article helped you in adding front end login feature with Theme My Login plugin. If you want to know in detail about the plugin see our article “What is Plugin in WordPress and How does it work”

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Kantiman Bajracharya

Kantiman Bajracharya is a freelance web developer. He is a computer geek who has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering. He has earned lots of satisfied customers while working for numerous successful projects. He is also a WordPress theme creator and web article writer. On free time he likes reading philosophy books, traveling and playing chess.