PublishPress Blocks – Block Controls, Block Visibility, Block Permissions
View on WordPress.orgScores higher than 83% of indexed plugins
About
PublishPress Blocks is your complete solution for the WordPress block editor. You can control block permissions, styles, visibility, usage and more.
Security History
What It Does
PublishPress Blocks adds a set of professional block controls to the WordPress block editor, including custom block styles, visibility rules, and role-based permissions. It lets administrators restrict which users can insert specific blocks and control how blocks appear on the front end based on conditions like user role or device. In practice, it turns a standard Gutenberg installation into a more tightly governed publishing environment.
Who It's For
This plugin is a good fit for multi-author sites, editorial teams, and organizations that need to enforce block-level access control and consistent styling across contributors. It is particularly useful for publishers, membership sites, and agencies managing client content where preventing accidental use of certain blocks matters. Smaller blogs run by a single author will get little benefit from its governance features.
Who Should Skip It
Anyone who only needs extra block designs or starter patterns should look at Spectra or Kadence Blocks instead, since PublishPress Blocks focuses on permissions and visibility rather than adding a large library of decorative blocks. If you do not run a multi-user site with editorial controls, this plugin will feel like overkill.
The Bottom Line
PublishPress Blocks earns an overall score of 88.36 out of 100 and lives up to its reputation for clean governance features inside Gutenberg. It is not a flashy design plugin, so skip it if you want more visual blocks, but lean on it when block permissions, visibility rules, and editorial workflow control are what you actually need. For multi-author and membership sites it is a quietly capable choice.
Related Plugins
Pick Spectra if you want a much larger library of design blocks and starter patterns rather than permission controls.
Choose Shortcodes Ultimate if you want a broad content element library that works outside the block editor.
Kadence Blocks is the better pick for designers who want powerful layout blocks, responsive controls, and theme-building features.
Go with Starter Templates if your priority is importing full ready-made site designs rather than managing block access.
Classic Widgets solves a completely different problem and only makes sense if you want to restore the old widgets screen.