A new account gets the role set on the register form the user signed up with. Out of the box that is the WordPress default role, usually Subscriber. You can give each register form its own role, and you can check people before giving them a role with more access.

Set the role for a register form

1. Go to UsersWP > User Types. Each user type is a register form.
2. Edit a user type, or add a new one.
3. Choose the role in User Role to Assign. Administrator is not offered.
4. Choose the Registration Action and save.

If you have more than one user type, pick the forms to show under UsersWP > General > Register, in Register Form(s). People then choose their user type on the register page.

Accounts created any other way, for example by an admin in wp-admin, get the role in Settings > General > New User Default Role.

Check new users before they get more access

A common setup is to register everyone as Subscriber, check them, and then promote the ones you trust, for example to Contributor or Author so they can post.

• To change roles by hand, go to Users > All Users, tick the users, choose the new role in Change role to and click Change.
• To stop new users logging in until you approve them, use the Moderate User Registration add-on. It adds a registration action that holds new accounts for an admin to review.

A user can have more than one role, but the WordPress screens only set one. If you need extra roles or want to change what a role can do, use a role editor plugin such as Members.

To send users to different pages after login depending on their role, see How to Redirect Users Based on User Roles?.