How to Find WordPress Login URL & Access Admin Panel?

Managing a WordPress website is only possible after accessing its admin panel through the WordPress login URL. After a successful login, you’ll be able to manage your website’s themes, plugins, posts, pages, comments, etc.

But if you’re new to WordPress, you might have some problems trying to locate the login page of your website.

That’s why, in this tutorial, we’ll show you how to find your site’s WordPress login URL. You’ll also learn to create a custom login form and some tips to secure the WordPress login page.

So, let’s get started!

Table of Contents

Finding your WordPress login page can be confusing for some users. But rest assured, it’s pretty easy.

In most cases, your website’s login URL just consists of an additional phrase at the end of the main website URL. All you need to do is add wp-admin on the path of your website.

For example, if the name of your website is example.com, then the URL for your WordPress login page would be example.com/wp-admin.

After you access the login page, simply enter your login credentials, and you’ll be directed to the admin panel.

Keep in mind that most main domain websites follow the same format for their website URL.

Now, you may want to log into a subdomain website or a subdirectory website. For such websites, the login URL is slightly different. Here’s a brief look into both cases:

It’s common to have a subdomain website under the main domain website. So, in that case, how do you find your WordPress admin login page?

Well, it’s similar to the main domain website URL for most parts with a slight difference. If your website has a subdomain, your website URL will appear as subdomain.example.com.

And your login URL for this subdomain website will be subdomain.example.com/wp-admin.

Simple right? Just add the subdomain name in the beginning and give the wp-admin path at the end of the URL.

As is the case with subdomains, it’s also possible to have a subdirectory on your website. The simplest example is when a website has a separate page dedicated to blogs.

So, the WordPress blog login URL to access the subdirectory would be example.com/blog.

Now, if you want to find the login page to the subdirectory called blog, you’ll have to enter the following URL:

example.com/blog/wp-admin

With the login page URLs down, you now know how to find them in 3 different scenarios: main domain, subdomain, and subdirectory.

You’ll be directed to the login page with the default WordPress login form, where you can enter your credentials and log in. This takes you to your site’s admin panel.

But, before you get to work, you might want to save the URL for future use. Doing this keeps you from the trouble of typing the URL every time you need to access the login page.

There are multiple ways to do this. The simplest would be to bookmark the login page in your browser. This will automatically save the URL in your bookmarks folder for later use.

The second way is to add the link to the login page in your website’s navigation menu. Just go to Appearance >> Menus from your WordPress dashboard.

Here, find the Add Menu Items section under the Edit Menus tab. Then, open the Custom Links option and enter your WordPress login URL and the Link Text for it.

And finally, click on the Add to Menu button and then Save Menu.

With that, you’ll be able to see the link text to your WordPress login page on your website header menu.

When you click on it, you’ll be redirected to the login page instantly, and then you can log in to your dashboard.

See how easy it was to find and access your login page? While the login page being so easily accessible is beneficial to you, it also poses a significant risk to your site’s security.

People with malicious intent can find your login page without any trouble and try to hack into your account, and sometimes, succeed as well.

So, what can you do to protect your login page, and consequently, secure your WordPress website? Here are a few tips you can implement:

If you don’t want the login page to be easily accessible, you can change the login URL to a custom one for your WordPress site. So, people who don’t know this custom URL can’t access your login form through the example.com/wp-admin URL.

All you need for this is the User Registration plugin, a free registration form builder that lets you create custom registration forms.

Most importantly, it comes with an inbuilt login form. So, you can just create a new page with this form and use the URL of the page as the new custom login URL.

We’ll demonstrate a step-by-step process on how you can do this in the next section of this article.

Alternatively, you can hide the WordPress login URL with a plugin like WPS Hide Login. It lets you create a new login URL for your site so that anyone who tries to log in through the example.com/wp-admin URL gets a 404 error.

It’s wise to limit the number of login and password reset attempts for your website. You don’t want people with ill-intent trying to crack your password through brute force attacks and succeeding.

You can use the popular Limit Login Attempts Reloaded plugin to prevent this. Using the tool will help you limit the number of login attempts an individual can make.

Limit Login Attempts Reloaded Remaining WordPress Login

In the plugin’s settings, you can specify the number of retries allowed and how many minutes you want to lock out the user. You can also increase lockout time and set time for retries reset.

And you can even enable notifications for when a user reaches the login attempts limit.

Similarly, you should also consider limiting the password reset function on your website with a plugin like Ultimate Member. Simply enable the limit password reset option, set the maximum number of attempts, and you’re done!

3. Use Strong Passwords

This goes without saying, but you really need a strong password for your WordPress login page.

Generally, it’s ideal for a password to be 10-15 characters long and contain symbols and numbers.

You can use tools like Strong Password Generator to get a strong password for your website.

Alternatively, you can try a WordPress registration plugin like User Registration. It lets you enable strong passwords for any user who registers on your website, not just the admin.

Hence, users can’t register and access your WordPress website unless they enter a strong password in the password field.

This extra security measure ensures that your website isn’t compromised through users who don’t have strong passwords.

4. Avoid the Username “Admin”

It can’t get any more evident than the username “Admin.” It’s probably the first username a hacker uses when trying to access your admin panel. That’s why you need to be extra careful when choosing a username.

It’s entirely up to you what username you use as long as it’s relevant to your website. Just don’t use “Admin” and compromise your website’s security.

Your website must automatically log out users after a certain period of time. Then, when they try to access the website, they’ll be prompted to enter their credentials and log in again.

Leaving the login session length as infinite is not a good security practice. It makes your login page more vulnerable to unauthorized access.

So, you must set a specific time limit for which a login session will expire and ask the user to re-authenticate again.

6. Upgrade from HTTP to HTTPS

In simple terms, HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used to transfer data between a browser and a website.

However, to secure your login page, you might want to switch to HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). It’s the secure version of HTTP, which, combined with SSL (Secure Socket Layer), uses encryption for a safe data transfer.

You might have noticed that websites using HTTPS display the lock icon in their URL. Such websites are more protected from external attacks during data transfer so that your login page remains safe.

For example, the official ThemeGrill website has the lock icon in its URL.

If you want the same security for your website, consider switching from HTTP to HTTPS. All you have to do is follow these steps:

Buy an SSL certificate from your hosting provider and activate it.
Install this certificate on your server.
Update your WordPress website to enable HTTPS.
Redirect your visitors from HTTP to HTTPS pages.

For a detailed guide to upgrading from HTTP to HTTPS, check out our article on adding SSL and HTTPS to your site.

7. Use a WordPress Security Plugin

If you want the overall security of your site, not just the login page, we recommend using a WordPress security plugin.

You have plenty of fantastic security plugins like Akismet, UpdraftPlus, Wordfence Security, etc., to choose from.

They protect your site from malware, spambots, brute force attacks, and more. Just install and activate the plugin of your choice and let the plugin do most of the work for you.

As good as it is that WordPress already provides a default login form for your site, wouldn’t it be nice to create a custom one instead? Sure, you could just customize the default form. However, you’d need to code all the changes you want in the form.

It’s much easier to just create a custom form that matches your website’s look and feel without the need for code.

So, in this section, we’ll guide you through the step-by-step process of creating a custom login form for your site.

The easiest way for you to create a custom login form is to use a WordPress registration and login plugin.

And when it comes to creating custom registration and login forms, nothing beats the User Registration plugin.

User Registration comes with a drag and drop interface that makes building forms quick and easy. Plus, it has all the customization options you’ll ever need to edit your forms. No need for code at all.

Most importantly, it comes with an in-built login form and My Account page. So technically, you won’t even have to create a login form; you just need to customize it.

Besides the handy login form, you get the following features in this freemium plugin:

Prevent core login and redirect to the custom login form
WooCommerce add-on for shipping and billing fields in the registration form
Spam protection with Google reCaptcha and Honeypot
Customizable admin and user email templates
Style Customizer to edit the form style as needed
Enable social login for multiple social media platforms

Considering all these features, User Registration is probably the best plugin you could use for placing a custom login form on your site.

Step 2: Install and Activate User Registration Plugin

Since you’ve chosen your plugin, you can now go ahead and install it on your website. To do this, log into your WordPress dashboard and open Plugins >> Add New.

From the Add New page, search for the User Registration plugin. Once it appears in the search results, click on the Install Now button.

User Registration Plugin How to Login to WordPress

Then, hit the Activate button that appears once the installation is complete.

If you plan to use User Registration to display front-end registration forms on your site, don’t forget to turn on the Membership option. Simply navigate to Settings and tick the checkbox for Anyone can register.

This way, your users will be able to register themselves on your site through the front-end registration forms. Otherwise, the forms won’t be visible to them at all.

Step 3: Install the User Registration Sample Pages

After the installation is complete, you’ll see a notice at the top of the dashboard asking you to Install User Registration Pages. These are the Registration page and My Account page we talked about before.

The pages contain shortcodes that display the default registration form and user profile. Installing these pages means you won’t need to create a new page to place registration forms or user accounts in.

Just click the button, and you’re done! The new pages will now appear in your Pages section.

The good thing about User Registration is that you won’t need to create a new login page if you’ve installed the sample pages. You can just use the My Account page, where a logged-out user will be able to see the login form.

However, we’ll show you how to create a new login page with User Registration’s login form as well.

For that, open Pages >> Add New in your WordPress dashboard, which creates a new page in the Gutenberg editor.

Now, give this page a title, for example, ‘Sign into your account.’

Then, click the ‘+’ icon and search for the User Registration block. You get two options when you add the block: Registration Form and Login Form.

Since we’re creating a login page, choose the Login Form option. Next, press the Select Shortcode dropdown. This’ll reveal two more options: Login Shortcode and My Account Shortcode.

Simply choose the My Account Shortcode, and it’ll automatically add a login form to the page. If you opt for the Login Shortcode, it’ll only display the login form but not the account user profile once logged in. You’ll have to redirect it to a custom user profile page if you already have one.

You can publish the page by pressing the Publish button at the top. To check the form’s appearance in the front-end, hit the Preview button.

Next, just go to User Registration >> Settings and open the General Options tab. Under the My Account section, click on the dropdown for the My Account page and choose the new login page you just created.

By default, your WordPress site will display the sample page you installed after activating the plugin. You’ll have to change it to the custom login and user profile page you created.

Now, in the front-end, the new login page displays the user profile for admin since you’re already logged in as an admin.

For logged-out users, it’ll display the login form.

Simply click on Logout and the page will now display the User Registration login form.

You can access this page by manually typing in the URL or adding it to your website’s menu.

As we’ve pointed out before, User Registration provides plenty of configuration options for your custom login form. You can access them from User Registration >> Settings.

You’ll find the following general settings under the Login Options tab:

Form Template: You get to choose between five form templates for your login form, namely, Default, Bordered, Flat, Rounded, and Rounded Edge.
Login Only Option: This option lets you decide whether you want users to log in using a username, email, or either one of them after registration.
Enable Login Title: You can enable or disable the login title for your login form.
Enable Ajax Login: Enabling Ajax login allows your users to fill and submit the login form without the need for reloading the page.
Enable remember me: You can display the Remember me option in the login form once this feature is enabled.
Enable lost password: Your login form displays a link to help users reset their password by enabling lost password.
Hide Field Labels: This option allows you to hide the field labels for the login fields.
Enable Google reCaptcha: You can also enable Google reCaptcha for login forms spam protection.
Registration URL: You can add a link to your custom registration page in the login form with the Registration URL option.
Registration URL Label: The label for the registration page URL is also customizable from here.
Prevent Core Login: Enable this option if you plan to use a custom login form instead of the default login page. This’ll replace the default login page with the custom one.

That’s not all. You can even customize the labels on your login form fields. That means you can edit the front-end labels for:

Username or Email
Password
Remember me
Login button
Lost your password?

Likewise, you get to edit the placeholders for Username or Email Field and Password Field.

Besides that, you’re also able to customize front-end messages for:

Username Required
Empty Password
Invalid/Unknown Username
Unknown Email
Pending Approval
Denied Account

These are the settings dedicated to configuring your login form options.

Apart from that, you can also choose a User login option among Manual login after registration, Email confirmation to login, Auto login after registration, and Admin approval after registration.

This can be applied globally through Settings >> General Options or for individual registration forms through the Form Setting tab in the form editor.

Up until now, we’ve explained every login option available to you under the free User Registration plugin. As you can tell by now, all the features you get in the free plugin are self-sufficient.

However, you might want to style your login form so that it matches the theme of your overall website. In that case, you’ll need the Style Customizer add-on, which is available in the premium plugin only.

So, you’ll need to head on over to User Registration’s official pricing page and buy the Plus plan or above to access the Style Customizer add-on.

A. Install and Activate the User Registration Pro and Style Customizer add-on

The premium plugin will be available to you as a ZIP file in your account dashboard. So, simply log into your account and download the User Registration Pro file from the Downloads tab.

In your WordPress dashboard, open Plugins >> Add New, and click Upload Plugin. Upload the file you just downloaded and hit Install Now. Then, complete the process by clicking Activate Plugin.

If you already have the free plugin installed on your website, the installation of the Pro plugin will automatically deactivate the free one. You can just delete the free plugin since all the free features are already available in the pro plugin. Keeping the deactivated free plugin is redundant to your site.

Suppose you’ve yet to install the free User Registration plugin and plan to use the Style Customizer add-on. In that case, we recommend directly buying a premium plan. This way, you won’t have to go through the trouble of installing and uninstalling the free plugin; just get straight to work with the Pro version.

After installing the Pro file, go back to your account and download the Style Customizer add-on file from Downloads.

Upload and install this file just like you did with the Pro file.

After activating the add-on, you must also copy your License from the License Keys tab in your premium account dashboard.

Then, paste it into the field under User Registration Pro on the Plugins page.

With that, you’re all set to start styling your login form.

To use the Style Customizer add-on for your login form, open User Registration >> Settings. As you scroll down the login options, you’ll see five brand new options that weren’t in the free version.

Thus, you’ll be able to enable the login icon field and prevent concurrent logins on multiple devices. You can also set the maximum number of active logins and allow redirection to the previous page after successful login.

And most importantly, you get the Customize Login Form option. Just click the button, and you’ll be taken to the live customizer.

First of all, you can choose between the default template and the classic template for your login form. Other than that, there are seven more styling options. So, let’s go through them all one by one to see what each option offers.

Form Wrapper: Using this option, you can edit the wrapper width, font family, background color, background image, border type, border color, form margin, form padding, and more.
Field Labels: Customize the look of the fields by editing their font size, font color, font style, text alignment, line height, margin, and padding.
Field Styles: You can also modify the field style with font color, border width, alignment, border focus color, field margin, field padding, etc.
Checkbox Style: Choose how you want to display the checkboxes on your login form. You can edit its style variation, margin, color, font size, and more.
Button Styles: Likewise, you get to customize the button color, hover font color, border hover color, button margin, etc., for a button that matches your site’s design.
Messages: This option lets you display error messages at the top of the login form. Just toggle the option on and edit the font size, font color, background color, line height, etc., of the messages.
Additional CSS: If you’re familiar with CSS codes, you can use custom CSS code to customize the appearance of the login form.

With all these customization options at hand, you should be able to style the login form for your website any way you want. Don’t forget to click the Save button at top when you’re done.

Before concluding the article, we’d like to address some common login page problems you might face while managing your website.

You’ve learned how to find the WordPress admin login URL, how to save it for future use, and how to create a custom login form as well.

However, you must also be aware of the common technical login page issues and how to solve them. So, here’s a brief discussion on four such problems so that you can deal with them instantly on your website.

1. Incorrect Password

It’s more common than you think to lose or forget the password for your site’s WordPress admin login.

In such cases, the login page will display a notice that says the password you used is incorrect. But don’t panic because the same notice will provide a “Lost your password?” link. You’ll also find it at the bottom of the login form.

Simply click this link and enter your username or email address. WordPress will email you a link to help you set up a new password in no time.

Suppose you try to log into your site’s admin panel with an incorrect email or password too many times. In this case, WordPress disables the login for you as a defense against brute force attacks.

However, this is only temporary, and you’ll be able to log in again after a specific time. But make sure to use the correct credentials this time.

If you’ve forgotten your password, follow the steps mentioned above to change your password and re-access your site.

Sometimes, WordPress will keep redirecting you to the wp-admin login page despite submitting the correct credentials. This redirect error leaves you stuck in a loop of login redirect.

You can solve this issue by clearing your browser cache and cookies or restoring the default .htaccess file. You should also check for corrupted themes and plugins and deactivate them if you find any.

4. Database Connection Error

If the login page displays a database connection error, you won’t be able to access your admin dashboard. This happens when your website fails to establish a connection to the database due to heavy traffic or corrupted file issues.

To fix this, you can either repair your database or create a completely new one, depending on the severity of the problem.

If you’re just repairing the corrupted database, there are plugins like Advanced Database Cleaner to make the task much easier for you.

Wrapping Up

The first thing you need to do while accessing your website’s admin panel is log in through the login page. And for that, you must know the WordPress admin login URL.

We hope you learned how to find your site’s login URL with this comprehensive guide. We’ve also explained all the ways you can secure your login page and solve common login problems.

And if you need a custom login form, the article includes a brief tutorial on how to install User Registration and customize its built-in login form.

Besides a custom login form, you can also use this plugin to create custom registration forms for websites of any niche. For instance, you can build WooCommerce registration forms with extra fields like shipping and billing fields for your online store.

So, give User Registration a try and take your site to the next level.

That’s it for this article! While you’re here, check out our blog for more WordPress-related articles. Also, follow us on Twitter and Facebook to receive regular updates on new posts.