GWiz IT Content Locker

Yes. GWiz IT Content Locker can be installed and used for free to gate content, collect subscribers, manage signups, and track conversions directly from WordPress.

No. External email marketing integrations are optional. Signups can be collected and managed directly from your WordPress website without connecting Mailchimp, Brevo, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, phpList, or another third-party marketing service.

You can protect:

• Entire pages or posts
• File downloads
• Sections of page content
• Individual page elements using CSS selectors

Yes. You can require visitors to complete a signup form before accessing PDFs, guides, checklists, documents, downloads, bonus content, resource libraries, or other gated material.

Yes. GWiz IT Content Locker includes a protected file-download system that can require visitors to complete the signup process before accessing a gated file. The file is stored outside the public web directory, and its download link never serves the file on its own — after the visitor's access is confirmed on the server, a short-lived single-use download token is issued for that specific download.

Yes. Confirmed subscribers can optionally be synced automatically to:

• ActiveCampaign
• Brevo
• ConvertKit
• Mailchimp
• phpList

Yes. Double opt-in can be enabled individually for each Restricted Area. When enabled, visitors must confirm their email address before receiving access: they get a confirmation email at signup, and the welcome email is sent once they click the confirmation link. With double opt-in disabled, a single welcome email is sent right after signup.

Yes. The plugin pre-scans Elementor (_elementor_data), Divi (_et_pb_post_content), and Beaver Builder (_fl_builder_data) content for shortcodes and configured selector class names.

Yes. Beaver Builder content is supported along with Elementor, Divi, and standard WordPress content.

Subscriber information is stored on your WordPress website. Data is only sent to an external email marketing service if you explicitly configure and enable that integration. Signups are included in the WordPress personal-data export and erasure tools (Tools → Export Personal Data / Tools → Erase Personal Data), so you can respond to visitor privacy requests directly from the WordPress admin.

Click the Settings button on any Restricted Area card. The shortcode is displayed near the top of the settings window with a Copy button.

You are most likely logged into WordPress. Logged-in users normally receive the unlocked content without seeing the signup form. This is intentional so administrators and editors are not gated on their own website. To test the gate as a visitor, log out or open the page in a private/incognito browser window. Administrators can also enable Debug Mode to preview the gate while logged in.

Open the Restricted Area's Settings modal and enter CSS selectors in the Hide by Selector field, one selector per line. For example: div.exampleclass or: span.highlight Elements matching those selectors are locked until the visitor signs up. How they look is your choice per Restricted Area (the Locked Element Style setting):

• Locked section (default) — the content is removed from the page before it is sent to the visitor's browser (it is not in the page source or the DOM) and replaced with a visible, customisable placeholder: background and text colors, message text, and button text, colors and CSS class. Clicking the element opens the signup form in a popup modal.
• Visual lock (classic) — the element keeps its place in your page and is styled with your Custom Lock Style and an optional hover tooltip. Two checkboxes control what happens to the content server-side: Strip Locked Content removes the matched element entirely from the page source (most secure), and Remove Child Elements keeps the styled element shell but removes its children (images and other embeds are removed entirely, since their content is their source URL). With neither checked, the content stays in the page and is only hidden visually — like the original version of this feature.

Yes. Place the shortcode around the content where you want the signup form to appear. If you need to protect additional elements without displaying additional forms, use CSS selectors to lock those elements.

Yes — by default the plugin clears popular caching plugins (WP Rocket, WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache, WP Fastest Cache, Cache Enabler, Comet Cache, SG Optimizer, WP-Optimize, Swift Performance, Autoptimize, Nginx Helper and Hummingbird) and host-level caches on GoDaddy Managed WordPress, WP Engine, Kinsta, Pantheon and Cloudways whenever anything in a Restricted Area is saved, so gating changes appear immediately. You can turn this off under GWiz IT Content Locker → Settings → Cache Clearing. If your host also runs a WAF/CDN cache (for example GoDaddy's WAF), that layer may still need a manual clear from your hosting dashboard.

No. The plugin checks the current page content, including supported page-builder data, and only loads frontend assets when a shortcode or relevant selector is detected.

Yes. Click the Clone button on a Restricted Area. You can choose whether subscriber/contact records should also be included. The duplicated area is created as a disabled copy with a unique name.

Yes. Click Export on a Restricted Area to download a ZIP backup. To import a backup, use Import Settings on an existing Restricted Area or Import Area to create a new one. You can optionally include subscriber/contact records. Backup files contain plugin version information so older backups can be handled safely as the plugin evolves.

Yes. When cloning, exporting, or importing an area, you can choose to include contacts. Imported contacts are added as new signup records and are not automatically de-duplicated by email address.

Yes. CSV exports include a UTF-8 BOM so applications such as Microsoft Excel correctly recognize UTF-8 text, including accented and non-English characters.

Developers can use the gwiz_it_content_locker_load_frontend filter documented in the Hooks section below.

Confirmation Email

• {{confirm_link}}
• {{site_name}}
• {{email}}
• {{area_name}}
• {{source_url}}

• {{site_name}}
• {{email}}
• {{area_name}}
• {{source_url}}

• {{form}}
• {{already_signed_up_link}}
• {{site_name}}
• {{area_name}}
• {{file_name}}

The popup template includes an {{already_signed_up_link}} placeholder. When visitors click it, they are shown an email verification form. If the email exists as a confirmed signup for that Restricted Area, the visitor receives an access cookie and the protected content is unlocked. If the address is not found, a generic response is shown to help prevent email enumeration.

Click the Help button at the top of the Restricted Areas page. The plugin includes a detailed plain-English guide explaining the available buttons, settings, and options.