### [How to Moderate Guest Posts in WordPress](https://wpforms.com/how-to-moderate-guest-posts-in-wordpress/)

**Published:** September 3, 2026
**Author:** Hamza Shahid

**Excerpt:** Do you run a website that depends heavily on guest posts? Ever wondered how you can review those posts readers submit on your form?

It's a fairly common practice for most websites to offer their own composer on the front-end that ultimately leads to a published piece on the site, but the review process is just as important.

That's where the WPForms Post Submissions addon comes in, allowing you to create a form that accepts guest posts, while offering you control on the review process.

**Content:**

Do you run a website that depends heavily on guest posts? Ever wondered how you can review those posts that people submit via your form?

It’s a fairly common practice for most websites to offer their own composer on the front-end that ultimately leads to a published piece on the site, but the review process is just as important.

That’s where the WPForms Post Submissions addon comes in, allowing you to create a form that accepts guest posts, while offering you control on the review process.

[Create Your Post Submission Form Now! 🙂](https://wpforms.com/pricing)

## How to Moderate Guest Posts in WordPress

To moderate guest posts in WordPress, you can use WPForms and the Post Submissions Addon to set your submission form’s post status to **Pending Review**.

This way, every submission arrives unpublished, and then you can easily approve or reject each one from the **Pending** tab under **Posts**. Follow the steps below for the complete instructions:

- [Step 1: Install the WPForms Pro Plugin](#step-1-install-the-wpforms-pro-plugin)
- [Step 2: Build Your Post Submission Form](#step-2-build-your-post-submission-form)
- [Step 3: Set the Post Status That Holds Submissions](#step-3-set-the-post-status-that-holds-submissions)
- [Step 4: Get Notified the Moment a Submission Lands](#step-4-get-notified-the-moment-a-submission-lands)
- [Step 5: Review What Landed in Your Pending Queue](#step-5-review-what-landed-in-your-pending-queue)
- [Step 6: Keep Junk Out of the Queue in the First Place (Optional)](#step-6-keep-junk-out-of-the-queue-in-the-first-place-optional)

### Step 1: Install the WPForms Pro Plugin

WPForms is a drag-and-drop form builder for WordPress, and it ships with [2,100+ WordPress form templates](https://wpforms.com/templates/) covering everything from simple contact forms to guest post submissions.

What I like most about handling guest submissions through a form is that contributors never touch your dashboard. They fill in a page on the front end of your site, and WordPress builds the post for you.

The feature doing that work is the Post Submissions addon, which needs a Pro license or higher. That’s the tier to aim for if you want submissions arriving as real posts rather than entries you rebuild by hand.

[![The WPForms homepage](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/WPForms-Website.png)](https://wpforms.com/pricing/)To get started, buy the [Pro license](https://wpforms.com/pricing/). Then, install WPForms on your website. If you need help, follow these instructions on [how to add a plugin to WordPress](http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/step-by-step-guide-to-install-a-wordpress-plugin-for-beginners/).

[Upgrade to WPForms Pro Now! 🙂](https://wpforms.com/pricing)

### Step 2: Build Your Post Submission Form

Before you can moderate anything, you need a form that turns submissions into WordPress posts. This step covers only the parts moderation depends on.

Go to **WPForms » Addons** in your dashboard and find the **Post Submissions** addon. Click **Install Addon** and WPForms downloads and activates it for you.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/WPForms-Post-Submissions-Addon-1024x281.png)Once the addon is installed and activated, go to **WPForms » Add New Form** to start building the form that accepts user-submitted content.

![Add new](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/add-new-1024x545.png)WPForms opens its template picker rather than dropping you onto an empty canvas, and the one you want here is called **Blog Post Submission Form**.

![wpforms templates](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/wpforms-templates-1024x735.png)If you have something else in mind, you can also click on the **Generate with AI** button and enter a prompt based on the type of form you want to create and WPForms AI will build it for you.

![wpforms ai builder](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/enter-prompt-field-1024x698.png)Once you’ve selected a suitable template or generated your form with AI, WPForms will take you to the form builder screen where you can add, reorder, or remove fields as you like.

In general, if you are working on a form that accepts any sort of content through the front-end of your site, it’s a good idea to have the following fields:

- **Name** and **Email** so you know who sent it and can write back
- **Short Author Bio** for a byline
- **Post Title** and **Post Content** for the piece itself
- **Featured Image** as a file upload
- **Post Excerpt** for archive pages and search results
- **Category** as a dropdown

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/guest-post-submissions-form-1024x768.png)The template collects **Post Content** through a [Rich Text field](https://wpforms.com/docs/how-to-use-the-rich-text-field-in-wpforms/), which gives contributors a small editor with headings, links, and bold text.

Their formatting comes through with the submission, which saves you rebuilding it later. For a full walkthrough of every field and setting on this form, the [Post Submissions addon docs](https://wpforms.com/docs/how-to-install-and-use-the-post-submissions-addon-in-wpforms/) cover all of it.

### Step 3: Set the Post Status That Holds Submissions

This is the step that decides whether a submission goes live on its own or waits for you, and everything else in this guide sits on top of it.

In the form builder, click **Settings** in the left menu, then open the **Post Submissions** tab. Check that the **Enable Post Submissions** toggle is on, because nothing becomes a post without it.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/enable-post-submissions-1024x676.png)The dropdowns underneath connect your form fields to the parts of a WordPress post, and the template fills them in for you.

Check that **Post Title**, **Post Content**, and **Post Excerpt** point at the matching fields, and map **Post Featured Image** to your File Upload field.

Next is **Post Type**, which controls what kind of content gets created. Leave it on **Posts** for guest blog posts, or pick a custom post type if you’re collecting listings, events, or reviews instead.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/choose-post-type-1024x447.png)Now for the most important part of this tutorial, which is the **Post Status** setting. Use it for real moderating and determining what state a submitted post arrives in.

Both **Draft** and **Pending Review** keep that post away from visitors, so for form submissions the practical difference is where the posts end up.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/post-status-options-1024x447.png)WPForms ships the addon with Pending Review selected, and the Blog Post Submission Form template sets it too, so the safe behaviour is what you get before touching anything.

Now, the only option left is **Post Author**, and it decides whose name goes on the post. **Current User** credits logged-in contributors with their own work.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/post-author-1024x484.png)**Pro Tip**

Current User only works when the person submitting is logged in, so a guest submitting without an account gets attributed to whoever created the form, which is probably you.

With that in mind, pick a named editorial user if you accept anonymous submissions. You can also [assign categories and tags automatically](https://wpforms.com/developers/how-to-automatically-assign-tags-and-categories-to-post-submissions/) with a small snippet.

### Step 4: Get Notified the Moment a Submission Lands

A review queue only works if you know there’s something sitting in it, and your submission form already handles that without any extra notification plugin, emailing you every time somebody submits.

In the form builder, open **Settings » Notifications**. WPForms creates a **Default Notification** for every new form and switches it on for you.

Check the **Send To Email Address** field, which holds a smart tag pointing at your site’s admin address. Swap it for an editorial inbox if somebody else handles submissions.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/notifications-for-guest-posts-1024x675.png)Scroll down to the **Email Message** field and you’ll find an all-fields smart tag sitting in it, which drops the whole submission into the email body, so you can read the title, the content, and the author bio.

Point the **Reply-To** field at your form’s email field as well, so hitting reply in your inbox writes back to the contributor rather than to yourself.

If you want to go further, a snippet can [email yourself when a submission goes live](https://wpforms.com/developers/how-to-send-email-notification-on-post-submission-publish/), and another can [show submitters where their post ended up](https://wpforms.com/developers/how-to-include-post-submissions-post-url-in-the-confirmation-message/) in the confirmation they see after submitting.

### Step 5: Review What Landed in Your Pending Queue

With the pending review status set and notifications arriving, submissions start collecting in two places. WordPress gives you one queue, and WPForms gives you a second.

Head to **Posts » All Posts** in your dashboard and above the list you’ll see a row of status links, and clicking **Pending** filters the table down to the submissions waiting on you.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pending-posts-tab-1024x595.png)That’s your review queue, and your guest posts sit there invisible to visitors until you publish one yourself. Click a post title to open it in the editor.

You’ll see the submitted title, the content the contributor wrote, and a status reading **Pending** in the sidebar. Read it as you would any draft and edit freely, and then hit **Publish** whenever you’re ready.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pending-status-block-editor-1024x676.png)For the second queue, go to **WPForms » Entries** and open your submission form, where every row is one submission along with the contributor’s name and email address.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/wpforms-entries-list-for-form-1024x678.png)Click **View** on any entry and check the **Entry Details** panel on the right, where a **Post ID** row links straight through to the pending post.

![](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/entry-post-id-link-1024x456.png)That gives you two ways into the same submissions, and they suit different jobs.

Reading through content in bulk is easier from the Posts list, while the entries list wins when you need the person behind a submission.

The entries view is the one I reach for most, since it keeps a contributor’s contact details right next to a one-click jump to their post.

### Step 6: Keep Junk Out of the Queue in the First Place (Optional)

Moderation gets tiring when your queue fills up with things that were never going to run, so filter those submissions out before they ever become pending posts.

In the form builder, open **Settings » Spam Protection and Security** and toggle on **Enable modern anti-spam protection** which runs invisible checks that your visitors never see.

![Enable WPForms modern anti-spam protection.](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Enable-WPForms-Modern-Anti-Spam-Protection-1-1024x341.png)A submission caught by any spam check never reaches the post creation step, so it can’t turn up in your **Pending** queue at all. Filtering shrinks the queue rather than just flagging things inside it.

Scroll to the **Filtering** group and switch on **Enable keyword filter**. Add the words and phrases you’d rather not see, and WPForms rejects any submission containing them.

![Creating a list of keywords to filter from your forms](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/add-phrases-and-keywords-1024x774.png)There’s more in the same panel, including Akismet, CAPTCHA options, and a country filter. The docs walk through [every anti-spam control WPForms offers](https://wpforms.com/docs/how-to-prevent-spam-in-wpforms/) if you want the full set of [spam protection tools](https://wpforms.com/features/spam-protection/).

Sensible required fields help with user generated content moderation in WordPress too, since a form insisting on an excerpt and a category rarely receives one-line submissions.

**Pro Tip**

I understand that you may also be working with contributors you already trust don’t need reviewing every single time.

The [wpforms\_post\_submissions\_post\_args](https://wpforms.com/developers/wpforms_post_submissions_post_args/) filter lets you change the post status per submission, so trusted writers publish straight away while everybody else stays in the queue.

And that’s your moderation workflow in place, with your submission form holding everything back for review, emailing you when something arrives, and handing you a clean queue to work through.

### FAQs About Moderating Guest Posts in WordPress

#### What does Pending Review actually mean in WordPress?

Pending Review is a built-in WordPress post status meaning the content is finished and waiting for somebody with publishing rights to look at it.

WordPress already used it for contributors who can write but can’t publish, which makes it a natural fit for submissions from people with no dashboard account at all.

#### Can users edit their post after submitting it through the form?

No, the person who sent it can’t go back and change anything once the form has created the post. Editing it needs a WordPress account with the right role, so give a contributor an Author role if you want them revising their own work.

Should you want people creating accounts before they submit, you can let them [register accounts through a form](https://wpforms.com/docs/how-to-install-and-use-user-registration-addon-with-wpforms/) rather than setting each one up yourself.

#### Do I need WPForms Pro to moderate guest posts?

You need Pro or higher, because the Post Submissions addon is what turns a form entry into a WordPress post in the first place. Without it a submission stays an entry inside WPForms and never reaches your Posts list.

Moderation itself runs on standard WordPress post statuses, so the review workflow costs nothing beyond that.

#### Can I let trusted contributors publish without review?

You can do this with a small snippet, using a filter that runs just before WordPress creates the post.

The `wpforms_post_submissions_post_args` filter changes the status for submitters you choose, while everybody else keeps landing in Pending Review.

The usual approach checks the submitter’s email or user ID against a short allowlist, publishing only on a match.

#### What happens to a submission that gets flagged as spam?

A flagged submission never becomes a post at all, because post creation only runs once a submission has cleared validation and the spam checks. Anything caught earlier stops there and never reaches your Pending queue.

Depending on your settings it’s either stored as a spam entry you can review inside WPForms or rejected outright with an error.

#### Can I moderate submissions for custom post types?

You can, and the setting for it is already there.

The **Post Type** dropdown in the Post Submissions settings lists every public post type on your site, so a form can create events, listings, recipes, or anything else you’ve registered.

The status behaves the same whichever type you pick, so submitted custom post types wait in Pending Review just like blog posts.

#### Do I need a separate plugin for pending post notifications?

You don’t need a separate plugin for this at all. Your submission form’s own notification emails you on every submission and can carry the full submitted content, so you’ll hear about a pending post without installing anything else.

Editorial workflow plugins earn their place if you need multi-stage approvals across a bigger team, but the form notification covers reading and approving guest posts.

### Next, Attract More Guest Contributors to Your Blog

With a review process in place, the next thing you’ll want is more submissions coming in. Our guide on how to [get more guest post submissions](https://wpforms.com/how-to-get-more-guest-post-submissions-on-your-wordpress-blog/) covers the practical side of that, from where to put your submission page to what contributors want to see before they pitch you.

If you’d like richer submissions once they start arriving, [custom fields in user-submitted posts](https://wpforms.com/how-to-use-custom-fields-in-user-submitted-posts/) let contributors send things like a Twitter handle, a headshot credit, or a reading time along with the post itself.

[Create Your Post Submission Form Now! 🙂](https://wpforms.com/pricing)

Ready to build your form? Get started today with the easiest WordPress form builder plugin. [WPForms Pro](https://wpforms.com/pricing) includes lots of free templates and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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**Categories:** WordPress Tutorials

**Tags:** accept guest posts, post submissions addon, WPForms, wpforms pro

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