Gated Topics in Category

[Discourse]

	Summary	Gated Topics in Category allows site admins to show a login prompt that covers the topic contents in specific categories or tags to encourage readers to signup/log in or join a group.
	Preview	Preview on Discourse Theme Creator (view in an incognito window)
	Repository Link	https://github.com/discourse/discourse-gated-topics-in-category
	New to Discourse Themes?	Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes

Install this theme component

As this is an official theme component maintained by the Discourse team, Support, Contribute > Bug, Contribute > UX, and Contribute > Feature requests can be made in the respective categories here on Meta, and tagged with the appropriate theme component tag. Click on a link below to get one started.

 Support  Bug  UX  Feature

Features

Settings

Name	Description
enabled categories	Choose which categories users need to sign up for
enabled tags	Choose which tags users need to sign up for. The default is ‘gated’.
enabled groups	Choose which groups users need to be a member of to view the content. Leave empty to allow all logged-in users
group custom button link	Optionally specify a custom URL for the call-to-action button for groups

Translation	Default
heading_text	This area is for members only
subheading_text	Create an account to view this content
signup_cta_label	Sign Up
login_cta_label	Already have an account? Sign in
group_subheading_text	You need to be a group member to view this content
group_cta_label	Show Group

Credits

Thanks to these fine folks for helping build it: @pmusaraj, @tshenry, and @cvx

Hosted by us? Theme components are available to use on our Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans.

Last edited by @tshenry 2026-03-20T03:25:53Z

Check document

Perform check on document:

[jrgong]

Oh my god, this is epic! I already feel that this should eventually become part of core

[dokus]

Thank you for this, its more than useful because i have daily almost 80-120 000 pageviews trough organic traffic but barely new members, this is gonna change it!

Thank you again @ella

[pinkd]

This is a good job!
The design is sophisticated.

I also like guest gate.

Guest Gate Theme Component

Hello This theme component is created from Guest Gate (Sign Up Popup Plugin). It can lock topics for anon visitors with a modal and force them to Sign Up or Login. The component can be use for an alert modal, encouraging visitors to sign up but allowing them to close the modal (for this, leave the dismissable false setting unchecked). Options include changing the number of topics that can be viewed before the modal is displayed. [Screenshot 2022-04-23 at 22.05.29] Tip: If you use the …

[tmn (Tran Nhat)]

@ella

GitHub - discourse/discourse-gated-topics-in-category: This theme component restricts users from accessing topics from specific categories. A prompt will be displayed to encourage logins.

thank you, this is awesome!

[Tiago_santos]

@ella I love your plugin and I really wish it had the ability to customize the login and Signup URL, would this be possible with an update?

[digitaldominica]

Hi is it possible to set a trust level for this component? So instead of signing up I would get users to reach level 2 before viewing the content. As i’m trying to avoid users just registering for free and not participating in the forum growth overall.

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

You should have a look at this plugin Discourse Category Lockdown

[David_Ghost]

It’s works with search engine? is the content still crawlable by robots?

[Jagster (Jakke Flemming)]

Hopefully not, because lying to Google that content is free and that’s why good to show as search result is really fast way to kill all SEO.

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

You can have your cake and eat it too - you don’t have to lie to Google in order to have it crawlable.

The Category Lockdown plugin lets Googlebot in and uses structured data to indicate that it’s paywalled content.

[patrickemin]

One of the most useful component !

[patrickemin]

This component just stopped working today on my sites (three of them)…

Tested on Firefox, Edge, Chrome, PC and mobile, no more filtering on category names or tags…

Help !

[Moin]

@patrickemin

This component just stopped working today on my sites (three of them)…

Can you share an example where it does not work? The preview on the theme creator works fine for me, and on the forums that are linked in your profile, it seems to work as well.

[Lilly (Lillian)]

Macbook / Chrome

Macbook Safari

[patrickemin]

Thanks for testing, it seems I made a confusion between viewing a list and viewing a topic, this component does not prevent viewing a list and topics excerpts, it only prevents viewing threads is it?

[Moin]

This only hides a part of the post.

I think Category Previews could be what you actually want @lilly’s suggestion is probably better.

[Lilly (Lillian)]

Not sure what your use case is, but you can also have a look at

Guest Gate Theme Component

Hello This theme component is created from Guest Gate (Sign Up Popup Plugin). It can lock topics for anon visitors with a modal and force them to Sign Up or Login. The component can be use for an alert modal, encouraging visitors to sign up but allowing them to close the modal (for this, leave the dismissable false setting unchecked). Options include changing the number of topics that can be viewed before the modal is displayed. [Screenshot 2022-04-23 at 22.05.29] Tip: If you use the …

[patrickemin]

Thanks I’ll have a look at theses other components.