Students who can access your entire course on day one will binge it. By week three they are stuck, overwhelmed, or gone — and asking for refunds. You built the course as a week-by-week journey, but your delivery system does not enforce that pace.

Content Time Lock fixes this without a $179-per-year membership plugin. You set an unlock date on any post or page. Until that date, students see a message you write instead of the content. When the date arrives, the content unlocks automatically — no manual steps, no developer help required.

What you can do with it:

Lock any post, page, or custom post type until a date and time you pick. Set the unlock date right inside the post editor, one field, one click. Works with standard posts, pages, and any custom post type.
Show students a live countdown timer. While the content is locked, students see a ticking timer — “Unlocks in 3 days, 4 hours, 12 minutes.” Three display styles to choose from: simple text, flip-card, or circular. When the countdown hits zero, the page tells them the content just unlocked and prompts a refresh.
Restrict by user role. Choose whether to lock content for all logged-in users, specific roles only, or guest visitors. Administrators always see everything regardless of lock settings.
Write your own locked-state message. Replace the default placeholder text with whatever you want students to see — HTML supported. Set a global default and override it per post when you need different messages for different lessons.
Add a call-to-action button on the locked screen. Point students somewhere useful while they wait — a prerequisite lesson, a community forum, or a welcome page. Custom label and URL, toggled per post.

What this plugin does not do: Content Time Lock has no payment processing, no email opt-in gates, and no membership tiers — it locks and unlocks content by date and user role, nothing else.