How to give a client access to Squarespace.
Your client needs to get into their site without being able to break the design. Here is how Squarespace contributor access works, which permissions to give, and what to avoid.
How Squarespace Access Works
Every Squarespace site has exactly one owner. Everyone else who can log in and work on the site is a contributor: a person with their own Squarespace account who has been invited to that site with a set of permissions. You never share your own login with a client, and you shouldn't. Each person signs in as themselves, and the owner or an administrator decides what they can touch.
Contributor access is managed in the Permissions & Ownership panel in the site's settings. Only the owner and administrators can invite contributors or change their permissions, so if you are building the site under your own account, you are the one who sets this up.
How many contributors you can add depends on the plan. Squarespace's help center lists one contributor besides the owner on the Basic plan (and the legacy Personal plan), unlimited contributors on Core, Plus, Advanced and the legacy Business and Commerce plans, and up to five on a trial site.
Invite Your Client as a Contributor
On a computer, the steps are short:
- Open the Permissions & Ownership panel.
- Click Invite Contributor.
- Enter your client's name and email address.
- Toggle on the permissions they need.
- Click Invite.
Your client gets an email asking them to log in to their Squarespace account or create a new one, so they don't need an account in advance. Until they accept, the invite sits under Invites Sent. If the email doesn't arrive, you can copy the invitation link from there and send it yourself, and you can still change the permissions before they accept.
Invite the client using the email address they actually check and will keep. If the site's ownership moves to them later, this is the account it moves to.
Choose the Right Permissions
Squarespace has a handful of roles you switch on per contributor. The ones that matter most when you're working with a client:
- Administrator: can do almost everything the owner can, including design changes and settings, but can't transfer ownership. Give this sparingly.
- Website editor: can add blocks, products and other content to existing pages, but can't add new pages, make style changes or add code. This is the safe default for most clients.
- Store manager: can add and reorder products, manage and fulfill orders, and add blog posts and events, but can't change shipping, tax or currency settings or connect payment processors.
- Billing: can change or cancel subscriptions and view invoices, but can't add or edit content.
- Comment moderator, Email Campaign editor, Analytics and Viewer: narrower roles for blog comments, email campaigns, analytics panels, and seeing a private or password-protected site.
For a typical small-business client, Website editor covers what they want to do day to day: change text, swap photos, update hours, post to the blog. Add Store manager if they run a shop, and Billing if they're paying for the subscription on a site you still own.
One limit to know before you promise anything: Squarespace doesn't support per-page editing permissions. You can't give a client access to the blog only, or lock the home page. If they can edit content, they can edit content anywhere on the site.
When to Give Administrator Access
Administrator is the role clients most often ask for and least often need. Only the owner and administrators can make design changes, so giving a client admin access during a build means they can change fonts, colors and spacing while you're still working on them. That is how a site ends up with two people editing the same styles and neither knowing why things moved.
A reasonable rule: Website editor during the build, and administrator or ownership only at handoff, when the site is theirs to run. If a client wants admin access mid-project, ask what they're trying to do. The answer is usually something Website editor already allows, or something you'd rather do for them anyway.
Changing or Removing Access Later
To change what someone can do, open Permissions & Ownership, click their name under Contributors, switch the toggles and click Save. Administrators can't change their own permissions, and when someone has administrator access, the other toggles are disabled because admin already includes them.
When a project ends, tidy up. Remove contributors who no longer need access, including old staff on the client's side and anyone from your team who worked on the build. If you're handing the site over entirely, the steps are different: see how to hand off a Squarespace website to a client.
Access Isn’t the Same as Communication
Giving a client access answers "can they get in?" It doesn't answer "how do they tell me what they want changed?" Once clients can see the site in the editor, they start noticing things, and the requests arrive by text, email and screenshots with arrows drawn on them. Decide up front where change requests go, and tell the client when you send the invite. A short note works: "You can edit text and photos yourself. For anything else, send it to me through [the channel you use]."
Where Bridge Fits
Bridge doesn't manage Squarespace permissions. That stays in the Permissions & Ownership panel. What it adds is the second half: a place for the client to ask for changes once they're in. You paste the Bridge Code into the site's Header Code Injection, and a widget appears in the corner of the Squarespace editor. It never shows on the live site.
Clients who already have contributor access see the widget when they open the editor, and can chat with you or pin a task to the exact spot on the page they want changed. Clients who don't need editor access at all can use the project's chat page instead. Either way they're members of the project, invited by email and signed in with an emailed link, with up to three members per project. See how members work.
Code Injection needs a Squarespace plan that includes it (Core, Plus, Advanced or some legacy plans), so Bridge won't install on a Basic plan site. Plans start at $19 a month for five sites, with a 14-day free trial.
Common Questions
How do I add someone to my Squarespace website?
Open the Permissions & Ownership panel, click Invite Contributor, enter their name and email, toggle on their permissions and click Invite. They can accept with an existing Squarespace account or create a new one.
What permission should I give a client on Squarespace?
Website editor suits most clients: they can change content on existing pages but can't add pages, change styles or add code. Add Store manager for shops and Billing if they pay for the subscription.
Can I limit a Squarespace contributor to certain pages?
No. Squarespace doesn't support per-page editing permissions, so a contributor who can edit content can edit it on every page.
How many contributors can a Squarespace site have?
Squarespace lists one contributor besides the owner on Basic, unlimited on Core, Plus, Advanced and legacy Business and Commerce plans, and up to five on trial sites.
Does a client need a Squarespace account to be a contributor?
They need one to accept, but not in advance. The invitation email lets them log in to an existing account or create a new one.
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