Private site (members only)

A private site is visible only to signed-in members. Everyone else sees a landing page with a login form and a Request Access button, and nobody can sign up on their own: you decide who gets an account.

It suits closed communities: a marketplace for a company’s staff, a school, a club or a group of trade partners.

Make your site private

1. Go to Settings › General.
2. In Access & privacy, switch on Private Site.
3. Optionally choose a page in Private Site Landing Page Content (see below).
4. Click Save changes.

Open your site in a private browser window to see what visitors now get.

What visitors see

Signed-out visitors get the private-site landing page on every address of your site, including listings, search and the sign-up page. It shows:

• your site name and “This is a private website, you need to login to see the content!”, or the page you chose in Private Site Landing Page Content;
• a login form with Email, Password and Remember me;
• a Request Access button.

Search engines get the same page, marked so it isn’t indexed, so your listings drop out of search results.

Write your own landing page

The default message is short. To explain what your community is and who may join:

1. Create a page in Pages with a title and the text you want, for example “Members’ marketplace of the Riverside Sailing Club”. See Pages.
2. Choose it in Settings › General › Private Site Landing Page Content and click Save changes.

Add members

On a private site you create every account yourself:

• one at a time with Add user on the Users page, or
• many at once with Import users.

No welcome email is sent when you add someone, so tell them their email and password yourself, and ask them to change the password from their profile.

Access requests

When a visitor clicks Request Access and sends their name and email address, you receive an email titled “Access Request” at your site’s notification address (see Email settings). Reply to it to say yes or no, and create the account if you accept. Requests from addresses that already have an account are refused with “User already exists”.

Things to know

• Password resets: members can’t use Forgot password? while they’re signed out, because that page is private too. If someone forgets their password, set a new one for them in Users (they get it by email).
• Links in emails: links in your site’s emails that normally sign members in automatically only work after the member has signed in.
• Social login and phone login aren’t offered on the private landing page.
• Signed-in members of every role can see and use the whole site as normal: post listings, send messages and so on.

Private site or maintenance mode?

• Private site keeps the site open to signed-in members of every role. Use it for a permanent members-only marketplace.
• Maintenance mode hides the site from everyone except administrators and moderators. Use it while you build or make big changes.

If you only want to hide listing details or the contact form from visitors, you don’t need a private site: use Require Login to View Listing or Require Login to Contact in Listings › Settings. See Listing page and form fields.

Related guides

• Manage users — add and manage members.
• Sign-up and login settings — or limit sign-ups to certain email domains instead.
• Pages — write the landing page text.