Add Additional Users

This guide will show you how to invite developers, clients, and any other contributors to create their own user accounts on your site for easy collaboration and task delegation.

Site Owner

The user who created the site is considered the site owner and is automatically assigned the administrator role. The site owner can transfer the site ownership to another administrator.

For simplicity, it’s recommended to keep all site purchases under one account (usually the owner’s). However, any site administrator can purchase a WordPress.com plan and add a domain name to the site. No purchase owner can access the purchases and stored payment details added by the site owner or other administrators. 

Purchases can be transferred between administrators as follows:

• To transfer a domain to another site administrator, follow the steps to Transfer a Domain to Another WordPress.com Account.
  • Note: Email subscriptions (Google Workspace or Professional Email) must be owned by the account which owns the corresponding domain. When a domain is transferred between accounts (or between sites on the same account), the email subscription is automatically transferred with it; no extra steps are required.
• To transfer a plan or other purchase to another site administrator, the current purchase owner can contact support for assistance.

Sites with an active WordPress.com plan cannot be deleted without the plan being canceled first. Therefore, if the administrator does not own the plan on the site, they will not be able to delete the site.

Add a New User

Any administrator can create additional users to share access to the site. To add a new user, take the following steps:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
2. On the left side, go to Users > Add New User.
3. Fill out all required fields with your user’s information as well as their role to determine the level of permission their account will have. You may also wish to include their first and last name, website, and/or a custom message.
   • The Password field will automatically generate and will be sent to the new user via the email address provided. Click the “Generate password” button to create a new one.
4. Click the “Add New User” button to send an email invitation to your user.

On this page, there is a notice that the invited users will be able to use WordPress.com SSO for login. See below for details.

User Roles

Select from one of the following default roles for the user:

• Administrator: This is the highest level of permission and is typically assigned to developers. Admins have the power to access developer tools, performance features, platform features, and content editing. Only some billing permissions are restricted – see the Site Owner section for details.
• Editor: Has access to all posts, pages, comments, categories, and tags and can upload media.
• Author: Can write, upload media, edit, and publish their own posts.
• Contributor: Has no publishing or uploading capability but can write and edit their own posts until they are published.
• Viewer: Viewers can read and comment on posts and pages on private sites.
• Subscriber: People who subscribe to your site’s updates.

Plugins may create additional user roles or modify what a role has permission to do. For example, when you install WooCommerce, two additional user roles are created: Customer and Shop Manager. Check a plugin’s documentation for more information on roles added by that plugin.

Accept an Invite

Any invited user will receive an email with a link to accept your invitation. When they click the “Accept invitation” button in the email, they will be prompted to either log into an existing WordPress.com account or create a new WordPress.com account to join the site.

WordPress.com SSO

Two types of user accounts are possible on the WordPress.com platform: 

• WordPress.com Users: People who log in via WordPress.com to access your site after you grant them access.
• Local Users: People who log in via yoursiteaddress.com/wp-admin after you create their user account (either manually or by a plugin.)

WordPress.com Secure Sign-On (SSO) automatically links a verified WordPress.com user account to the newly created local account with a matching email address. This adds an extra layer of security to your website and enables users to log in with just one set of username/password credentials.