Skip to main content
Delegate access

Give them access, not your password

Invite a developer, an agency, your accountant or a security reviewer. Each signs in as themselves, and you decide which hosting accounts they reach, which features they use, and whether they can change anything or only look.

14 days free. No credit card. No commitment.

Their own login

Never your password

Same price

On renewal, every year

99.99%

Uptime, last 12 mo

Daily

Backups kept up to 30 days

E

210+

Tasks Ellie handles

Two kinds of access

Everything, or exactly what they need

Full access is delegate access as it has always worked. Custom access is where you decide, feature by feature, what each person can do.

Full access

Every hosting account and every site you have, with the right to change anything in them. Right for a partner who runs the whole thing with you.

Your invoices, payment methods and audit log are not part of it. Even with full access, a delegate sees their own billing pages, never yours.

Custom access

Pick the hosting accounts - all of them, including ones you add later, or only the ones you tick. Then set each feature to none, view or edit, starting from a preset or from nothing. Your invoices, payment methods and audit log can be added, view only.

  • Per hosting account
  • None, view or edit
  • Five presets
  • Invoices only, if you like
  • Changes apply at once
  • Ellie follows it too

What you can share

Every feature, set to none, view or edit

These are the switches on the access screen, grouped the same way. Anything you leave at none is refused, and a feature we add later follows the default you picked for the rest.

On your sites and domains

  • Websites and domains
  • DNS
  • SSL certificates
  • Security and firewall
  • Caching and PHP
  • WordPress and apps
  • Email
  • Deployments
  • Monitoring and logs

Across a whole hosting account

  • File manager
  • Databases
  • FTP users
  • SSH keys
  • Terminal - on or off
  • Cron jobs
  • Backups
  • Restoring backups
  • Site migrations

From your own account, view only

  • Billing and invoices
  • Payment methods
  • Audit log

Your data, not the hosting. It is never implied by anything else - not by a view-everything default, not by full access. You tick it or it stays yours.

Why files and databases cover the whole account

Every site in a hosting account runs as the same system user, so file, database, FTP, SSH, cron and backup access reaches every site in that account. That is why those can only ever be granted for a whole account, and why one account per client is the cleanest way to separate people.

Starting points

Five presets, and full access

A preset fills in the form. Change any box and it becomes your own custom access - the name never claims more than the boxes say.

  • Full access

    Everything in every hosting account, able to change anything. Delegate access as it always worked - for a partner who runs the whole thing with you.

  • Website manager

    Edit sites, DNS, SSL, security, caching and PHP, WordPress and monitoring. No files, databases, terminal, email or backups.

  • Developer

    Edit every hosting feature except two: email, because mailboxes hold people's private mail, and restoring backups, because a restore overwrites the live site. Tick either back on if they need it.

  • Accountant

    Your invoices, receipts and subscriptions, view only, and no hosting accounts at all. Payment methods stay off unless you add them.

  • Security auditor

    View every hosting feature across all your accounts, plus your audit log. Nothing can be changed, and no secret is shown.

  • Read-only

    View every hosting feature and change nothing. Handy for a client who wants to see what is going on without the risk of pressing the wrong button.

How it works

From invite to revoke

Nobody shares a password at any point, which is the whole idea.

  1. Invite them by email

    From Delegate access in your panel. If they do not have a Hostney login yet, the invitation waits for them and carries the access you chose.

  2. Choose full or custom

    For custom, start from a preset or from nothing, pick the hosting accounts, and set each feature to none, view or edit.

  3. They accept and switch in

    They sign in as themselves and switch into your account from their own. Their password, their two-factor, their session - never yours.

  4. Change it whenever you like

    Edit access on their entry. The new access applies on their next click, not after they sign out and back in.

  5. Revoke in one click

    Their very next request is refused, and from then on they are back in their own account. Your credentials never change, because they never had them.

For agencies and freelancers

The client owns the account and pays for it directly. You work inside it with your own login, limited to what the job needs, and your changes show up in their audit log as yours. When the engagement ends, they revoke you and nothing has to move.

One login, many clients

Everyone who invites you shows up in your own panel, and you switch between their accounts from there. Each client decides separately what you can do.

The details

What makes view only mean view only

Access control is easy to describe and easy to get subtly wrong. These are the decisions that keep it honest.

  • View never hands out a secret

    Private SSH and TLS keys, environment variables, backup download links and access tokens all need edit access. A view-only delegate can look at the configuration without walking off with it.

  • Browsing a backup is not restoring one

    Restoring backups is its own switch, because a restore overwrites a live site. Someone can check what a backup contains without being able to roll anything back.

  • The terminal is on or off

    There is no watching a shell without typing into it, so the terminal has no view level. It is separate from SSH keys, so managing keys does not hand over a shell, and a shell does not come with key management.

  • Cards and invoices are separate

    Payment methods show masked cards and your full billing address, which an accountant rarely needs. They are their own switch, and the accountant preset leaves them off.

  • Every change has their name on it

    What a delegate changes lands in your audit log under their name, not yours. When something moved, the log says who moved it.

  • Outside their access means refused

    Every request is checked on our side against the access you gave, and anything outside it is refused with a message saying so. It does not depend on a button being hidden.

Ellie follows the same access

A delegate can ask Ellie anything their access allows, and nothing more. She sees only the hosting accounts you picked, looks things up where they can view, proposes changes only where they can edit, and refuses the rest with a reason - the same checks as the panel, on our side. Their chats with her are private to them, and changing or revoking their access clears them.

Good to know

Where the edges are today

Everything above works now. These are the limits, stated plainly so they are not a surprise.

  • The smallest unit is a hosting account

    Custom access is scoped per hosting account. A single site inside an account that hosts several cannot be singled out yet - which is one more reason to give each client their own account.

  • What they create stays behind

    FTP users, SSH keys, database users and mailbox app passwords a delegate creates belong to your account, and they outlive the access. When you revoke someone, remove those too. The access screen reminds you.

  • Some of your data is not shareable yet

    Support tickets and domain registrations cannot be shared yet. The access screen lists them as coming later.

What it sits next to

Access is one layer of the account

Delegate access decides who gets in and what they can touch. These decide what happens around it.

  • The audit log

    Every create, update and delete, with who did it and the value before and after. Delegates, Ellie and you, in one place.

  • One-click WordPress login

    A delegate with edit access to WordPress reaches wp-admin from the panel without anyone sharing a WordPress password.

  • Passkeys and two-factor

    Each delegate secures their own login. Their sign-in protects their access; yours protects yours.

Pricing

Simple, transparent pricing

Every plan includes managed WordPress, SSH access, daily backups, and enterprise-grade security. Start with a 14-day free trial.

Startup

Great for growing businesses

$7.99/mo

$94.99 billed annually

  • 1 website
  • 10 GB storage
  • ~10,000 visits/month
  • 5 MySQL databases
  • 250,000 inodes
  • 5 FTP users

What's included:

SSL & Domain

  • Free SSL certificate
  • Free starter domain

Email

  • 2 mailboxes
  • 3 GB per mailbox
  • Webmail, IMAP and SMTP
Most popular

Advanced

For professional websites

$14.99/mo

$179.99 billed annually

  • 5 websites
  • 20 GB storage
  • ~110,000 visits/month
  • 10 MySQL databases
  • 500,000 inodes
  • 10 FTP users

Everything in Startup, plus:

Email

  • 5 mailboxes
  • 5 GB per mailbox

Backups

  • 14 days of backup history

Performance

  • Memcached object cache
  • Redis object cache

Pro

Maximum performance and features

$22.99/mo

$274.99 billed annually

  • 10 websites
  • 40 GB storage
  • ~200,000 visits/month
  • 20 MySQL databases
  • 750,000 inodes
  • 20 FTP users

Everything in Advanced, plus:

Email

  • 10 mailboxes
  • 10 GB per mailbox

Deployment

  • 2 SSR applications

Backups

  • 30 days of backup history

Monitoring

  • 1 minute between checks

On every plan

Stop sharing the password

Delegate access is part of every plan, including the trial. Invite someone, choose what they can do, and take it back whenever you like.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between full and custom access?
Full access is everything in every hosting account, with the right to change anything - delegate access as it always worked. Custom access lets you choose the hosting accounts and set every feature to none, view or edit, and it is the only way to share your invoices, payment methods or audit log, always view only.
Does the person need a Hostney account first?
No. Invite them by email. If they do not have a login yet, the invitation waits, and the access you chose applies the moment they sign up. They need a login, not a hosting plan of their own.
Can I give my accountant the invoices and nothing else?
Yes. The accountant preset shares billing and invoices, view only, with no hosting accounts at all. Payment methods are a separate switch, because they include your billing address - add them only if your accountant needs them.
Can a security reviewer see everything without being able to change it?
Yes. The security auditor preset gives view access to every hosting feature across all your accounts, plus your audit log. View never includes secrets: private keys, environment variables and backup downloads need edit access.
Can I limit someone to one website?
Yes, when that website has its own hosting account, because custom access is scoped per hosting account. A single site inside an account that hosts several cannot be singled out yet.
What happens when I revoke someone?
Their access ends on their next click - they do not keep it until they sign out. Anything they created with it, such as an FTP user or an SSH key, stays in your account, so remove those as well.
Can I change someone's access later?
Yes, with Edit access on their entry, including invitations that have not been accepted yet. The new access applies on their next click.
Will I see what they did?
Yes. Every change a delegate makes is recorded in your audit log under their name, so you can tell their changes from yours.
Can a delegate see my invoices or change my login?
Your invoices, payment methods and audit log are shared only when you tick them, and only to view - not even full access includes them. Your password, two-factor and notification settings are never shared, and a delegate cannot invite anyone else into your account.
Does Ellie work for delegates?
Yes. With full access she works for them exactly as she works for you, and the two of you share one chat history. With custom access she is held to the access you gave, on our side: only the hosting accounts you picked, look-ups where they can view, changes only where they can edit, and everything else refused with a reason. What the panel keeps behind edit access, such as backup download links, stays out of a view-only delegate's chats too. Their chats with her are private to them - you do not see theirs, they do not see yours - and changing or revoking their access clears them.
Does it cost extra?
No. Delegate access is part of every plan. A delegate works under your plan, so what they create counts toward your limits, not theirs.

Recent articles