Keeping your feedback in mind, we’ve continually improved the Hepsia Control Panel to make it more versatile and adaptable.

Recently, we’ve introduced an option for users to access Hepsia as a PWA-based app making it more lightweight and easier to access. 

And now, we are enhancing its accessibility by enabling account owners to create guest users and assign specific management rights to other users.

What is a guest user?

A guest user is in effect a user profile created by the master account owner to delegate access to certain areas of the account to others. 

It is a great tool for site owners seeking collaboration on a specific project. It allows them to work with others – friends, coworkers, developers, or web designers, etc. without having to share their personal login.

By customizing third-party access permissions, account owners can ensure that only relevant information is visible to others and thus maintain overall account privacy.

How to create a guest user profile?

New guest user profiles can be created by the master account owner only.

Creating a guest user profile takes a few simple steps as listed below:

1. Go to the Guest User Manager. The newly created Hepsia section is accessible from the profile menu in the top right corner of the screen.
   
   Just click on the account’s name to pull up the drop-down menu and select Guest User Manager from it:
   

2. In the Guest Users Manager section, click on the ‘Create guest user‘ button on the top right:
   

3. Specify the email address of the new guest user you want to create and set an expiration date.
   
   To create a guest user with no expiration date, simply leave the field blank:
   

4. In the ‘Domain Access’ tab, you can grant access to all or to selected domains within your account.
   
   If you want to allow access to all domain names, select the ‘Access to all domains’ box:
   
   Also, you can specify whether you want to grant access to all mailboxes associated with the domains. To do that, just mark the ‘Manage all mailboxes’ option.
   
   Another option you have is to allow the new guest user to add new domains to the account (the ‘Add new hosted domains’ checkbox);

5. If you want to grant access to a specific domain name(s) within the account, just mark the corresponding ‘Domain access’ box(es) as shown below;
   
   Also, you can specify whether you authorize the guest user to create subdomains and/or manage the mailboxes associated with the selected domains by marking the corresponding checkboxes.

6. In the ‘Database Access’ tab, you can grant access to all or to selected PgSQL/MySQL databases within your account.
   
   To grant access to all databases, just mark ‘Access to all PgSQL databases’ or ‘Access to all MySQL databases’, as illustrated below:
   
   Then, you can authorize the guest user to create new databases by checking the ‘Allow creation of new PgSQL databases’ or the ‘Allow creation of new MySQL databases’ option.
   
   With full access to all MySQL/PgSQL databases., the guest user can also install applications through the 1-click Web Apps Installer.
   
   To grant access to specific databases, click on the PgSQL databases/MySQL databases field and select them from the list.
   


7. When done with all settings, hit the ‘Create Guest User’ button.
   

   NOTE: А master account can have more than one guest user with the same level of access.

   The newly-created guest profile will be instantly added to the section’s table of guest user profiles.
   
   From there, the master account owner will be able to log into the profile, edit its details, change its expiration date (if such), activate and deactivate it or delete the profile when they do not need it anymore:
   
   

   NOTE: If an account owner logs into a guest account, he or she will be automatically logged out of the master account as well.

Meanwhile, our system will send an email to the new guest user profile owner at the specified email address. 

The email will contain a link to set their password as well as a link for accessing their profile.

What are the access/permission rights of a guest user?

Each guest user profile can have its own access and permission rights depending on the specific project the master account owner wants to delegate rights.

NOTE: The master account can change a guest user’s permissions at any time, even if that user is currently logged in.

Here is a quick overview of the available permissions per section (all of the actions will be applicable to a specific profile only):

General Settings
permissions: password change; theme change;

File Manager
accessibility: file management for the domains the profile is delegated access to;
permissions: file creation, editing, deletion, etc. 

FTP Manager
accessibility: section accessible if the user has been granted access to all domains within the account;
permissions: FTP account creation; editing.

Databases (MySQL/PgSQL)
accessibility: section accessible if the user has been granted access to one or all databases within the account;
permissions: management of existing databases, creation of new databases (if authorized).

Advanced
accessibility: section accessible if the user has been granted access to any domains/subdomains; 
permissions: PHP version change, URL redirection, and Password protection for the authorized domains.

Statistics
accessibility: section accessible if the user has been granted access to any/all domains/subdomains; Access and Error logs visible if the user has access to all domains; 
permissions: Server Information, Web and Traffic Stats for the authorized domains.

Web Tools 
accessibility: section accessible if the user has been granted access to any/all domains/subdomains; 
permissions: website creation via the Site Builder for the domains the user has been granted access to.

Setting up a guest user on multiple accounts using a single email address

A guest user’s email address can be delegated access rights by different master accounts. 

In such cases, when a guest user logs into a newly created profile with the same email address, they will be asked if they want to make use of this account or not. 

If they do not need access, this guest user profile will be disabled and no further access will be permitted.

Creating guest user profiles across different services

Guest users are available with most shared hosting plans, the two semi-dedicated servers, and with all Hepsia-enabled VPS plans and dedicated servers, as follows:

Shared hosting plans:

The Profile Manager section is enabled by default for the Business, Corporate and Enterprise shared hosting plans. However, the quota limits differ depending on the plan.

It will be available as an upgrade for the Starter plan as well as for all other plans if the users reach their profile quotas. 

You will be able to add it as a feature (3 guest users) from the Plan Builder as well. 

NOTE: Guest users will not be included in existing custom plans, so you will have to add this feature if you want to make them available to your customers.

Dedicated Server plans:

Semi-dedicated servers that come with the Hepsia Control Panel by default, and dedicated servers that are pre-installed with Hepsia, provide users with an initial quota of 30 accounts and an upgrade option.

VPS plans:

OpenVZ or KVM plans that come with Hepsia pre-installed are allocated a specific guest user quota based on the selected setup. Users will also have the option to upgrade to additional profiles if needed.

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The Guest User Manager option is another valuable feature aimed at improving the functionality of the Hepsia Control Panel. 

Apart from helping to enhance the user engagement of your services, it can also be used as a powerful marketing tool to attract new customers.