Require member registration to access private content

With memberships, you can manage which visitors can access specific content you've created. Contacts who can access private content are sorted into access groups.

Based on your account subscription, you can configure private content settings for different content types:

• If you have a Service Hub Professional or Enterprise account, you can configure private content settings for knowledge base articles and a customer portal.
• If you have a Content Hub Professional or Enterprise account, you can set up private content settings for website or landing pages, as well as blog posts.

Please note: if your account has a legacy CMS Hub Professional subscription, you will not be able to access memberships. To use access groups, you'll need Content Hub Professional or Enterprise instead. Learn more about the tools available in Content Hub in the HubSpot Product & Services Catalog.

Before you get started

Before you begin working with this feature, make sure to fully understand what steps should be taken ahead of time, as well as the limitations of the feature and potential consequences of using it. 

Understand requirements

• Users must have Edit permissions for segments to edit access groups.

Understand limitations & considerations

• Accounts with a Professional subscription can have up to two access groups. Accounts with an Enterprise subscription can have up to 100 access groups.

• Private content features only work for connected subdomains that you own that are the primary or secondary subdomains for their content types. Membership access won’t be activated for content published on default subdomains in your HubSpot account (e.g.,hs-sites.com).

• Password-protected content won't be included in search engine indexes, but sensitive data won't be encrypted.
  • HubSpot sends a response like no-index for password-protected pages.
  • Search engines won't include the page in the search index, but they can still crawl the URL. To stop search engines from crawling the URL, you can disallow it in your robot.txt file.
• Passwords for private content must meet these criteria:
  • Doesn't contain parts of the registration username.
  • Doesn't contain alphabetical sequences (e.g., abcde), numerical sequences (e.g., 12345), repeated characters (e.g., aaa) or qwerty sequences (e.g., qwert) from your keyboard.
  • Has one of these character combinations: 
    • At least eight characters and three of the following: an uppercase letter, lowercase letter, a number, or a symbol.
    • At least ten characters and two of the following: an uppercase letter, lowercase letter, a number, or a symbol.
    • At least twelve characters. 
• Passwords aren’t accessible from the UI, so it isn't possible for a user to look up a contact’s membership sign-in password. Passwords are securely stored on HubSpot's servers according to the latest industry recommendations and standards.

Create static access groups

In a static access group, contacts are added manually, either as individual contacts or as members of static lists. 

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Content > Memberships.
2. Click Create access group. 
3. In the Access group name field, enter a group name. You can also enter a description of the group in the Description field. 
4. In the Select an access group type section, select Static, then click Next.

5. Click the Give access to dropdown menu, then type the name of a contact or static list. Select the checkbox next to each contact or list you want to add.
6. When you've added all contacts, click Next. 
7. Review the contacts and lists you're adding to the access group, then click Create group. 
8. To edit the access group, click the Actions dropdown menu and select Edit. 
9. To delete the access group, click the Actions dropdown menu and select Delete. 

Create dynamic access groups

In a dynamic access group, contacts are automatically added based on filters. 

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Content > Memberships.
2. Click Create access group. 
3. In the Access group name field, enter a group name. You can also enter a description of the group in the Description field. 
4. In the Select an access group type section, select Dynamic, and then click Next.

5. Set up your filter criteria, then click Next. 
6. Review the preview of contacts in the group, then click Create group. 

Limit content access to access groups

Once you've set up your access groups, you can limit access to posts, pages, articles, and your customer portal to those access groups.

Making content private sends a registration email to the members of the associated access groups. This registration email will come from an email sending domain, if connected, and will otherwise come from the domain where the content is published. 

Registration related emails will send to a contact's member email property.

Please note: a maximum of 25,000 registration emails will be sent once an access group is associated with a piece of content. Contacts who have already received a registration email will not receive any additional registration emails.

Limit blog access to access groups

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Content > Blog
3. In the Current View section, click the first dropdown menu and select a blog.
4. In the Control audience access section, select Access group membership required.
5. Click the dropdown menu and select the checkbox next to each access group that will have access.

6. If more than ten registration emails will be sent upon publication, select the checkbox that appears. 
7. When finished, click Save to apply your changes. 

Limit page access to access groups

1. Navigate to your content:

   • Website Pages: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Content > Website Pages.
   • Landing Pages: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Content > Landing Pages.
2. Click the name of your content. 
3. In the content editor, click Settings in the top right. 
4. In the dialog box, click select Audience Access in the left menu.
5. Select Access group membership required.
6. Click the dropdown menu and select the checkboxes next to the access groups you want to register for access to this page. 

7. If more than ten registration emails will be sent upon publication, select the checkbox that appears. 
8. Click the X in the top right of the dialog box to resume editing. 
9. When you are finished editing, click Publish or Update in the top right.

Limit knowledge base article access to access groups 

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Knowledge Base.
2. Click the name of your article. 
3. In the article editor, click Settings in the top right. 
4. In the dialog box, click Control audience access on the left menu.
5. Select Access group membership required. 
6. Click the dropdown menu and select the checkboxes next to the access groups you want to register for access to this article. 

7. If more than ten registration emails will be sent upon publication, select the checkbox that appears. 
8. When you are finished editing, click Publish or Update in the top right.

Limit customer portal access to access groups

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal.
2. Click the Advanced tab and then click Access. 
3. In the Access Control section, select Access group membership required. 
4. Click the dropdown menu and select the checkboxes next to the access groups you want to register for access to your customer portal. 

5. If more than ten registration emails will be sent upon publication, select the checkbox that appears. 
6. In the bottom left, click Save. 

Export membership data

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to Content > Memberships.
2. Click the Analyze tab.
3. In the upper right, click Actions, then select Save dashboard.
4. In the right panel, select the checkbox next to reports to include or exclude it in the dashboard, then click Next.
5. Enter a name for the dashboard, and select who can access it, then click Create dashboard.
6. Click View dashboard.
7. On the dashboard, click the verticalMenuIcon ellipses icon in the upper right of any report and select Export unsummarized data.
8. In the dialog box, enter a name for the export.
9. Click the File format dropdown menu and select a file format (e.g., CSV).
10. When finished, click Export. Once the export is processed, you'll receive a download link through email and in the notification center.