Why should I provide my web developer access to my hosting account?
It’s a common practice for your web developer to ask you to provide them with access to your web hosting account so that they work on your website. While this is a valid request, you still want to be careful who you give access to and what level of access you give to them.
Things to consider
Before you decide to give your web developer access to your hosting account, we recommend you to consider the following aspects:
- How much do you trust the web developer?
- What’s the level of access they need?
- Is there existing data on your hosting account that you do not want them to have access?
In answering those questions, you will be able to determine the level of access you feel comfortable giving to them.
Security Principles
It’s wise to keep a few security principles in mind when deciding the level of access to allow your web developer:
- There is no need for your web designer to have access to your ChemiCloud client account. Your ChemiCloud account has confidential information such as Billing that your web designer does not need to see.
- Only give someone enough access to do strictly what they need to do and nothing more.
- If someone no longer needs access, remove their access; this is typically done by changing the password(s), deleting an FTP or SSH account, or even removing their e-mail account.
What are Your Options?
Once you’ve considered each aspect presented above, there are a couple of ways to provide with access to your web developer.
Trusting Approach
You can provide full access to your cPanel. To grant your developer full cPanel access, you should provide them your cPanel username and password.
You may look up your cPanel username and password in the web hosting welcome email that we have sent you once you’ve signed up with us. If you can’t locate that email, please get in touch with our Support team and we’ll resend you the details by email.
If your domain is pointed to our DNS already, the URL they should use to access cPanel is https://yourdomain.com/cpanel (make sure to replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain).
In case your domain isn’t pointed to our DNS yet, they should use the server’s main IP address: http://server-ip-address/cpanel . You can locate your server’s IP address (Shared IP Address) in your cPanel > General Information area on the right-hand side.
Cautious Approach
You can provide FTP access and remote database login information. With FTP access they will be able to access the files of your website.
With a remote database, they will be able to remotely connect to your database. For this, you will need to provide them with the database username and its password.
In case they will ask you for phpMyAdmin access, you will need to provide them with access to your cPanel account.
High-Security Approach
If you don’t trust enough in your web developer, you can request them to send you the necessary files and instructions, and for you to upload the files yourself.
How to add a web developer as a collaborator to your ChemiCloud account
If you’re a ChemiCloud customer, you can easily add your web developer as a collaborator to your account.
To do so, please follow the steps described in this guide.
The permissions that should be set for your developer:
View Products & Services – View access to products, services, and add-ons
Please note that this option will provide access to view and manage ALL your hosting services.
If you want them to be able to reach out to our Support, then the following permission should be set:
View & Open Support Tickets – Access to open, respond and manage support tickets
That’s it! Now you know how to provide access to your web developer safely.