Users with publish permissions can control which contacts can access specific HubSpot-hosted pages, blogs and knowledge base articles. You can invite contacts from specific HubSpot lists to register with a password to view specific content. This content can only be viewed by contacts who are registered and logged in.
CMS Hub Enterprise accounts support private content for blog posts, landing pages, and website pages. Service Hub Professional and Enterprise accounts support private content for knowledge base articles. Users in accounts with any of these subscriptions can also target chatflows to chat with logged in visitors.
Please note: password-protected content won't be included in search engine indexes, but sensitive data won't be encrypted. HubSpot sends a response equivalent to noindex for password-protected pages, so 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.
Before you get started
- Passwords for private content must meet the following criteria:
- Does not contain parts of the registration username.
- Does not contain alphabetical sequences (abc), numerical sequences (123), repeated characters (aaa) or qwerty sequences (qwe) from your keyboard.
- Contains at least eight characters and three of the following: an uppercase letter, lowercase letter, a number, or a symbol.
OR
- Contains at least ten characters and two of the following: an uppercase letter, lowercase letter, a number, or a symbol.
OR
- Contains at least twelve characters.
- The private content feature only works for a connected subdomain that you own. Membership access won’t be activated for content published on the default subdomain in your HubSpot account (e.g.,hs-sites.com).
- Passwords aren’t accessible from the UI, so it isn't possible for a user to look up a contact’s membership login password.
- Passwords are securely stored in HubSpot's servers according to the latest industry recommendations and standards.
- All users in your HubSpot account can view the live versions of private blog posts or website pages. Users with the Service Access permission
can view the live versions of private knowledge base articles.
Set up membership registration for pages
CMS Hub Enterprise accounts can set up membership for landing pages and websites pages. When you make a page private with registration required, a registration email is sent to contacts who are members of the selected lists so they can set up a password.
As new contacts are added to these lists in the future, they'll also receive an email to complete their password registration. The language of this email is set by your domain's primary language.
A contact may be added to a list already associated with multiple content objects on different domains. In this case, the domain for the email will be determined by the first applicable content type on this list:
- Knowledge base article
- Website page
- Blog post
- Landing page
There is a two minute delay after setting your content to private before the email is processed. During this delay, the email can be cancelled by unpublishing the private content or changing the content's access back to public. An individual contact won't be sent the email if they are removed from the relevant list during this period. After this delay, the email will be sent after a standard processing time of three to four minutes.
Please note: contacts who have already set up a password to view other private content on your domain won't receive additional emails. They'll use their existing password to log in and view the private content they can access based on their list memberships.
Contacts will be prompted to register and log in when they visit a restricted page URL. After logging in successfully, HubSpot adds a cookie to the visitor's web browser so they won't be prompted to log in again. If desired, you can send contacts a direct link to log out of private content access on your domain.
To set up membership registration for a page from the pages dashboard:
- Hover over the page and click the More dropdown menu, then select Control audience access.
- To control audience access in bulk, select the checkboxes next to pages, then click Control audience access at the top of the table.
For landing pages and website pages, audience access appears in the dashboard below the page name.
- On the page details screen, a label at the top of the page indicates if the page is private and requires a password or registration. If the page requires registration, click View details to see which lists that have access to the page.
Set up membership registration for your blog
CMS Hub Enterprise accounts can set up membership for blogs. The settings for your blog posts are managed within your account settings. To set up membership registration for private blog content, you must set all of the posts on your blog to private.
Making your blog's content private sends a registration email to any contacts who haven't already registered for customized content access. The language of this email is set by your domain's primary language.
There is a two minute delay after setting your content to private before the email is processed. During this delay, the email can be cancelled by unpublishing the private content or changing the content's access back to public. An individual contact won't be sent the email if they are removed from the relevant list during this period. After this delay, the email will be sent after a standard processing time of three to four minutes.
Please note: contacts who have already set up a password to view other private content on your domain won't receive additional emails. They'll use their existing password to log in and view the private content they can access based on their list memberships.
- In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
- In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Website > Blog.
- In the upper left, click the Select a blog to modify dropdown menu and select a blog.
- On the General tab, select the This is a private blog - registration required checkbox.
- Click the Select Lists dropdown menu and select the list(s) of contacts that will have access. This action sends a registration email to any contacts who haven't already registered for private content access.
- Click Save to apply your changes.
Set up membership registration for your knowledge base
Service Hub Professional and Enterprise accounts can set up membership for knowledge base articles. When you make a knowledge base article private with registration required, a registration email is sent to contacts who are members of the selected lists so they can set up a password.
As contacts are added to these lists in the future, they'll also receive an email to complete their password registration. The language of this email is set by your domain's primary language.
There is a two minute delay after setting your content to private before the email is processed. During this delay, the email can be cancelled by unpublishing the private content or changing the content's access back to public. An individual contact won't be sent the email if they are removed from the relevant list during this period. After this delay, the email will be sent after a standard processing time of three to four minutes.
Please note: contacts who have already set up a password to view other private content on your domain won't receive additional emails. They'll use their existing password to log in and view the private content they have access to on your site, based on their list memberships.
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Knowledge Base.
- Navigate to the Articles tab
- Hover over the article and click Edit.
- In the editor, click the Settings tab.
- In the Control audience access section, select Private - Registration required.
- Click the dropdown menu and select the checkboxes next to the lists of contacts you want to register for access to this article.
- Click Update in the upper right.
Contacts will be prompted to register and log in when they visit a restricted article URL. After logging in successfully, HubSpot adds a cookie to the visitor's web browser so they won't be prompted to log in again. If desired, you can send contacts a direct link to log out of private content access on your domain.
Please note: private articles on public knowledge bases will not appear under categories or subcategories for users who can't access them.
To control audience access from the articles dashboard:
- Hover over the article and click the More dropdown menu, then select Control audience access.
- To control audience access in bulk, select the checkboxes next to the articles to limit access to, then click Control audience access at the top of the table.
The audience access appears in the dashboard below the article name.
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Knowledge Base.
- Navigate to the Articles tab.
- Click the name of an article to view further details on its access restrictions.
- On the page details screen, a label at the top of the page indicates if the page is private and requires a password or registration.
Customize settings and templates
You can create custom templates for private content registration emails and pages with the following subscriptions:
- A CMS Hub Enterprise subscription
OR
- A Service Hub Professional/Enterprise subscription and a CMS Hub Professional subscription.
These custom templates use information provided on the General tab of your private content settings.
Customize general settings for private content
- In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
- In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Website > Private Content.
- Click the Choose a domain to edit dropdown menu and select the domain your private content is hosted on.
- In the General section enter a company name. This will appear on registration page templates.
- In the Website admin text field, enter the email address of the user that visitors will contact if they have trouble logging in, logging out, or registering. If this field is left blank, the email address of an active super admin in the account will be used.
- In the Destinations section, you can direct contacts to a specific page on your site after they complete specific actions:
- After someone registers: the page where visitors will be redirected after they register.
- After someone signs in: the page visitors will view if they log in, but haven't clicked a link for a specific private page. If the visitor is signing in to view a specific password-protected page, they'll be directed to that private page instead.
- After someone signs out the page where visitors will be redirected after they sign out. If you don't select a page from your website, contacts will see a simple default page that tells them they're signed out.
Customize your registration email templates
By default, your private content will have simple registration emails with the company name and logo set on the General tab of your private content settings. You also have the option of creating custom emails:
- In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
- In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Website > Private Content.
- Click the Choose a domain to edit dropdown menu and select a domain.
- In the Emails section, you can customize the following email templates:
- Registration invitation email: the email sent to visitors who have been invited to access private content.
- Password confirmation email: the email sent to visitors to confirm their new password was saved during registration or a password was reset.
- Password reset email: the email sent to visitors when they reset their passwords.
- Under the email you want to customize, click the Actions dropdown menu, then select Create.
- Create a new email with the updated classic email editor or the drag and drop email editor.
- After you've published your email, navigate to your private content settings.
- Click a dropdown menu and select your new email.
Customize membership registration page templates
All accounts include simple templates for membership registration pages. To customize these page templates, developers will need to create a new HTML/HubL template in the design manager.
Developers can also allow visitors to log in using their social media credentials. Developers will need to add the membership social login module to your template, then pass your Facebook App ID and/or Google Client ID to the module. Learn more in HubSpot’s developer documentation.
Please note: your designer must select the corresponding template type when creating the new HTML/HubL template in the design manager for the template to appear in your private content settings.
To select a new custom HTML template for your private content pages:
- In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
- In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Website > Private Content.
- Click the Choose a domain to edit dropdown menu and select a domain.
- Navigate to the Templates tab.
- In the Registration, Sign in, and Password reset sections, you can use the dropdown menus to select a custom HTML template for the following page types:
- Registration page: the page where invited contacts can sign up to access private content.
- Access denied page: the page that visitors will see instead if they haven't been given access to private content.
- Sign in page: the page where visitors sign in to access private content.
- Sign out page: the page visitors see after they sign out.
- Request password reset page: the page a visitor will see when they request a password reset.
- Create new password page: the page where visitors will create a new password.
Troubleshoot membership registration for private content
Review the private content a contact has access to
To check what private content a contact can access, review the details on their contact record.
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
- Click the name of a contact.
- In the List membership and access to private content section on the right, click Manage list memberships.
- Hover over a list and click Details.
- In the right panel, click Audience access to see the names of the private page(s) that contacts on the list can access.
A contact will be locked out of their account after ten unsuccessful attempts to log in. You can email contacts a link to reset their own password from the contact record.
If a contact didn't receive your registration email, advise them to add noreply@domain.com ("domain" being the subdomain your private page is hosted on) to their address book, or to add your sending IP addresses to their allowlist.
Please note: password reset links are valid for one use within 24 hours. The link will expire once a contact uses it, or if 24 hours have passed since the email was sent.
To send a registration email or password reset email from the contact record:
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
- Click the name of the contact.
- In the List membership and access to private content section on the right, click Manage List memberships.
- In the upper right click the Manage registration dropdown menu.
- If your contact has not registered after receiving the first registration email, select Resend registration email to send the email again.
- If your contact has already registered, but forgot their login password, select Reset password to send a password reset email to the contact. Contacts can also click Forgot your password? on the login page to reset their password themselves.
Please note: a contact's registration is connected to the contact's primary email regardless of whether or not it's the email they originally registered. Once a registered contact's primary email is changed within HubSpot, they can automatically log in with that email and their previously set password. After an email is updated, you do not need to resend a registration email, and Reset password/Forgot your password? emails will be sent to the new primary email moving forward.
Contact properties about private content registration
There are a few contact properties that will update automatically for contacts that are invited to register to view private content. The Membership notes property can be updated manually or with a workflow.
- Domain to which registration email was sent: the domain to which the registration invitation email for content membership was sent.
- Membership notes: notes relating to the contact's content membership.
- Registered at: the date and time when the contact set up their content membership.
- Time registration email was sent: the date and time when the registration email was sent to the contact.
Send registered contacts a direct link to your registration page
To send your contacts a direct link to the log in page for private content, add /_hcms/mem/login to the end of your page domain.
For example, for content hosted on inbound-marketing.com, the log in page URL would be: http://inbound-marketing.com/_hcms/mem/login
Please note: this link will only work for customers who have already registered with a username and password.
To direct your contacts to a log out page, add /_hcms/mem/logout to the end of your page domain.
For example, for content hosted on inbound-marketing.com, the log out page URL would be: http://inbound-marketing.com/_hcms/mem/logout
Export all membership registration activity from your account
To review all the interactions your contacts have had with your registration page and private content, you can download an activity log:
- In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
- In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Website > Private Content.
- Click the Choose a domain to edit dropdown menu to select the domain your private content is hosted on.
- Scroll down in your setting and click Download activity log.
- Click the File format dropdown menu to select a file type.
- Click Export.
You'll receive a spreadsheet with the email address and contact ID of each contact that engaged with your private content or registration page. The file contains a log of whether each contact successfully completed their registration or logged in to view private content.
Remove access to private content
To revoke access to content from a contact, you can remove the contact from the allowed list or delete the contact.