Collaboration is an essential part of building, managing, and maintaining websites and applications. Whether you are working with developers, agencies, freelancers, or clients, Cloudways makes it easy to collaborate securely without sharing your main account credentials.
The Cloudways Platform offers built-in collaboration features that allow you to give the right level of access to the right people. You can choose to share application-level access (such as SFTP or SSH) or provide full or limited platform access using team roles and permissions. This ensures better security, clear responsibility, and smooth teamwork.
In this guide, you’ll learn how collaboration works on the Cloudways Platform, the different types of access you can grant, and how to choose the best option based on your needs.
Table of Contents:
Collaboration Features on the Cloudways Platform
Cloudways provides flexible collaboration options so you can safely work with developers, agencies, freelancers, or clients—without sharing your main account credentials.
Depending on what your collaborators need to do, you can choose between application-level access or platform-level access.
This section helps you understand each option and when to use it.
When to Use Collaboration Features
You may need collaboration features if you want to:
Give a developer access to upload or manage files
Allow a freelancer to work on a specific application
Grant temporary access to a consultant
Provide customers with limited access to their applications
Let team members manage servers, billing, or support
Cloudways allows you to do all this while keeping your account secure and fully under your control.
Collaborators Requiring SFTP or SSH Access to Applications
If someone only needs to work on files, code, or application data, you can give them SFTP access (and optional SSH access) without granting access to the Cloudways Platform itself.
How This Works
In this scenario:
You create Application Credentials for a specific application
Each collaborator gets their own username and password
Access is limited only to the selected application
Your main account login remains private and secure
This is ideal for developers or external partners who only need technical access to an application.
You can learn how to create and manage Application Credentials by following the dedicated Cloudways guide.
Collaborators Who Need Access to the Cloudways Platform
If your collaborator needs to log in to the Cloudways Platform itself—such as to manage servers, applications, billing, or support—you should use the Team feature.
This option provides more control and visibility while maintaining security.
Using the Team Feature on Cloudways
The Team feature allows you to invite collaborators with individual logins and custom permissions.
What You Can Control
When adding a team member, you can define:
Access to the Cloudways Platform
Access to specific servers
Access to specific applications
Permission to scale servers
Permission to manage billing
Permission to contact support
Each team member only sees what you allow them to access.
How Team Access Works
You invite a team member using their email address
They receive an email to activate their Cloudways account
Once activated, they log in using their own credentials
No passwords are shared between users
This approach improves accountability and keeps your account secure.
Application Credentials for Team Members
Team members who have access to a server or application can:
Create their own Application Credentials
Use these credentials for SFTP or SSH access
Manage application files independently (based on permissions)
This ensures smooth collaboration without relying on a single shared login.
That’s it! We hope this article was helpful.
Need Help?
If you need assistance, feel free to:
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Or create a support ticket anytime.
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