How to add a client portal to a WordPress site

How do you create a client portal in WordPress?

Start with the portal's job, then pick how to build it, then test it. A portal for your client's customers might hold files, forms, bookings or messages, and each of those changes what you build.

1. Write down what the portal is for. List what a logged-in person can see and do, and what stays private to each person.
2. Decide who logs in. Is it your client's customers, their staff, or both? Each group may need different access.
3. Pick a way to build it. Common choices include the four kinds below.
4. Build it on a copy of the site first. Keep the live site untouched until the portal works.
5. Test each login. Sign in as each kind of user and check that nobody can see someone else's details.
6. Check what it collects. List every detail the portal asks for, such as names, emails or phone numbers, and ask whether the site needs a privacy policy before launch.

Some of these jobs may not need a login at all. Before its build, The Lands End School, a preschool, had a landing page with its contact details. DeskTeam360's team built the school a new website. Parents can now send in applications, set up tours and get on the waitlist online, and the school's communication with parents is faster.

A portal sits on top of what the client already sees when they sign in. For the client's dashboard, see setting up a WordPress client dashboard.

Do you need a client portal plugin for WordPress?

It depends on the jobs on your list. If logins and private pages cover them, you may not need one. If people need uploads, payments or messages, a plugin or a separate tool may fit better.

Ask these questions before you choose:

• Which jobs on your list can't be done without it?
• Does it store details on the client's own site, or somewhere else?
• What does it cost each month or year, and who pays after handover?
• What does a logged-in person see if the plugin is turned off?
• How easy is it to move the portal's details out later?

Whatever you pick, write down who holds each account before handover. For handing the site over, see how to hand a WordPress site over.

How do you add a client portal to a site that isn't on WordPress?

On another platform, you add a portal with that platform's own member tools, a separate portal tool linked from the site, or custom code. The questions stay the same as on WordPress.

• Does the platform have its own login or member area?
• If not, can a separate tool sit behind a link from the site?
• Whose account holds the tool, yours or your client's?
• Can each person see only their own details?
• What happens to those details if the client leaves the tool?

California's privacy law says the operator of a business website that gathers personal details from visitors who live in California has to "conspicuously post its privacy policy" on the site. It breaks that rule only if it doesn't post one within 30 days after being told.

The law puts the duty on the site's owner, your client. Its meaning of "operator" leaves out a third party that runs, hosts or manages a site for the owner "but does not own" it. Check with a lawyer on how the rule touches a client site you build, and what it means for your agency.

The law's list of personal details takes in a phone number, an email address, a physical address, and a first and last name. So when a portal's sign-up form asks for someone's name and email, it's collecting personal details. For the law's own words, see What must a California client site post, and who answers for it?.

Nothing on this site is legal or tax advice.