Source:https://webhostingprof.com/create-password-protected-website/

Why Do You Need To Password Protect Your Website?

Protecting your website with a password can be useful for a variety of reasons including:

• Showing work in-progress to a client (e.g. web developer, designer)
• Sharing photos or ideas with friends
• Members-only content

Although protecting your website with a password might sound intimidating and hard to achieve, it can be done really easily by following our helpful guide!

Table of Contents

1. Why Do You Need To Password Protect Your Website?
2. Password Protection With A Website Builder
   1. Password Protecting A Wix Web Page
   2. Weebly Website Password Protection
3. Password Protection For Different Groups
   1. Set A Page Password With SquareSpace
4. Members Areas
   1. How To Set Up Members Area With Wix
5. Simple Password Protection Pros And Cons
6. Group Protected Areas Pros And Cons
7. Members Areas Pros And Cons
8. Conclusion
9. Related Posts:

Password Protection With A Website Builder

If you’re building your website through a website builder like Wix or Weebly, you can easily password protect your website using the tools available to you.

Password Protecting A Wix Web Page

You can protect specific pages on your Wix website with a password. It’s really easy to do and it will mean visitors who have the password will be able to access the page, but visitors without it won’t be able to.

1. Here are the simple steps to protecting your Wix website with a password:
2. Click Pages in the Editor located on the left side bar
3. Select the relevant page you wish to protect
4. Click the Show More icon
5. Click Settings
6. Click the Permissions tab
7. Click Password Holders
8. Enter the password you want to protect your page with

If you protect a page with a password it will stop search engines from crawling your web page. They won’t appear in search results, so if you want to rank on them, you shouldn’t protect them. Adding a password to your Wix’s website homepage will protect your entire website unless someone has the direct URL to an inner page.

Weebly Website Password Protection

When you create a Weebly website, the default visibility is set to public. People can search for your website and it can be found on search engines. If you upgrade your website to Pro or a better plan, you can hide individual pages or password protect your whole website by following these simple steps:

1. Navigate to the General tab in settings
2. Select Site Password
3. Enter your password

To password protect individual pages with Weebly’s website builder, here’s how you do it: 

1. Navigate to the Pages tab in the site editor
2. Select Visibility
3. Choose whether the page is public, site password, or members or groups

If your website builder plan with Weebly is Pro or better, you can use the Memberships feature. This will allow you to restrict access to individual pages. You can also restrict access to your site from search engines by selecting the on/off toggle under SEO in your website’s settings.

Password Protection For Different Groups

If you have different groups of clients with different permission levels, you’ll want to create passwords to gain access to certain pages for your groups. With a website builder like SquareSpace or Jimdo, you can define a password per page.

For example, with SquareSpace, you can hide individual pages behind passwords. This will stop them from being accessed by the public and you can reserve content for specific visitors.

Set A Page Password With SquareSpace

To set a page password if you’re using SquareSpace’s website builder, follow these simple steps, as it’s all included in the price of your SquareSpace subscription:

1. Go to the Home Menu and select Pages
2. Click a page to password protect it
3. Click the cog icon to open the page settings
4. Scroll down to the Password section and enter a password
5. Click Save

You can hide the pages from your navigation menu by moving them to the not linked section in order to prevent your website visitors from reaching a locked page.

Members Areas

Membership logins allow only users with specific login details to access protected areas. You can share exclusive content, videos, ebooks, or subscriptions within your membership only areas.

Note: Members areas are good for controlling a set of authorized users. You can add/remove users individually or they can sign up themselves, reset their passwords, etc. However, members areas can cause more administrative work so only set up a members area if your website requires one.

How To Set Up Members Area With Wix

You can add a Members Area to any website you’ve created with Wix. It will allow you to create private pages which can only be accessed by your members who have signed up. 

Here are the simple steps to adding a Members Area to your Wix website:

1. Click the Plus Sign (+) on the left side of the Editor
2. Select the Members tab
3. Click Add to Site

Once you’ve set up your Members Area you can personalize some aspects of it. For example, you can create a login bar, set pages for members only, customize sign up forms, and design your Members Area separately from your website.

Simple Password Protection Pros And Cons

Pros	Cons
Easy to setup	No control over who accesses your site as the password can be shared
Barely any administration	Everyone has the same level of access
Most website builders offer this	No password recovery system

Group Protected Areas Pros And Cons

Pros	Cons
Easy to setup	No control over who accesses your site as the password can be shared
Can assign protected areas for different groups	No personal login
	No password recovery system

Members Areas Pros And Cons

Pros	Cons
Good control over users	More administrative work
Users can be added/removed individually
Users can sign up themselves and recover their password

Conclusion

Website builders are simple to use, yet offer powerful features to protect your website with passwords, protected areas, and membership groups. 

Before you start with any website builder, you should understand what you want to achieve first and plan for it. Not all website builders offer the same level of detail or options, as we’ve seen.

If you’re planning to build a members area, consider how much administrative work goes into it and whether this is something you’re able to achieve. Wix is my recommended website builder, not just for ease of use, but also value for money, features, and templates.