Ghost has a number of different user roles for your team:

Contributors

This is the base user level in Ghost. Contributors can create and edit their own draft posts, but they are unable to edit drafts of others or publish posts.

Authors

Authors are the 2nd user level in Ghost. Authors can write, edit Β and publish their own posts. Authors are trusted users. If you don't trust users to be allowed to publish their own posts, they should be set as Contributors.

Editors

Editors are the 3rd user level in Ghost. Editors can do everything that an Author can do, but they can also edit and publish the posts of others - as well as their own. Editors can also invite new Contributors+Authors to the site.

Administrators

The top user level in Ghost is Administrator. Again, administrators can do everything that Authors and Editors can do, but they can also edit all site settings and data, not just content. Additionally, administrators have full access to invite, manage or remove any other user of the site.

The Owner

There is only ever one owner of a Ghost site. The owner is a special user which has all the same permissions as an Administrator, but with two exceptions: Owners can never be deleted, and in some circumstances the owner will have access to additional special settings. For example: billing details, if using Ghost(Pro), and members settings in Labs.

  • There can only ever be one owner
  • Owners cannot be deleted or have their role downgraded
  • Owners are able to transfer their ownership to another user. If this is done, the owner becomes an administrator
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It's a good idea to ask all of your users to fill out their user profiles, including bio and social links. These will populate rich structured data for posts and generally create more opportunities for themes to fully populate their design.

Staff user capabilities

Capability Administrator Editor Author Contributor Non-Auth
Overall User Interface
view β€˜Settings’ in admin menu βœ” βœ”      
view β€˜Your Profile’ in user menu βœ” βœ” βœ”  βœ”  
edit β€˜Your Profile’ in user menu βœ” βœ” βœ”  βœ”  
Settings
view general site settings βœ”        
edit general site settings βœ”        
view users settings βœ” βœ”      
Users
invite users βœ” A*      
revoke invites to users βœ” A*      
view other users βœ” A*      
edit other users βœ” A*      
delete other users βœ” A*      
browse βœ” βœ”      
add admin βœ”        
add editor βœ”        
add author βœ” βœ”      
add contributor βœ” βœ”      
Roles Users
assign βœ” βœ” (role = author)       
view βœ” βœ” βœ”   βœ”
browse βœ” βœ” βœ”   βœ”
Tags
edit tags βœ” βœ”      
add tags βœ” βœ” βœ”    
delete tags βœ” βœ”      
Content List
browse all posts βœ” βœ”      
browse own posts βœ” βœ” βœ”     
Posts
create new posts βœ” βœ” βœ”  βœ”  
publish posts βœ” βœ” βœ”    
edit own posts βœ” βœ” βœ”    
edit other’s posts βœ” βœ”      
delete own posts βœ” βœ” βœ”    
delete other’s posts βœ” βœ”      
Slugs
generate βœ” βœ” βœ”    
Database
import content βœ”        
export content βœ”        
delete all content βœ”        
browse βœ”        
add βœ”        
delete βœ”        
Mail
Send βœ”        
Send test mail βœ”        
Notifications
βœ” – Yes
A* – Authors only

How to add a user

To add a user to your publication, go to the Staff settings in Ghost admin and click the Invite people button. Type in the email address of your team member, select a user role and hit send. Invited staff users will receive an email and be instructed on how to create an account.

To cancel an invitation, use the revoke link next to the user.

Self-hosted users need to ensure their email config is setup correctly for invitations to be delivered successfully.

How to delete a staff user

To delete a staff user, click on the gear icon from the user’s profile in the Staff dashboard and select Delete User.

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Deleting a user is irreversible and will attribute all content authored by the deleted staff user to the owner user of the publication.

How to suspend a user

It's possible to suspend a staff user, so they are unable to login to your Ghost Admin area. Suspended staff users retain their user profile and content attribution.

To suspend a user, click on the gear icon from the user’s profile in the Staff dashboard and select Suspend User.

Transfer Ownership

Ownership of a publication can be transferred by the owner user, to another staff user with a role of at least "Administrator". This can be done from within the Settings β†’ Staff area in Ghost Admin, by clicking on the staff user's profile, and selecting the Make owner option from the gear icon in the top right hand corner.