Giving a Friend Access With Sub-Users
Sub-users let you hand a trusted friend or co-admin their own login to your server without ever sharing your GuavaHost password or billing details.
3 min read · Updated Oct 1, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
A sub-user is a separate person you add by the email they sign in to GuavaHost with. They use their own GuavaHost account, they only see the server you shared with them, and you decide exactly what they can do. They never see your invoices, your plan or the billing for the server, your other services or your account settings, and they cannot change your plan or cancel it.
Inviting someone
- Sign in at customer.guavahost.com, open My servers and click Manage on your server.
- In the server menu, open More, then People.
- Click Invite someone.
- Under Their email, enter the email your friend signs in to GuavaHost with. Only someone who has a GuavaHost account can be added (see below if they do not have one yet).
- Under What can they do?, pick one of the ready-made sets or Choose exactly (more on those below).
- Click Send invite. You never handle their password.
Everyone you invite is listed on the People page with what they can do. Click Edit to change their permissions, or Remove to take their access away. Removing someone does not touch their own GuavaHost account, and you can invite them again later.
If your friend has no GuavaHost account yet
If no GuavaHost account uses that email, the invite window tells you so and gives you a ready-made message to send them, with the link to sign up: https://customer.guavahost.com/account/register. Click Copy message and send it to your friend. Creating an account is free.
Once they have signed up with that email, invite them again the same way.
What your friend sees
There is nothing for your friend to accept. As soon as you add them, your server appears under My servers in their own control panel at customer.guavahost.com, tagged Sub-user access. They sign in with their own GuavaHost account as usual and click Manage on it.
Inside, they only get the pages and buttons you allowed. Your invoices, your plan and the billing for the server never appear for them. If you let them connect over SFTP, they use their own SFTP login: the details and Set SFTP password are on the server's Settings tab, under Connection details.
Choosing what they can do
The invite offers four choices:
- Can play and restart: start, stop and restart the server, watch the console and type commands. They cannot touch files, backups or settings.
- Can manage files: everything above, plus upload, edit and delete files (worlds included) and connect over SFTP. Right for someone installing mods or plugins.
- Full access except billing: everything the panel can do to the server, including backups, settings, reinstalling and inviting other people. They still cannot see your invoices, change your plan or cancel it.
- Choose exactly: pick permissions one at a time, grouped as Console & power, Files, Backups, People, Ports & network, Scheduled tasks, Databases, Startup settings, Server settings and Activity.
Suggested choices
- A moderator who only runs the server: Can play and restart. They can start, stop and moderate without ever seeing your files.
- Someone helping with a build or plugins: Can manage files, so they can edit configs and upload plugins.
- A co-admin you fully trust: Full access except billing, or Choose exactly and leave out Reinstall the server so nobody wipes the server by accident.
A good habit is to start narrow and add permissions later if they turn out to need more. It is easier than clawing back access after something breaks. The Activity page, under More, shows who did what and when.
A safety net before you delegate
Before you let anyone else near your files, open Backups and click Create backup. If a helper edits the wrong config, a restore puts everything back. Remember that restoring overwrites current files, so save a fresh backup at the point you are happy with.
Sub-users are the clean way to run a server with friends. Everyone gets exactly the access they need, nobody shares a password, and your billing stays private to you.
Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.
- sub-users
- people
- permissions
- access
- invite
Still need help? Our team is online 24/7 to answer questions.