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  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
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 ‘Settings’ in admin menu      
view ‘Your Profile’ in user menu  ✔  
edit ‘Your Profile’ in user menu  ✔  
Settings
view general site settings        
edit general site settings        
view users settings      
Users
invite users A*      
revoke invites to users A*      
view other users A*      
edit other users A*      
delete other users A*      
browse      
add admin        
add editor        
add author      
add contributor      
Roles Users
assign ✔ (role = author)       
view  
browse  
Tags
edit tags      
add tags    
delete tags      
Content List
browse all posts      
browse own posts ✔     
Posts
create new posts  ✔  
publish posts    
edit own posts    
edit other’s posts      
delete own posts    
delete other’s posts      
Slugs
generate    
Database
import content        
export content        
delete all content        
browse        
add        
delete        
Mail
Send        
Send test mail        
Notifications
✔ – 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.

To cancel an invitation, use the revoke link next to the user. Invited staff users will receive an email and be instructed on how to create an account. Self-hosted users need to ensure their email config is setup correctly.

How to delete a user

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

Deleting a user is irreversible and will delete all data (including post content) associated with the user.

How to suspend a user

It's possible to suspend a user so they are unable to log in to your site's Admin dashboard, but retain their user profile and content.

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

Transfer Ownership

Administrators are able to change the owner of a publication. From within the Staff dashboard, click on a user and select Make owner from the gear icon in the top right hand corner.