How to Safely Share WordPress Credentials

Sometimes access to your website is required to perform maintenance, updates, or troubleshooting.
This guide explains the safest way to share WordPress credentials while keeping your website secure.

Proper access sharing helps ensure maintenance tasks can be completed efficiently without exposing sensitive information.

Why Secure Access Matters

Your WordPress website contains important data, including:

• user accounts
• website content
• plugin settings
• database information

Sharing credentials securely prevents unauthorized access and helps protect your website from security risks.

Best Practice: Create a Temporary Admin User

The safest method is to create a temporary WordPress administrator account instead of sharing your personal login.

This provides the necessary access while keeping your primary account private.

Steps to create a temporary admin user

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard
2. Navigate to Users → Add New
3. Enter a username and email address
4. Set the role to Administrator
5. Generate a strong password
6. Share these credentials securely

Once the maintenance work is completed, the temporary account can easily be removed.

Use Secure Methods to Send Credentials

Avoid sending login details through public or unsecured channels.

Recommended options include:

• Password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass)
• Encrypted message services
• Private email with temporary passwords

If possible, send the password separately from the username.

Never Share Your Hosting Account Password

For security reasons, avoid sharing your main hosting account password.

If hosting access is required, you can instead:

• create a temporary hosting user
• provide limited access via SFTP
• grant temporary panel access

This keeps your hosting account protected.

Remove Access After Work Is Complete

Once maintenance or project work is finished, you can remove the temporary account.

To do this:

1. Go to Users → All Users
2. Select the temporary account
3. Delete the user

This ensures your website remains secure long-term.

When Credentials Are Not Needed

In some cases, credentials may not be required immediately. For example:

• early consultation stages
• general advice requests
• project planning discussions

Access is only requested when it becomes necessary to work directly on your website.