Guest access lets a paying member of a Steady project share their membership with other people. If a plan includes guest access, it's shown on the plan and already covered by the plan price — guests never pay anything.
What you need to do depends on where you're coming from:
Someone invited you as a guest → How to use your guest access
You're a member and want to invite someone → How to invite guests to your membership plan
You're a media maker setting this up → keep reading below
How it works for members
If you buy a plan that includes guest access, it's up to you whether to use it and who to invite. You set guests up in the Memberships area of your account, and the people you invite get an invitation email from Steady.
Your guests keep their access for as long as you leave it in place and your own membership is active. If your membership ends, so does their access.
Guest access isn't the same thing as a gift membership — here's the difference.
How it works for media makers
Whether you offer guest access is your call. You can switch it on for an individual plan and choose how many guests each paying member may invite.
Good to know:
You can turn guest access on for existing plans at any time, and raise the number of guests later.
You can also reduce the number of guest places later. What you can't do is switch guest access off entirely while members still have active guests – end those guest memberships first, or create a new plan and archive the old one.
Guest members appear in your member list with a "guest" status, and you can see the guest count per plan on the Plans page.
Guests get the same benefits as regular members, with one exception: only the main member can grant guest access.
Guest access is a useful lever for winning over organisations — companies, universities, newsrooms — that want to buy one plan and cover a group of people. It's also a straightforward perk for members who want to share with friends or colleagues.
Want to give free access to a handful of people yourself? See how to give free guest access to friends, colleagues and acquaintances.