Support Start > Managing Your Web Site > FTP Publishing > Additional FTP Accounts

This page is showing a generic answer.
To see a more detailed answer customized for you, type your domain name here:

By default, a Web hosting account comes with one preactivated FTP account. This account has a username like example.com. It always uses the same password as your master account password, and when you connect using this account, you're placed directly into the top level directory of your website.

That's probably all most people need. However, advanced users can also add additional FTP accounts.

On this page:

• Additional FTP accounts
• What if my web developer wants to add a database, too?
• Forgotten the password to an additional FTP account?
• Security considerations

Additional FTP accounts

Additional FTP accounts can have different passwords and can be restricted to different directories. You could use this feature to:

• Allow people to modify the website without giving them the master password that lets them login to the account management control panel;
• Allow multiple employees to publish files without needing to share passwords;
• Limit certain people (such as clients) so that they can only upload into a restricted location;
• Access your home directory (including email storage), backup files and raw Web server log files, which you can't do with the default FTP account.

To set up additional FTP accounts:

1. Login to the “My Account” control panel
2. Click FTP Publishing
3. Scroll down the to the section called Setting Up Additional FTP Accounts
4. Click Add to create a new FTP account
5. Choose the password and the directory for the account

The directories shown on that screen are directories that have been created using the master FTP account; if you want to create a new directory for a new user, you'll need to use the master FTP account to create the directory first.

What if my web developer wants to add a database, too?

If you’re creating an additional FTP account so that a developer can access your site files, and your developer says they also need a MySQL database, you can easily add a database for them.

To do that, just add a database and give it a random name and password, then send your developer a copy of the settings shown on the screen after you create it. (You can view those settings again by clicking MySQL Databases in our “My Account” control panel, then clicking show settings.) Your developer can then use scripts or phpMyAdmin to interact with the database.

Forgotten the password to an additional FTP account?

If you've forgotten the password to an additional FTP account, see the topic "Lost FTP Password".

Security considerations

If you let other people upload files to a restricted location that's part of your website, they could upload script files (such as PHP files) and then run them by loading them in their Web browser. Those scripts could then modify other files on the site, allowing a malicious uploader to "break out" of the restriction. (Note, though, that they still would not be able to modify files of any other domain names you have in your account.)

If you need to prevent this, you can create the restricted directory under your home directory, not your website directory. Or, if your site doesn't use any scripts at all, you could disable all scripts in a top-level .htaccess file for your site.