How to Password-Protect a Shared HTML Page

When people want to password-protect a shared HTML page, it is usually because a public link felt too open for a client draft, an internal report or an early prototype. A password is often right. Not always, and the difference shows once the link gets forwarded.

I built ShareMyPage, which has passwords, email invites and workspaces side by side. So I'm biased about the tool, but not about which of the three you pick.

A password is right for people outside your company

This is for you if:

• the reader should not need an account of any kind
• it is a client or someone you'll send one page to, once
• you can send the password through a different channel than the link

How to do it:

1. Open ShareMyPage and create your page, or open one you already shared.
2. In the Share dialog, set general access to "Anyone with the link + password" and choose a password.
3. Copy the link and send it. Send the password separately.

Anyone opening the link sees a prompt first. Enter the password and the page renders as normal. Passwords are hashed and attempts are rate-limited. You can change or remove the password later without creating a new link.

The downside is that a password is one shared secret. Everyone who has it gets in, and you can't tell them apart. If one person should lose access, you change the password and send the new one to everybody else.

Invite people by email when access should be personal

From the same Share dialog you can invite specific people by email, as viewers or editors. They get access on top of whatever the general setting is, so the page can stay at "Just me" and still open for exactly those people.

The cost is that they have to sign in. For a client who opens one proposal, that is friction you may not want. For anyone you'll share with more than once, it is the better gate.

Use the workspace for your own team

For colleagues, a password is the wrong tool. Set general access to "Everyone at" your company and any member of your workspace can open it, with no password to pass around. Workspace members skip the password gate on their own workspace's pages anyway. See sharing pages with your team.

One thing to know before you pick it: on a workspace page, any member can edit the content, not only view it.

A public link stays available for the pages you do want open to everyone.

The short version

• Use a password for people outside your company who shouldn't need an account.
• Invite by email when you need to cut one person off without bothering the rest.
• Use the workspace for colleagues.

One tip: never put the password in the same message as the link. If your workspace admin has switched off link sharing, the password option won't be there at all, and that is on purpose.

Need to share something private? Create a page on ShareMyPage and set it to password protected.