What we learned reading 119 client access guides

When an agency needs a client's domain, website, app store account or payments, it usually sends a guide. In October 2026 we read 119 of them: public client access guides from agencies, freelancers and app builders in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. We weren't grading anyone, and nothing here points to a particular guide. We wanted to learn what clients are asked to do, and what makes a guide easy to finish. Here's what stood out, and what you can borrow for your own.

Domains and websites lead the list

GoDaddy and WordPress come up more than any other platform, followed by DNS in general and Apple's App Store Connect or developer account. Shopify, Cloudflare and Google Play come next.

The order makes sense: nearly every web project involves a domain and a website. App store access appears whenever there's an app, and it has an extra step at the front: the client needs its own developer account before it can invite anyone.

DNS sits a little apart. The nameservers decide which company manages a domain's DNS, and that can be a different company from the one where the domain is registered (Namecheap). A DNS request works best when it names the company that actually hosts the DNS, which you can look up before you ask, and asks for DNS-only access where the platform offers it, such as Cloudflare's Domain DNS role (Cloudflare).

If you're writing or refreshing your own guide, ours go deeper on registrar access, WordPress hosting, DNS changes, App Store Connect, Shopify and Google Play.

Skip the back and forth. Let one link walk your client through it

Guides get long, and spread out

We saw two common shapes. Some agencies keep a library with a separate page for each platform, which can run to a dozen pages or more. Others put everything on one long page that covers many platforms at once.

Both make sense from the agency's side, and both ask a lot of the client. With a library, the client has to work out which pages apply to them. With one long page, they scroll past platforms they don't use to find the ones they do. Either way, they also have to work out the order, and which parts are urgent.

Older guides drift out of date

Guides stay live for years, sometimes close to a decade, while the platforms behind them keep changing. Guides written years ago often use old menu names, and a client who can't find the label they were told to look for has to stop and ask.

Small details carry a lot of weight:

• WordPress renamed Add New User to Add User in version 6.8 (6.7, 6.8), so a client looking for the old label won't find it.
• Shopify shows the same page as Users on some stores and Users & permissions on others, depending on whether the store is part of an organization (Shopify).
• App Store Connect invitations expire 3 days after they're sent (Apple). A guide that mentions it saves everyone a second round of invites.

When a label has changed under a client, When a client can't find the setting covers how to get them moving again.

One link per client, with every step checked. Reserve a founding place

Passwords still come up

About one in ten of the guides asked for, or offered to take, the client's login or password. It can look like the kind option, the quickest route for a busy client, but a shared login costs more later. Apple requires two-factor authentication or two-step verification for everyone who signs in to App Store Connect (Apple), and a sign-in on a new device or the web can need a code from the owner's trusted devices (Apple Support). With a shared login, that owner is the client, so the work waits until they read the code out. Some platforms rule sharing out in their terms: GitHub's say a single login may not be shared by multiple people (GitHub).

Several platforms near the top of the list offer a better route: an invite that gives the agency its own login, such as Users and Access in App Store Connect, Add User in WordPress or collaborator access in Shopify. Stop asking clients for passwords lists what to ask for on each, and Shared logins vs invites vs one setup link compares the methods side by side.

What the best guides do well

Before a client acts on a request, they want three answers: is this safe, where do I click, and am I the right person to do it? The strongest guides answer all three, and they share a few habits that don't take long to copy:

• They reassure before they ask. They say up front that no password is needed, that the client keeps ownership, and that access can be removed at any time.
• They ask for the least access that does the job, and name the exact role rather than "admin access".
• They give the address to invite, written out in full, so the client doesn't have to guess.
• They split the work by platform, so a client can go straight to the steps that apply to them.
• They make clear what's waiting on the client, so a stalled step is easy to spot.

Sending this to a client? Send one link instead

What we'd add

These are our own suggestions rather than findings from the reading. Each one makes a guide easier to finish:

Together they answer the questions a client would otherwise have to send you, and they make a stalled request easier to spot. If a request has stalled anyway, When a client won't give you access covers how to get it moving.

Doing this for every client?

Get Set Keys turns your access guide into one link per client, with each platform's steps, your email and the right role filled in, and a check on every step. Porter, the AI setup helper on every link, answers the client's questions as they go and passes anything it can't answer to you. You can reserve a founding place before Get Set Keys launches in November 2026.