Wix is a website builder. When it was created, it was meant to be used to create simple websites, but now it can be used to create online stores, membership websites, and client portals.
Client portals are online platforms to give clients access to their projects. They can check the project scope, download files, sign documents, check tasks, and even pay their invoices.
You can use Wix to
- Create a client portal using the Wix Members Area app
- Create a client portal using password-protected pages
- Collect customer feedback in your Wix client portal
Each option has its pros and cons. Let’s explore them and see how you can build your portal.
How to create a Wix client portal using the Wix Members Area app
Time: 2h
Cost: $0
You can use the Wix Members Area app to create pages on your website that only your customers can see. Then you can create different membership levels, so each customer can see only the content about their projects.
Furthermore, you can use the signup process to allow your clients to create user accounts. They can even have multiple accounts for employees with different access levels. For example, if someone works in the finance department of your client’s company, they can have access only to the invoicing pages.
You don’t need a paid Wix account to access this feature, and you can even create a new free Wix website for a client portal if you want.
Let’s see how you can implement your Wix client portal using the Members Area app.
Step 1: Go to the Apps page
From the main Wix menu, go to “Apps.” This is the page you use to add new components to your Wix website, which is similar to how plugins work on WordPress.
Step 2: Install the Wix Members Area app
Search for “members area” and you should see the Wix Members Area app. Install it. If you want, you can search for other apps and install them as well.
Step 3: Check the auto-generated pages
After you install Wix Members Area, you should see a few additional pages on your Wix website. But sometimes this process doesn’t work, in particular, if it’s a new Wix website. Double-check if you have these additional pages; if you don’t, click on “complete setup” on the main Wix editor.
Step 4: Manage member roles
Go to Contacts > Site members > Manage member roles.
The “Contacts” page is where you manage your customers and leads coming from any form such as newsletter forms and user registration forms.
The “Site Members” page contains only users with registered accounts on your website, so it only includes users who have filled out user registration forms.
On the “Manage Member Roles” page, you can add, remove, and edit user roles. That’s where you can create access levels for each of your clients.
Step 5: Create a new role for your client
Click on “New Role” and fill in the details about your new role (name and description) and pick a color to use on its labels.
Step 6: Add content pages for your client
Go home > edit site and then find the pages & menu > add a new option.
That’s what you’ll use to create new pages for your clients. Add a new page for each of your desired reporting points such as projects, tasks, downloads, invoices, and so on.
Step 7: Restrict these pages to members only
Click on the three dots next to the page name then go to the “Permissions” tab. Change the page visibility from public to members-only, and use the click roles on the member roles that can see it.
Step 8: Handle client signups
Send signup instructions to your clients via email or manually create accounts for them. In addition, you can send them general instructions about your client portal such as which pages are suitable for which type of content.
Step 9: Edit the client roles
The signup process only creates user accounts on your Wix website. You need to manually edit their account and grant them the correct access level, assigning them to a user role.
Go to Contacts > site members > click the 3 dots on the new member > Edit roles.
Add a client role to them on the next screen.
How to create a Wix client portal using protected pages
Time: 2h
Cost: $0
You can use a simpler approach and just add pages with passwords to your website. Then you can send these passwords to your client.
You can even use a single password for all pages of a specific client, so they don’t need to memorize multiple passwords.
Let’s see how you can implement your client portal using this method.
Step 1: Add content pages for your client
Create pages for each of the main topics you want your clients to learn about. You can create a page for each project, pages for tasks, pages with downloads, pages with invoices, pages with new ideas, and so on.
You can do it under Pages & Menus > Add Page.
Step 2: Add password protection to your pages
Add some content on your pages, then change the page visibility options by clicking on the three dots next to it. Then go to the “Permissions” tab and add password protection.
Step 3: Send password and instructions to your client
Email your client with the page links and passwords. In addition, it would be nice to send them general instructions on how to use the client portal.
How to collect customer feedback in your Wix client portal
Cost: $0
Time: 2h
Using the previous methods, you can create pages where customers can read data about their projects. But if you need to allow customers to interact with your pages, you’ll need to create custom forms.
In general, Wix only allows comments on posts. So, if you want to allow users to send content (be it comments, posts, or tasks) you need these structures:
- A database to store this data
- A form that collects data
- A component lists database entries on the page
- A code snippet to display the latest submission immediately
Let’s dive into it.
Step 1: Activate dev mode
Go to your site editor, navigate to Dev Mode, and click on “Enable Developer Mode.” This allows you to get access to new options such as databases and custom codes.
Step 2: Create a database collection to store data
Go to Databases > Collections and add a new collection called “Comments.” This collection is used to store comments for a specific page.
Step 3: Update the collection permissions
Update the collection permissions to make sure you can work with it from form submissions. Click on the three dots > Privacy and change the type of content to form submissions.
Step 4: Customize database collection fields
You can add more fields to your collection if you want. In our demo, we are using Title and Text, but you can use other fields such as date, file uploads, author, and so on.
Step 5: Add the comment form to page
Click on the page you want to edit and use the plus sign to add elements. Add text inputs, radio fields, or whatever suits your desired inputs for the user comments. Don’t forget to add a submit button as well.
Step 6: Display comments with a repeating layout
You can display the user comments using a repeater. Repeaters allow you to define a design and then apply it to multiple similar elements. For example, you can have a repeater to load client testimonials since they all have a picture, a name, and a comment. Each testimonial is a line in a database collection just like the comments on your page.
Go to List > repeaters, and you can add a component that loads multiple items from a data source.
Step 7: Add datasets to page
Now the visual elements are ready, you need to connect them with your database collection. You can use datasets to do it.
Add two datasets, one for the write action and one for the read action. Make sure to set them to load the comments collection in the right mode for each.
Step 8: Rename the datasets
Use the panel at the bottom to edit the component IDs (if you don’t see it, click the white footer bar with the page name).
Use “comments write” for the data source related to the form inputs, “comments read” for the data source related to the list, and “comments list” for the list repeater itself.
Step 9: Connect datasets to form elements
Now you need to tell Wix which elements connect to which fields from your database. You can do it using the “Connect to Data” button.
Make sure you select the correct field it maps to, including the submit button and the list repeater text fields.
Step 10: Show the latest comment
If you run the page as it is, you’ll be able to save data to your comments collection.
But you can only see new comments when you refresh the page.
To fix this, use the panel at the bottom to add this code snippet:
// import collections in a variable
import wixData from 'wix-data';
//this function gets the latest data from the Comments collection
function getData() {
//get the Comments collection
let query = wixData.query('Comments');
//run the query again to get the latest items and return them
return query.limit(1000).find().then( results => {
return results.items;
});
}
$w.onReady(function () {
//monitor the #commentswrite collection, when it is saved run this function
$w('#commentswrite').onAfterSave( () => {
//run getdata (getting the latest items) and replace the comments list with the current items
getData().then( (items) => {
$w("#commentslist").data = items;
});
});
});
Positive points of using a Wix client portal
Wix is 100% free, and you don’t need a paid plan for any content restriction or password protection features.
It’s quite easy to use, in particular, if you are already a Wix user. It isn’t as simple as installing a template like it is with Softr, but you can get started quite fast.
Wix requires no custom coding for a simple client portal. You can build the content restriction and your pages with no code at all.
Negative points of using a Wix Client Portal
A negative point is that there is no easy way to gather customer feedback. You’d need to use the dev mode to create databases, and custom collections, add them to the pages, and then use some code to allow comments to appear immediately.
There is no option for site-wide password protection, which would make the password protection mode much easier. You could simply create a Wix site for each of your clients, and send them the password. There would be no need to manage multiple passwords for multiple pages.
You can’t add members as well. You can only follow the signup process to create an account, and there’s no option to import members or add them in bulk.
Another downside is that there are some reports of issues with spam registrations on sites. Thus, you might have tons of signups overnight with bot accounts that you need to clean up manually, one by one.
Finally, Wix is not a client portal software at heart, so you're missing features and dedicated product support and updates that you'd get from a more focused option.
Conclusion
Wix is a powerful website builder, and you can use it to create client portals. It is particularly useful if you are already invested in their ecosystem, and don’t mind its shortcomings such as the lack of comment forms and manual sign-ups.
If you want a simple yet powerful approach with a different tool, you might want to consider creating a client portal using Softr.
Frequently asked questions about Client Portal
Does Wix have a client portal?
Wix doesn’t have a client portal feature, exactly. But it contains tools that allow you to build a client portal, such as the members area and the password-protected pages.
What makes a good client portal?
A good client portal contains all the information your customers need without them asking you for it. This allows them to check progress on projects and tasks, and frees your time from reporting to clients.
How do I add a user menu on Wix?
You can add a menu that is visible only to your registered users using the member's area menu. You can do it by clicking the menu, then clicking on “manage menu”:
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