# Put a password on a site

> Keep a site private while you build it: visitors and search engines need a password to see it.

Source: https://veldhost.eu/docs/site-password-gate

Last verified: 2026-11-12

A password gate puts your whole site behind a login. Use it while a site is being built, for a preview you only want a client to see, or for an internal tool. Visitors get a browser sign-in prompt; search engines can't get past it.

## Before you start

- The site must be live.
- The gate is on the site's **Settings** tab, the account's owner, administrators and developers see (developers see the sections they may change). See [team roles](https://veldhost.eu/docs/roles-and-permissions).

## Make a site private

1. Open [Sites](https://manage.veldhost.eu/portal/sites) → your site → **Settings** → **Visibility**.
2. On the **Private site (password gate)** row, press **Make my site private**.

We create a random password for you. The row now shows **Private** and the login:

- user: `gate`
- password: the one shown on the row

The gate is up within a minute. Share the user and password with the people who should see the site. Anyone with access to the **Settings** tab can read the password there.

## Make it public again

On the same row, press **Make my site public**. The gate comes down within a minute.

## Change the password

There is no field for choosing a password. Make the site public, then private again: each time you turn the gate on, you get a new random password and the old one stops working.

> **Note:** On a WordPress site, the **Visibility** band also has an **Admin gate (extra login on /wp-admin/)**: an extra login in front of the WordPress admin and login page only, while the rest of the site stays public. The two are separate switches.

## Related

- [Staging: a safe copy of your site](https://veldhost.eu/docs/staging-copy)
- [Give someone access to one site](https://veldhost.eu/docs/site-collaborators)
- [Redirects](https://veldhost.eu/docs/redirects)