What each role can do
Five roles, what each one is allowed to touch, and which ones use a paid seat.
4 min readUpdated
Every person on the account has exactly one role. It decides what they can open, what they can change, and whether they use one of your paid seats.
| Role | What they can do | Seat |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Everything an admin can do, plus transferring ownership. The owner always receives the billing email. | Paid seat |
| Admin | Full work access, plus the Administration area: members, invites, roles, plan, invoices and storage. | Paid seat |
| Member | Full work access: view and edit boards, items, documents and conversations. No admin screens. | Paid seat |
| Viewer | Read-only across everything they're given access to. Unlimited, invite as many as you like. | Free |
| Guest | Read-only, for people outside your company. How many you can have is capped by your plan. | Free |
Owner is a special case#
There is exactly one owner, and the owner isn't in the role menu, you can't promote someone to it. Ownership moves only through Transfer ownership, and only the current owner can start that. In the directory, the owner's row carries a crown and an amber Owner badge.
What read-only really means#
For viewers and guests, controls they can't use aren't dimmed or explained, they simply aren't drawn. There's no error message and no upgrade prompt, so a screen genuinely looks simpler to them than it does to you.