An Overview of Notion Workspace User Types

I. Introduction

• Introduction to different user types in Notion and how they fit into a workspace hierarchy

II. Workspace Owners

• Definition and role of workspace owners
• Permissions and responsibilities of workspace owners
• How members join a workspace as determined by workspace owners

III. Membership Admins

• Definition and role of membership admins
• Permissions and responsibilities of membership admins
• Comparison of membership admins to other user types, such as team managers

IV. Members

• Definition and role of members
• Permissions and responsibilities of members
• Comparison of members to other user types, such as full-time staff

V. Guests

• Definition and role of guests
• Permissions and responsibilities of guests
• Comparison of guests to other user types, such as contractors and external collaborators

VI. Comparison of User Types

• Visual comparison of user types to use as reference
• Recap of key differences between user types

VII. Conclusion

• Recap of main points and resources for further learning about user types and permissions in Notion.

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Each participant in a Notion workspace is one of four types of users: workspace owners, membership admins, members, and guests. Each of these user types has its own permissions and methods of joining the workspace. Within this hierarchy, workspace owners have maximum privileges while guests have the fewest. These user types were refreshed in the summer of 2022 as a reflection of Notion's focus on larger teams. It's important to note that user types are different from sharing and team space permissions, which are covered in other published resources.

Workspace owners exist in every workspace across all plans. If you're using the free personal plan, then you're the workspace owner. You'll have no membership admins or members, but you can invite up to five guests. Workspace owners can manage workspace settings and delete the workspace. On applicable plans, they can also bulk manage users of every type as well as groups and team spaces. Within their settings, the workspace section contains many options unseen by other users. Workspace owners also determine how members join a workspace, which could be through individual invitations, a share URL, or by using an email address associated with an approved domain.

On enterprise plans, membership admins can assist with the management of members, guests, and groups. They can view, add, and remove them in bulk, but they cannot access workspace settings. At a larger company, C-level executives may serve as membership admins, while team managers are better suited to be members and team space owners for their applicable team spaces.

On team and enterprise plans, members are full participants of a workspace. The price of the team plan is per member. Members can access pages shared with everyone in the workspace, participate in team spaces, and be designated as team space owners. They can create private pages to use independently or to share with specific users and can be added to groups. At a company, full-time staff are typically members of the workspace.

Guests of a workspace are invited to individual pages and by default, the sub-pages of those pages. They don't join the full workspace, so they can only see the pages that they have permission to access and are unable to create private pages or access pages shared with everyone, groups, or team spaces. At a company, contractors and other external collaborators are typically invited to individual pages as guests. All plans support guests, but the free personal plan only allows up to five.

In the Notion VIP post and Notion A to Z lesson that correspond with this video, you'll find a visual comparison of user types which can be used as a reference. I'll link to that from within the video description.

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