Add a client

In the third step of this guide, we covered the benefits of storing client Sites in a dedicated Client Organization versus in your agency's Organization. You don't have to use the same approach for every client.

Create a Client Organization#

If you want to store client Sites on a Client Organization, first you must create one. If you want to store your client Sites directly in your agency Organization, you can skip this section of the guide.

Click the Clients link in the App Sidebar to open your Client Organizations Browser, then click the New Client button in the top right. If the New Client button is disabled, you are not a member of the Owners Permission Group in your Partner Organization.

On the Create a New Client Organization page, enter a name in the Client Organization Name field. We recommend the name of your client's business. By default, CloudCannon will select the Standard Plan on a monthly Billing Period for your Client Organization, but you can update that before you create the Organization.

Choose a Subscription Plan for your Client Organization

Click the Change Subscription Plan button to review your Subscription Plan and Billing Period options.

CloudCannon offers the same Subscription Plans to a Client Organization as to your Partner Organization. What differs is the requirements: your agency may only need access to CloudCannon, whereas a client may run their business through their website. The key resources for you to consider are how many Seats and Custom Domains your client may need, and how much Hosting Bandwidth and Build Time they might use each month.

Once you have compared the options, use the Billing Period toggle to pick Monthly or Yearly, then click the Select [Plan Name] button on the Subscription Plan you want. The Subscription Plan already selected for your client shows a disabled Current Plan button instead, or a Switch to annual pricing button when you pick Yearly. CloudCannon will close the modal and show your choice on the Create a New Client Organization page.

As with the Subscription Plan for your Partner Organization, you can pay for your Subscription Plan on a Monthly or Yearly Billing Period, with a discounted price on most CloudCannon Subscription Plans if you choose to pay annually. Additionally, you can change your client's Subscription Plan or Billing Period at any time after you create it. For more information, please read our documentation on updating your Subscription Plan and updating your Billing Period.

Whichever you pick, you choose separately whether CloudCannon charges your card or your client's. We'll come back to that when you give your client access.

A Client Organization earns you no Partner Points while it is on its Free Trial. It starts earning them once someone is paying for its Subscription Plan, whether that is you or your client.

When you are ready, click the Create Client Organization button. CloudCannon will create your client's Organization and open it, so you are now working inside the new Client Organization rather than your Partner Organization.

Extend a Subscription Plan#

Clients may not fall cleanly into a single Subscription Plan. As we covered when you chose a Subscription Plan for your agency, you can extend any Subscription Plan with Add-Ons, which add Seats or Custom Domains, and Overages, which remove the limit on Build Time and Hosting Bandwidth and invoice you for what you use above it. These bridge the gap when a client needs more resources than a Subscription Plan provides, but not the features of the next one up.

A Client Organization has the same risk as your own: when it reaches a Build Time or Hosting Bandwidth limit, every Site in it is affected, so we recommend turning Overages on for each client too. Unlike your agency's Organization, a new Client Organization starts with Overages turned off, and it needs a credit card before you can turn them on, even during its Free Trial. We'll show you how in the next step of this guide, once you have decided who pays.

Create a client Site#

When you connect a Git Repository to an Organization, either yours or a Client Organization, you can create a Site from any branch in that Git Repository. You can connect as many Git Repositories and Sites as you need, but they all share the resources included with the Subscription Plan on that Organization.

In either Organization, click the Create a Site link on the Organization Home page or the Create a Site button in the Sites Browser. CloudCannon will open the Create a Site page. For the full walkthrough, please read our documentation on getting started with CloudCannon, starting at the Create a Site step.

By the end of that guide, you will have:

• Connected a Git Repository to CloudCannon and created a Site from one of its branches.
• Written a Configuration File that turns your client's files into something they can edit without touching code.
• Grouped those files into Collections so your client can find the content they need.
• Toured the Site your client will log in to.
• Saved your configuration changes back to the Git Repository.

Work through it inside the Organization where you want your client's Site to live, then come back here.

In the next step of this guide, we'll give your client a login in the right Permission Groups, decide who pays for their Organization, and enable Overages.