{"id":6149,"date":"2026-08-03T08:53:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T05:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/?p=6149"},"modified":"2026-08-03T08:53:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T05:53:58","slug":"add-second-spanel-admin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scalahosting.com\/kb\/add-second-spanel-admin\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Add a Second Admin in SPanel and Limit Exactly Which Pages They Can Access"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the SPanel<\/a> Admin Interface, open Manage Admin Users, click Create Admin User, set a username and password, then select which areas of the Admin Interface the new account will have access to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After you click Create, the new admin appears in the list and can sign in immediately and can modify only the settings they have permissions for. You have fully granular control: page by page and user by user. There are no roles, so you get to decide exactly how the server is used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One server, multiple admins<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As your business grows, you may need to hire an additional person to help you manage the projects hosted on your server. They obviously need access to the SPanel Admin Interface, but it’s important to think about how you’ll organize that access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The easiest route is simply to give them your login credentials and let them use your admin account. It sounds like a good idea, but it’s anything but.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one, sharing your password with another person, even a team member, increases the risk of it getting lost or stolen. Then, you have the matter of giving the new employee full access to all the features in SPanel’s Admin Interface. Their job doesn’t require complete control over the server, and the more freedom they have, the greater the chance of something going wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPanel lets you avoid that. You can add a second admin account and control precisely which features it uses. This guide walks you through the entire process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admin account vs. user accounts in SPanel<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SPanel has two interfaces, so first make sure an admin account is the right tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SPanel Admin Interface<\/strong> is the server-wide control layer that manages hosting accounts, packages, services, and server settings. Only admin accounts<\/strong> have access to that interface, and SPanel supports more than one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SPanel User Interface<\/strong> is the per-account layer, where a single account’s owner manages their emails, databases, domains, and files; the extra logins you add there<\/em> are sub-users<\/strong>, scoped to one hosting account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, which layer does the person work at? Server-wide work like provisioning accounts, managing packages, or watching server health needs a restricted admin. Work that stays inside one account is a sub-user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/td>Second admin account<\/td>Sub-user<\/td><\/tr>
Lives in<\/td>SPanel Admin Interface<\/td>SPanel User Interface<\/td><\/tr>
Scope<\/td>Server-wide (all hosting accounts)<\/td>One hosting account<\/td><\/tr>
Created from<\/td>Manage Admin Users (\/admin\/manageadmins)<\/td>Manage Users (\/user\/manageusers)<\/td><\/tr>
Grant style<\/td>Page-level checkboxes, admin categories<\/td>Page-level checkboxes, account categories<\/td><\/tr>
Right for<\/td>Staff who provision or support accounts<\/td>A client, contractor, or dev on one account<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How to add a second admin in SPanel, step by step<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Open the admin-users page<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the SPanel Admin Interface, go to Server Management > Manage Admin Users<\/strong>. This page lists every admin account you already have, with columns for status, username, admin type, and account count. You’ll come back here to edit or remove an admin later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"How<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step 2: Create the admin<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Click Create Admin User<\/strong> and the create form opens inline. At the top, enter a login email and a password. Passwords must be at least eight characters long with a letter and a number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"How<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step 3: Choose exactly which pages they can access<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Below the credentials sits a permission grid<\/strong>: individual page checkboxes grouped under category headings. In the live panel those categories are Accounts Management, Server Management, Software, and Cluster Management<\/strong>. There’s also a Full Access<\/strong> toggle for a second full administrator, plus a separate Reseller Admin<\/strong><\/a> option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave Full Access off. Tick only the pages this admin needs and nothing else; that’s the habit worth building. Grant the pages the person’s job requires, not “all.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"How<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each category expands into pages. Accounts Management alone covers Manage Accounts, Create a New Account, Manage SSH Access, Packages, Skeleton Directory, and Manage API Tokens. An admin who only provisions accounts might get just the first two and stay out of everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is genuinely granular, but it’s per-admin, page-level permissions, not roles: there’s no “Support Agent” or “Billing Manager” bundle to assign by name. You compose each admin’s access yourself, one page at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 4: Save<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Submit the form; SPanel creates the account and returns to the admin list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 5: Verify<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Confirm the new admin appears in the Manage Admin Users list. From here they can sign in and reach only the pages you ticked. To double-check, log in as that admin in a private window and confirm the sidebar shows only their granted pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"How<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That’s the whole flow. Prefer to script it? Every step has a documented API endpoint (createadminuser, updateadminpermissions, removeadminuser), POSTed to \/spanel\/api.php with a token; removeadminuser even takes an array of usernames for bulk offboarding. See the SPanel API documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to modify or remove an admin account<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To edit an admin account’s permissions<\/strong>, open Manage Admin Users, find their row, and click Actions<\/strong> > Edit Privileges<\/strong>. The permission grid comes back; tick or untick pages and save. A contractor who starts on account creation and later needs package management gets one more box checked, with no new account and no re-shared credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"How<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To remove access<\/strong>, delete the admin from that same list. From the next login attempt forward, their credentials don’t work, and because you scoped their access from the start, you already know exactly what they could reach while they had it. That’s least privilege in practice: a phished or leaked credential can only touch what that one login could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What per-admin permissions don’t do<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SPanel does not<\/strong> ship named roles or role bundles, no “RBAC” in the pick-a-role-by-title sense. It gives you the page-level grants to build equivalent access by hand, but no role catalog to assign from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAQ<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> How do I add a second admin in SPanel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> Go to Server Management > Manage Admin Users in the Admin Interface, click Create Admin User, set a username and password, tick the pages the new admin should reach in the permission grid, and submit. The account appears in the list and can sign in right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> Can I limit exactly which pages a new admin can access?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> Yes, that’s the core of it. The create form shows a permission grid of page-level checkboxes under Accounts Management, Server Management, Software, and Cluster Management. Tick only the pages that person needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> Are these admin permissions the same as roles?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> No. SPanel gives you per-admin, page-level permission grants, not named roles. You choose the exact set of pages each admin can reach: the control you’d use to build a role, applied one admin at a time, but with no preset role catalog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> What’s the difference between a second admin and a sub-user?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> An admin account is a login to the server-wide Admin Interface. A sub-user is scoped to a single hosting account, in that account’s User Interface. Use an admin for server-level work, a sub-user to limit someone to one account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> Is there a limit on how many admin accounts I can create?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> No cap is shown or enforced. The create form displays no maximum, and adding an admin beyond the default set succeeded in testing with no warning. We call that “no cap encountered,” not “unlimited.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> How do I change or remove an admin’s access later?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> From the same Manage Admin Users list: edit an admin’s privileges to adjust access, or delete the account to revoke it. Their credentials stop working from the next login attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> Can I require every admin to use two-factor authentication?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> Not as an enforced policy. 2FA<\/a> is available using an authenticator app, enabled per account under Profile Settings > Login Security, but no control forces every admin to enroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n