Guests vs Workspace Members
What's the difference between a guest and a workspace, and when to use
Guests vs Workspace Members
What's the difference, and when to use each
Understanding the Difference Between Guests and Workspace Members
In Shade, there are two core user types: Workspace Admins & Members (internal users) and Guests (external collaborators). Below is a clear breakdown of how they differ and when to use each.
Workspace Admins and Members
Workspace admins and members (collectively internal members) are individuals within your organization who collaborate inside your workspace. These users occupy paid seats.
Important clarification: Being a workspace member does not automatically grant access to drives, files, or advanced actions (like mounting drives or editing drive-level metadata). Access is granted per drive, either explicitly by an admin or via default inheritance settings.
What workspace members can do
Workspace members have the ability to use all of Shade’s features once they are granted access to the relevant drives or assets. Depending on drive-level permissions, this can include:
Accessing one or more drives
Uploading, editing, and organizing assets
Mounting drives (only if they have sufficient permissions on that drive)
Managing and creating custom metadata (only where permitted)
Tagging assets
Using advanced features such as facial recognition (where enabled and permitted)
Workspace members do not automatically have Manager or Editor access on existing drives. Admins must:
Explicitly add members to drives, or
Configure default drive inheritance that applies to new (and optionally existing) drives
Paid seats & identity management
Workspace members are paid seats and are typically restricted to your company domain. They can be fully integrated with enterprise identity systems:
SSO / SAML enforcement
SCIM or Active Directory syncing
Just-in-time (JIT) provisioning
All users provisioned via SCIM are considered workspace members and therefore occupy paid seats.
Key Notes for Workspace Members
Paid Seats: Workspace membership requires a paid account.
Permission-Based Access: Access to drives and features depends on drive-level permissions and inheritance, not membership alone.
Enterprise Controls: Workspace members can be governed via SSO/SAML and SCIM.
Contractors (Special Case)
Contractors are another role under members, but are intentionally not included in default drive inheritance.
This allows contractors to:
Be managed like internal users (identity, auditing, easy offboarding)
Be added to specific drives, folders, or files only
Avoid automatically receiving access to newly created drives
This model is ideal when someone is working inside Shade but should only see a tightly scoped subset of content. This will also apply to mounting, where upon mounting contractors will only see those specific files/folders.
Guests
Guests enable collaboration with people outside your organization without granting full workspace membership. Guests do not occupy paid seats.
Guests are typically invited to:
A specific file
A specific folder
Content shared via a public or private link
Guests can be viewed and managed under Workspace > Manage Members > Guests.
What guests can do
Access only the files or folders explicitly shared with them
Upload files if granted upload permissions
Comment on or edit assets if allowed
What guests cannot do
Browse the workspace or drives
Mount drives
Access other content unless explicitly shared
Guests cannot mount drives. You must be an internal workspace member (paid seat) to mount drives.
Cost & flexibility
Guests do not count toward seat limits
Guests can be upgraded to workspace members at any time
Often used for executives, clients, vendors, or infrequent collaborators
Alternative to Guests: Link Sharing & Collection Links
It is oftentimes easier to simply share files with external collaborators using links and public sharing. Links can be created on the file, folder, or even collection level to ensure that people can access, download, upload, and even comment and edit metadata fields that are enabled for the link.
Links also offer expiring access, password protection and more. Check out more about links here.
When to Use Workspace Members vs Guests
Core team member who needs to manage permissions and drives
✅
✅
❌
Needs to Mount
✅
✅
❌
Requires enterprise SSO / SCIM provisioning
✅
✅
❌
Restricted Access to specific folders and files within a drive
❌
✅
✅
Client or vendor with limited scope
❌
✅
✅
One-off file or folder collaboration
❌
❌
✅
Temporary access with no account setup
❌
❌
✅ (via links)
In summary, workspace members are best for internal or long-term collaborators who need scalable access governed by drive permissions, while guests and links are ideal for external, scoped, and cost-effective collaboration.
Workspace
Guests
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