Guests
Guests are external board guests.
A guest is someone outside your organisation who has access to selected boards only. They are not added to your organisation, and they are not added as a workspace member.
This is the most common confusion: a guest is not a lighter kind of workspace user. A guest is an external person with board-level access.
Guests must use a different email domain from the organisation owner. If someone uses the same domain as the organisation owner, add them as an organisation user instead of inviting them as a guest.
Guests do not count as paid seats while they have access to one or two boards. If a guest is added to three or more boards on hosted Pro, they need a paid seat licence.
When to use guests
Use guests for external people who only need limited access to one or two boards.
Good guest examples:
- A client who only needs their delivery board.
- A contractor who only needs one project board.
- A vendor who needs to review a small amount of work.
- A partner who needs read-only access to a shared board.
Use organisation and workspace membership when the person is part of your team, needs broad workspace access, or needs to appear consistently in workspace member lists.
Invite a guest
- Open the workspace.
- Go to Workspace settings -> Guests.
- Choose the board.
- Enter the guest's email address.
- Choose Member or Observer.
- Click Invite.
- Share the generated invite link with the guest.
The invite is locked to the email address you enter. Kanera only allows guest invitations for email domains that differ from the organisation owner's domain.
Guest roles
Guest roles are board roles:
- Member guests can work on that board.
- Observer guests can view that board without editing.
Guests cannot be invited as admins from the Guests page.
Existing users and pending invites
If the email belongs to an existing Kanera user outside your organisation, Kanera can add them to the selected board immediately as an external board guest.
If the email does not belong to an existing Kanera user yet, Kanera creates a pending board invitation and gives you a link to share.
The Guests page shows:
- External board guests: accepted external users who currently have board access.
- Pending board invitations: invite links that have not been accepted yet.
You can remove accepted guests or revoke pending invitations from this page.
Guest boards and paid seats
On hosted Kanera Pro, an external guest can have access to two boards in your organisation without using a paid seat licence.
You can give the same guest access to three or more boards. When you do, that guest needs a paid seat licence and is billed as a paid seat.
This keeps included guest access narrow and intentional while still allowing broader external collaboration when it is worth paying for.
Self-hosted Kanera can allow more flexible guest access depending on deployment settings.
Guests vs workspace users
| Person type | Belongs to your org? | Access scope | Where to manage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workspace user | Yes | Workspace access, including the boards that workspace role can reach. | Workspace settings -> Members. |
| Guest | No | Specific board access. Must use a different email domain from the organisation owner. Two boards are included on hosted Pro; three or more boards require a paid seat licence. | Workspace settings -> Guests. |
When in doubt, ask whether the person is part of your organisation's operating team or uses the same email domain as the organisation owner. If yes, add them to the organisation and workspace. If no, invite them as a guest. If that guest needs three or more boards on hosted Pro, assign a paid seat licence.