When you hire a freelancer or agency to work on your store, you need to give them access to your Shopify admin. Before you grant that access, it is good practice to record the state of key parts of your store and to understand the different ways you can let someone in.
Key takeaways
- Use collaborator accounts for Shopify Partners like agencies and freelancers; they don't count toward your user limit (The page on collaborator accounts).
- Always grant the minimum permissions necessary for the freelancer to complete their job.
- Before work begins, make a backup of your theme and document the state of key products, collections, and settings.
- After the work is finished, review the changes against your initial records to verify everything was done as requested and check for unintended edits.
What access should I give a freelancer?
You have two main options for giving someone access: a staff account or a collaborator account. For freelancers and agencies who are Shopify Partners, a collaborator account is often the better choice (The page on collaborator accounts). It doesn't use up one of your plan's staff seats, and you can grant specific permissions based on what the freelancer needs to do.
A freelancer who is a Shopify Partner must request collaborator access to your store (The Shopify Collaborator Account: What You Need to Know). Once you approve their request, you can select which parts of your store they can access.
| Access Type | Best for | Counts toward user limit? | How it works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collaborator Account | Shopify Partners, such as agencies and freelancers. | No. | The Partner requests access from their dashboard, and you approve it. You can set a request code for security. |
| Staff Account | In-house team members who work on the store daily. | Yes, depending on your Shopify plan. | You invite them via email, and they create an account. You assign them a role with specific permissions. |
What should I record before the work starts?
Creating a record of your store's state before a freelancer begins work gives you a baseline to check against when the job is done. It helps you confirm that only the agreed-upon changes were made.
Here is a checklist of what to record:
| What to check | Why it matters | How to do it |
|---|---|---|
| Key Products | A freelancer might need to edit product details, prices, or inventory settings. | Go to Products and open a few of your most important products. Take screenshots of the product page, including the price, description, status, and inventory settings. |
| Important Collections | Changes to collection conditions or sort orders can affect how customers find products. | Go to Collections. For key collections, take a screenshot of the conditions for automated collections or the product order for manual ones. |
| Discounts | An active discount might be edited or a new one created for testing and left active by mistake. | Go to Discounts and take a screenshot of the main list, showing which codes are active. Note the end dates of any important promotions. |
| Store Settings | Permissions for Manage settings allow a user to change some, but not all, store settings. | Go to Settings. Note key details like your store name, contact email, and primary domain, as a record of what they were. |
How can I track what the freelancer does?
Shopify has a built-in feature for tracking some activities in your store. You can also use apps to get a more detailed history.
Shopify's Store Activity Log
However, the log has limitations. It only displays a limited number of results, so on an active store, the history might not go back far.
For a more complete history of what has changed in your store, an app can provide a searchable record. Actorly, for example, tracks changes across 25 different parts of a Shopify store, such as products, collections, and themes. It shows the old and new value for most changes, and for product edits, it can show who made the change when Shopify reports it.
What should I check after the work is done?
Once the freelancer tells you the job is complete, your task is to verify the work and secure your store.
- Review the requested changes. Go through the list of tasks you gave the freelancer. Check each one to see that it was completed as specified. For example, if they were hired to edit product descriptions, open those products and read the new text.
- Compare with your "before" records. Use the theme backup, screenshots, and notes you made earlier. Compare the current state of your store to your records to spot any unintended changes. Did a collection's sort order change? Is a test discount code still active?
- Test the user experience. Browse your store as a customer would. Add a product to the cart and go through the checkout process up to the payment step. This helps catch issues that might not be obvious from the admin, like a broken link or a layout problem.
- For a collaborator, you can remove their account from the
Userspage in your Shopify admin. For a staff account, you can deactivate or delete it.
Common mistakes when working with freelancers
Giving out access to your store requires trust. Avoiding these common mistakes can help protect your business.
- Granting excessive permissions. A freelancer hired to design a new page does not need access to your store's financial reports or customer data. Always follow the principle of least privilege: grant only the permissions they absolutely need to do their job (How To Manage Your Growing Team With Shopify’s Staff Permissions).
- Not defining the scope of work. A vague instruction like "improve the homepage" can lead to misunderstandings. Provide a clear, written brief detailing exactly what needs to be changed, and what should not be touched.
- Failing to check the work. Don't assume everything was done perfectly. A thorough review is necessary to catch mistakes, accidental edits, or incomplete tasks before they affect your customers.
- Leaving access open after the project ends. Forgetting to remove a freelancer's account after their contract is over leaves an unnecessary entry point to your store. Make it a standard practice to revoke access as the final step of any project.
A worked example
Imagine you hire a freelance developer to add a custom size guide to your product pages.
- Before: Before work begins, you create a safe working environment. In your Shopify admin, you go to
Online Store, find your current theme, and use the menu to selectDuplicate. This creates a copy for the developer to work on. You then grant the developer collaborator access with permissions limited to what they need, for example, access toThemes. - During: The developer works on the duplicated theme. You can preview their changes at any time without affecting your live store. When they are done, they ask you to review the work. You preview the theme, confirm the size guide works as expected, and then publish the updated theme to make it live.
Frequently asked questions
Can a freelancer access my sales data or customer information?
A freelancer can only access the parts of your store that you grant them permissions for (The page on users). When you approve a collaborator request or set up a staff account, you choose which sections they can see and edit. If you don't grant them permissions for Orders, Customers, or Reports, they cannot access that data.
What is the difference between a staff account and a collaborator account?
A staff account is for an employee and counts toward your Shopify plan's user limit. A collaborator account is for a Shopify Partner, like an agency or freelancer (The page on collaborator accounts). It does not count toward your user limit, and access is requested by the Partner and approved by you.
How do I remove a freelancer's access?
You can remove access from the Users screen in your Shopify admin Settings. Find the collaborator or staff account you want to remove, click on their name, and you will see an option to remove their access (The page on collaborator accounts).
Does Shopify record who changes a theme?
No, Shopify does not record who publishes a theme or edits theme code in its activity log. This is why duplicating your theme before a freelancer starts work is a recommended step for creating a backup.
What happens if a freelancer deletes a product by mistake?
An app like Actorly cannot recreate a deleted product, but it does keep a record of its last known values. On the Actorly Restore plan, you can export this data to help you manually recreate the product.
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