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Clients.
You love ’em, you hate ’em.
If you need some help managing clients and streamlining your workflow, you’ve come to the right place.
After scouring the web for the best plugins, I have to say that it was tough to find a lot that were up to the job.
That said, I did find four that stood out.
The plugins included here will give your clients their own private portals where you can collaborate and share files. There are discussion tools, real-time chat, file uploading – everything you need to optimize your workflow.
Sound good?
Keep reading to discover my top picks.
Client portal WP plugins
Due to the nature of the product, there wasn’t any completely free client portal plugins available. Some of these premium plugins have a one-time fee and others are freemium with a recurring subscription.
As long as you’re okay with paying a little to improve your business, you’ll love this collection.
Here are my top picks for the best client portal WordPress plugins.
1. Ultimate Private Member Portal
Plugin Description
Ultimate Private Member Portal is a full-featured plugin for creating member sides on your site. Even with it’s $40 price tag, it’s more affordable than many other options included here (some charge more per month!). Let’s dive into the features.
As the administrator, you get to customize what content is shown to each client individually. This is done by simply selecting a user on your site. The client has their own private dashboard on the front-end of the site (they don’t see the WP admin) where they can view and interact with whatever content you’ve added to their profile.
Inside the client portal, there’s a discussion section and a separate tab for managing file uploads. What makes this plugin even more powerful is the option to create new tabs within the dashboard with whatever type of content you want. You can add a new section with a contact form, links to important resources, or whatever else you want.
All things considered, Ultimate Private Member Portal is a very flexible and affordable client portal WordPress plugin.
2. Client Portal
Plugin Description
Client Portal is a well-designed, premium option for adding a private client portal to your WordPress site. Use it to share finished work with clients and send professional business proposals.
This standalone plugin has been made to give your clients access to everything they could need. There are built-in sections for content, final deliverables, contracts, proposals, prototypes, invoice receipts, and more. You can add and remove any of these sections to get a custom fit for your business needs.
The portal itself is gorgeous and easy to brand. It has a clean and simple style, and with the addition of a logo and matching color, it looks amazing. The most important aspect of this product is that it gives you more control to set boundaries and expectations with clients which will make your work easier and more manageable.
3. Clinked
Plugin Description
Clinked offers a variety of business software. One of their tools is a client portal app. The plugin listed here integrates their app with your website and allows you to manage the portal straight from your WordPress site. You can have up to 3 free users before switching to a paid plan.
Regarding the features, the Clinked client portal gives you a completely white-label platform to interact with your clients. You can share files and communicate easily with the included discussion tools. Keeping everything in one place will help to streamline your business. This is a much more advanced solution than simply password-protecting a page.
As an app that expands beyond WordPress, there are some pretty cool additional tools. You can manage files from Google files, get notifications when files are updated, manage tasks and projects, and collaborate live with real-time group chat.
4. WP Client
Plugin Description
WP Client has tons of features, and you’ll find explainer videos for every feature on their site, so head over there when you’re ready to really dive in.
The WP Client plugin has comprehensive invoicing and estimate generators, and integration with payment processors so you can accept payments. You can create as many client areas as you want, and spinning up a new one takes just minutes. You also get full control over what content is shown to each client, private login/registration pages, quick chat, and advanced file management.
While WP Client was made to work for non-technical users, the fact that it is developer-friendly is a nice touch. If you have experience customizing WordPress sites, then the ability to customize the code in WP Client might make it your top choice.
Which client portal plugin is best for you?
Ultimate Private Member Portal has an excellent balance of features and a customizable design. The fact that you can create entirely custom sections in the portal make it a top choice in my eyes.
If you’re willing to pay a little more, Client Portal is probably the best way to go. It has a gorgeous design and is simple for both you and your clients to use.
The other plugins listed here have their strengths and weaknesses, but those two stood out most.
And if you’ve never created a private client portal before, this tutorial will help you get started.
If you have a question about any of these WP client portal plugins, leave a post in the comments.