This guide explains how to configure Discourse for a closed or private community, including setting login requirements, user approval processes, and invite-only access.
Required user level: Administrator
Discourse offers several options to create a closed or private community. This guide will walk you through the different settings you can use to control access to your Discourse site.
Setting up login requirements
To make your Discourse site completely private, requiring users to log in to see any content:
- Go to your site settings
- Find the “login required” setting and select it
Implementing user approval
If you want to allow anyone to sign up but require staff approval before new accounts become active:
- Navigate to your site settings
- Locate the “must approve users” setting and select it
Creating an invite-only community
To restrict new account creation to only those who have been invited:
- Access your site settings
- Find the “invite only” setting and select it
Setting up private categories
You can also make specific categories private:
- Visit the category page
- Click the Advanced settings toggle switch in the upper right corner
- Go to the “Security” tab
- Adjust the permissions as needed
In this example, only users with accounts can access the category. Anonymous users are restricted from viewing it.
You can further customize category access by making certain categories readable or writable only to specific groups of users. These groups can be either public or private.
Additional resources
Last edited by @yigit 2026-05-05T11:02:25Z
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