# Difference between “member” and “staff user”
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 27, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099 "2020-06-27T12:20:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Loriloohoo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Loriloohoo)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099/1 "2020-06-27T12:20:53Z")
Hi, in the different pricing options members are unlimited but only a certain number of user slots are available. What is the difference between the two functions?
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### Author:  [@Qursch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Qursch)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2020, 12:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099/2 "2020-06-27T12:54:00Z")
Do you mean that only a certain number of staff members are allowed?
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### Author:  [@ondrej](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ondrej)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099/3 "2020-06-27T13:09:06Z")
> [@Loriloohoo](#):
>
> members are unlimited
Yep! That is correct you can have unlimited members. Members are like you and me. Staff are members but have moderation abilities. Depending on size of the forum you want dictates what plans you choose. The team are quite flexible also. Discobot and system don’t count as staff.
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Useful links:
> [@Understanding user statuses, roles, and permissions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/description-of-various-user-states-in-discourse-admin-moderator-staff-developer-other/35171):
>
> bookmark This is a guide for understanding the various user statuses, roles, and permissions within Discourse, including how they affect user capabilities and how they are stored in the database. person_raising_hand Required user level: Administrator Discourse has many built-in user statuses, roles, and permissions. These statuses and roles can be seen for a given user when viewing their profile from the users’ section of the admin dashboard: Permi…
> [@Which Discourse hosting tier should I choose?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/which-discourse-hosting-tier-should-i-choose/115248):
>
> So you’ve decided to try out a [hosted Discourse plan](https://discourse.org/buy). Good choice! Before you can sign up for a plan, you need to figure out which one is right for you and your community. While you can always upgrade or downgrade your plan at a later date, this involves read-only time and thus is disruptive to your community. Page Views: First step is to think about your expected pageviews. Do you have an existing community site with lots of users? Business or enterprise is likely for you. Are you a new start…
> [@What is a staff user on hosted Discourse?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-a-staff-user-on-hosted-discourse/112219):
>
> When choosing a [Discourse hosting plan](https://www.discourse.org/pricing), you might notice that each plan has a different Staff limit: Starter: 2 Pro: 5 (also the legacy Basic plan) Business: 15 Enterprise: unlimited This topic will help outline what a staff member is in relation to your community. What counts as a Staff user? A staff user is any user that is an admin, a moderator, or both. The list of current staff members can be viewed at /about or listed at /admin/users/list/staff. warning On hosted sites, there a…
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### Author:  [@Loriloohoo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Loriloohoo)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099/4 "2020-06-27T13:23:52Z")
Great. Thanks! One more question-are their privacy options in a discussion thread? Im looking for a tool to use within my org that will allow staff to have discussions within their own team. We don’t care so much about keeping certain discussions private but more keeping the tool clean as a large number of our staff/volunteers are retired people who have limited experience in this technology. And oh can the font be increased as needed?
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### Author:  [@ondrej](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ondrej)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2020, 1:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099/5 "2020-06-27T13:25:08Z")
> [@Loriloohoo](#):
>
> allow staff to have discussions within their own team
When you first install Discourse a default category called #staff is already there. This will be visible to moderators and admins only. If you need any more help just ask 😊
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2020, 1:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099/6 "2020-06-27T13:44:31Z")
[How to use category security settings to create private categories](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-use-category-security-settings-to-create-private-categories/87678)
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2023, 10:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difference-between-member-and-staff-user/156099/7 "2023-08-19T10:08:37Z")
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