# Subcategory access for Users, not Groups?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-access-for-users-not-groups/329361
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 4, 2024, 3:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-access-for-users-not-groups/329361 "2024-10-04T15:30:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ludwikc](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ludwikc)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2024, 3:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-access-for-users-not-groups/329361/1 "2024-10-04T15:30:43Z")
I have quite an unusual setup.
On my private forum I need to create a space for my coaching clients.
Ideally I’d like to create a Category “Coaching Clients” with Subcategories “Client A”, “Client B”, and so on.
In order to achieve it, I believe I’d need to configure
“Coaching Clients” category in the following way:
1. Who can see members of this category? No one.
2. Display sub-categories: None.
But then, for the per-client Subcategories: can I give access to the private Subcategory to the CLIENT or do I need to
1. create a separate group
2. set it in a way that this group will be invisible to anyone else
3. add a single user to this group
Is this the only way to achieve this?
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-access-for-users-not-groups/329361/2 "2024-10-04T16:16:49Z")
> [@ludwikc](#):
>
> Is this the only way to achieve this?
Yes.
Groups are the cornerstone of category security in Discourse.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2024, 4:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-access-for-users-not-groups/329361/3 "2024-10-04T16:18:23Z")
If you don’t want to create a group for each client then you can instead use pms.
Your can use tags to organize them, if they would help for some reason.
---
### Author:  [@Heliosurge](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Heliosurge)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2024, 5:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-access-for-users-not-groups/329361/4 "2024-10-04T17:08:52Z")
If each “CLIENT” is a single individual & you’re self hosted. Private Topics plugin might work.
> [@Private Topics Plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-topics-plugin/268646):
>
> information_sourceSummary Private Topics Enables private topics in a regular categoryhammer_and_wrenchRepository Link [GitHub - communiteq/discourse-private-topics · GitHub](https://github.com/communiteq/discourse-private-topics)open_bookInstall Guide [How to install plugins in Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-plugins-in-discourse/19157)Features This plugin allows you to add an extra security setting to categories so that users can only access their own topics. You can also designate one or more groups that can see all topics in the category. This is typically used for…