Give us access to your DreamHost hosting

How to grant Chykalophia account privileges in your DreamHost panel, and which privileges to tick.

DreamHost is a shared and managed hosting provider. Its control panel is simply called the panel. To work on your site's files, databases or email, we need account privileges in that panel.

Quick summary

Log in to the DreamHost panel, open Account Access, and click Grant Privileges to a New Person. Enter support@chykalophia.com (unless your project lead gave you a different address), tick the privileges we need, and click Set Privileges. DreamHost emails us a confirmation asking us to set a password.

What you'll need

Your DreamHost panel login, at panel.dreamhost.com.
The email address for our team: support@chykalophia.com

Check this email isn't already on your account

Before you start, make sure the address you're about to add is not also listed as a secondary email under Profile & Privacy in your panel. DreamHost is explicit about what happens if an address appears in both places: the new user cannot use the password reset link, and instead sees the error "Only your primary email address can reset a password with this form." If our address is already there as a secondary contact, remove it first or ask us for a different one.

How to grant us privileges

Log in to the panel. Go to panel.dreamhost.com and sign in.

Open Account Access. Go to the Account Access page.

Start the invitation. Click Grant Privileges to a New Person.

Enter our email and name. Use support@chykalophia.com — unless your project lead gave you a different address — and put "Chykalophia" as the name so it's obvious in your user list later.

Tick the privileges we need. See the table below for what each one covers. For most website work that's Domains, Databases and Users.

Save. Click Set Privileges. DreamHost sends us a confirmation email asking us to set a password.

Let us know. Drop a note in your ClickUp task or email us, so we know to watch for it.

Which privileges to tick

These are DreamHost's own descriptions of what each privilege grants:

Privilege	What it lets us do	Do we need it?
Domains	Modify current and future domains, including the email users under a domain. It does not allow adding hosting to new domains.	Yes, for website work
Databases	Modify existing databases and add new ones. Adding new ones also needs hosting plan access.	Yes, for WordPress work
Users	Modify existing FTP users, and future ones. It does not allow creating users.	Usually
Domain Registrations	Modify and manage domain registrations. Adding registrations needs billing access too.	Only if we're handling your domains
Groups	Manage Unix groups.	Rarely
Private Servers	Manage existing private servers, and future ones.	Only on a DreamHost VPS or dedicated plan
Grant Privileges	Grant privileges to other people.	No
Billing	Modify billing details.	No — please leave this unticked

Two quirks worth knowing, both from DreamHost's own documentation:

A privileged user can't reach the MySQL section of the panel at all unless they have access to at least one domain. If we report that databases are missing, this is usually why.
Privileged users never receive your account or billing notices — payment receipts and renewal notices only go to the account owner's primary email address. Granting us access doesn't move any billing mail off your desk.

How to remove our access later

Go back to the Account Access page and click Revoke All Privileges for 'user', then click OK in the confirmation box.

Revoking deletes the whole sub-account

DreamHost doesn't have a "reduce this person's access" button on that screen. Revoking privileges deletes the entire sub-account, so only click it when you want the user gone completely. To change what we can reach, revoke and grant again with the new set of ticks — which, usefully, also sends a fresh confirmation email.

Common questions

Does this give you access to my whole account?

Only to what you tick. DreamHost's privileges are granular: you can grant access to a single domain and its email and databases while leaving your other sites alone. When we log in, menu items we don't have access to aren't available to us.

Will you be able to see or change my billing?

Not unless you tick Billing, and we're asking you not to. Note that DreamHost's Domain Registrations privilege can't add new registrations without billing access either, so if you want us to register domains for you, that's worth a conversation first rather than a tick.

The confirmation email never arrived. Can you resend it?

DreamHost can't resend that original email. There are two ways round it: we can reset the password ourselves at panel.dreamhost.com/login/forgot.cgi, or you can revoke our privileges and grant them again, which triggers a new confirmation email. Check your spam folder first.

Is a panel user the same as a WordPress user?

No. Panel privileges control DreamHost's own control panel. They don't log us into your WordPress dashboard, which is a separate invitation — see give us WordPress admin access.

We'd rather be added as our own user. It's easier to revoke, it keeps your password private, and it leaves a clear record of who did what. See delegate access vs. sharing a password.

My account is past due. Does that matter?

Yes. DreamHost says an account that has fallen past due results in extremely limited panel usage until the balance is paid, and that applies to us as well. If we report that the panel is locked down, check the account status first.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.