Sometimes you want clients to be able to create their own portal without you having to set anything up manually. This works particularly well for regular client work where you have a standard process.
When registration pages are handy:
- You want to send clients a link after a consultation call and have their portal ready immediately
- You're onboarding several clients with the same type of project
- You'd rather not manually create portals for every new inquiry
When you might skip this:
- You prefer to customize each portal before clients see it
- Your projects are quite different from each other and need individual setup
Before you start: Create and set a default template
Registration pages need a template to work from, so you'll need to create one first.
If you don't already have any portal templates:
- Go to Client Portal > Templates and click Add New Template
- Give it a name (doesn't matter what - you can change it later)
- Click Publish (you can add the actual content later)
(You can see a full tutorial on creating and working with templates here).
Now set it as your default:
- Go to Client Portal > Settings
- Under "Default Portal Template," select the template you just created
Once that's sorted, you can create registration pages.
The quick setup (recommended for most people)
Step 1: Create your registration page
- In WordPress, go to Pages > Add New
- Call it something like "Portal Registration" (clients will see this in the URL)
- In the block editor, click the + button to add a new block
- Search for "registration" or look under the Client Portal section
- Add the Registration Page block
Step 2: Choose what happens when someone registers
In the right-hand sidebar, you'll see settings for your registration block. You've got two options:
- Create new portal (most common)
This gives each client their own private portal based on a template you choose. Ideal for regular client work, where each client has their own dedicated space. - Attach a portal
This adds the new client to a portal that's already set up, so multiple people can see the same content. Useful if you're sharing educational content or resources with multiple people.
Most people want the first option - each client getting their own private portal.
Step 3: Set up the login page
Go to Client Portal > Settings and click the Register/Login tab. Under "Client Portal Login Page," select Client Portal Login.
This uses our pre-styled login page, which looks professional and matches your portals. Read more about using the Client Portal login page here.
What your clients will experience
- They'll visit your registration page and fill in their details
- They'll get an email asking them to set a password
- Once they set their password, their portal gets created automatically
- They can log in and see their new portal
The portal only gets created after they've set a password, so don't panic if you don't see it immediately.
Multiple registration pages (if you need them)
You can create as many registration pages as you want, each with different settings. Just repeat the steps above and choose different templates or existing portals in the block settings.
For example, you might have:
- One registration page for web design clients (creates a new portal from your "Web Design" template)
- Another for consultation calls (creates a new portal from your "Consultation Follow-up" template)
Common questions
"Can I customize what fields people fill in?"
As of right now, you can only toggle the Organization field on or off, and customize the privacy consent text. However, we hope to have this customizable in the future.
"How do I preview my registration form?"
Since you're logged into your WordPress site, the registration form won't display properly when you view the page normally (WordPress assumes you're already registered).
To see what your clients will see, either:
- Open an incognito/private browser window and visit the page
- Log out of WordPress and view the page
- Ask a colleague to check it from their computer
The incognito window is usually the quickest option.
"The registration page styling looks weird on my website"
The registration form uses your theme's styling, which sometimes doesn't play nicely with forms. If you need help writing some custom CSS to fix the registration page styling, get in touch, and we will be happy to assist.
"I'm still using an older version of Client Portal"
If you don't see the Registration Page block, you might be using an older version that requires shortcodes instead. Check our Legacy Documentation for the shortcode approach.