What is a community account

Community accounts are ArcGIS Online accounts for people who are not members of the ArcGIS Online organization that you and your colleagues use to access ArcGIS Hub and manage your authoritative GIS.

License:

Community accounts require an ArcGIS Hub Premium license. The number of community accounts included with your subscription depends on your organization's needs.

Community account

Community accounts are for anyone who needs to view, edit, or contribute content belonging to your ArcGIS Online organization’s initiatives. This can include known members from other organizations within your local education system, volunteer networks, and business networks.

Your organization can also extend community accounts to the public by adding a Sign Up card account when visiting one your initiative’s sites or pages. Once they’ve signed in with an account, people can sign up for an event and follow their favorite initiatives for emails with updates, feedback opportunities, and new content.

How it works

A community account is an ArcGIS account that grants access to a community organization, a designated ArcGIS Online subscription that separates community accounts from your organization’s staff accounts. As with all ArcGIS accounts, community accounts must have a user type and role. Community accounts should be assigned a Creator user type and a Publisher role, the default configuration for community accounts created by the public and the recommended configuration for accounts set up manually or sent through invitation.

This configuration includes the privileges community members need to engage with your initiatives.

  • Join an initiative’s group by accepting an invitation through email or by being added automatically by a group manager.
  • View private content, such as data, maps, and pages, shared with them through a view group.
  • Edit private content, such as an initiative’s site, shared with them through an edit group.
  • Create content, like stories and maps, with the apps and tools included with the Creator user type.
  • Share their own content with the groups to which they belong, other community members, and the public.
  • Sign up to attend or be invited to join an initiative’s events.
  • Follow initiatives that are open to public or be invited to follow private or public initiatives.
  • Manage a user profile for accessing content, events, and favorite initiatives.

For more information on community accounts, see Manage community accounts, content, and credits.

Where can community members sign in?

Community members can sign in on a public initiative’s site or page or a private initiative site or page that has been shared with them through a group. They can also sign in at hub.arcgis.com or on the community organization’s ArcGIS Online homepage.

Sign in options are available on an initiative’s site in the following locations:

People cannot use their community account credentials to sign in to the ArcGIS Online homepage used by your organization’s staff, nor can they access staff profiles, or any content created by staff. To view private content, staff must share the items with community members through an initiative’s groups, such as a core team or event attendees group.