---
url: https://docs.hostly.ninja/concepts/account-and-workspace.md
---
# Account and Workspace

An **account** is the user account a person uses to access Hostly.

A **workspace** is an independent administration, plan, and billing area within Hostly. Services, domains, members, resource usage, and limits are assigned to a workspace.

## Relationship between account and workspace

An account can contain multiple workspaces.

```text
Account
├── Workspace A
│   ├── own Domain
│   ├── own Pricing Plan
│   ├── own Usage
│   └── own Services
└── Workspace B
    ├── own Domain
    ├── own Pricing Plan
    ├── own Usage
    └── own Services
```

Workspaces in the same account are treated separately for product and billing purposes.

## Resources

Hostly measures resources per workspace, not per account.

This means:

* A plan (**Free** or **Paid**) is assigned to a workspace
* Resource usage and limits are measured per workspace; workspaces do not affect each other
* Services consume the resource budget of their workspace, meaning services in **Workspace A** do not count toward resource usage in **Workspace B**
* Multiple workspaces in the same account can have different plans and usage values, for example services in **Workspace A** can use the Free Tier while **Workspace B** runs on the Paid Tier
* An additional user is not automatically an additional billing unit, because plans are tied to the workspace and not to the user

## Members and permissions

A workspace can be made accessible to multiple users. Members and their permissions belong to the respective workspace.

As a result, one user can work in multiple workspaces with different roles or permissions without those workspaces sharing plan or usage data.

| Permission        | Description                                                    |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| manageDeployments | Allows a user to manage deployments                            |
| viewDeployments   | Allows a user to view deployments and the related dashboard    |
| manageSettings    | Allows a user to change workspace settings, including the plan |
| manageSecrets     | Allows a user to change deployment secrets                     |

## Workspace domain

Each workspace has its own domain area under `hostly.ninja`.

The workspace domain fragment:

```text
example
```

becomes the workspace domain:

```text
example.hostly.ninja
```

The workspace domain fragment is globally unique. The workspace and its domain fragment currently cannot be renamed, but another workspace with its own domain fragment can be created.

## Services in the workspace

A service always belongs to exactly one workspace. This means, among other things:

* The service domain is based on the workspace domain
* Resource usage is assigned to the workspace
* Available capabilities depend on the workspace plan
* The service domain fragment must be unique within the workspace

## Related concepts

* [What is a Service?](./service.md)
* [Hostly Domains and Domain Fragments](./domains-and-domain-fragments.md)
* [Resource Usage and Limits](./resources-and-limits.md)
* [Dashboard Basics](./dashboard-basics.md)