Game servers: add subusers and assign permissionsGive co-admins access without sharing your own password

Published on October 20, 2026

Why subusers instead of a shared password

The obvious route - passing your own credentials on to the co-admin - is also the riskiest. Whoever has your password can do everything you can: delete files, reinstall the server, change settings. And if the team later splits up, all you can do is change the password and tell everyone else the new one.

A subuser solves both problems. Each person logs in with their own credentials and only sees the server you invited them to. What they may do there, you define per area - and take it back with one click without anyone else noticing.

A third advantage only becomes apparent when something goes wrong: because everyone works with their own access, you can trace who did what. After an accidentally deleted folder, that saves a lot of guesswork in the group.

Panel access is not the same as admin in the game

Two kinds of permissions are often confused. A subuser gets access to the server's web interface: console, files, restarts, settings. An admin in the game, on the other hand, may kick or ban players or run commands in chat on the running server. Technically, one has nothing to do with the other.

For a moderator who only keeps order in the game, in-game rights are therefore often enough - without any panel access. How to assign them differs per game, for example via the OP command in Minecraft, the ownerid in Rust, ACE permissions in FiveM or ULX in Garry's Mod. You only need a subuser when someone is supposed to work on the server outside the game.

How to add a subuser

1. Open your game server in the panel and go to the user management area.
2. Invite the person via their email address.
3. Tick the permissions this person should get. Everything that is not ticked stays locked.
4. Save - from now on, the subuser sees your server in their own overview after logging in.

The permissions can be adjusted at any time. If you give someone more responsibility later, simply tick more boxes; if you remove the subuser, the access is gone immediately. Your own access as the owner is not affected.

Which permissions there are

The permissions are grouped by panel area and split further within each area - "read files" separately from "delete files", for example. This lets you give someone insight without handing them the tool for accidental damage.

Anything concerning the contract cannot be assigned via subusers: credit, term, plan upgrade and cancellation stay with the owner in the customer interface. A co-admin can therefore never accidentally spend money or let the server expire.

Proven roles for your team

Instead of thinking it through every time, a small role model helps. These three profiles cover most teams:

Moderator: read the console and send commands, restart the server. This lets someone bring a hung server back up at night or remove a troublemaker via console command - but not break anything in files or settings.

Technician: additionally files and SFTP, schedules and startup parameters. This is the role for the person who maintains mods, plugins and configurations. Anyone putting together a custom modpack or uploading scripts needs exactly these permissions.

Co-owner: almost everything, including server type, reinstallation and user management. This role only belongs to people you would, if in doubt, entrust with the server completely.

Be cautious with three permissions: reinstallation and server type switch, because depending on the game, both overwrite or delete files - with Terraria, for example, the world is lost if it was not backed up beforehand - and user management, because it lets someone bring in further people.

SFTP for subusers

If a subuser has the SFTP permission, they connect with their own credentials - not with yours. Server name and port for the connection are shown in the panel with the server's SFTP details. If you revoke the permission or remove the subuser, their SFTP login stops working too.

What the subuser may do via SFTP depends on their file permissions: anyone who may only read can download files but not overwrite or delete anything. For team members who only need to evaluate log files or download a world, this is a convenient combination.

Backups remain your job

The more people work on a server, the more important a backup becomes. MainHoster.de does not create automatic backups - you create them yourself via WebFTP or SFTP. Especially before a technician applies bigger changes or someone switches the server type, a copy of world and configuration is worth it. What that looks like for Minecraft is shown in Create backups; the other games have their own instructions in their respective guides.

A proven pattern: the person applying changes backs up beforehand themselves. With the file permission, they have everything they need for it - and you do not have to be available for every little thing.

When someone leaves the team

If you part ways, remove the subuser in the panel. Access ends immediately, including SFTP. Because they never knew your password, you do not have to change anything else. But remember the in-game rights: admin entries such as OP lists, ownerid or ACE groups live in the server's files and remain until you delete them there.

A quick look at the activity log afterwards shows you whether anything was changed in the last few days that you should look at. And if someone created their own scheduled tasks, check the schedules once to see whether they are still needed.

Frequently asked questions