A member messages you. “Hey, I can’t get into that space.” You open the settings to check, and you catch yourself thinking, I’m pretty sure that’s right.
Pretty sure is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Circle space access settings are the ones people click past fastest and think about longest. Guess wrong and paying members hit a wall on something they already bought. Free members wander into content you meant to sell. Your team’s behind-the-scenes space sits in everyone’s sidebar, waiting for someone to click.
By the end of this you’ll know exactly what open, private, and secret do, which one belongs where, and where to change it without breaking anything.
What Do Circle Space Access Settings Control?
Space access decides three things at once: who can see a space, who can get inside it, and what someone sees when they can’t get in.
That third one is the piece most people forget. A member who can’t get into a space is still having an experience of your community. Either they’re looking at a locked door with a way through it, or they’re looking at nothing at all, because they don’t know the space exists. You choose which.
Get it right and the community feels intentional. People know where they belong, and the members who haven’t upgraded yet can see what they’re missing without you posting about it every week.
Get it wrong and you spend your time answering the same “why can’t I get in?” message over and over. That is not the leadership role you signed up for.
What Is an Open Space in Circle?
An open space is visible to every member of your community, and any member can join it on their own, any time. No invite, no approval, no paywall in the way.
They find it, they click it, they’re in. Here’s the part most people don’t know: if you remove someone from an open space, they can turn around and join it again.
Open is the default Circle hands you, which is why I see it set on spaces that should never have been open. It feels easy at the start. Nobody gets locked out and nobody messages you.
Open is the right call for the spaces that genuinely belong to everyone:
- Introductions
- A general conversation space
- Announcements
I’m not a fan of setting much else to it. Open means open for absolutely everybody, so the day you add a tier, a paid add-on, or a VIP group, those open spaces aren’t gated. Anyone in the community can walk in, paywall or not, and now you’re doing cleanup instead of launching.
Before you choose open, ask one thing: will this space be for every single member, now and later? If yes, open is perfect. If you’re not sure, lean private. None of this is permanent. You can change it.
What Is a Private Space in Circle?
Members can’t join a private space on their own. They get in one of three ways: you add them, they’re in an access group that includes the space, or they come through an entry point that grants access, like a paywall.
Anyone who isn’t a member of that space sees a lock screen when they try to open it, whether they found it in the sidebar or followed a link straight to it.
That lock screen is doing more work than people realize. You can point it at a custom landing page, or show the paywall that unlocks the space so a member can buy right there and be inside a minute later. Very little standing between wanting in and being in. If you haven’t settled how your community sounds yet, the Community Voice Guide is worth running through before you write that screen.
That’s what makes private your upgrade path. People can see what’s available without you announcing it every week.
One more thing worth knowing: if someone is removed from a private space, they can’t get back in on their own. They need to be added again, or they need to come back through an entry point, like repurchasing the paywall.
Circle recommends private for exclusive cohorts and for spaces tied to an entry point like a paywall. That is exactly how I use it.
What Is a Secret Space in Circle?
Secret works like private for getting in. The difference is who can see it: a secret space is hidden from the sidebar for anyone who isn’t a member of it, so there’s no lock screen and nothing to click.
If you’re not in it, you don’t know it exists.
Use secret for the spaces that shouldn’t be visible from the outside at all:
- A team space
- A moderator lounge
- A private client cohort
- A beta group testing something before you announce it
The simplest way to hold all three in your head:
- Open: everyone sees it, and everyone can walk in.
- Private: everyone sees the door, and only some people have a key.
- Secret: only the people with a key even know there’s a door.
Where Do You Change Space Access in Circle?
Two places. Inside the space itself, through the three-dot menu, then Settings and Customize. Or from Community, then Spaces, where you can see and change the access on every space at once.
From inside the space
Fastest when you’re already in there and something looks off.
What that looks like:
- Click the three dots on the space
- Choose Settings, then Customize
- Set the access type, and choose whether to show a locked icon in the sidebar
From the full space list
This is the one I use for an audit, because you see everything side by side instead of clicking through twenty spaces.
What that looks like:
- Go to Community, then Spaces
- Review the type and the access for every space in one window
- Use the three dots on any row to change that space’s access from there
If you’ve never looked at this list, look at it today. It is usually where you find the paid space someone left open.
Does Hiding a Space From the Sidebar Make It Private?
No. Hiding a space from the sidebar only removes it from view. The space stays active, and it keeps whatever access setting it already had.
I’ve watched people do this a lot. They head into Settings and Customize, choose hide space from sidebar, and treat the job as done. If that space was open, it is still open. Anyone with the link walks in.
Hiding is a tidy-up tool, not a privacy tool. There are good reasons to use it, especially when you’re nesting things and trying to keep a sidebar readable. Just set the access correctly first and hide second.
While you’re in there, the space group settings are worth a look too. Open a space group, click the three dots, choose Edit space group, and you can hide the whole group from non-space members, or show only the spaces a member has joined. That is usually how a tiered sidebar stops looking like a menu of things people can’t have.
Try This Prompt
If you have more than a handful of spaces, don’t do this from memory. Pull your space list up, then hand it to Claude or ChatGPT and make it argue with you.
“I run a [type of community] for [who] on Circle. Here are my spaces and who each one is for: [list every space and its audience or tier]. My paid tiers and add-ons are: [list them]. Using open, private, and secret as Circle defines them, recommend an access setting for each space. Flag any space tied to a paywall that I currently have set to open, and tell me which spaces I should set to private now because I may add tiers later. Give it back to me as a table with space name, current setting, recommended setting, and one line of reasoning.”
You still make the calls. It just makes sure you look at every space instead of the three you were already worried about.
Set It for the Community You’re Building Next
Go space by space and ask one question: who is this for, now and down the road? If the answer is truly everyone, open. If it’s for paying members or a specific group, private. If it’s for a small group who should never be seen from the outside, secret. If you don’t know yet, private.
And if a space is part of a paywall, never leave it open. Members can join open spaces without ever touching the thing you’re selling.
This is a two-minute setting that shapes how the whole place feels to be in. Your sidebar is the first map a member gets of what you offer, what they have, and what they don’t have yet.
It’s much easier to open a space up later than to take back something everyone already has.
Watch the Video
New videos go up every Thursday on Your Community Strategist.
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More like it on Your Community Strategist, new every Thursday.
More Like This
Watch: Invitation Links in Circle. One link can hand someone free access, a paywall trial, and a member tag at the same time.
Watch: Your Start Here Space. Once access is set correctly, this is how new members know where to go first.
Keep Going
If you’d rather not piece your build together one tutorial at a time, The Membership Architect walks you through it one decision at a time, in order, and it lives inside coCreator Society. The free Circle templates, guides, and tools are a good place to start in the meantime.
coCreator Society is where community builders and membership founders work through this together, with the templates, the walkthroughs, and people who are one step ahead of you. Join coCreator Society
If you would rather not do this part alone, Rachel and the team build, migrate, and run communities for founders who need it done properly the first time. Talk to the team
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