Granting database access to a developer

If you want to grant someone else (e.g. a developer) access to a MySQL database, you should not provide them with Control Panel access; you can create an additional MySQL user for them. You can manage your MySQL databases and users at the hosting Control Panel's MySQL Databases section.

If this is a new project, you should create a new database and MySQL user for it first. For security reasons, databases can be created only through the hosting Control Panel. Detailed instructions on the process are available in our Creating a MySQL database/user article.

Once you have the database and MySQL user created, you should associate the MySQL user with the database by following the instructions from our Associating a MySQL user with a database article. Unless you have a reason to do otherwise, you can select all available privileges for the new MySQL user.

Your developer may need direct access to the database for manual manipulations. You can provide them with a link to access the phpMyAdmin tool which is available on all our servers. Be sure to provide them with the URL of the phpMyAdmin link, not the (log in) link next to it.

In case your developer needs remote access to the database via an application that is installed on their computer (e.g. MySQL Workbench), you will need to enable remote connections for their MySQL user. The process is explained in details in our Enabling remote access to a MySQL database article.

If your developer needs to upload files on the server, you should create an FTP user for them. You can find step-by-step instructions on how to do this in our FTP Manager article.

Important: You may wish to change the password for the MySQL user once the developer no longer needs it. However, if any software installed under your account connects through their MySQL user, you will need to update the password for that software in its corresponding configuration files.