Notion’s restricted members feature: A secure way to collaborate in Notion with people outside your company

Collaborating with people outside your company is harder than it should be.

You want to work closely with partners, freelancers, or clients inside Notion. You want them to see the right pages, leave comments, upload their deliverables, and contribute to the project — in real time.

But the moment you invite them in, things get complicated.

Give them too little access, and you’re back to juggling Google Docs and email threads.

Give them too much access, and suddenly your org chart, team discussions, or financial plans are one wrong click away.

For years, this has been the tradeoff: move slow and safe, or move fast and risk exposure.

Notion’s Restricted Members feature (available on the Enterprise pla) gives you a third option:

Fast, secure collaboration with precise access control.

Let’s unpack how it works — and why it might be the most underrated feature in Enterprise.

The real problem: tools weren’t built for today’s teams

Most tools assume you’re working with full-time employees who all need broad access. But that’s not how modern teams operate.

You’re probably collaborating with people who are technically outside your company, but are critical to your work. Contractors, consultants, creatives, advisors, even clients. They need real-time access to a curated slice of your workspace. Nothing more, nothing less.

But traditional permission models aren’t designed for that.

You’re left with awkward workarounds: creating duplicate pages, spinning up external workspaces, or constantly worrying about what someone might stumble into.

Eventually, you find yourself spending more time managing access than doing the actual work.

Restricted Members flips this model. It starts with zero access, and only grants visibility to what you explicitly share.

What are restricted members (and why should you care)?

Restricted Members are a specific user type in Notion Enterprise. They’re made for people who need to collaborate inside your workspace, but don’t need to see the whole thing.

When you add someone as a Restricted Member, they start with no visibility.

Not your sidebar.

Not your default teamspaces.

Not the pages marked “Everyone at [Company].”

Just a blank slate.

From there, you choose what they get access to. You can share individual pages, databases, or entire teamspaces, and assign specific permission levels like view, comment, or edit.

It’s intentional access, not accidental.

It’s not just a guest with limits

What makes Restricted Members stand out is that they’re treated like real users in the system.

They authenticate via your company’s SSO. Their activity is fully logged. You can manage them through SCIM provisioning, assign them to permission groups, and review everything they’ve touched via audit logs.

It’s notion solution to manage external collaborators with the same governance as internal ones, just with stricter visibility.

Real-world use cases: when this feature shines

Say you're working on a project with outside contributors. Maybe it’s a rebrand. Or a product launch. Or a partnership initiative. These collaborators need access to working documents, tasks, timelines, but they shouldn’t see unrelated projects or internal strategy docs.

With Restricted Members, you can drop them into a dedicated teamspace, share only what they need, and know for sure they can’t browse elsewhere. It creates clarity on both sides. Everyone knows where to work, what’s shared, and where the boundaries are.

Client-facing portals are another great example. You want your clients to see the progress on their project, leave feedback, and access deliverables, but you don’t want them to see anything about your other clients or internal systems.

Even some internal teams use it

While Restricted Members are primarily designed for external users, some companies use them internally too, for teams that work with highly sensitive data.

Finance, HR, legal, or even M&A teams sometimes need access to just their part of the business, and nothing else. Restricted Members help enforce those boundaries without spinning up siloed workspaces.

When not to use them

Don’t overengineer it. If you’re just sharing a one-off page, use a public link or guest access. Restricted Members shine when you’re collaborating over time, with more control and trust.

Thinking about making the switch?

If you’re already on Notion Enterprise and working with outside contributors, Restricted Members are a no-brainer. You can start small: one project, one client portal, one external teamspace. Then expand from there.

If you're still on Business and wondering whether Enterprise is worth it?

This is one of the most practical, immediately valuable upgrades, especially if you're building systems that involve more than just your internal team.

If you're building client portals, managing external projects, or just want to clean up the chaos, we can help.

Let’s talk and explore what a clean, secure external setup could look like for your team.