Not everyone who should say yes or no to your posts needs a full maebe account. That's exactly what external approvers are for: people who can approve or reject a post without having to sign in.
What an external approver is
Picture your client, who only needs to give the finished result a nod. Instead of inviting them as a team member, you set them up as an external approver – on the team page in the Team & permissions tab, via Add external approver in the bar at the bottom. They then get an approval link and use it to confirm posts – identified by their name and a PIN. No account, no password, no onboarding.
That way maebe still knows exactly who said yes, and it stays traceable who the approval came from.
How many external approvers you can add depends on your plan – see Plans compared.
As an admin or owner you can look up an external approver's PIN at any time: open their edit dialog (pencil icon) – the eye icon there reveals the current PIN. For approvers who have been around for a while, the eye appears once their PIN has been set again.
How they differ from real members
It's important to know the difference:
- Team members have their own login and – depending on their role – access to projects, posts and settings. They actively pitch in.
- External approvers have no login and only see what you show them via a link. They do nothing but give their okay or their rejection.
Note: There's also the internal approver – a person with their own login who approves directly in maebe. For when to use which, see Internal approval. In short: external = no login, via PIN; internal = with login, inside the team.
When this pays off
- Your client should sign off on posts, but not click around in the platform.
- You want to keep the approval path as simple as possible – one link, one name, one PIN.
- Several people should be able to approve independently of one another.
Where to go next
For how the approval process works as a whole, see How approval works. And everything about the protected link and the PIN can be found under Approval link and PIN.