SOURCE-BASED ANALYSIS · NO HANDS-ON RATING
Start from responsibilities, not role names
Wix lets a site owner define custom roles with CMS permissions and then refine access on individual Collections. Write down what each person must do before creating a role. “Content editor” is too broad unless it specifies whether the person can edit drafts, publish content, manage backups or change indexes.
Build an access matrix
For a fictional association site, imagine three collaborators: a contributor who drafts event entries, an editor who manages published event content and an administrator who owns backups. Map each role against View, Add, Update and Delete for the Events Collection. Keep Member and public-site permissions in a separate section because visitor access is not the same as collaborator access.
| Role | Needed actions | Actions to deny |
|---|---|---|
| Contributor | Add and edit drafts | Delete published items, manage backups |
| Editor | View, add and update content | Change site-wide administration |
| CMS administrator | Manage content and approved recovery tasks | Unrelated business settings |
This is a proposed policy, not a Wix default.
Understand the two permission layers
A custom role can grant CMS capabilities such as managing content, drafts, backups or indexes. Collection permissions then control the operations available for specific data. Wix also documents special live-site roles such as Everyone, Members and an item's creator. Review both layers because a restrictive Collection rule does not explain what an administrator can do elsewhere in the site.
Verify with a safe test
- Create synthetic Collection items with no personal or customer information.
- Use a separate test collaborator for each proposed role.
- Attempt every allowed and denied action in the matrix.
- Confirm that draft and published states behave as expected.
- Remove the test role and verify access is actually revoked.
Repeat the review after structural changes
Re-run the matrix when a Collection is duplicated, a new role is introduced or a custom form begins writing into the Collection. Record the reviewer, date, role definition and Collection settings. The objective is to prove effective access, not merely to document the intended configuration.
Sources and verification
Official documentation checked on 2026-10-29. Worked examples are hypothetical planning exercises, not measured product benchmarks.