Differences between UserAccess stack(inStacks) and PageSafe (Joe Workman)

inStacks
1

Hi Everyone (especially Jannis :) I’m wondering if there are big differences between the stacks mentioned above. The both secure and insecure pages (and their subpages) outside of being able to add specific users to the user access stack, do they do about the same? Long time sporadic RW user, so still a bit of a newb :)

Thanks in advance!

2

Hi Mark,
I never used pagesafe. Maybe @wolf knows.
Cheers
Jannis

3

I use PageSafe from Joe Workman.

  • You apply it to every page you want to protect. If the pages have the same ID then they unock with the one password until you log out.
  • You can have muliple passwords for a PageSafe protected page and you can manage those passwords using Joe’s Total CMS if you need to.
  • You can have multiple pages protected by PageSafe, each with a different password if you need that option.
  • You can set PageSafe to log out automatically after a set period of time.

For more complcated scenarios - a 200 or so member site - with an online registration page, acknowledgement emails after registration, remorte registration approval, management of the member database etc - I use Sitelok from Vibralogix.

I’ve never used the inStacks stack, so I can’t comment on that

4

I’ve used (use) all three, Pagesafe, UserAccess and Sitelok.

I’d say UserAccess sits somewhere between Pagesafe and Sitelok in terms of functionality and ease of setup.

Pagesafe is super easy: Drag, drop, add password, done. You can do a bit more than that with it, but it’s essentially an easy to use password protect solution.

Sitelok is the daddy of all password members systems. Incredibly powerful but not exactly drag and drop. I use it for the members section of Template Repo: Free to join members area.

UserAccess sits between the two, albeit it a lot closer to Pagesafe than Sitelok. It’s way more than a password protect system, but not as feature rich as Sitelok.

If I need to protect a page, or a collection of pages with a simple password: Pagesafe.
If I need to setup a members section with online sign-ups and registration and full members management for a lot of members: Sitelok.
For everything else, UserAccess.

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5

Well said 😄👍

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6

Just to mention UserAccess is a one time purchase for unlimited domains.

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7

Ha…, just realized that the “Useragent” stack @Jannis and @TemplateRepo are talking about must be the UserAccess stack, right? ;-)

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Thanks, typo corrected.

9

D’oh! Me too.

10

Also, PageSafe is a one-time purchase for unlimited sites and domains :)

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But not Sitelok.

Obviously UserAccess Stack will gain more functionality in the future.

3 Likes
12

Cool- can’t wait! Thanks for everyone’s help!

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Sitelok has a ton of features and extensions. One domain is $39.95 and an extra full domain is $19.95
As a very helpful integration tool, Joe from weavers.space developed a set of stacks for Sitelok.

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I’m still deciding between UserAccess and Sitelok too. PageSafe isn’t suitable for my use cases.

Sitelok has one big advantage over UserAccess: users can register themselves and click on a link to reset their password. UserAccess has neither, so you need to add each individual user manually in RapidWeaver and republish. And if a user forgets his/her password, you must reset it for them after they contact you and again republish. Resetting is done using an external tool on inStacks support site; it can’t be done from within the UserAccess stack; if that tool is down, you can’t service your users. I’m not sure if you can still use UserAccess if that tool ever disappears (@jannis?).

Having said that, UserAccess is a lot easier to implement: just drag the stacks onto your pages. Sitelok requires you to add code to your project manually (using php snippets in an HTML Stack) and therefor requires a lot of testing (to see if you haven’t accidentally forgotten to protect something by leaving out a required bit of php).

Joe Workman makes this a bit easier by providing a set of stacks. The usability of Sitelok comes a bit closer to UserAccess using these stacks, but those stacks too require an invesmtent (of time) to learn how to use properly.

UserAccess is cheaper if you need to roll it out to more than one domain. UserAccess comes with a license for unlimited domains.

For Sitelok, you need additional licences at US$20 each for each additional domain you want to deploy Sitelok to (a licence for one domain comes with the product). Also, if you add Joe’s stacks to Sitelok, you’ll double the price of Sitelok from US$40 on its own to US$80 with Joe’s stacks.

@Jannis and @joeworkman and @vibralogix are all great people who offer a tremendous level of support though; so you can’t go wrong with either product in that area.

Pros and cons then!

I still haven’t decided…

Cheers,
Erwin

1 Like
15

Hi Erwin,

It’s on the roadmap to

  1. Be able to create users online (on your website) with an administrative form
  2. Allowing end users to perform password resets by themselves
  3. Allow self registration for end users

Step by step ;-)

UserAccess uses the standard password hash mechanism bcrypt. The password hash tool I am providing is the same implementation as other bcrypt online generators available. So if my tool disappears, you’re still able to use the other online generators.

As soon as the administrative online user creation form is available, you won’t have to add the password hash any more by yourself of course.

3 Likes
16

Hi @jannis,

Once again: thanks!

Will that be a free upgrade to the current version or a paid for upgrade?

Cheers,
Erwin

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17

This update will be free. But I have to first finish another product until I can work on that.

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18

This is all great news - a big thanks to Erwin for the deep dive and non-technical explanation of all of this. Very helpful!

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19

Hi @Jannis,

That’s wonderful news! Thank you!

Cheers,
Erwin