Roles: owner, admin, and member explained

The three roles

Every membership in an organization carries one of three roles. They form a ladder of authority: owner is the highest, admin governs day to day, and member is scoped to the work assigned to them.

Owner — the top authority for the organization. Owners govern the team and, in practice, the account that anchors the workspace, including its subscription and billing. Treat owner as the "buck stops here" role.
Admin — a manager who can run the team without being the ultimate owner. Admins can invite people, set roles, and grant app access. For access purposes, admins are treated as full-access to the organization's apps.
Member — a scoped participant. Members do the work but don't manage the team. Critically, a member's app access is granular: an owner or admin decides exactly which apps that member can open.

What each role can do

Capability	Owner	Admin	Member
Open the organization's entitled apps	Full access	Full access	Only apps granted to them
Invite teammates	Yes	Yes	No
Change others' roles	Yes	Yes	No
Grant/revoke per-app access for members	Yes	Yes	No
Remove members	Yes	Yes	No
Manage the subscription and billing	Yes (owner responsibility)	Limited	No

The key distinction for daily access: owners and admins get full access to the organization's apps automatically, while members get only the specific apps an owner or admin turns on for them. This is enforced in the Team & Access screen, where owner/admin members show every app checked and locked-on, and members show individual per-app toggles.

Choosing the right role

Give owner sparingly. Reserve it for the person ultimately responsible for the organization and its subscription. Most teams need very few owners.
Use admin for managers. Anyone who needs to invite people, adjust roles, or manage app access — but isn't the billing owner — should be an admin.
Default to member. Most teammates should be members, then granted exactly the apps their job requires. This keeps access tight and the audit trail meaningful.

Realistic example

At Harbor Marketing, Elena founded the account, so she's the owner — she holds billing and final say. Her operations manager, Tom, is an admin: he onboards new hires, sets their roles, and decides who gets which apps, but he doesn't touch billing. A new designer, Priya, joins as a member. Tom grants Priya access to StretchDesign, StretchDrive, and StretchProjects — and nothing else. Priya can do her creative work but can't see the CRM, can't invite anyone, and can't change her own access. When Priya is later promoted to team lead, Tom changes her role to admin, and she immediately gains full app access and the ability to manage others.

Tips

Match the role to responsibility, not seniority. A senior specialist who never manages people is still best as a member with the right apps; a junior operations coordinator who onboards everyone may need admin.
Promoting a member to admin grants full app access. Remember that switching someone to admin (or owner) overrides their granular app grants with full access — only do it when they truly need it.
Keep at least one reliable owner. The owner anchors billing and top-level control; don't leave the organization without a clear owner.

FAQ

Can a member give themselves more access? No. Members cannot manage the roster or their own app access. Only owners and admins can change roles or grant apps.

What's the practical difference between owner and admin? For managing people and app access, they behave similarly (both full-access, both can invite and set roles). The distinction is authority and billing: the owner is the ultimate responsible party for the organization and its subscription. See Manage your subscription and invoices.

If I'm an admin in one organization, am I an admin everywhere? No. Roles are per organization. You could be an owner in one, an admin in another, and a member in a third. Check your role for each on /account.