🔐 Spree Open-source eCommerce: Password-Protected Storefronts for Privacy, Previews & Controlled Launches
Not every storefront needs to be public all the time. Whether you’re prepping a product drop, building a new store for a client, staging a site refresh, or running a private B2B portal — there are times when your storefront needs to stay under wraps.
With Spree 5, you can now lock down your storefront behind a password — instantly and easily — right from the admin dashboard.
This gives merchants more control over launch timing, access, and visibility. It’s just one more way Spree open-source eCommerce adapts to your business model instead of boxing you in.
Why This Matters
In today’s agile eCommerce environment, the ability to control who sees your store and when is a competitive edge.
Password protection is useful for:
- 🚧 Pre-launch storefronts for new brands or product lines
- 🧪 Staging sites used for QA and client feedback
- 🛍️ Invite-only VIP drops or flash sales
- 🏢 B2B storefronts accessible only to logged-in buyers
- 🎨 Designer previews during theme or branding overhauls
And without this feature? You’re stuck building complex redirects, third-party tools, or writing custom logic to hide your site.
How It Works
Spree 5’s password protection is simple, secure, and configurable.
From the Spree admin panel, you can:
- 🔐 Enable storefront password protection with a toggle
- 🔑 Set a global password that applies to all visitors
- 🛠️ Optionally whitelist access to specific IPs or users (with custom extensions)
When enabled, anyone visiting your store is greeted with a password entry screen — no page leaks, no partial access, no backend exposure.
Perfect for controlling access during site development or exclusive launches.
Real-World Examples
- 💄 A cosmetics brand prepares a major rebrand and wants to preview the new site privately with their team
- 🧢 A streetwear label hides their storefront until the exact moment of a time-based product drop
- 🛠️ An agency builds multiple storefronts in Spree for clients and gates them until they’re approved
- 🏪 A wholesaler uses the feature to restrict access to authorized partners before enabling customer registration
And because it’s native to Spree, this works across all your storefronts — whether you’re managing one or a hundred via Spree’s multi-store dashboard.
Why Spree Commerce?
Spree Commerce is a fully open-source eCommerce platform trusted by thousands of developers and merchants around the world. Built with modern Ruby on Rails and React, Spree offers full control over your storefronts, backend logic, and integrations — no black boxes, no vendor lock-in.
With Spree, you can:
- Build exactly the experience you want, not just what’s offered out of the box
- Customize anything — checkout flows, product logic, admin tools, and storefront themes
- Integrate with any service or API, from payments to fulfillment to marketing
- Launch fast, iterate quickly, and scale on your own terms
Whether you’re running a DTC brand, a B2B marketplace, or a multi-store empire, Spree gives you the freedom to innovate without limits.
🛠️ Open source. Developer-friendly. Fully customizable.
