grantbr

We have a member area set up where approved users can order online with us.
At the moment, if anyone has access to the URL, they are able to sign up to the Member Area, but we need to make sure only our approved users can sign up (members of a franchise business)
We don't want to ask our users for a subscription as it's free to use for those franchisees only, so wondered if there was a way to password protect the Member Area?
Alternatively, we could edit the website url to be more of a complex url so it cannot be accessed by anyone random?

This is the most frustrating limitation of Member Areas (MA), and there's nothing you can do about it. No approval mechanism exists and it is not possible to add one. You can try to workaround the issue by hiding links and password protecting signup pages, but this is known as "security through obscurity" (trying to hide the security flaws). It is poor practice and won't provide any real security for your MA.
In 2021, I published the list of Member Area Limitations that I had shared with Squarespace, and this was top of the list. 
Squarespace don't routinely monitor this forum for feature requests or customer questions so, if this feature is important to your business, I recommend you contact Squarespace Customer Care to log your concern about the delay for this feature. The more they hear from customers who are affected by missing features, the easier it is for them to prioritise them.
If you are a Circle member, you can vote here: Require approval of members to join Member Sites.
  If this post has helped you, please click a 'Like' or 'Thanks' icon below  ⬇️

Agree with this 100% 👏

Agree with this 100% 👏

You would think that an option for approvals by the administrator would have been a basic option to include. I don't understand why SquareSpace has not included this?

Im just here to add that i'm also in dire need of these features as a wholesale distributor based out of texas

Same here. Quite disappointed in limited features of Members area so far. They need to up their game to stay competitive.

I second that. I made the mistake of creating my member area before checking on this. Now I have a member area that anyone can become a member of. I need some control over who can and cannot become a member as my payment structure is done outside of the SQSP environment. I don't think directly linking to the member area via email all the time is an acceptable option. 

i'm wondering -- did Squarespace not beta test the Members Area before they released it in the wild? it's obviously lacking a number of basic features one would expect from a membership area. 

Same. We want to grow our new business platform on Members Area but giving up as there's no roadmap or signs of improvement. We want to see manual approval option, zapier triggers and a better community function. 

Has anyone raised this as a suggested feature with SquareSpace?

I've done the same thing - created a 'free' members area for a not-for-profit client but need to
Collect additional information about the 'group' they belong to and their role Have manual approval in place based on answers to the above MemberSpace looks like it might do the job but I can't ask the client to swallow another $25/month having just got them to sign up to members areas...

Site URL: http://www.marleyshouseofsport.com
My question is just about the members only areas which I am totally new to. If I pay for this feature can I include anything and any page (and it's inherent functionality) in this zone and is it possible to create it in a way that retains specific information for individual members only that extents beyond the built in functions of a store etc?
For example, could I make a page of my own that saves a database of frequently updated information on sports scores and bets in my case.. that's obviously going to be different for every person logged in depending on what they enter. I'm new to all this and just trying to learn and do it all myself to cut down costs. Just trying to get my head around how it's all accomplished and what I need to know in order to get this done. I'm using a template so I hope that is not a hinderance to the process. I also do not want to subscribe to the member areas thing if it will not ultimately accomplish what I need it to. 
Thanks,
Dan