Roles & permissions

Every member of an ALIGN organization has one of four roles. Roles are fixed — you choose the right one when you invite someone, and an Admin can change it at any time. This page is the reference for what each role allows; inside ALIGN, the same matrix is one click away behind the Roles button on the Members & Teams page.

The four roles

Role	In short
Viewer	Reads shared content in the Map Viewer profile. Free on per-seat plans — viewers never consume a seat.
Editor	Creates, imports and publishes; edits their own content.
Admin	Manages members and settings, edits all organization content.
Owner	Everything an admin can, plus billing and the life of the organization. One per organization — the role only moves through an ownership transfer.

The capability matrix

Capability	Viewer	Editor	Admin	Owner
Viewing — View shared content Read the Datastore, open shared and published maps, use personal OGC keys.	✓	✓	✓	✓
Building — Access the Map Builder and App Builder Open the builders to create and edit maps and applications.	— 1	✓	✓	✓
Building — Use the AI assistants AI Assistant and AI Builder, including the Ask mode.	— 2	✓	✓	✓
Content — Create, import and publish Create content, import data, publish maps; edit own content.	—	✓	✓	✓
Content — Edit others' content Edit, delete and copy content created by other members.	—	—	✓	✓
Content — Transfer content ownership Reassign any Datastore item (map, app, layer…) to another active member.	—	—	✓	✓
Content — Export and download Take Datastore content out of the organization (export, download).	—	✓	✓	✓
Members & Teams — Manage members and invitations Invite people, change roles, manage teams and spending caps.	—	—	✓	✓
Organization — Organization settings AI indexing, branding, ISO 19115 metadata defaults, organization-level integrations and their exposure.	—	—	✓	✓
Organization — Connect personal integrations Connect personal builder credentials (GitHub, Supabase). Each requires a plan that includes it, and the organization can switch any of them off for everyone.	—	✓	✓	✓
Billing & Ownership — View billing See the plan, invoices and capacity.	—	—	✓	✓
Billing & Ownership — Purchase and change plans Checkout, plan changes, seats, add-ons and credit top-ups.	—	—	—	✓
Billing & Ownership — Rename, delete, transfer Rename or delete the organization, transfer ownership.	—	—	—	✓

1. ¹ A viewer's surface is the read-only Map Viewer profile of the Map Builder.
2. ² An admin can grant the AI Assistant to an individual viewer (off by default, reset when the role changes).

Every rule in this matrix is enforced by the ALIGN servers — hiding a button is a courtesy, the permission check is the guarantee.

Roles and seats

A seat is held by every role that writes: Editor, Admin and Owner. On the Free, Hobby and Pro plans, the plan includes a number of seats and a number of viewer places; on per-seat plans (Team), you buy the seats you need and Viewers are free, up to a fair-use cap. This is why the role you pick at invitation time is also a billing decision. What each plan includes is on the pricing page.

Ownership

There is exactly one Owner per organization. The role is not assigned through invitations or role changes: it only moves through an ownership transfer, initiated by the current Owner from the organization settings. The recipient must accept — and on a subscribed organization, take over the payment method — before anything changes. The former Owner keeps working with the exit role they chose.

Where to manage roles

• See the matrix: the Roles button, on the Members & Teams page (every member) and in Settings → Organization → Members & Teams (admins).
• Change a member’s role: the role select in the members table, Admin and Owner only. The member is notified of the change.
• Invite with a role: the role is chosen in the invite dialog and can be changed later.