Compare Workspace-Level Administrative Account Types
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Summarize the permissions and responsibilities of each workspace-level administrative role.
- Describe the common responsibilities of a workspace-level admin.
Explore Administrative Account Types
This unit focuses on the workspace-level administrative roles, from a channel manager to the workspace primary owner. You learn their unique powers and how to delegate tasks effectively based on their focus.
Channel Manager
The Slack channel manager role is automatically assigned to the member who creates a new channel. Channel managers can take administrative actions in their channels. In addition to the permissions of a member, a channel manager can add and manage other channel managers, convert channels to private or public, and rename or archive channels.
Workspace Admin
Workspace admins manage the members, channels, and administrative tasks for their workspace. There can be multiple workspace admins. Admins can be managers, senior administrative staff, project managers, or IT engineers.
Workspace admins can do everything members can do, plus additional capabilities. They can make public channels private, rename any channel, promote others to workspace admin, monitor analytics and usage, and more. Check out the Resources section for detailed articles on admin capabilities.
Workspace Owner
There can be multiple workspace owners. Typically, this role is filled by founders, executives, senior leadership, or heads of departments like Engineering, IT, or Human Resources.
Workspace owners can do everything workspace admins can do, with additional capabilities. For example, they can reset all member passwords, change the workspace plan, and more.
Workspace Primary Owner
Every workspace has a single primary owner who holds the highest level of permissions. Primary owners can access high-level administrative features like billing, workspace authentication, access, security policies, and more. While there can only be one primary owner, this role can be transferred to another member.
The workspace primary owner can do everything workspace owners can do, with two key additional permissions. They can delete or transfer ownership of a workspace and demote a workspace owner.
Some of the high-level administrative features handled by the workspace owner or workspace primary owner on the Enterprise+ plan are instead held by the org owner or org primary owner on other plans. You learn about org-level account types in the next unit.
Put It All Together
Understanding who can do what—from channel managers to workspace primary owners—helps you manage Slack effectively. When you know the different admin roles and what they can handle, it’s easier to delegate the right tasks to the right people and keep your workspace running smoothly.