Want to make sure only a specific group of members can see certain content? In Heartbeat, Access Groups let you lock down content like courses, channels, documents, and events so that only group members can access them.

Want to explore more use cases? Check out our full Access Groups Overview →

The Simple Idea

Think of an access group as a bucket of people. Once someone is in that bucket, they instantly get access to all content tied to it.

No complicated setup — just:

• Make the content

• Create the group

• Link them together

Common Use Cases

You can use Access Groups to lock content for:

• High-ticket clients with exclusive events or courses

• Interest groups (e.g. podcasters, marketers, designers)

• Skill tiers like beginner / intermediate / advanced

• Paid memberships tied to Offers →

• Engagement rewards — e.g. power users who unlock bonus content

Step-by-Step: Lock Content to a Group

1. Create Your Content

• Courses → Add new or duplicate existing courses

• Documents → Upload or create premium docs

• Events → Set up invite-only or recurring events

• Channels & Links → Create but keep private for now

2. Create Your Access Group

Go to Settings → Access Groups → Create Group

Choose how members will join:

• Admin-controlled – You add members or share a signup link

• Joinable – Members can opt in on their own

• Automated – Rules-based (e.g. “people with 5+ comments”)

Then select the content to include:

• Courses

• Documents

• Events

• Channels

• Links

3. (Optional) Create a Signup Link

Let people join the group via a custom URL:

• Send it to new leads or current members

• Works whether they’re joining Heartbeat or already inside

• When clicked, they instantly gain access to all content tied to that group

Recap

Locking content in Heartbeat is easy:

1. Create the content

2. Build an access group

3. Tie them together

That’s it — no need to manage individual permissions or techy workarounds.

Use access groups to build scalable content paths and gated experiences — all without extra plugins or complex systems.

Questions? Need help mapping your content strategy to access groups? Reach out — we're happy to walk you through it.

Limiting access to content with a paid group

When you limit access to content in the community to a group tied to a paid offer, you are requiring a member to pay to join the group before viewing and interacting with the content. This is how paid communities work in Heartbeat.

In-community upsells

If your paid offer has upsells turned on, the content it controls access to will be shown to members outside of the group with a lock icon and a custom upsell message. Learn more about creating upsells in your community.