Allow password-protected hosting, and hosting from a non-Adobe server
These two features would go a LONG way to making Publish Online a viable format for professional publishing. I'm sure many clients would pay an extra fee (nothing outrageous) for a self-hosted solution, if that would be necessary for Adobe to commit resources to make this happen.

Thank you all for your feedback and votes on the feature request.
We are currently looking into this important feature request. As part of the evaluation, I would be reaching out to some of you to gather deeper insights.
Please help us by providing your valuable inputs and feedback.
Regards,
Abhinav Kaushik (AK)
Product Manager, InDesign
-
Peter Slump commented
obviously!
-
Igor commented
This feature request has been here since 2017! It has been voted into the top for a LONG time, but nothing NOTHING is being done... Still, just up for review since 2020... The problem is still there! this makes me incredibly angry, unheard, unseen, and it feels like Adobe doesn't take its customers seriously. IT'S BEEN HERE 6 YEARS!!!!!
ADOBE! START LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!!
-
Erin Hayden Seal commented
Allowing password-protected links would enable us to have subscribers view our content, rather than the public. It's very important in showing value to our content
-
Javier Mejia commented
How is it April of 2023 and this feature is still not added? It's almost as if you're purposely dropping the ball. Do you not have the funding or are there some office politics invoved as why this hasn't happened? The inDesign publish Online feature has amazing possibilities but your priorities to get anything accomplished internally is hopeless. I have MANY issues and you never have any solutions. And for what you charge, it's quite wild that you aren't on top if it. With the advent of Ai, if you don't get yourselves together, you'll be left in the dust. Saying this as someone who uses your software for my clients, and it's pushing me to start looking for alternatives.
-
Igor commented
My client has ordered me to take down ALL the interactive documents published on the CC servers since it is not within their security influence, and forbidden to use them ever again. Security- and privacy issues are a growing concern. There is no way to password-protect the interactive documents or allow only access through their own proxy servers... so then we need a way for them to host the documents themselves on their Sharepoint intranet or other secure servers. Interactive pdf (or what's left of it) is as dead as a doornail, so that is no alternative; export as epub requires a reader and doesn't work in browsers... In conclusion: if this feature is not implemented quickly, they (and us, sadly too) will be forced to turn our backs on Adobe as a partner.
That would be a shame
-
Nora Chuff commented
Please please add more privacy options! I'd love to have a password option. Also it would be great to have a duration i.e. publish something for 30 days and on the 31st day it is automatically hidden.
-
Orlagh commented
We have GDPR considerations with sensitive data. It would need to be self-hosted as well as password protected. Currently stuck making obsolete interactive PDFs! Adobe, please create this feature.
-
Curtis Hight commented
I too am an In5 user and have wondered about Adobe purchasing Ajar Production’s code and rolling it into InDesign. I suppose that Adobe would prefer for web design to concentrate in XD (or Dreamweaver). I wish to retain GREP and other features, my experience, and my work. (I see someone on Adobe XD User Voice requesting hanging punctuation. We have that in InDesign and Publish Online supports it, albeit without selectable text. I wish Publish Online supported a selectable text overlay).
-
Kate Robotham Conway commented
I would absolutely LOVE this password protected option! I'm a Realtor and this would be a game changer for me!
-
Annie Monette commented
YES!!!
-
Ashleigh commented
I use publish online to send proofs to clients. Would love this so I and my clients can feel safe that their documents are safe.
-
Steven Star Israel commented
Publish Online and Interactivity are the best things happened to InDesign.
If Adobe adds password protection/user based login, and self-hosting, that's going to be next level.
They have been investigating and reviewing this feature since 2019 but still nothing happened.
Adobe Team, please buy in5 or their team and speedup the rollout of such amazing features before some other programs completely take out existing users.
in5 has amazing features like flipcards, scrolling frames, export to html and resizable liquid layout. We want all these in InDesign. Please please bring them here. 🙏
-
Aiden Holliday commented
Agreed Online Publish password protection would make this viable choice
-
Adam McNaught-Davis commented
Agree - please make this happen. Or speed up native hosting.
-
Jeremy Paine commented
additional related thought... currently anything I publish with the Publish Online feature is tied strictly to MY Adobe ID. This makes it not a great solution for publishing anything mission critical for my company. If I leave the company, so does access to those published documents, unless I share my login credentials with other people, which is obviously a security no-no.
-
Jeremy Paine commented
I love the concept of publish online, and use it in a number of instances when I need something quickly accessible via a web browser. However, because I can't password protect or otherwise restrict access, I have to be cautious not to publish proprietary company information this way. If I could export to this format, but host the files on our company intranet with it's existing access control, that would open up a number of possibilities when publishing training material and other sensitive information.
-
Bevi Chagnon | ACP commented
Our government, academic, and corporate clients (and us too!) would love this...but the files can't be uploaded to someone's cloud server...not even Adobe's.
They'd be willing to pay for a self-hosted edition of Publish Online.
In fact, I'd bet that this feature would revolutionize the publishing world, just as Acrobat did 30 years ago.
Think about it, Adobe.
-
Su Mon commented
ADOBE IDDESIGN 2020 PASSWORD.
-
WP commented
Password protect would really help issues we have - and combining it with a short link generation
-
Mr_Wooksen commented
Clients of ours also requested to publish online with password protection. Would be a greatly appreciated feature!