Passwords Are the Enemy of Portal Adoption
Before passwordless login, our client portal had a predictable problem. We would send a client their login credentials. They would forget the password within a week. They would try to reset it and not see the reset email. They would give up and email us instead. The password was the single biggest barrier to clients using the portal.
This mattered even more because of what the portal replaced. For over a decade, we used Trello, Monday.com, and ClickUp internally, but clients never had access to any of it. Everything went through email. When we finally gave clients their own portal - a place to view proposals, track projects, and manage their Stripe payment information without emailing us - the last thing we wanted was a password getting in the way of them actually using it.
Magic Links and One-Time Codes
Our portal uses passwordless authentication. When a client wants to log in, they enter their email address. We send them either a magic link they click to log in instantly, or a 6-digit code they enter on the login page. Both expire after 10 minutes. No password to remember. No password to forget. No password reset flow to get stuck in.
The login flow takes about 15 seconds: enter email, check inbox, click link. Done. Compare that to the old flow: enter email, try to remember password, fail, click forgot password, wait for reset email, create new password, try to log in, hope it works. That is three minutes of frustration for something that should be instant.
The Security Angle
Passwordless login is actually more secure than traditional passwords. There is no password to leak in a data breach. There is no password to reuse across sites. There is no password to guess. The authentication token expires in minutes, so even if someone intercepts it, the window for misuse is tiny.
For a client portal that handles financial data - proposals, invoices, payment methods - security matters. Passwordless gives us better security and better UX at the same time, which is rare in software.
The Result
Since switching to passwordless, we have had zero support tickets about login issues. Zero. Clients log in when they need to, do what they came to do, and leave. The portal is frictionless in the truest sense - there is nothing standing between the client and their information. Explore our development services.