@Sorcha -

You can use board-level as well as project-level permissions to control board access within the Starter plan with a single team. 

The main benefit of the Business plan from an access perspective is the ability to set up multiple teams which completely segregates access to boards within those teams to a specific set of users.

You can use Visitor access with both Starter and Business plans which will allow you to open up access for specific boards to users for a period of time and provides some level of security with password control. Visitors do NOT need user licenses.

Kiron

@Sorcha 

I often use Miro for:

• Personal use - ideas for conferences, planning
• Small freelance work - Mentoring. People often need to view boards, sometimes I edit with 1-3 people max.

Do you recommend the Business plan over the Starter plan for this?

The Stater Plan would accomplish this.

Keep in mind, there are a few features that the Business Plan offers - have a read and consider if you find them valuable enough to upgrade:

1. Additional Diagramming packs
2. Presenting with Activities (formerly called Smart Meeting).
3. Guests - Unlike Visitors, you can add registered Miro account holders to your boards without requiring a paid license. This is more flexible and secure than Visitors. Guests can also access some features that Visitors cannot. More here.

I’ve looked over the full feature comparison but I’m a bit unclear in how the different invite systems work.

With Visitors, you set the “Anyone with the link” setting and share a link to the board with your participants - no Miro account required on their end.

For Guests, you add then to the board in the board’s Share settings window at the top (where it says “Email:). Next, Miro will prompt you if you would like to add them as a paid team member or invite them a guest. Note: While they will now see your team space in their dashboard, then will only see boards you added them to as a guest - they will also not be able to create boards in your team (as they are not team members). The Guests feature would would also let you give each participant their own access level, e.g., Jim need to edit the board, but Jane and Ted only need to comment on the board.

Unless you feel you need the additional features of the Business Plan, start with the Starter Plan - you can always upgrade later.

Thank you @Kiron Bondale and @Robert Johnson ! Both of your posts were very informative. 
 

With regards to the guest permissions, it sounds like both plans have similar options. The main difference is that the Business version gives you more teams (eg a separate section for each team, like one for freelance client1, one for a studio client freelance 2.) - is that right?

it’s mostly mentoring and a couple people only, so it doesn’t sound like it would make a huge difference to have business. 

@Sorcha - You are correct, the Business Plan allows for the creation of unlimited team spaces.