How to make SharePoint site Read-Only?

Question

Our business requires that we place a SharePoint site in read-only mode to stop users from adding or changing any information, but still allow the end users to access the already existing content.

How to make the SharePoint site in read-only mode?

Answer 1

Set SharePoint site collection as Read-Only

To set a SharePoint site to Read-Only, you have to use SharePoint Central Administration as the following:

Steps

1. Go to Central Admin > Application Management > Configure quotas and locks.
   
2. Choose the site collection that needs to be read-only, In the Site Lock Information click "Read-Only."
   
3. Press OK.

You have to choose each site collection as read-only if you need to lock down a web application that has several site collections.