Launching A Beta-Test Using Htaccess?

Hello

I am finishing a webshop-project and a web-application related to that webshop. I proposed to the company I made it for to do a Bèta-test instead of releasing it to the big public directly.
But how would I launch a beta-test the easy way?

It’d be okay to just protect my website with a password, but I don’t want to write a whole login-page for it. Is it possible to protect it using .htaccess for example?
What would be the best way?

Thanks!

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