How to manage multiple WordPress sites
If you are used to working with multiple websites made with WordPress, you are surely aware of the difficulty and time involved in managing and maintaining each of them up to date.
Can you imagine being able to control all your web pages from one place?
Well, I think we’ve come up short. Can you imagine also being able to make backups, check statistics or generate reports of your websites from the same application?
Because we have a very big news for you.
In the wonderful WordPress ecosystem there are a number of tools that will solve your problems with the maintenance of your websites and provide you with a workspace to enhance and improve your processes.
But first, let’s contextualize a little bit. This way you will see that we are discovering America hehe.
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What is WordPress?
WordPress is the most used and well-known CMS (Content Management System) today. Proof of this is that more than 40% of all websites in the world use it. And besides, it is open source and its use is free. You just need a server to host it.
It’s like a graphite pencil, it allows you to create even the most unexpected projects. Yes, as you hear it.
Corporate pages, online stores, blogs or educational platforms. It is the all-rounder of the sector and offers great versatility.
Why make a tool to manage multiple WordPress websites?
WordPress is, in itself, an incredibly powerful and versatile tool. But like all things in this life, it needs a good web maintenance to always work at 100%.
The tools to manage several WordPress websites from one place allow you to save time and automate tasks that add little value but are necessary for the proper functioning of the web. With many of them, you’ll be able to do things like:
- Updates of plugins, themes, translations and the WP core itself.
- Regular backups.
- Generate reports.
- Access WP from a single panel without having to enter the username and password of each website.
The CMS itself, as we will see below, has specific functionalities to centralize different websites in the same installation and facilitate their management. Although it is not the preferred solution for most professionals.
WordPress Multisite
How can WordPress not have its own tool if it is one of the most used CMS by professionals in the sector?
With WordPress Multisite you can create a network of sites in the same installation and have them all together in the WP natural dashboard.
In this way you will be able to access the different pages from the same login and with a single control panel. Come on, that from this tool you will enter all the developed sites.
To carry out this process you will need to implement a couple of lines of code, and we have to tell you that it is something different from the usual WordPress installation.
Advantages of WordPress Multisite
Let’s first break down some of the advantages of using a WordPress multisite installation to manage your websites and those of your clients:
- Single access as administrator for all the sites of the network.
- Management of permissions and users depending on the site.
- You will not have to update themes and plugins one by one, you can do it from the same control panel.
Come on, it can be an important time saver.
Even so, its use is not very frequent and that’s because it also has a number of disadvantages.
Disadvantages of WordPress Multisite
If you are going to use WordPress Multisite or are considering it, it is very important that you keep the following points in mind so as not to get a surprise.
- By having all the sites in the same installation, if one is hacked the rest also goes down.
- If you are one of those who use quite a few plugins on your WordPress site you should know that some of these plugins do not work properly on multisite installations.
- If the network generates many visits, it is possible that the management of the server is impaired.
- If you want to use this system but your clients’ websites are on different servers, it will not be possible.
Do you think it’s still worth it? We leave it to your reasoning.
But if this option does not convince you, let’s look at others. So keep reading.
The best tools to manage WordPress sites
Next we are going to analyze the best 5 tools to manage WordPress sites and compare them based on their functionalities, prices and usability.
Modular, taking management a little further
Imagine the convenience of having all your WordPress websites unified under a single control panel. With Modular, that’s possible. You can keep them organized and save time on their daily revisions.
Additionally, Modular allows you to:
- Access each WordPress with just one click, no need to remember usernames and passwords.
- Schedule automatic backups, so you never lose your valuable information.
- Monitor the status of the web and receive alerts via email/SMS if something goes wrong.
- Update all your websites from a single place and at the same time.
- Generate automatic reports with all the maintenance tasks for your clients, including relevant data from Google Analytics, PageSpeed, or Search Console.
This whole set of tools not only represents a significant time-saving, but will also help you demonstrate to your clients the value of your work.
Modular offers a free plan that allows you to connect up to 10 websites and try all its functionalities in their basic version. If you’re looking for more, you have the PRO plans starting at €24 per month, with unlimited websites.
Does it sound too good to be true?
Try for yourself. Start for free by creating your account with this link and join #TheWebRevolution.
ManageWP
The oldest and most well-known tool in the sector allows you to save time and automate your daily tasks by combining the management of your sites in the same dashboard hosted within its website (external to WP).
It offers functionalities such as performing updates of several sites at once, automated backups or performance analysis. And also a direct access to any of your WP sites.
Its free version allows you to connect unlimited sites and offers a series of premium features such as performance analysis, SEO, white label or advanced reports that you can hire for each website or in a bundle for all the ones you have (up to 100 sites).
A few years ago it was bought by GoDaddy, the famous domain and hosting manager and now it is also offered for all its customers.
Price: Free plan for unlimited websites and add-ons from $1/month per website or $25/month for all your websites.
InfiniteWP
It is a similar tool to the previous one, with more than 300,000 active installations on WP, focused on facilitating the management, updating and automation of your websites.
It offers automatic backups, security and performance checks, generation of reports for clients with the tasks performed on the site and even a functionality to clone and migrate WordPress sites from one server to another.
Unlike ManageWP, it is not a SaaS tool, and you must install it on one of your websites via plugin, uploading the files by ftp or through your hosting panel.
Once installed on a site, you can manage it from WordPress itself and add new sites by installing its own plugin.
Price: Free plan with the 3 basic functionalities and paid plans from $147/year for up to 10 websites to unlock their full potential.
MainWP
A powerful open source solution that allows you to manage unlimited WordPress websites also from the same control panel.
Like InfiniteWP, it is installed on your own server and therefore, and especially for citizens of the European Union, it is a good option for the GDPR, compared to American solutions that may have the data in countries not accepted as safe by the EU (such as the United States).
The way to install it is by using a plugin on the site you want “main” and another child plugin on the rest of the sites you want to connect.In addition to the normal plugin update functionalities, security checks or user management adds interesting integrations with very popular plugins such as UpdraftPlus for backups.
Price: Free for unlimited websites but with paid extensions such as cloning sites, optimizing databases or doing automatic lighthouse tests on your PRO plan from $29 per month.
WP Remote
One more alternative to remotely manage and update all websites made with WordPress. Including, like the others, updates of plugins, themes, etc … and backups that can be hosted on your computer or in the cloud.
WP Remote focuses on security, valuing it much more than other alternatives with features such as malware scanner, real-time firewall and fast restores if your site is hacked.
In addition, it has a very interesting solution that allows you to create staging sites to make tests before publishing them.
Price: It is a paid plugin that ranges from $29 to $99 per month for 5 sites and goes up depending on the number of websites.
