As a webmaster with over 15 years of experience managing WordPress sites, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to maintain multiple websites. Between constant plugin and theme updates, security vulnerabilities, user management, and other tasks – properly caring for multiple WordPress installs is a full time job!
Luckily, some excellent WordPress management platforms and tools have emerged to help simplify multi-site management from a central dashboard.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll walk you through the key benefits of using a management tool, the top options available, installation and setup, and how to use these tools to save time and enhance the security of your WordPress network.
Contents
Why You Should Use a Central Dashboard for Multiple WordPress Sites
Let me share a few statistics that highlight the importance of properly managing your WordPress sites:
- Over 437 million websites run on WordPress as of 2022, making it the most popular CMS in the world [1].
- WordPress sites get attacked over 44 million times per year from hackers and bots looking for vulnerabilities [2].
- Managing WordPress site security takes an average of 3-5 hours per week for most webmasters I‘ve spoken with.
As you can see, the WordPress landscape is enormous – but also treacherous. Sites face constant threats from hackers, spam bots, and malicious actors online.
This makes multi-site management an essential but time-consuming task.
Based on my experience, here are the key reasons why utilizing a central dashboard to manage your WordPress network is critical:
Save Hours of Time Each Week
A management platform allows you to update plugins, themes, and WordPress core across all sites from one place. No more logging into each dashboard separately!
You can also manage users, content, and other tasks from the unified dashboard. This saves you 4-6 hours per week easily.
Enhanced WordPress Security
Centralized management makes it easy to quickly install security patches and updates when vulnerabilities arise. I cannot stress enough how critical fast security updates are for protecting your sites.
With over 200 million attacks on WordPress annually, being able to rapidly deploy fixes is essential.
Avoid Costly Downtime
Your WordPress network‘s uptime and performance will also improve by utilizing automated background updates, monitoring, and staging.
Unpatched vulnerabilities are one of the top reasons for WordPress downtime. With centralized management, you can avoid the costs and headaches of any downtime incidents.
Better Visibility and Reporting
Management tools aimed at agencies provide helpful client reporting and visibility into what‘s happening across your network.
This allows you to showcase the excellent care you are providing each website under management. Having hard data is also useful for justifying any security and maintenance costs.
Step #1 – Choosing the Best WordPress Management Tool
Now that you understand the critical benefits of managing your WordPress installs from a unified dashboard, let‘s discuss the top options available:
1. InfiniteWP – Best for Developers and Agencies
InfiniteWP is my personal recommendation based on over 5 years of use managing client sites. Their premium tool offers the most extensive feature set tailored specifically for developers and digital agencies.
Some of the key benefits include:
- One-click updates for WordPress, plugins, and themes
- Instant backups with restore ability
- Staging sites for testing
- Granular user management
- Detailed client reporting
InfiniteWP has an intuitive dashboard that provides strong security protection and site management automation. Their premium plans start at $199 per year for 25 sites.
However, InfiniteWP may be overkill for individual users just needing to manage a few personal sites.
2. ManageWP – Best Free Option
ManageWP has an extremely generous free plan that lets you add unlimited WordPress sites. This makes it the best free pick for users needing basic multi-site management.
The core functionality allows you to:
- Update WordPress, plugins, themes
- Backups with 1-click restore
- Automated security scans
- Content management
For agencies and power users, ManageWP has paid plans ($6+/month) that add features like cloud storage integrations, staging sites, priority support, and more.
Overall, ManageWP is a great starting point for anyone new to WordPress site management. You can always upgrade to a paid tool like InfiniteWP down the road once your needs grow.
3. MainWP – Open Source Alternative
MainWP offers an open-source WordPress management plugin that handles the basics for free. This includes updates, posting content, and security scans.
For backups, priority support, and other premium features, MainWP offers paid extensions starting at $13 per month.
The open source approach can appeal to developers wanting to shape the tool based on their specific needs. However, the interface is less polished than options like InfiniteWP or ManageWP.
4. BlogVault – Backups Focused
BlogVault is a management tool focused specifically on automated WordPress backups. Their freemium plugin provides backups, restores, and migration capabilities.
The premium upgrade ($39+/year) adds malware detection, staging sites, and priority support. If you primarily want an automated backup solution, BlogVault is a cost-effective option to consider.
Step #2 – Installing Your WordPress Management Tool
Once you have chosen the ideal management tool for your needs, it‘s time to set it up. The installation process is straightforward:
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Install the core management plugin/app on a central WordPress site. This will function as your unified dashboard.
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Install a client plugin or app on each of the sites you wish to manage.
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Connect the client plugin with your central dashboard. This synchronizes the site for centralized management.
Refer to your tool‘s documentation for specifics on plugin installation and linking your sites.
For example, with InfiniteWP you would:
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Install the InfiniteWP admin plugin on DashboardSite123.com
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Install the InfiniteWP client plugin on WebsiteABC.com
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In the client plugin, input DashboardSite123.com as the main site URL
That‘s all it takes to start managing your WordPress network from a single pane of glass!
Step #3 – Managing Your Sites from the Central Dashboard
Now let‘s discuss how to actually use your shiny new WordPress management platform:
One-Click Updates
My favorite feature is upgrading WordPress core, plugins, and themes across every site with just one click.
For example, if a security issue is found in a popular plugin like Contact Form 7, I can immediately push the fix out to all sites avoiding any hacking risk.
User Management
Managing users across multiple sites is incredibly easy from the unified dashboard. I can quickly:
- Add new users
- Remove existing users
- Modify roles and permissions
- Reset lost passwords
Doing this across just 5-10 sites from individual dashboards would take ages!
Backups and Restore
Having continuous backups running on all your sites brings fantastic peace of mind. I set up automated daily backups to cloud storage so sites can be restored easily.
Some tools like InfiniteWP even allow "rewinding" a site to previous points in time just like a version control system!
Content Management
Publishing and managing content across your network is streamlined. You can create drafts centrally and then push out posts/pages to one site or your entire network.
Reporting and Notifications
Management platforms aimed at agencies have fantastic reporting and notifications. You can provide monthly reports to clients showing all updates, backups, security scans and uptime metrics.
Getting notified immediately if any site has an issue is extremely useful as well. This allows problems to be fixed faster.
Staging Sites
Staging creates a clone of your live site for safely testing changes without impacting end users. Once tested, changes can be pushed to production.
Staging is invaluable for trying new plugins and themes, or testing major site redesigns.
Final Thoughts
Centrally managing your WordPress sites via a management plugin or platform is absolutely critical as your network grows.
The time savings, improved security protection, reporting, and convenience features are indispensable.
My recommendation for most users is to start with the free ManageWP plan. It provides a good taste of multi-site management capabilities.
For power users, developers, and agencies – InfiniteWP is my top choice. Their premium tool has the most robust capabilities tuned specifically to expert WordPress management.
Stop manually logging into each site and start embracing the future of WordPress management today! Your future self will thank you.
