A few months ago, I was involved in a conversation about a site redevelopment, and the user wanted to look into a multisite network. As an avid learner, I wanted to find out what WordPress multisite was about, and the benefits of using multisite for this particular installation. The WordPress site was intended to be a membership site for multiple locations, which was ideal for the use of WordPress multisite. After a significant amount of research, I realized that it would be a good idea to add a page to this site on Multisite functionality.
What is a WordPress multisite?
A multisite is a network of WordPress sites that are controlled by a one installation of WordPress. While this sounds great, there is a learning curve. I was surprised at what I was learning. Here a few highlights:
- Multisite is not WordPress MU. WordPress MU became inactive when WordPress 3.0 was released over a year ago. I was surprised when I met with a reputable developer who suggested MU was the route we could take and not multisite. Seriously? It was evident that while this developer did a significant amount of WordPress development work, they were not as learned in WordPress as I might need
- Not all plugins work in multisite installations. I found this out when researching which membership plugin to use. Many of the most popular membership plugins do not support multisite. I found this interesting since so many membership sites offer multiple locations. This can be a costly lesson. And just like plugins, not all themes will work in multisite.
- A new WordPress multisite installation can be fairly easy when you follow the directions available on the WordPress.org site or in many of the tutorials available on the internet. But converting a current site and/or migrating existing sites to a network installation can be difficult and you should seek the help of a professional WordPress multisite developer.
