Having dealt with clients, you may know that it isn’t just about negotiations, communication, and timely deliveries. There’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes. All this can be tiring, especially when you have a lot of clients to deal with.
- Why Not Use a WordPress Multisite Setup?
- Have You Tried a Website Management Solution?
- What is MainWP, and How to Begin With it?
- Useful Features of MainWP
- All this for FREE? Well, most of it!
Let’s say you have around 15 different clients (you may have a lot more, but just thinking about the agencies that have only just begun). You build websites for each of them and take responsibility for maintaining them all.
Will you keep logging in to all the websites for a simple plugin update, or a quick plugin installation? It can quickly seem to be overwhelming, right?
How will you maintain a multisite environment in a realistically manageable way?
Why Not Use a WordPress Multisite Setup?
Many agencies and freelancers still rely on a multisite setup to handle client websites. But this has some downfalls too. For example:
– Problems with installing and removing plugins of particular websites.
We all know that a multisite setup allows us to install plugins on the admin website and then individually activate them on the subsites you wish to use.
How many websites are you going to do that for manually?
– All websites need to be on the same server.
Dealing with clients, you may know each of them has a different preference and would like to host their websites on servers of their choice.
By limiting their choice here, you are already rejecting many clients.
Have You Tried a Website Management Solution?
Now, here’s what I want to talk about!
MainWP is a WordPress website management tool that will help to manage all your websites, and your clients’ websites, through one secure dashboard.
This means that you get to control everything, without worrying about the security of any other websites you manage.
Sidenote: If you’re interested in learning more about WordPress security plugins, the performance & security experts at Servebolt wrote a detailed guide just for you.
The two main benefits of using MainWP are that the websites can be hosted on any server that you or your client prefers, and it allows you to do EVERYTHING you need to keep a website up-to-date.
Highlights of MainWP as a Website Management Plugin
When we look at its features, this tool promises everything you’ll need to manage websites. Let’s take a quick look at some of the more prominent ones.
- One-click admin access for you to maintain confidentiality and security.
- Manage unlimited WordPress websites using a single dashboard.
- Manage plugin and theme installations, user roles, and more through the MainWP dashboard.
- Keep a watch on the domain information like the expiry date, etc., for all websites you manage.
- Show Google Lighthouse stats for all connected sites on a single screen so that you can monitor website performance and more.
- Run security checks and fixes for all websites at once.
- Take advantage of multiple backup solutions and uptime monitoring for all your websites.
- And the best thing is that MainWP is self-hosted and open-source, so you know privacy is taken care of here.
Is there anything else you are looking for?
Let’s take a closer look at some of the key points.
What is MainWP, and How to Begin With it?
Well, that’s simple!
MainWP has two plugins, the MainWP Dashboard and the MainWP Child.
The MainWP Dashboard can be considered as the admin plugin to be installed on the main website that you will use to manage all other WordPress websites.
While the MainWP Child plugin needs to be installed on every single website or, say, a client website that you plan to manage through the dashboard.
Getting started with MainWP is easier than you think. There is a well-written article covering all the steps right from installing the plugins, setting them up, and connecting your first Child website to the dashboard.
Useful Features of MainWP
After a quick overview of MainWP and its setup process, we now move to a detailed review of how useful it can get.
Get plugin and theme update notifications in one place
With multiple websites to manage, it is difficult to keep track of emails, or even log in to each website to keep a check on plugin and theme updates.
Just log in to MainWP and see the notifications right there.
What’s more? You can update them all with a single click!
When you look deeper into the Updates tab, you’ll find separate tabs for all kinds of updates that you can manage through the MainWP Dashboard. They include WordPress updates, plugin and theme updates, translation updates, and a list of abandoned plugins or themes.
Monitor the activities on all the websites
Web agencies usually have different teams working on various projects. It therefore becomes challenging to keep track of all the activities on the websites you manage.
With MainWP, you get an overview of the new pages and posts added to these websites in the dashboard, as seen below.
What’s more, you can also create and manage website posts and pages from the MainWP dashboard, and you won’t have to log in to the specific website separately.
The Sites tab allows you to manage WordPress websites, add or import new sites, create a group of similar websites or those that belong to the same client, and monitor them all. These have a different window that you can access through the dashboard.
Be assured of security fixes and timely notifications
Security is one primary concern that every website needs to deal with. I was happy to see Security issues being pointed out in the dashboard itself.
When expanded, this option shares more details about the issues and allows you to fix them from the dashboard itself.
Manage user accounts and roles through MainWP
One needs to be extra careful while sharing access to a website, especially when it belongs to a client who trusts us.
MainWP allows you to control each user account on every website you manage.
You can add or import users, manage their roles, or change admin passwords from the dashboard.
Here’s a quick look at how easy it is to add a new user to a website you are managing.
Monitor Uptime, Site Health, and Backups using MainWP
MainWP makes it easier to monitor the uptime of all the websites and their site health, and takes timely backups so you can maintain and keep track of all the websites at once.
The General settings in the MainWP dashboard also allow you to set the frequency of syncing updates and decide whether you’d like trusted updates to run automatically.
Extensions that offer more value and usability
And even beyond the huge range of tools already included, to make this tool even more versatile, there is an amazing list of 40+ extensions that you can use to extend its possibilities and manage websites even better.
These can be used for specific requirements such as creating staging sites, customizing the dashboard, integrating Google Analytics, monitoring the speed score, and more.
Here is a quick overview of some of the additional features you could get from MainWP:
- ?️ White Label: Replace the MainWP Child plugin name with your own brand.
- ? Lighthouse: Automatically check the performance of all connected websites at once.
- ? Domain Monitor: Check the domain info of all connected sites at once & inform clients about expiry.
- ? Comments: Manage comments of all connected sites from a single screen.
- ?️ Maintenance: Clear all unwanted content & optimize the database of connected sites.
- ?️ Wordfence: Control security across your network on all Wordfence installed connected sites.
- ? Google Analytics: Showcase Analytics stats of all connected sites on a single screen.
- ? Reports: Generate customized reports & email them to clients directly from the MainWP.
- ? Rocket: Manage WP Rocket settings on all child sites from a single screen.
- ✌️ Time Capsule: An incremental backup solution for your connected child sites.
- ? Staging: Create staging of your connected sites.
And a lot more. You can learn more about the available plugins for MainWP by visiting the MainWP Extensions list.
All this for FREE? Well, most of it!
MainWP is one such plugin in this category that offers so much for FREE.
Simple pricing plans allow you to use all the extensions and benefit from their respective updates and support.
What more to look for?
They also have some exciting offers for those who’d like to start with a monthly plan and then move to a lifetime plan.
Not a bad idea to try that out!
Is MainWP the one for you?
Of course, yes!
If you are an agency, MainWP is the one that will help your entire team manage multiple websites while you monitor the activities on all of them and keep the websites up-to-date.
If you are a web design startup, MainWP is the best tool you can rely on to manage and maintain all your websites for FREE! (You can extend it later as per client requirements)
If you are a freelancer, MainWP will help you manage multiple websites all by yourself!
