If you are a WordPress website developer, then one of the tasks that must be accomplished is managing the websites of your clients. This usually entails logging-in to all of them, one at a time, if you need to publish posts, edit pages, or even do a periodic back-up. If you have ever encountered this problem, a self-hosted, open-source utility named MainWP can help.
MainWP is a back-end manager that blends seamlessly with WordPress allowing management of multiple sites from one back-end.
Setting-up MainWP
- Set-up a fresh install of WordPress on your preferred host (recommended).
- Keep the install fresh from outside plugins.
- Install MainWP Dashboard plugin.
- Install MainWP Child plugin on every site that you want to manage through MainWP.
- Add the URL, site name, user admin name, and any groups you want to assign it to.
The following video explains the process:
Beyond the Basics
MainWP is full featured allowing for the use of WordPress themes and plugins through the “Trusted” options. By default, none of your themes or plugins will be automatically updated unless you select the trusted option. If you do, then whenever it has an update available, it will automatically install. Another useful tool available from MainWP is the ability to do back-ups of all of you managed sites in one step. These back-ups can be scheduled on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule and allow the choice of doing a full back-up or a database only back-up.
ClarkWP WordPress Magazine 