One WordPress install, many sites, managed from one place.
For franchises, schools, councils and brands running several sites at once. One network, shared themes and plugins, and updates that only need doing once.
The problem
Ten sites shouldn’t mean ten sets of admin.
If your business runs several WordPress sites, one for each region, campus, franchise or brand, you’ve probably felt the cost of that. Ten sites means ten sets of logins, ten sets of plugins to keep updated, and ten places where a theme change has to be made by hand, hoping nobody misses one.
WordPress multisite solves that by running every site from a single install. One codebase, one set of core updates, one place to manage users and roles across the network, while each site keeps its own content, its own look where it needs one, and its own address. It’s the right structure for a group of sites that share a brand and a content team, not for sites that need to run completely independently of each other.
It’s also the wrong tool for plenty of situations, and we’ll tell you that during scoping rather than after you’ve paid for a network you didn’t need. A handful of unrelated sites, or sites that might be sold or spun off separately, are usually better off as standalone WordPress installs, each hosted and maintained on its own. Multisite earns its place when the number of sites, and the overhead of managing them separately, has actually become a problem.
What you get
What’s included in a multisite build.
Network architecture
We work out whether subdomains, subdirectories or fully mapped domains suit your sites, and set the network up to match, rather than defaulting to whatever’s easiest.
Shared themes and plugins
A shared theme and plugin library across the network, with per-site settings, menus and content, so sites look consistent without being identical.
Domain mapping
Any site in the network can run on its own custom domain, so visitors never need to know it’s part of a wider network underneath.
User and role management
Network administrators, site-level editors and everything in between, scoped so a regional editor can manage their own site without touching anyone else’s.
Migration in or out
Existing standalone sites moved into a new network, or a single network site split back out into its own install if your structure changes later.
Hosting built for networks
Hosting sized and configured for multisite specifically, not a standard single-site plan stretched to cover several sites at once. See our hosting page.
Process
How a multisite build runs.
Scoping
We map how many sites you need, how much they should share versus differ, and whether multisite is genuinely the right structure before we agree scope and price.
Architecture
We choose subdomains, subdirectories or domain mapping, plan the shared theme and plugin setup, and design the user and role structure across the network.
Build and migrate
The network gets built on staging, existing sites get migrated in where needed, and content gets checked site by site against the originals.
Launch
The network goes live, domains get mapped and tested, and your admins get a walkthrough of managing users, plugins and content across sites.
Ongoing care
Network-wide updates and monitoring, usually a few hours per update window rather than days, either as a one-off or through an ongoing maintenance plan.
Why Maku
Why businesses trust us with a network.
A multisite network is riskier to get wrong than a single site, because a plugin conflict or a bad update can ripple across every site attached to it. We build and test network changes on staging before they touch anything live, and we’re honest during scoping about whether a network is actually the right call for your sites.
- Architecture decided on your sites’ actual needs, custom domains, per-site branding, separate content teams, not defaulted to the simplest setup for us to build.
- Bulk content moves and site-by-site checks during migration run faster with AI assistance for the repetitive scripting, with a person reviewing every site before it goes live.
- Network-wide plugin and core updates handled as routine maintenance, tested on staging first, not pushed straight to a live network of sites.
- No lock-in. You can leave the network later and split a site out on its own if your structure changes.
Performance
Performance and caching, site by site.
Sites on a shared network still need their own performance tuning. Caching, image handling and database queries get configured per site, not treated as one setting that has to suit every site in the network equally. A busy franchise location and a quiet regional page don’t need identical caching rules, and we set the network up so they don’t have to share one. If your existing sites are already slow before you even consider a network, our speed optimisation work is worth doing on its own first.
What’s the actual difference between multisite and separate installs?
Multisite is one WordPress install, one codebase and one database running several sites, each with its own content and users. Separate installs are entirely independent, each with their own updates, backups and logins. Multisite wins when the sites genuinely share themes, plugins and admin oversight; separate installs win when they don’t.
Can each site in the network have its own domain?
Yes. Domain mapping lets any site in a network use its own domain instead of a subdomain or subdirectory of the main site. Visitors never see that it’s part of a network, and each domain can still point at shared themes and plugins underneath.
Can one site’s problem break the others?
A plugin conflict or a bad update can affect the whole network, because the code is shared. That’s the real trade-off against separate installs. We manage that risk with staging, careful update testing and per-site plugin activation, but it’s worth understanding before you commit to a network.
How do updates and maintenance work across a network?
Core, theme and plugin updates apply network-wide from one place, which is the main point of running a network in the first place. We test updates on staging before they touch the live network, and a maintenance plan covers this as an ongoing service rather than a one-off task.
Can we leave the network later and split a site out?
Yes. A single site can be exported out of a network and rebuilt as its own standalone install if it outgrows the network or a business unit is sold off. It’s more work than joining a network, since shared plugin settings and network-wide users need untangling, but it’s a normal migration, not a rebuild from scratch.
What does a multisite build cost?
It depends on how many sites you’re launching with, how much they need to differ from each other, and whether we’re migrating existing sites in. We scope it properly and quote a fixed price. Tell us what you’re building and we’ll price it.
Do we need multisite, or would separate WordPress installs be simpler?
If your sites share a brand, a theme and a content team, and you want one place to manage users, plugins and updates, multisite usually saves real time. If each site has its own team, its own plugins or needs to be sold or spun off independently, separate installs are usually the safer, simpler choice.