WordPress Multisite can be a terrific tool for helping you manage multiple WordPress installations. As with any tool, that of course comes with the caveat that it is indeed the tool you need for the job you’re working on. We’ve run through an introduction to WordPress Multisite already, so if you’re not sure whether it’s the the tool you need, head over there and find out. If you’ve settled on Multisite as your solution, then carry on here and we’ll take a look at how to setup Multisite on your WordPress installation!
Initial Prep
A few considerations before we begin:
- As with any non-trivial configuration change to your site, you should make a backup of your WordPress database and files before you begin.
- You must deactivate all plugins before proceeding with a Multisite setup. You can always reactivate them after.
- If you intend to run WordPress from its own directory, that needs to be set up before you enable Multisite. Follow the Codex link just provided for instructions for that process.
Enabling Multisite
To get started, we need to enable Multisite on your WordPress installation. This involves file editing, so you’re going to need an FTP client like Filezilla or Cyberduck if you’re doing this on a hosted site. I’m doing this from my localhost, so in this case it’s just a matter of navigating to my local WordPress install.
1) Navigate to and open the wp-config.php file in your WordPress installation using a tool like Sublime Text.
2) Find the commented line that reads:
3) Just above that line, insert the following lines (commented out note that this section begins your Multisite info, and then the line enabling Multisite):
4) Save wp-config.php, but you can leave it open as we’ll need to make another edit in just a moment.
Multisite is now enabled! Next we need to set up your network.
Setting Up the Multisite Network
1) Head to your site’s Dashboard and go to (or hover over) Tools. You’ll see a new option here: Network Setup. Click on Network Setup and it will take you to the Create Network page.
2) Click Install. You’re now presented two steps, each of them a file edit that needs to be done for setup to complete. The first is to your wp-config.php and the second is to your .htaccess file. We’ll hit these separately in steps 3 & 4 next.
3) Navigate to your wp-config.php file and find the lines that you inserted previously (Enabling Multisite step 3). Copy and paste the code from step 1 of the Network Setup page immediately following that text.
While the values in each line of your file will be unique to your installation and different than mine, the general format of the Multisite text in wp-config.php should now look approximately like this:
4) Now navigate to and open your .htaccess file. It’s in the main WordPress folder. If you don’t see it, you’ll need to set your server, PC, or Mac to show hidden files. If that still doesn’t reveal .htaccess, create your own using your text editor and save it here. Copy and paste the code from step 2 of the Network Setup page into .htaccess, overwriting any other WordPress rules you see there between # BEGIN WordPress and # END WordPress.
What mine looks like- again, yours may vary, picture is reference for general formatting only:
5) Make sure you saved the changes to both files, then log out and back in. When you log back in, Network Setup will be gone from the Tools menu, but you should now have a new My Sites option in the dashboard (see screenshot below). Your network is now setup!
Managing Your Multisite
This section could stretch into a whole different article fairly easily, and that just may be in the books soon. For today though, let’s overview the basics of managing your new Multisite installation.
First, hovering over the My Sites option will show you two options on a clean install: Network Admin, and your current/only website in the Multisite network. In the future, as you setup new sites on the network, you’ll find Network Admin plus each of those sites here. For now, click on Network Admin to take you to the “master” dashboard for your network.
Much of the basics here will be mostly self-explanatory. You have a dashboard option for:
- Sites, where you can manage each site in the network
- Users, where you can manage each user across the network
- Themes, where you can manage the themes for the network
- Plugins, where you manage plugins for the network
- Settings, where you can manage your network’s settings and the now familiar Network Setup page.
Most importantly, you’ll need to enable registration for users and sites unless you plan on building the entire network yourself! Navigate to Settings>Network Settings and find Registration Settings.
Here you can enable user registration, and also restrict it to specific email domains if you wish. This is a very handy way to limit registration to members of your own organization, for example. You can also dictate how users are added and how sites are registered from this screen.
Congratulations on your new WordPress Multisite installation! Play around and get familiar, then take over the world. Or something along those lines. Be sure to play around and get familiar though. Multisite has a load of utility for you and those you work with, blog with, play with, or whatever your usecase may be. Do feel free to leave comments and questions below, and happy blogging!
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