Multisite refers to a WordPress installation that allows you to manage and maintain multiple sites through a single installation, rather than each site having its own, separate site environment on the server. This type of installation is also called a Network. Seravo's service includes support for multisite in the WP Corporate and WP Enterprise service plans. Depending on the plan, a Network can contain ten or more sites.

A multisite always contains one main site (example.fi), of which the other sites are subsites. It has two types of structures: subdirectory and subdomain. The choice of structure for a site depends mainly on how you want the domain structure to work. It is possible to configure subsites of both structure types to use their own domain (for example, myexample.fi), but the way this is done differs somewhat. You can read more about domain name configuration in multisite here.

If you want to activate the multisite feature on your site, you can request it on the new site order form or, in the case of an already existing site, by contacting our customer support.

A multisite installation works in many ways in a very similar manner to a standard WordPress installation, but it does have some administrative and technical differences. For example, some settings, even those affecting just individual sites, are only visible and manageable by the top-level users, Super Admins. One of the most notable differences is the My Sites menu, which can be found from the top bar of the WordPress Dashboard. Under this menu is the Network Admin tab, which allows you to edit settings for the entire Network, create and manage subsites and users, and install plugins and themes. Under this menu, you will also see a list of all the sites belonging to the Network to which the logged-in user has been added as a user.

Because all the sites in the Network share a single WordPress installation, they also share the same resources and technical features. This means that the WordPress core, downloaded themes and plugins, and PHP are always in the same version across the Network. The database is also shared between the entire Network.

Files and other content added directly to subsites are not accessible to other subsites through the WordPress admin panel. All media files reside in the folder wp-content/uploads as usual, but each site will have its own subfolder with the site's ID number, e.g. wp-content/uploads/2/2026/02/pic.jpg.

Backups and the creation of shadow environments always apply to the entire network and not just individual subsites. For this reason, if you restore a backup of a multisite, you should be careful about what data you restore so that you do not accidentally overwrite changes or critical data on wrong subsite.

Multisite has two levels of administrative rights. In addition to the traditional Administrator role, there is also a Network Admin (commonly also known as Super Admin) role. A Network Admin can manage the entire Network, including all sites and users belonging to it. A user added with the Administrator role, on the other hand, can only manage the subsites for which they have been given administration rights.

The Network Admin can add, remove, and edit Network users from the top menu of the WordPress admin panel under My Sites > Network Admin > Users. They can also restrict whether subsite Administrators can add new users to their sites themselves. If adding new users is restricted, Administrators can only add existing Network users to subsites. In both cases, new users can be added to subsites from the WordPress sidebar menu under Users > Add New.

Network Admins have the right to create new subsites for the multisite. This is done in the Network Admin > Sites tab. When creating a site, a subdomain or subdirectory type address is specified for the subsite (subdomain.example.com or example.com/subdirectory, depending on the multisite structure), but this can be changed later to match the desired address (e.g. myexample.com). The image below shows an example of creating a new site in a multisite with a subdirectory structure.

Network Admin level users can seamlessly move from one subsite to another with the same login, allowing them to perform maintenance tasks faster and more efficiently. Site switching within the Network takes place under the My Sites menu in the admin panel, where all sites in the network are listed. Administrators and lower-level users can move from one subsite to another among the sites to which they have been added as users.

Since the entire multisite shares the same plugins and themes, they can only be installed by the Network Admin from Network Admin > Plugins/Themes tabs and Add New. Installation is not possible on individual subsites, even by the Network Admins. Similarly, updates to these and WordPress core can only be performed from Network Admin > Dashboard > Updates.

In the WordPress admin panel, under Themes > Installed Themes, you can add or remove a theme from all subsites. However, adding a theme does not make it active on all subsites; each subsite can still select the preferred theme and customize it as needed from the Themes tab in the subsite's own admin panel. If a theme is not activated for the entire Network, subsites cannot enable it. Since themes are always activated for the entire Network, it is important to note that any changes made directly to the theme code will take effect across the entire Network. Therefore, if you need to customize a theme for a subsite more extensively than what is possible with WordPress's Customize feature, we recommend creating a separate, individually named child theme for that subsite.

Similarly, from the Plugins > Installed Plugins tab, it is possible to activate plugins for use across the Network. Unlike themes, plugins activated in this way are forced to be active on every subsite. However, it is not usually required to enable plugins across the entire Network (although there are exceptions), in which case each subsite can independently activate and deactivate installed plugins from the Plugins tab in the subsite's own admin panel. However, the Network Admin can, if desired, completely disable the ability to manage plugins on subsites by anyone other than the Network Admins. This setting can be found at the bottom of the Network Admin > Settings tab, under Menu Settings. Checking this box completely removes the Plugins tab from the subsites' admin panel for users below the Network Admin level.

All settings and features of Seravo's own must-use plugin, Seravo Plugin, are not available to others than Network Admins. Seravo Plugin settings can be found from the subsites' admin panels under the Tools tab. More detailed information about all the features of the Seravo Plugin can be found here. It depends on the setting and feature whether they apply to the entire Network or only to the subsite whose admin panel you are currently in. If the setting applies to the entire Network, it does not matter which subsite you use it through.

From the Upkeep tab, you can update the Seravo Plugin and PHP version, as well as view the status of updates and settings related to them. These features apply to the entire Network. The Network Admin has access to all features, while Administrators can only view the status of updates.

The Site Status tab contains settings related to site optimization, usage statistics, and a shadow environment list. The settings related to optimization and caches are subsite-specific, while statistics and shadows cover the entire Network. The optimization settings and shadows are visible to the Network Admins, while Administrators only have access to statistics such as HTTP traffic and disk space.

The Database tab contains database size statistics as well as tools for cleaning and editing the database, the latter of which are only available to the Network Admin. The database is shared by all Network subsites, so any changes made to it will affect the entire Network.

On the Backups tab, only the Network Admin can take backups, while Administrators can view the backups taken. Backups are always taken automatically of the entire Network.

On the Logs tab, Administrators as well as Network Admins have rights to view log files. Logs are shared across the entire Network.

The Domains and Security tabs are only visible to Network Admins. The Domains tab lists all domains connected to the multisite instance. The settings on the Security tab apply to the entire Network, except for login monitoring and password checking, which are subsite specific features.

In a Network all contents are in the same database. There are a few shared tables like:

Each subsite has its own content tables that are prefixed with a number, for example:

The wp_posts includes all post contents of the main site, while wp_2_posts includes all post contents of the first subsite. Run wp db tables --all-tables to see a list of all tables in the current WordPress installation.

The WP-CLI has a few extra commands related to Networks. To list all sites you can use wp site list and to list all Super Admins you can use wp super-admin list. To list the domains mapped and other information about the Network installation, you can run Seravo's own command wp-network-status.

Note that commands like wp plugin list or wp user list only apply to the main site when executed. To apply for a subsite, the parameter --url needs to be included, e.g wp plugin list --url=https://example.com/b. To get results of the entire Network, use --network parameter instead. To run a command for all subsites at once, you can run e.g. wp plugin list like this:

We primarily recommend multisite if the contents of the sites to be included are closely related to each other and/or their technical implementations and requirements are similar. Such uses include, for example, company websites for specific regions, campaign websites, or brand websites. One way to utilize multisite is if a company wants to offer its employees or external customers their own website or blog platform. Schools, large associations, or similar organizations that need to decentralize their websites by region or user can also benefit from using multisite.

We do not recommend combining completely unrelated sites into a multisite – the feature was not designed for that purpose. For example, different technical requirements of the sites may prevent them from being combined "under one roof," as all sites share several of the same technical features. It is also worth keeping in mind that since all sites on the Network use the same resources, a situation where one site uses a significant amount of them will have a negative impact on the performance of other subsites. For this reason, combining multiple large sites into a multisite should be considered carefully.

Multisite is also not necessarily required for translating a website into different languages. If you intend to make your website multilingual, it is often easier to use a plugin specifically designed for translation, such as Polylang. However, if the language versions are to have other differences besides language, such as country-specific layout or content, multisite may be a good solution.