WordPress Multisite is a built-in feature allowing a single WordPress installation to run and manage multiple separate websites from one shared codebase and one central login. It's genuinely useful for organizations managing several related sites at once.
When Multisite Genuinely Makes Sense
- A university managing separate sites for each individual department
- A franchise business running near-identical sites across multiple locations
- A media network managing several distinct blogs under one shared umbrella
- An agency managing multiple client sites from a single, unified dashboard
Advantages of Running Multisite
- Only one WordPress core installation to actually update and maintain
- Plugins and themes can be installed once and shared network-wide
- Centralized user management across the entire network
The Real Trade-Offs
- All sites in the network share the very same hosting resources
- Not every plugin is genuinely compatible with a Multisite setup
- A single security breach can potentially expose the entire network at once
- Generally more technically complex to configure than a single, standalone site