MainWP
WordPress management tools
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$29 per month
Free Trial unavailable
Free version
Small
Medium
Large
- Retail and wholesale
- Accommodation and food services
- Real estate and property management
What is MainWP
MainWP is a self-hosted WordPress management tool used to centrally administer multiple WordPress sites from a single dashboard. It is commonly used by agencies, freelancers, and in-house teams to handle updates, backups, security checks, and client reporting across many installs. The system uses a “MainWP Dashboard” WordPress site that connects to managed “child” sites via a companion plugin. Its differentiator is that the management console runs on the user’s own WordPress hosting rather than as a fully hosted SaaS service.
Self-hosted control model
MainWP runs as a WordPress site you host, which can fit organizations that prefer to keep administration data and credentials under their own infrastructure and policies. This model can reduce reliance on a third-party hosted control plane for day-to-day site management. It also allows teams to choose their own hosting, security tooling, and network controls around the dashboard. For some environments, this aligns better with internal compliance and data residency requirements than a hosted manager.
Centralized multi-site operations
MainWP provides a single interface to manage core, theme, and plugin updates across many WordPress sites. It supports common maintenance workflows such as uptime monitoring, backups (via extensions/integrations), and bulk administrative actions. This centralization helps standardize operational processes for agencies and managed service providers. It is designed for managing fleets of independent WordPress installs rather than only WordPress Multisite networks.
Extensible via add-ons
MainWP supports extensions to add capabilities such as client reporting, additional monitoring, and integrations with third-party services. This modular approach lets teams enable only the functions they need for their maintenance stack. It can also help tailor the dashboard to different service tiers for different clients. The add-on ecosystem provides flexibility compared with tools that offer a fixed feature set.
Requires hosting and upkeep
Because the dashboard is self-hosted, the user is responsible for securing, updating, and backing up the MainWP Dashboard site itself. Operational issues on the dashboard host (performance, downtime, misconfiguration) can affect management access to all connected sites. This adds overhead compared with fully hosted WordPress management platforms. Teams without WordPress administration capacity may find the self-hosted model less suitable.
Feature parity varies by extension
Some capabilities are delivered through paid extensions or third-party integrations rather than being fully included out of the box. This can make total cost and implementation scope dependent on the specific maintenance features required (e.g., reporting, backup tooling, monitoring depth). It may also introduce additional vendor dependencies for certain functions. Buyers typically need to validate which workflows are native versus extension-based.
Scaling depends on environment
Managing a large number of sites can require careful tuning of the dashboard hosting resources, cron/queue behavior, and WordPress/PHP configuration. Performance and reliability at scale depend on the quality of the hosting environment and how maintenance tasks are scheduled. Organizations may need to invest in monitoring and capacity planning for the dashboard. This is a different scaling profile than a hosted service where infrastructure scaling is handled by the provider.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Essentials (Free) | Free | All Free Add-ons; Any future free add-ons; Critical security & performance updates for free components; Community support; Manage unlimited sites. |
| MainWP Pro — Monthly | $29 per month (billed monthly) | Access to all 30+ existing Pro extensions and future Pro extensions; Critical security & performance updates for Pro extensions during subscription; Priority ticket support; Manage unlimited websites; 90-day upgrade credit to yearly/lifetime if upgraded within first 3 months; 30-day money-back guarantee. |
| MainWP Pro — Yearly | $199 per year (billed yearly) | Same Pro features as Monthly (all Pro extensions, updates, priority support); Manage unlimited websites; 30-day money-back guarantee. |
| MainWP Pro — Lifetime | $599 one-time | One-time payment; Access to all current and future Pro extensions; Lifetime updates (for extensions) and priority support; Manage unlimited websites; Always listed as the "best price" (no discounts). |
