Title: Do I need Multisite ? Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # Do I need Multisite ? * Resolved [Nessdufrat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nessdufrat/) * (@nessdufrat) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/) * Hi! I tried reading the install steps about WordPress multisite. I’m not sure I need it or that it will work for what I want to do with it. I have a website, which is currently running an outdated version of DotClear (another CMS), and a subdomain of this website, running WordPress. What I’d like to do is use WordPress for both, but be able to update both of them from the same admin page. I’d like them to share the same database, etc., so that I don’t end up with two identical installations of wordpress on my server. Is multisite the way to go ? Will it work with : [http://www.mydomain.com](http://www.mydomain.com) and [http://sub.mydomain.com](http://sub.mydomain.com), or do I need to make two subdomains ? Of course, both sites will be very different in term of design and functionalities… I have absolutely no experience or real knowledge of multisite, so I thought I would ask here, before starting to work on something that might not be suited to me needs. Thanks a lot ! Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/page/2/?output_format=md) * [fitgirll](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fitgirll/) * (@fitgirll) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283461) * I am not sure of other options available to you but you can use multisite for this purpose. If you have wordpress in a subdomain, then setup your multisite network to show additional wordpress sites as subdomains and multisite will automatically pick up that subdomain. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283491) * > but be able to update both of them from the same admin page * Kinda sorta yes no. * You get an admin page per site. domain.com/wp-admin and sub.domain.com/wp-admin 🙂 They’re separated, and you’re running two separate sites, but they share a DB (not tables, though, so content is 100% separate). * I would use WordPress MultiSite for this 🙂 * Thread Starter [Nessdufrat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nessdufrat/) * (@nessdufrat) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283513) * Ok. So my point was having the same tables for both. Like with an additional id, that would tell WP which post belonged to which website. How would it be different to installing WP twice on the database ? I was specifically looking for a way to have both sites content in the same tables. Here, the only advantage would be that the WP files aren’t installed twice on the server, I guess. If there a way to do what I want ? Maybe twicking around WP ? Like adding a “field” to tell it where the post should appear ? (but I guess then it would be a real mess with the comments…) I wanted to link an example of an awesome website I discovered many years ago, it was white on the left side, black on the right side, and both sides were displaying posts, if I remember correctly the right side was for more personal posts, and the left side was for the others. I always wondered how the guy was able to do it, like not only display different categories on either side, but to have like two different blogs, each with their categories, archives, etc. I couldn’t find it anywhere, I’ll look tomorrow on the bookmarks I have on my other computer. So my guess is I could do something like that, except I don’t want both “threads” to display on one page, but on two different domains( yeah, one is a subdomain, but I think the problem would be the same). * If this is not possible, then is there any other advantage than not having the files twice on the server for a wordpress multisites vs two wordpress installs? * EDIT : I could think of anything else, so I went to the PC and here is the website I was talking about : [http://www.denk-licht.de/](http://www.denk-licht.de/) BTW, even if it’s not totally relevant, can somebody tell me if I was right about assigning a specific id / category to the posts to have them either on the right side or on the left side ? This has been bugging me forever since I discovered the website… I know it’s not WordPress, but I guess it would be the same kind of thing with any CMS. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283573) * > Ok. So my point was having the same tables for both. Like with an additional > id, that would tell WP which post belonged to which website. > How would it > be different to installing WP twice on the database ? * WordPress uses separate tables wp_X_posts etc etc but the same database. You don’t need to use the same tables, unless you need to share post data between sites. * It’s different than installing WP twice because you have ONE place to upgrade themes, plugins and core files. And one user ID for both sites. * That’s all. * You could totally do [http://www.denk-licht.de/](http://www.denk-licht.de/) with MultiSite, too, OR simple categories. He’s not using WP there, but it could be done. The layout is just a theme. You determine what you want on each site and tweak the code. My answer is vague because the details depend on your theme. * [freeriders](https://wordpress.org/support/users/freeriders/) * (@freeriders) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283588) * Ipstenu * the [http://www.denk-licht.de](http://www.denk-licht.de) gave me an idea for a friend of has 2 blogs on the same site.. so far it is 2 main cats with sub cats, but will totally revamp the site * was thinking of doing it with 2 differents custom post type and then dedicated taxonomies and dedicated custom fields on each ‘blog’ part * then I will have a list page with 2 different wp query to list each blog posts side by side * what do you think? * any idea if I will face trouble for the pagination part? * like when I want to be on page 2 of the twin listings? * Thank you for your expertise * Steffy * Thread Starter [Nessdufrat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nessdufrat/) * (@nessdufrat) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283611) * Actually, I wanted to share datas between the same sites… Like the same link page, common posts sometimes, etc. So it would be possible to have something like denklicther with wordpress ? It would require quite a lot of tweaking, no? So no need to have a custom field ? It would be a great way to do it, no ? Maybe easier than assigning specific categories and everything. This way, you could still share categories between the two sides, without having to duplicate them if you want to use the same ones. Not sure I’m being too clear, here, I’m not good at explaining things… * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283626) * > Actually, I wanted to share datas between the same sites… Like the same link > page, common posts sometimes, etc. * You can still do that with Multisite. You don’t NEED it, of course, but you CAN. It’s just a matter of understanding what you’re getting into 🙂 * _MultiSite_ * Two separate sites, one for posts about Foo, one about Bar. Separate admin sides, separate themes. One place to upgrade. Allows for multiple users to login, and have different permissions per-site easily. Crossposting between sites can be done via plugins. You can use the same ‘links’ page, just by linking to the one you want to use. * _Single Site_ * One site, separated by categories (or Custom Post Types). One ‘link’ page. If you use CPTs, you can’t easily ‘share’ a post between the two, but with Categories you can 🙂 * If you’re good with CPTs (heads up **freeriders **😉 I didn’t forget you), I’d probably do that, since if you don’t NEED separate sites, you really don’t need to mess with MultiSite. It does make things more complicated. * CPTs with multiple loops is nice because you get a clean permalink: domain.com/ cpt1 and domain.com/cpt2 – I do that on one site, instead of messing about with a second full blown site for my videos. * Thread Starter [Nessdufrat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nessdufrat/) * (@nessdufrat) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283630) * Ok… So with a single WP install, I could have posts at : blog.mydomain.com as well as at mydomain.com ? No problem with the subdomain ? * On one website, I’ll need at least 5 different “threads” of posts. They can be assimilated to categories, I guess, but need to be on different pages (still the same site, though). On the subdomain website, all posts will be at the same place, but there will be different categories. Is it doable ? * (sorry to ask that many questions, but I prefer to be sure before trying to code it and having it not to work after a month spending all my time on it) * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283650) * > Ok… So with a single WP install, I could have posts at : blog.mydomain.com > as well as at mydomain.com ? No problem with the subdomain ? * Not easily (I heard someone else did that, but I’ve no idea how). * [freeriders](https://wordpress.org/support/users/freeriders/) * (@freeriders) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283653) * Thank you Ipstenu.. I will go for CPT for videos too.. and for photogallery too I think.. but I was just making sure that it was wise to use for them for a ‘ faux’ blog one , blog 2 thank you again for your assistance * Thread Starter [Nessdufrat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nessdufrat/) * (@nessdufrat) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283661) * Ok… pffff… So I guess I’ll have to go with multisite to achieve what I want. It’s no problem that one site will be on the “root” of the domain and another on a subdomain ? * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283665) * No problem at all. * [freeriders](https://wordpress.org/support/users/freeriders/) * (@freeriders) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283667) * NessduFrat * it is VERY easy to go with multisite.. very smooth and a time saver for updates.. * thank you for the denk link, it gave me some ideas, I guess I will implement the dual blog for a friend’s project.. but I will go the CPT route since I have no subdomaine needs.. * Thread Starter [Nessdufrat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nessdufrat/) * (@nessdufrat) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283669) * Ok, thank you both ! I’ll look into it, and surely I’ll come back here and cry for help because I’ll be stuck somewhere with a huge server error and I won’t know what to do ^^ And yeah, the denklichter site is really awesome, and I must say I once was very tempted to do something similar, just for fun (because I don’t need it at all). I’ll have to go the CPT route as well, even with multisite, because I’ll need different “threads” of posts on different places in the same site… but this is ok, I’ve done it before, it’s not really complicated. However, when I was wondering about multisite, I tried reading the install steps, and I felt like closing the computer and going for a walk : too complicated ! I guess once I’m in the process of installing it, it’ll all become clearer, but to read it all at once was a bit scary 🙂 * Thread Starter [Nessdufrat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nessdufrat/) * (@nessdufrat) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/#post-2283679) * Oh, another question… A friend has a client who would like him to create three websites, all on different domain names, but hosted on the same server. Would WordPress multisite work for that, or does it have to be the same domain name? Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Do I need Multisite ?’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/) * 17 replies * 4 participants * Last reply from: [Nessdufrat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nessdufrat/) * Last activity: [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/do-i-need-multisite/page/2/#post-2283681) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics