Manage multiple WordPress sites from one dashboard: The Ultimate Guide for 2023

Without configuration, you can achieve this with Staq!

Staq is a Software as a Service (SaaS) WordPress Hosting platform that is built on 4 main pillars:

• speed, performance and scalability
• deployment
• management
• server tools

In today’s blog, it’s all about managing multiple WordPress sites from one dashboard.

Let’s begin with the awesome tools that Staq has built to help you manage multiple WordPress in one centralized platform.

History

When Staq was in the process of building its technology and platform, the founders took the time to interview as many digital agencies and web developers as possible. Personally, the founders of Staq also operated a digital agency and they found it difficult to better manage and scale their agency because there was a lack of tools at the time.

After meeting with many digital agencies and developers, a recurring issue and question kept coming up; and that was how to manage multiple websites on one WordPress dashboard.

After identifying the issues, the founders of Staq saw an opportunity to create an all-in-one solution to address the needs of digital agencies and web developers.

Staq was born.

Management Tools

In summary, Staq had developed many management tools in a central dashboard. They are summarized below.

Create a WordPress site

Within 60 seconds, you can easily create and deploy a brand new WordPress site on Staq which is then created on Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers in your selected region:

Migrate an existing WP site

Alternatively, you can easily migrate an existing WordPress website to Staq by using the Staq Migrator plugin. With a few clicks, you can automatically migrate a website across:

View multiple WordPress sites in one dashboard

In the Websites table, you can view all your WordPress websites in one central dashboard:

Monitoring

In the same Website table where you view all your WordPress websites, it also includes a real-time monitoring service so you can see the health of each website which includes the State, Status, CDN, Cache and SSL health:

Passwords

No need to manage passwords from a spreadsheet. With Staq, it is all centralized in one spot and you can even reset passwords as well for each website:

Bulk Website Reset Credentials

Alternatively, there are times that you need to desperately change all passwords quickly. So there’s a built-in feature that allows you to reset passwords in one click (limited to the username that is connected to the Staq account only):

Go Live

The Staq Go Live process is a hand-held experience that should allow you to take a website live in or around 2 minutes. It handles everything from DNS migration (optional), SSL generation and deployment, automatically changing database entries from the staging link to the production link and everything in between to make the website live:

Global Plugins & Themes

A repository that allows you to upload all plugins and themes in one spot. If a website has a Global Plugin installed, this allows for easy management so that if you add or update a Global Plugin, it automatically rolls out on all sites.

This is optional but you have the ability to select a Global Plugin or Theme as a “Must-Use” which means that on all existing websites plus any future websites, this plugin is installed and it cannot be turned off.

Must-Use plugins/theme also means that they are installed automatically upon a new website or migrated website.

Website Plugins & Themes

You may want to install a specific plugin or theme on a particular website. That means you install that plugin directly inside the website in Staq Panel (or directly inside WordPress and it’ll sync into the Staq dashboard):

Backups

Backups occur automatically out-of-the-box with Staq. Every 6 hours, database backups are taken automatically and are stored in AWS S3 buckets (away from the server). Then, any images, files or plugin/theme changes are also backed up on a regular basis into AWS S3 buckets.

The database backups have a 1-click restore function:

Cache

You can easily clear the cache of a website that uses Staq Cache or WP Rocket inside the Staq interface, including clearing the cache for age builders such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, Oxygen Builder or Divi.

Bulk Purge WP-Cache

In the event that you need to clear the cache for all your websites on Staq, you can do this at scale with one click:

DNS Management

Powered by AWS Route53, you can manage all your DNS entries for all your client sites in one dashboard. Staq has a DNS migration tool that will migrate DNS entries across (subject to your review) and you can then deploy the AWS Name Servers across your domain.

At any time, you can delete, edit or add DNS entries inside Staq:

CDN

Staq offers one-click CDN deployment.

The first CDN solution is a Traditional CDN option where it just offloads assets to the CDN.

The second option revolutionizes WordPress performance by caching the entire website in the CDN so that it bypasses the server. This is called Staq Next-Gen CDN:

Redirects

Manage all your server redirects inside Staq. Avoid using a WordPress plugin:

SSL

Staq automatically deploys and renews SSL certificates so that you don’t have to manage this tedious task.

User Activity

Track all Staq users inside the Staq interface and record what actions and processes they perform for traceability and transparency for each particular website:

Billing

Assign your Stripe account, create custom plans, assign to your client and automatically each month, Staq will issue a white-label invoice on your behalf with your company details, collect payment 24 hours later and issue a receipt upon successful payment. Staq calculates both base rates and any excess charges.

See reports on how you’re tracking with financial insights and profit from your hosting endeavors.

Global WP Config

Do you have values that you insert into each website via the wp-config.php file? That is a thing of the past with Staq where you enter it inside the Global WP Config and it then applies it to all existing and new websites moving forward.

Global SMTP Mailer

Apply a global SMTP mailer settings so that all sites have an SMTP service by default. This allows for a fallback SMTP service just in case you forget.

SMTP 

Override the Global SMTP Mailer settings and apply the specific SMTP service for a particular website.

Search Website Plugins

Do you need to search to see if your websites have a particular plugin after a vulnerability was announced? With Staq, it searches all your plugins inside each website and tells you if it is a Website Plugin, a Global Plugin and the version so that you can take action.

Search Website Themes

Do you need to search to see if your websites have a particular theme after a vulnerability was announced? With Staq, it searches all your themes inside each website and tells you if it is a Website Theme, a Global Theme and the version so that you can take action.

Staq allows you to better manage your WordPress websites and manage multiple WordPress websites from one dashboard with ease.