WordPress Multisite: Setting Up a Network with Subdirectories
Now that you’ve installed WordPress in the previous post, it’s time to take things a step further: you’ll learn how to turn a single WordPress installation into an entire network of multiple websites. This feature is called WordPress Multisite, and it’s especially useful if you manage several sites without wanting to set up a completely new WordPress installation, with its own updates and maintenance overhead, for each one.
In this WordPress network setup, we’re deliberately using subdirectories instead of subdomains – more on why that’s the more straightforward path for beginners in just a moment.
What Is WordPress Multisite, Exactly?
Normally, a WordPress installation manages exactly one website: one set of themes, plugins, and a database containing that single site’s content.
With WordPress Multisite, this changes fundamentally: a single installation can run multiple independent websites at the same time. Each of these websites has its own content, its own users, and its own settings – but shares core files, themes, and plugins with the other websites in the same network. This doesn’t just save disk space, it especially saves administrative effort: a WordPress update automatically updates all websites in the network at once, instead of you having to do it separately for each site.
Subdirectories or Subdomains – What’s the Difference?
When setting up a network, WordPress asks you whether the individual websites should be reachable via subdirectories (e.g., your-domain.com/site-two) or via subdomains (e.g., site-two.your-domain.com). The difference is by no means just cosmetic:
- Subdomains require a so-called wildcard DNS record (
*.your-domain.com), which you need to set up in advance with your domain’s DNS provider. Without this record, any new subdomain in the network simply won’t be reachable. - Subdirectories, on the other hand, don’t require any additional DNS configuration. WordPress itself handles routing requests to the right website in the network internally, via the .htaccess file.
For getting started – and especially if you plan to later map individual websites in the network to their own custom domains – subdirectories are the more straightforward and robust approach, since they don’t depend on any additional DNS setup.
Requirements for Setting Up a WordPress Network
- A working WordPress installation, ideally fresh and without already having numerous active plugins (Multisite can technically be added to an existing site later, but fewer legacy elements mean fewer potential sources of error).
- FTP or file manager access, to edit
wp-config.phpand.htaccess. - All plugins deactivated before you start the setup – Multisite changes fundamental structures in the database, and active plugins can briefly cause conflicts during this process.
- A current backup of your database and files. Converting to a network is a deep, structural change that usually goes smoothly, but is hard to undo if something goes wrong without a backup.
Activating WordPress Multisite
Step 1: Enable the Multisite Feature in wp-config.php
Open the wp-config.php file in the root directory of your installation and add the following line directly above the line /* That's all, stop editing! */:
define( 'WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true );
This constant only unlocks the network setup menu item in the backend – your network doesn’t exist yet at this point, you just get access to the next setup step.
Step 2: Open Network Setup in the Backend
Log in to the WordPress backend and go to Tools → Network Setup. There you’ll choose between subdomains and subdirectories – for our purposes, select “Sub-directories.” Also give your network a title, which will later organize all the websites together.
Step 3: Insert the Code Generated by WordPress
After confirming, WordPress shows you two code blocks that you need to manually insert into your files:
- A block for
wp-config.php(including, among other things, theMULTISITEconstant plus details about the network’s domain and path). - A block for
.htaccess(with adjusted rewrite rules that ensure requests to the subdirectories are correctly routed to the matching website in the network).
Insert both blocks exactly where WordPress specifies – the order within the files isn’t arbitrary here, it follows the internal logic WordPress uses to read the configuration.
Step 4: Log In Again
After saving both files, you’ll be automatically logged out. Log back in to the backend – you’ll now land on the new Network Dashboard, from which you can create and manage additional websites in your network.
Creating a New Website in the Network
In the Network Dashboard, under Sites → Add New Site, you’ll find the option to create additional websites. There you’ll set:
- the address (the directory name the website will be reachable under, e.g.,
/shopor/blog) - the site title
- the admin email address, which the responsible administrator will be notified at
Each newly created website automatically gets its own database tables within the same database – so each website’s content and settings stay strictly separated, even though everything technically lives in one shared database.
Common Issues When Setting Up a WordPress Network
Answer: This problem often occurs when the .htaccess rules weren’t inserted in the exact order WordPress specifies. Check whether a security plugin (such as Kadence Security) may have added its own rules before or after the Multisite block that overlap with the rewrite rules.
Answer: Usually, it helps to go to Settings → Permalinks in the Network Dashboard and simply save without changing anything – this rewrites the internal rewrite rules and resolves the issue in most cases.
Answer: Not every plugin is compatible with Multisite out of the box. Check the plugin description in the WordPress repository to see whether it explicitly states “Works with Multisite,” and after switching, activate plugins one at a time as a test instead of all at once.
Frequently Asked Questions About Setting Up a WordPress Network
Answer: Yes, that’s generally possible. However, it’s advisable to create a full backup first and ideally practice in a staging environment beforehand, since the conversion makes deep changes to the database structure.
Answer: With WordPress Multisite, all websites share a common installation, codebase, and database, but manage their content separately. With separate installations, each website is technically completely independent – including its own updates, its own database, and its own maintenance overhead.
Answer: No, that’s exactly the advantage of subdirectories: all websites initially run under subdirectories of the same main domain. Custom, individual domains for specific websites in the network can be set up later, if needed, via domain mapping.
Answer: There’s no fixed limit imposed by WordPress itself – the practical limit usually comes down to your server’s performance and the resources included in your hosting package.
Conclusion
With this WordPress network setup using subdirectories, you’ve now laid the foundation to manage multiple websites centrally through a single installation – without additional DNS configuration and with noticeably less maintenance effort than with separate installations. The Multisite network becomes especially useful once individual websites in the network are meant to be reachable under their own custom domain, instead of just a subdirectory of the main domain. That’s exactly where domain mapping comes in – more on that in one of the next posts in this series.
