Multisite: Introduction

Multsite on WPCloud Deploy is a bit different from other hosting platforms. Depending on the type of Multisite you need and the type of SSL certificate you’ll be employing, the workflow can be quite different.

So, we suggest that you read through this entire Multisite documentation section before activating multisite on your WordPress instance.

Terminology Notes

In this documentation we use the term SUBSITE or CHILD SITE to refer to a site on the Multisite network. This helps to avoid confusion over whether we’re talking about the main network site or a site on the network.

Multisite Types & Options

There are three types of Multisites in WPCD, two related to subdomains and one related to subdirectories.

Option #1: Subdirectories

This is the simplest Multisite option but it is only supported in WPCD 4.6.0 and later. With this option you only need to set up SSL once for the main site and all the other sub-sites will be protected. And, there are no other steps to configure new subsites – unlike the other two options below.

Oh, and subdirectories do not support mapped domains.

Option #2: Subdomains – Individual SSL

With this option your subsites can be accessed using a URL such as subdomain.mymaindomain.com.

When you select this option you will need to do two things for each subsite:

Set up each subsite under the WPCD Multisite screen – this setup process creates the NGINX (webserver) configuration files that redirects traffic to the subsite.
Set up SSL for the subdomain using the SSL options under the WPCD Multisite screen.

This option supports mapped domains.

Option #3: Subdomains – Wildcard SSL

With this option you only need to configure the SSL certificate once. But because of security concerns with wildcard certificates, it requires specialized support for each domain provider. We only support CLOUDFLARE at this time. If your domain cannot be transferred to CloudFlare’s nameservers then you will not be able to set up Wildcard SSL in WPCD.

Once you have issued the SSL wildcard certificate, all further subdomains are automatically protected with it.