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MainWP Free Features

Manage unlimited WordPress sites from your own server, with updates, backups, uptime checks, client tools and AI connections included at no cost.

MainWP is free for agencies, freelancers and developers who manage many WordPress sites. Over 20,000 MainWP Dashboards manage over 700,000 child sites, and MainWP has over 2,200 five-star reviews on WordPress.org.

The MainWP Dashboard and MainWP Child plugins are free on WordPress.org, open source under the GPL, and manage unlimited sites. You install the Dashboard plugin on a WordPress site you own and the Child plugin on each site you manage, so site and client data stays in your own database.

Over 10 free add-ons extend your MainWP Dashboard, and MainWP Pro adds over 30 premium add-ons when you need them.

Install MainWP free

Can MainWP update all my WordPress sites for free?

Yes. Your MainWP Dashboard lists every pending update across your sites on one screen, and runs them in bulk or one site at a time:

  • Update WordPress core, plugins, themes and translations on every child site, including premium plugins.
  • View updates by site, by plugin, by theme or by tag.
  • Open the History of any plugin or theme to see what changed, who changed it and when.
  • Turn on automatic updates for the plugins, themes and WordPress core you trust.
  • Ignore the updates you want to skip, on one site or on all of them, and spot abandoned plugins and themes.
  • Safe Updates keep the current version on hand during each update, so WordPress can roll it back on its own.
  • Have MainWP confirm each site has a recent backup before you update from Manage Sites.
  • Check each site’s HTTP response after an update and get the result by email.

See how it works in Manage Updates.

Can I manage plugins, users and content on all my sites from MainWP?

Yes. Your MainWP Dashboard handles the rest of the daily site work, without logging in to each site:

  • Log in to any child site’s WP Admin with one click, without typing a password.
  • Install, activate, deactivate and delete plugins and themes across your sites.
  • Create users, change roles, update administrator passwords and set a password policy across sites.
  • Publish, edit, unpublish and delete posts and pages on any site.
  • Organize sites with tags, keep notes, and import or export your site list.
  • Run security hardening checks on every site.

See how it works in Manage Child Sites.

Can MainWP back up WordPress sites for free?

Yes. Built-In Backups in your MainWP Dashboard back up and restore your child sites without a backup add-on or plugin:

  • Schedule full, database, files-only and incremental backups.
  • Keep backups on your Dashboard server or a local path, or send copies to S3-compatible storage, Google Cloud Storage, Dropbox or SFTP.
  • Encrypt backups and set how long to keep them.
  • Restore a site with a safety backup taken first, so you can roll back.
  • Test Restore rebuilds each site’s newest backup every week in a temporary database and folder on your MainWP Dashboard server, away from the live site.
  • Require a recent backup before updates run.

MainWP API Backups works with your host’s own backups on cPanel, Plesk, Kinsta, Cloudways, GridPane, Vultr, Akamai (Linode) and DigitalOcean. If you already use a backup plugin, free MainWP add-ons connect BackWPup, UpdraftPlus, WP Time Capsule and Solid Backups. Read the Built-In Backups guide.

Does MainWP include uptime monitoring?

Yes. Find out a site is down before your client does. Your MainWP Dashboard checks your sites itself, with no outside monitoring service:

  • Choose HTTP, Ping or Keyword monitors.
  • Check sites anywhere from every 5 minutes to once a day.
  • Get an email when a site goes down and when it comes back up.
  • Watch each site’s WordPress Site Health status with Site Health Monitoring.
  • Check that a site still responds after an update.

Set it up with the Uptime Monitoring guide.

Can I manage clients and costs in MainWP for free?

You know whose site it is and what it costs you, because MainWP keeps client profiles and costs next to the sites:

  • Create client profiles with contacts, notes and your own client fields.
  • Assign sites to clients, and suspend a client to suspend all of their sites.
  • Track recurring and one-time costs such as hosting, plugins and licenses with MainWP Cost Tracker.
  • Assign each cost to sites, clients or tags, and sort costs into your own categories.
  • See monthly and yearly totals in charts, and export them as SVG, PNG or CSV.
  • Import clients and costs from CSV.

Read about Clients and the Cost Tracker.

Can I manage MainWP with AI?

Yes. An AI assistant can tell you which sites need updates and run them once you approve. The MainWP Dashboard registers its operations with the WordPress Abilities API, so AI assistants and automation tools can find and run them. Everything runs on your own MainWP Dashboard, with credentials you create and can revoke.

  • MainWP MCP connects Claude, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, OpenAI Codex and other MCP-compatible assistants to your MainWP Dashboard. Ask “Which sites need updates?” or “Update all plugins on sites tagged ‘priority'”.
  • You stay in charge. The assistant proposes the work, and deletions and updates wait for your confirmation.
  • Knowledge saves your agency’s standards, client preferences and site notes in your MainWP Dashboard, so a connected assistant doesn’t need a fresh briefing every time.
  • Guided setup under MainWP > AI creates an Application Password and gives you the configuration for your AI tool.

MainWP MCP is free and open source, and runs on your own computer next to your AI tool. Nothing extra is installed on your Dashboard or child sites. Start with the MainWP MCP Server guide.

Can I automate MainWP without AI?

Scripts and cron jobs can do the routine work, and your browser toolbar shows what’s pending. MainWP gives you four ways to script or check on your MainWP Dashboard:

  • REST API: MainWP REST API v2 covers sites, clients, updates, costs, monitors, posts, pages, users and tags, with Bearer token authentication.
  • WP-CLI: wp mainwp commands sync sites and run updates from the command line.
  • MainWP Control: a free, open-source command-line tool for scripts, cron jobs and CI/CD pipelines.
  • MainWP Browser Extension: pending updates, Non-MainWP Changes and Cost Tracker totals in your browser toolbar, for Chrome and Chromium-based browsers such as Edge and Brave.

See the REST API, WP-CLI commands and Browser Extension docs.

How does MainWP show what changed on my sites?

See who changed what, and on which site. MainWP Network Activity records actions taken in your MainWP Dashboard and in each child site’s WP Admin. Filter the timeline by site, user, event and date, or show only Non-MainWP Changes: updates and edits someone made directly on a site instead of through MainWP. Dashboard Insights summarizes the same data. See Network Activity.

Can I customize my MainWP Dashboard?

The MainWP Dashboard runs on your own WordPress site, so you decide how it looks and what it does:

  • Switch between the Light and Dark themes, or upload your own CSS theme.
  • Show or hide widgets and rearrange the layout.
  • Change how MainWP behaves with over 1,000 hooks and filters.
  • Build your own add-ons, using the MainWP developer docs.
  • Add your own CSS, PHP and JavaScript with the free MainWP Custom Dashboard add-on.

Read the MainWP Dashboard themes guide.

Which MainWP add-ons are free?

Over 10 MainWP add-ons are free. Install them from your MainWP Dashboard under MainWP > Add-ons:

  • Security: MainWP Vulnerability Checker, which uses the free MainWP NVD API or WPScan; Jetpack Protect; Patchstack; and MainWP Sucuri for SiteCheck malware scans.
  • Backups: BackWPup, MainWP UpdraftPlus, MainWP Time Capsule and MainWP Solid Backups.
  • Dashboard tools: MainWP Custom Dashboard, MainWP Dashboard Lock to restrict who can reach your Dashboard site, and MainWP Early Access to test upcoming releases.
  • More: MainWP Advanced Uptime Monitor for external uptime services, and MainWP WooCommerce Shortcuts.

Browse the free add-ons.

What does MainWP Pro add?

MainWP Pro adds every premium MainWP add-on, over 30 of them, with priority support. It’s one flat plan, billed monthly, yearly or as a lifetime purchase, and the price doesn’t change with the number of sites you manage. Premium add-ons include MainWP Pro Reports for client reports, MainWP White Label, MainWP Team Control and MainWP Staging. Compare the free MainWP Core with MainWP Pro.

What do I need to run MainWP?

MainWP needs no separate server software. If you can install a WordPress plugin, you can run MainWP:

  • MainWP Dashboard: a WordPress site you own, ideally a dedicated install, with WordPress 6.2 or later and PHP 8.3 or later.
  • MainWP Child: PHP 7.4 or later on each managed site.
  • AI tools: WordPress 6.9 or later and HTTPS on your MainWP Dashboard.

Check the full system requirements.

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