MainWP Core vs Pro
MainWP Core is the free, open-source MainWP Dashboard and MainWP Child plugins. Core manages unlimited sites with no time limit and includes updates, backups, uptime monitoring, client and cost tracking, and AI connections through MainWP MCP. MainWP Pro is one flat plan that adds every premium MainWP add-on, over 30 of them, plus priority support.
Over 20,000 MainWP Dashboards manage over 700,000 child sites, and MainWP has over 2,200 five-star reviews on WordPress.org.
MainWP Core vs Pro at a glance
| Feature | MainWP Core (Free) | MainWP Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Number of sites | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Premium MainWP add-ons, over 30 | No | Yes |
| Priority support | No | Yes |
| Price | Free | See MainWP Pro pricing |
| Updates for WordPress core, plugins, themes and translations | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in backups and restores | Yes | Yes |
| Uptime monitoring with email alerts | Yes | Yes |
| Client profiles and cost tracking | Yes | Yes |
| AI assistants through MainWP MCP | Yes | Yes |
| Free add-ons, over 10 | Yes | Yes |
MainWP Pro uses the same Dashboard and includes every Core feature.
What does MainWP Pro add?
MainWP Pro adds every premium MainWP add-on, over 30 of them, with their updates and priority support. New premium add-ons are included as they’re released.
| Area | What MainWP Pro adds |
|---|---|
| Clients and teams | Client reports with MainWP Pro Reports, your branding on MainWP Child with MainWP White Label, team roles with MainWP Team Control, time tracking with MainWP Time Tracker, expiry reminders with MainWP Cost Tracker Assistant, and client collaboration with Atarim |
| Backups and staging | Staging and cloning with MainWP Staging and MainWP Clone, plus Pressable hosting tools |
| Security | Wordfence and Solid Security settings, plus Jetpack Scan and Virusdie scans |
| Monitoring | SSL and domain expiry alerts with MainWP SSL Monitor and MainWP Domain Monitor, code change detection with MainWP Regression Testing, and Google Analytics, Matomo, Fathom, Google Search Console and Google Lighthouse data |
| Performance and maintenance | WP Rocket settings, cache purging after updates with MainWP Cache Control, database cleanup with MainWP Maintenance, database updates for WooCommerce and Elementor with MainWP Database Updater, bulk settings with MainWP Bulk Settings Manager, and favorite plugins and themes with MainWP Favorites |
| Content and SEO | Yoast SEO settings, bulk file uploads, post and page imports, URL extraction, comment management, scheduled posts, randomized post meta data, repeated pages with MainWP Boilerplate, and code snippets and custom post types across sites |
| WooCommerce | Sales and order status for every store with MainWP WooCommerce Status |
| Support | Priority support |
What can you do with MainWP for free?
Everything below is available for free and also works with MainWP Pro. “Built in” means it’s part of your MainWP Dashboard. “Free add-on” means a free plugin you install from MainWP > Add-ons. “Free tool” means it runs outside your Dashboard, on your computer or in your browser.
Basics
- Unlimited sites (built in)
- Self-hosted and open source, with your data on your own server (built in)
- One-click login to every child site (built in)
- Updates for WordPress core, plugins, themes and translations, including automatic updates and abandoned plugin checks (built in)
- Manage plugins, themes, users, posts and pages across sites (built in)
- Light and Dark themes and a widget layout you control (built in)
- Your own CSS, PHP and JavaScript with MainWP Custom Dashboard (free add-on)
- Limit access to your Dashboard with MainWP Dashboard Lock (free add-on)
- Test upcoming MainWP releases with MainWP Early Access (free add-on)
- Support by ticket, community and the WordPress.org forum
AI and automation
- MainWP MCP for Claude, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, OpenAI Codex and other AI assistants (free tool)
- WordPress Abilities API support and Knowledge for AI assistants (built in)
- REST API and WP-CLI (built in)
- MainWP Control command-line tool (free tool)
- MainWP Browser Extension (free tool)
Backups
- Built-In Backups to your server, S3-compatible storage, Google Cloud Storage, Dropbox, pCloud or SFTP (built in)
- Your host’s own backups on cPanel, Plesk, Kinsta, Cloudways, GridPane, Vultr, Akamai (Linode) and DigitalOcean with MainWP API Backups (built in)
- BackWPup, UpdraftPlus, WP Time Capsule, Solid Backups and WPvivid (free add-ons)
Security
- Security hardening checks (built in)
- Vulnerability scans with MainWP Vulnerability Checker, Jetpack Protect and Patchstack (free add-ons)
- Malware scans and hardening with MainWP Sucuri and Security Ninja (free add-ons)
Monitoring
- Uptime monitoring with email alerts, plus Site Health monitoring (built in)
- Network Activity, including changes made outside MainWP (built in)
- Uptime Robot, NodePing, Site24x7 and Better Uptime with MainWP Advanced Uptime Monitor (free add-on)
- WP Activity Log settings (free add-on)
Clients and costs
- Client profiles with custom fields, and sites assigned to clients (built in)
- Cost Tracker for hosting, plugin and license costs (built in)
Performance, content and WooCommerce
- WP Compress settings (free add-on)
- SEOPress and Termageddon settings (free add-ons)
- WooCommerce shortcuts with MainWP WooCommerce Shortcuts (free add-on)
Is MainWP Core limited?
MainWP Core is free for unlimited sites, with no time limit. The MainWP Dashboard and MainWP Child plugins stay free, and they include updates, backups, uptime monitoring, client and cost tracking, Network Activity, the REST API and WP-CLI, with AI connections through the free MainWP MCP. MainWP Pro adds premium add-ons for specific jobs such as client reports, white labeling, team access and staging. See everything the free version does on MainWP Core Features.
How is MainWP Pro priced?
MainWP Pro is one flat plan, billed monthly, yearly or as a lifetime purchase. The price doesn’t change with the number of sites you manage, and both MainWP Core and MainWP Pro manage unlimited sites. See current prices on the MainWP Pro sign-up page.
Are third-party add-ons part of MainWP Pro?
No. Third-party add-ons such as Security Ninja, WPvivid, WP Activity Log, SEOPress and Termageddon are built and supported by their own developers, and the ones named here are free. MainWP Pro covers the add-ons MainWP builds, including MainWP’s own integrations for tools such as Wordfence, WP Rocket and Yoast SEO.
Can I start with MainWP Core and upgrade later?
Yes. MainWP Pro add-ons install into your existing MainWP Dashboard, so your sites, clients and settings stay where they are. Connect your Dashboard with the API key from your MainWP account to install premium add-ons and get their updates.