Introducing MainWP’s Regression Testing Extension

We are excited to announce our newest monitoring solution: the Regression Testing Extension for MainWP. After carefully evaluating the real-world needs of WordPress professionals, we’ve developed this powerful solution for detecting unexpected changes across your client sites.

Managing a network of WordPress sites is like tending to diverse client gardens. Each site has its own ecosystem: WooCommerce stores, membership sites, and custom designs with unique requirements. When WordPress core updates arrive, plugins push new versions, or unexpected changes appear, you need to know exactly what shifted and why.

Why Source Code Comparison?

In the WordPress ecosystem, visual regression testing has become the standard approach for many SaaS monitoring tools. These services capture screenshots before and after updates and highlight visual differences. It’s flashy and looks impressive in demos.

However, based on feedback from WordPress professionals, we’ve taken a different approach with MainWP’s Regression Testing Extension. Instead of just comparing pixels, we compare the rendered source code of your sites, giving you the substance behind the visuals.

For WordPress professionals, the most critical changes often occur in the source code without visible symptoms. Our Regression Testing Extension detects:

• SEO-impacting modifications to meta tags and structured data markup
• Unexpected changes to inline JavaScript that could silently break functionality
• Subtle alterations to page structure that lead to those dreaded Monday morning client emails

By comparing the complete HTML output, our extension catches issues before they impact your clients’ sites or rankings, providing a clear diff view of exactly what changed.

Efficient Issue Management for Agencies

If you’re managing dozens of client sites, the last thing you need is another tool bombarding you with alerts. We get it. That’s why we designed MainWP’s Regression Testing with agency workflows in mind.

Our extension performs scans at key moments, after plugin, theme, or core updates when changes are most likely to occur. It captures a new snapshot of the site’s HTML output and compares it to the previous version, focusing on actual content and code modifications that truly require your attention.

When differences are detected, they’re highlighted in an intuitive diff view, with additions marked in green and deletions in red:

When a client calls asking what happened to their site after Tuesday’s update, you’ll have a clear record of every change to the rendered source. This documentation isn’t just helpful for troubleshooting; it’s invaluable for client reporting and transparency.

For your team, this means less time investigating issues and more time solving them. They get the specific details they need to quickly address issues across multiple sites in your network.

Scheduled Monitoring That Works For You

We built the Regression Testing Extension to fit your workflow, not the other way around.

The extension allows for automatic periodic checks using scheduled cron jobs. You control how often these checks happen – be it daily, weekly, or just after updates. These scheduled scans help detect gradual or unintended changes that might otherwise go unnoticed between manual inspections.

And of course, you can always trigger a manual comparison at any time through the MainWP Dashboard. This is particularly useful when making specific site changes and wanting to verify that only expected modifications occurred.

What Our HTML Monitoring Tracks

Unlike surface-level checks, our system provides granular visibility into critical elements:

• Text content: Ensures important messaging remains intact after updates
• HTML tags and attributes: Tracks changes that might impact layout, SEO, or functionality
• Form elements: Catches modified form attributes before your client’s customers do
• Inline styles: Detects unexpected styling changes within style tags
• JavaScript: Monitors changes to script tags embedded in your HTML

Technical Specifications

System Requirements

• The Regression Testing Extension follows standard MainWP system requirements
• No additional server specifications needed beyond MainWP Dashboard requirements
• Installation occurs only on your dashboard site, not on child sites

Performance Impact

• Minimal impact on dashboard performance
• No impact on child site performance as source code is grabbed remotely
• All processing and comparison work happens on the dashboard site
• Snapshots are stored on the dashboard site only, keeping client sites lean

Storage Considerations

• Average snapshot size for large sites (like MainWP.com): approximately 500KB per page
• Snapshots are stored efficiently on your dashboard site
• Users can exclude specific elements from snapshots to reduce size if needed
• No additional storage requirements on child sites

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the extension handle dynamic content like rotating testimonials or date-based elements?

The Regression Testing Extension examines the rendered source code of your site, so all elements that appear in the HTML will be included in the comparison. For most dynamic elements like testimonials or sliders, the HTML is fully rendered in the source code even if JavaScript controls their display. This means our tool can detect if any of these elements are broken or modified, providing an advantage over purely visual regression testing which might flag normal content rotation as an error.

Will this slow down my clients’ websites?

No. The Regression Testing Extension works entirely from your MainWP Dashboard, collecting rendered source code remotely without installing anything on client sites. There’s no impact on your clients’ site performance or loading times.

How often should I run regression tests?

The extension allows for flexible scheduling to match your workflow. Most agencies find it most valuable to run tests:

• After WordPress core updates
• After major plugin or theme updates
• Before and after making significant site changes
• On a weekly schedule for critical client sites

You can configure automatic scheduled testing or manually trigger tests as needed.

What if I have pages with constantly changing content?

For sites with highly dynamic content that changes regularly (like news sites or e-commerce stores with rotating inventory), you can:

• Focus testing on key template elements and structural components
• Use the exclusion feature to ignore specific areas of pages that are designed to change
• Adjust the sensitivity of change detection to focus only on significant modifications

How does this compare to visual regression testing services?

While visual testing compares screenshots pixel-by-pixel, our approach examines the actual HTML code that makes up your site. This allows us to detect structural changes, content modifications, and code alterations that might not be immediately visible but could impact functionality, SEO, or accessibility. It’s often more reliable for detecting meaningful changes while generating fewer false positives.

The Professional Choice for WordPress Management

Many solutions in the WordPress space offer visual regression testing with screenshot comparisons. At MainWP, we took a different path based on feedback from our user community of WordPress professionals.

Our focus is on tracking what truly matters: the structural integrity of your clients’ websites. The Regression Testing Extension provides insights into code and content changes, all within your existing MainWP workflow.

And the best part? Unlike SaaS solutions that charge per-site fees for regression testing, our extension works across your entire MainWP network without additional per-site costs. That’s the power of self-hosted tools built specifically for WordPress professionals.

Ready to experience smarter WordPress monitoring? Start using the Regression Testing Extension in MainWP today!