Managing a WordPress Multisite network can be a lot of work, but when
you have the right tools at your disposal you can easily cut that time
in half. I thought it was time to write an updated post with some new
plugins for your multisite toolbox, most of which have been released
within the past couple of months.
Whether you’re new to running WordPress Multisite or have been hosting your own network for some time, you’re sure to find many of these plugins useful for managing your sites. Grab a cup of coffee and start installing your favorites.
Multisite Privacy is another one of those must-have plugins for WordPress
networks. It adds four more levels of privacy to site options and
allows you to control them across all blogs – or optionally to allow
users to override them. The new privacy options include: Allow any
registered users on the network to view site; Allow only subscribers or
users of the site to view it; Allow access to only administrators of the
site; or require a single password to access the site.
WordPress
3.3 comes with a fancy new welcome panel to guide users who are being
introduced to WordPress for the first time. Ordinarily it shows when new
sites are created. This plugin keeps the panel from showing for owners
and users of new sites on your WordPress Multisite network.
This
plugin gives you a widget that lets you display recent posts from
multiple blogs within your network, as well as choose how many posts you
want to display and change style easily. You can also optionally show
thumbnails and blog titles with the recent posts.
The
Network Plugin Auditor lets you track which plugins were used on which
sites. It adds columns to your network admin to show which sites are
using each plugin, saving you the trouble of having to visit every
dashboard to find out.
If
you need a way to communicate announcements to blog admins across your
network, this is the plugin for you. It enables you to post
notifications for blog admins that will be shown until they mark all
messages as read. Network super admins can view who has not read which
message yet and can delete notifications manually.
The
Multisite Plugin Manager is pretty much a must-have plugin for any
multisite network. Previously known as WPMU Plugin Manager, it lets you
change plugin permissions for sites across your network in one
centralized dashboard panel. One of the best features of this plugin is
the ability to mass activate or deactivate a plugin on all sites in your
network – something that will save you quite a bit of time from having
to do it manually.
New
Blog Templates will simplify your life if you find yourself frequently
setting up new sites on your network. It gives you the ability to create
a template, or multiple templates, and then duplicate every single
setting (content, theme, categories etc.) for every new blog that is
created, saving you a ton of time.
This
is another plugin for showing the latest posts across your network. You
can display the list using the built-in widget or a shortcode that you
can add to any page or post. You can select the number of posts, the
days to limit, and the option to show titles only.
This
is a very useful plugin that will check for inactive sites on your
network, according to the criteria that you set, and will automatically
hide them for you. After you set the parameters for the routine checks,
WP_Cron will kick in to update and hide the inactive sites.
Multisite
Privacy is another one of those must-have plugins for WordPress
networks. It adds four more levels of privacy to site options and allows
you to control them across all blogs – or optionally to allow users to
override them. The new privacy options include: Allow any registered
users on the network to view site; Allow only subscribers or users of
the site to view it; Allow access to only administrators of the site; or
require a single password to access the site.
This
is a maintenance mode plugin written specifically for use with
WordPress networks. It allows a super admin to put his entire network,
main site, or subsites into maintenance mode while displaying a
cusotmizable maintenance page.
Multisite
Dashboard Switcher lets multisite admins quickly switch between
dashboards while navigating around the network. It makes managing
settings across sites more convenient with fewer clicks required for
getting from one site to another.
This
is a simple plugin that shows plugin activations across all your sites.
It is particularly useful for checking to see which plugins are not
being used at all so that you can deactivate those as needed. You can
also find out which are the most popularly used plugins on your network.
This
plugin creates four separate RSS 2.0 feeds from posts, comments, pages,
and one combined [posts & pages] across all blogs on your site. It
will exclude the first comment and page of a blog, as well as private,
spam, mature and deleted blogs.
Avatar
Privacy gives you more options when working with Gravatars on your
site. It lets users and commenters opt in or out of using Gravatars and
it doesn’t publish encrypted E-Mail addresses for non-members of
gravatar.com. You also have the option to use default avatar images
hosted on your server rather than gravatar.com.
This
plugin puts in place process for registration moderation. Potential new
site owners can request registration through a form embedded via a
shortcode. Then they must be granted access by the blog admin and then
the super admin before receiving login information.
This
plugin provides a lightweight XML sitemap generator with an easy-to-use
interface. It works perfectly with WordPress multisite, giving each
blog in the network its own unique sitemap.
Visual
Editor Biography adds a TinyMCE visual editor to the “Biographical
Info” profile field. This helps blog authors to more easily enter
information about themselves with the ability to easily add links,
paragraphs, etc.
Hyper
Admins simplifies administration tasks for super-admins. Specifically,
it makes two things more convenient: view any theme on any site without
enabling it and
access any site through Admin Bar -> My Sites, without having a role on it.
This
is a super useful plugin for adding new existing to blogs. It adds
autocomplete to Dashboard > Users > Add New > Add Existing
User, which makes this process a breeze.
This
plugin makes use of the WordPress Logging Service to log basic events
in the network, including user profile update, emails sent by WordPress,
logging in, password resets, activated blogs, and much more.
This
is a simple plugin that makes your WordPress blog private unless the
user is logged in. You can also set a minium user level.
This
is a cool widget that lets multisite blogs feature recent images from
all the blogs on the network. It was written to be highly optimized for
performance and scalable for large networks. The plugin grabs images
attached to posts and excludes blogs that have privacy options enabled.
This
plugin gives admins the ability to bulk add WordPress user
registrations using a range of tools available as an extra admin page
under your Users tab. You can add new users using manual input, CSV and
email data, or by adding existing users from a Multisite Network.
User
Switching is for blog admins. It lets you quickly switch between user
accounts in WordPress at the click of a button. This is very useful for
when you are performing tests and have to log in and out with different
accounts. This plugin handles the user switch instantly. It’s secure and
even works with BuddyPress.
Whether you’re new to running WordPress Multisite or have been hosting your own network for some time, you’re sure to find many of these plugins useful for managing your sites. Grab a cup of coffee and start installing your favorites.
Multisite Privacy Plugin
Multisite Privacy is another one of those must-have plugins for WordPress
networks. It adds four more levels of privacy to site options and
allows you to control them across all blogs – or optionally to allow
users to override them. The new privacy options include: Allow any
registered users on the network to view site; Allow only subscribers or
users of the site to view it; Allow access to only administrators of the
site; or require a single password to access the site.Download Plugin
Hide Welcome Panel for Multisite
WordPress
3.3 comes with a fancy new welcome panel to guide users who are being
introduced to WordPress for the first time. Ordinarily it shows when new
sites are created. This plugin keeps the panel from showing for owners
and users of new sites on your WordPress Multisite network.Download Plugin
WP Recent Network Posts
This
plugin gives you a widget that lets you display recent posts from
multiple blogs within your network, as well as choose how many posts you
want to display and change style easily. You can also optionally show
thumbnails and blog titles with the recent posts.Download Plugin
Network Plugin Auditor
The
Network Plugin Auditor lets you track which plugins were used on which
sites. It adds columns to your network admin to show which sites are
using each plugin, saving you the trouble of having to visit every
dashboard to find out.Download Plugin
Organizational Message Notifier
If
you need a way to communicate announcements to blog admins across your
network, this is the plugin for you. It enables you to post
notifications for blog admins that will be shown until they mark all
messages as read. Network super admins can view who has not read which
message yet and can delete notifications manually.Download Plugin
Multisite Plugin Manager
The
Multisite Plugin Manager is pretty much a must-have plugin for any
multisite network. Previously known as WPMU Plugin Manager, it lets you
change plugin permissions for sites across your network in one
centralized dashboard panel. One of the best features of this plugin is
the ability to mass activate or deactivate a plugin on all sites in your
network – something that will save you quite a bit of time from having
to do it manually.Download Plugin
New Blog Templates
New
Blog Templates will simplify your life if you find yourself frequently
setting up new sites on your network. It gives you the ability to create
a template, or multiple templates, and then duplicate every single
setting (content, theme, categories etc.) for every new blog that is
created, saving you a ton of time.Download Plugin
Network Latest Posts
This
is another plugin for showing the latest posts across your network. You
can display the list using the built-in widget or a shortcode that you
can add to any page or post. You can select the number of posts, the
days to limit, and the option to show titles only.Download Plugin
Hide Inactive Sites
This
is a very useful plugin that will check for inactive sites on your
network, according to the criteria that you set, and will automatically
hide them for you. After you set the parameters for the routine checks,
WP_Cron will kick in to update and hide the inactive sites.Download Plugin
Multisite Privacy Plugin
Multisite
Privacy is another one of those must-have plugins for WordPress
networks. It adds four more levels of privacy to site options and allows
you to control them across all blogs – or optionally to allow users to
override them. The new privacy options include: Allow any registered
users on the network to view site; Allow only subscribers or users of
the site to view it; Allow access to only administrators of the site; or
require a single password to access the site.Download Plugin
WPMS Site Maintenance
This
is a maintenance mode plugin written specifically for use with
WordPress networks. It allows a super admin to put his entire network,
main site, or subsites into maintenance mode while displaying a
cusotmizable maintenance page.Download Plugin
Multisite Dashboard Switcher
Multisite
Dashboard Switcher lets multisite admins quickly switch between
dashboards while navigating around the network. It makes managing
settings across sites more convenient with fewer clicks required for
getting from one site to another.Download Plugin
Multisite Plugin Stats
This
is a simple plugin that shows plugin activations across all your sites.
It is particularly useful for checking to see which plugins are not
being used at all so that you can deactivate those as needed. You can
also find out which are the most popularly used plugins on your network.Download Plugin
Ada WPMS Sitewide Feed
This
plugin creates four separate RSS 2.0 feeds from posts, comments, pages,
and one combined [posts & pages] across all blogs on your site. It
will exclude the first comment and page of a blog, as well as private,
spam, mature and deleted blogs.Download Plugin
Avatar Privacy
Avatar
Privacy gives you more options when working with Gravatars on your
site. It lets users and commenters opt in or out of using Gravatars and
it doesn’t publish encrypted E-Mail addresses for non-members of
gravatar.com. You also have the option to use default avatar images
hosted on your server rather than gravatar.com.Download Plugin
Multisite User Registration Manager
This
plugin puts in place process for registration moderation. Potential new
site owners can request registration through a form embedded via a
shortcode. Then they must be granted access by the blog admin and then
the super admin before receiving login information.Download Plugin
RPS Sitemap Generator
This
plugin provides a lightweight XML sitemap generator with an easy-to-use
interface. It works perfectly with WordPress multisite, giving each
blog in the network its own unique sitemap.Download Plugin
Visual Editor Biography
Visual
Editor Biography adds a TinyMCE visual editor to the “Biographical
Info” profile field. This helps blog authors to more easily enter
information about themselves with the ability to easily add links,
paragraphs, etc.Download Plugin
Hyper Admins
Hyper
Admins simplifies administration tasks for super-admins. Specifically,
it makes two things more convenient: view any theme on any site without
enabling it andaccess any site through Admin Bar -> My Sites, without having a role on it.
Download Plugin
Add User Autocomplete
This
is a super useful plugin for adding new existing to blogs. It adds
autocomplete to Dashboard > Users > Add New > Add Existing
User, which makes this process a breeze.Download Plugin
Superadmin Helper
This
plugin makes use of the WordPress Logging Service to log basic events
in the network, including user profile update, emails sent by WordPress,
logging in, password resets, activated blogs, and much more.Download Plugin
Force User Login Multisite
This
is a simple plugin that makes your WordPress blog private unless the
user is logged in. You can also set a minium user level.Download Plugin
Sitewide Recent Images
This
is a cool widget that lets multisite blogs feature recent images from
all the blogs on the network. It was written to be highly optimized for
performance and scalable for large networks. The plugin grabs images
attached to posts and excludes blogs that have privacy options enabled.Download Plugin
Add Multiple Users to WordPress
This
plugin gives admins the ability to bulk add WordPress user
registrations using a range of tools available as an extra admin page
under your Users tab. You can add new users using manual input, CSV and
email data, or by adding existing users from a Multisite Network.Download Plugin
User Switching
User
Switching is for blog admins. It lets you quickly switch between user
accounts in WordPress at the click of a button. This is very useful for
when you are performing tests and have to log in and out with different
accounts. This plugin handles the user switch instantly. It’s secure and
even works with BuddyPress.