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Im currently administering close to 20 separate wordpress installs and now Im at the point where I need to work out a plan going forward. As a sole operator, I just haven't had the chance to invest in this prior to now.

What Im considering is two approaches.

1) Run Wordpress in a Multi-site configuration. In this setup, Im assuming and from what I have read I will have one install on WP, plugins themes and each site that comes in uses the same database. That way I can simply update the one version of core and go from there.

2) Keep everything separate and get up to speed with WPRemote or ManageWP and manage the sites that way. This to me would fit best into my current situation and I would be able to slot it straight in.

I was hoping to get some advice form others that have gone down either route and how they found the practicality of each.

Thanks in advance.

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Each model has its own +/-'s. You need to choose which suits you better. – its_me Jul 8 '12 at 8:33

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As awesome as MultiSite can be, it's certainly not always the answer to this situation.

A first glance, you have the advantages of:

  1. One install (easy to upgrade)
  2. Easy to manage (with the help of the single sign-on plugin)
  3. Plugins & themes are shared - again, easy to maintain & upgrade

But in retrospect, these can equally work against you - since everything's "in it together", upgrading the core/plugins/themes might break individual sites (depending on their setup). There's no isolation like you would have with individual installs.

If you opted for a manager like WPRemote, you get the advantages of MultiSite's "central hub", but with the benefit of granular control.

Also weigh up the fact you'll need to migrate all your existing sites initially, which I'd argue would require some time to set up & ensure everything is working smoothly.

TL;DR: Go for WPRemote (or similar).

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Thanks for that,, after posting and doing some research that is the conclusion I came to aswell. After reading this post: managewp.com/managewp-compared-to-multisite I realise they are promoting there product though the article does do a good job of stating the facts... – 101phil Jul 8 '12 at 23:11
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I'd go with option two. Separate WordPress installs allow easier access to HTML/CSS theme editing. Additionally, I wouldn't want to constantly be making sure my domains are pointing to the correct directory (which I have had to deal with due to a shared host resetting everything).

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