The Microsite Metropolis
What fresh hell is this?
The Microsite Metropolis is a proof of concept I built, to test Multitenancy in WordPress
i.e hosting multiple websites off of a single WordPress installation.
Why
One major benefit is efficient resource usage. For the most part 1 website = 1 WordPress installation.
We could run a WordPress Multi-site Network but this has it’s own set of complications, limitations and drawbacks.
So our goal is to emulate a Multi-site Network on a standard WordPress installation by using some fancy plugins.
By doing this, we can have all these sites share the same media library, WP core files and plugins, whereby reducing the overhead if each site had it’s own WP Core files and plugins.
Another benefit is the shared media library, if you create a lot of brochure style website in a specific niche, you could re-purpose images across your network and save yourself some design hassle.
You can see it in action here – https://micrositemetropolis.co.za/
At the time of writing there are 13 websites inhabiting the Metropolis.
If you want to add your site to the Metropolis, hit me up!
There are no affiliate links here. These are just tools we love and recommend.
Ingredients: The Tech Stack
Server:
Domains.co.za Epyc VPS 4 – https://www.domains.co.za/vps-hosting
Domain:
micrositemetropolis.co.za
From Lexsynergy.com – Domain registrar
DNS:
DNS Made Easy – dnsmadeeasy.com
Hosting Panel:
GridPane Developer License – gridpane.com
Tech Stack:
LEMP stack optimised for WordPress
CMS:
WordPress 5.5 – wordpress.org
Up-time and Server Monitoring:
Better Uptime – betteruptime.com
Uptime360 – uptime360.net
Ingredients: The Plugin / App Stack
WordPress Theme:
Kadence – kadencewp.com
Plugins:
Elementor + Pro – page builder
Style Kits Pro – Individual page styles
JetEngine – Custom post types
WP Landing Kit – Domain mapping
Gravity Forms – Form builder
MailPoet – Email Campaigns and Transactional Emails
Admin2020 – Custom WP dashboard and media library
RankMathSEO – SEO
ACF – Advanced Custom Fields
Code Snippets – Easily add php, css or JS code.
All the websites in the Metropolis are built with elementor, site icons are mapped with custom fields and styling is handled by Style Kits Pro.
Method: Individual Landing Pages
I’ve written a tutorial on how to load different favicons for individual pages in the Metropolis
