Managing one WordPress site is easy. Managing fifty is a job.
Updates pile up. Backups need to run on schedule. Clients want reports. Something breaks on a site you haven’t touched in three weeks and you need to figure out when and why. The agencies that have this dialed in aren’t doing it manually — they have a management platform handling the routine work while they focus on everything else.
We asked the members of The Admin Bar what site management tools they rely on and why they’ve stuck with them. A few clear favorites emerged, a newer challenger is gaining serious traction, and at least one member has built their own because nothing else quite covered everything they needed.
Here’s what the community had to say.
The Most Mentioned Site Management Tools
Why Agencies Choose These Site Management Tools
WP Umbrella
WP Umbrella was the most enthusiastically recommended tool in the thread — and the members using it tend to be vocal about it.
Mike Cottam made the case directly:
“It provides everything I need to effectively manage my clients’ websites. A brilliant software solution and the customer service is second to none.”
Mike Cottam
The core feature set — uptime monitoring, performance monitoring, bulk updates, automated reporting, and backups — covers the essentials of most agency care plan workflows in one place. At $2/site it’s structured to be profitable even at modest margins. Patrick Boehner pairs it with Better Uptime, Ghost Inspector for automated testing, and Healthchecks.io for cron monitoring — a stack that covers WP Umbrella’s gaps with targeted tools.
The one friction point that came up: Matt Hancock has been let down by the backup and restore experience and keeps returning to evaluate it without fully committing. Backups are the safety net everything else depends on, so it’s worth testing that piece specifically before migrating a large portfolio.
Jamie Lyn Ross, Stacey Watson, Shanda Lynn Watts, Louis Stanford, Marion Paolo Abagar, and Clayton Mayo are all in the WP Umbrella camp — many of them former ManageWP or UptimeRobot users who consolidated.
Best fit: agencies who want a modern, profitable per-site tool covering updates, monitoring, reporting, and backups — especially if you’re currently paying separately for uptime monitoring and want to consolidate.
ManageWP
ManageWP is the platform most agencies started with — and a meaningful number are still on it, primarily because the depth of features and reporting hasn’t been fully replicated elsewhere.
Rob Marlbrough tried everything and stayed:
“Tried all of them, still using ManageWP. Others have not as good reporting, or 90-day backups without needing a plugin, or are more expensive for almost similar stuff.”
Rob Marlbrough
Gen Herres pointed to a specific capability that keeps her there: the ability to set up delegate user access where clients or collaborators sign in as their own account. Riitta Korpipää manages 150+ sites and values the reliable backup recovery and security scans. Cathy Lynch Sirvatka appreciates the per-client billing model — paying only for what each site actually needs.
The honest picture: ManageWP’s uptime monitoring has had reliability issues (covered in our Uptime Monitoring Toolbox post), and the interface feels dated compared to newer entrants. But the backup depth, reporting maturity, and breadth of features keep a loyal user base that hasn’t found a full replacement.
Best fit: agencies with established ManageWP setups who rely on 90-day backup history, mature reporting, or the delegate user access model — and haven’t found a compelling reason to migrate.
MainWP
MainWP is the self-hosted alternative — you install it on your own WordPress site and manage everything from there, with no per-site SaaS fees.
The LTD crowd is vocal: Marleen Kiral, Eric Lammers, and Gerson El all snagged lifetime deals years ago and have made back multiples of the cost. Scott Gingrich notes it’s “really matured nicely.” Andrew McSpadden is a straightforward advocate. Jared York runs MainWP alongside a custom program that automates monthly report emails and surfaces technical SEO opportunities for each site.
The self-hosted model is the core differentiator: you own the data, control the infrastructure, and pay once rather than per-site per-month. Rachelle Wise runs MainWP for maintenance work and pairs it with a self-hosted FreeScout instance for support tickets, with a custom dashboard plugin on client sites routing support requests into her helpdesk.
Camo Jones runs ManageWP but built his own supplemental system to cover things none of the platforms handle well — cleaner environment management, version-controlled deploy reporting, persistent plugin update controls across environments, filterable site notes, per-site user permissions, and license key management. It’s a useful list of gaps that anyone evaluating management platforms should keep in mind.
Best fit: technically comfortable agencies who want full data control without per-site monthly fees; especially compelling if a lifetime deal is available.
WP Remote / BlogVault
WP Remote (BlogVault’s agency-facing platform) came up consistently as an underappreciated option — particularly strong on backups and security.
Benjamin Nicholas made the case:
“WP Remote all the way. Idk why it doesn’t get enough love, but I hate dealing with staging sites and I got real sick of troubleshooting InstaWP. WP Remote isn’t the cheapest, but it is the best imo. Also their security and malware removal is top notch.”
Benjamin Nicholas
Christi Yarema agreed, noting some past drama but strong current support and reliability. Adam Wright uses BlogVault directly. The backup infrastructure is the real differentiator — BlogVault’s backup system is genuinely best-in-class, with real-time backups and a reliable restore process that earns the premium pricing.
Best fit: agencies where backup reliability and malware removal are the top priorities; worth the higher cost if those capabilities are genuinely mission-critical.
Modular DS
Modular DS is the newest player to earn real traction in this thread — and the members using it are positive about where it’s heading.
Gaye Nilson switched from ManageWP last year: “It has a few little annoyances but I’m really liking it for the most part, and it has Patchstack integration.” Morten Ellegaard Larsen pairs it with Patchstack. Ferdinand Brueggemann noted “reasonable pricing, adding new features frequently.” Stacey Watson runs both Modular DS and WP Umbrella.
The Patchstack integration keeps coming up as a specific draw — and the active development pace matters when you’re evaluating a newer platform. The “few little annoyances” caveat is worth noting, but the trajectory seems positive.
Best fit: agencies open to a newer platform with active development, modern UX, and Patchstack integration built in.
WPMU Dev Hub
WPMU Dev’s Hub comes up as the all-in-one play — hosting, site management, plugins, and client billing under one subscription.
Kate Molloy-Litt has been on it long enough to be grandfathered into an annual plan: “I find having everything in one place works best for me.” Erica Jeffrey echoes the sentiment — especially since she’s also using WPMU Dev for hosting. Paul Constable is the lone voice asking how it compares, which is a fair question: it doesn’t get mentioned as often as the dedicated management tools, but for agencies already invested in the WPMU Dev ecosystem (Smush, Hummingbird, etc.) the Hub makes sense as the management layer.
The one consistent caveat: Hummingbird doesn’t perform well on more demanding sites, with both Kate and Erica noting they use WP Rocket when they need actual performance optimization.
Best fit: agencies already using WPMU Dev for hosting and plugins who want management, billing, and support in the same ecosystem.
Other Tools Worth Knowing
These also came up in the thread:
- Burrow — Austin Siewert’s pick and an interesting new entrant worth watching. Rather than replacing existing management tools, Burrow positions itself as an orchestration layer — pulling data from MainWP, WP Remote, WP Umbrella, GitHub deploys, Google Analytics, forms, and invoices into a single client timeline. Has an MCP integration for AI-assisted workflows. Integrations with major management tools are in early access.
- InstaWP — Matt Hancock uses the built-in management tools, though he’s noted occasional missed plugin updates. Worth evaluating if you’re already using InstaWP for staging and development.
- WP Remote + FreeScout — Rachelle Wise’s setup: MainWP for maintenance, self-hosted FreeScout for support tickets, and a custom dashboard plugin on each client site. A strong template for agencies who want to own their full stack.
- Infinite WP — Jason Egan’s pick for bulk updates and reporting; one of the original self-hosted management platforms.
- ModularDS + custom ERP — Morten Ellegaard Larsen handles recurring billing through his own ERP rather than through the management platform — a clean separation of concerns worth considering.
- Healthchecks.io — Patrick Boehner uses it specifically for cron monitoring and tracking outgoing email health from client sites; a focused tool that fills a gap most management platforms don’t address.
Patterns We Noticed
The stack matters more than any single tool. Almost no one in this thread is relying on a single platform to cover everything. The typical setup layers a management platform (updates, backups, reporting) with a separate uptime monitor, a security tool like Patchstack, hosting infrastructure, and often a help desk. The management tool is the center of that stack, but it’s not the whole stack.
LTDs have shaped the market. A significant portion of MainWP and ManageWP users are on lifetime deals that changed the economics of their decision years ago. This matters when evaluating the thread: some “I love MainWP” responses are really “I love that I paid once for this five years ago.” If you’re evaluating fresh today, the LTD calculus doesn’t apply the same way.
The gaps nobody talks about. Camo Jones’s list of things he had to build himself is worth reading carefully: version-controlled deploy reporting, persistent plugin update controls across environments, filterable site notes, per-site user permissions, license key management. These aren’t exotic features — they’re things agencies actually need — and no platform covers them all well. Knowing your own gaps before choosing a platform is half the battle.
Backups are non-negotiable. ManageWP’s 90-day backup history and BlogVault’s real-time backup infrastructure both came up as specific reasons members haven’t switched. When something goes wrong, the backup is the only thing that matters — and “good enough” backups are never actually good enough until you need to restore one.
A new generation is emerging. Modular DS and Burrow both appeared as tools that are newer, actively developed, and filling gaps that older platforms haven’t addressed. Neither is a full replacement yet, but both are worth tracking for agencies who feel underserved by the current options.
How to Choose a WordPress Site Management Tool
Want a modern, profitable per-site platform? WP Umbrella is the current community favorite — test the backup and restore specifically before migrating your full portfolio.
Already on ManageWP and not sure if you should move? The 90-day backup history and reporting depth are genuinely hard to replace. If those are critical to your workflow, stay put until a clear alternative emerges. If your main pain point is cost or interface, WP Umbrella or MainWP are worth evaluating.
Comfortable self-hosting and want to eliminate per-site fees? MainWP — especially if a lifetime deal surfaces. The self-hosted model gives you full data control and eliminates the per-site pricing that adds up fast at scale.
Prioritizing backups and malware removal above all else? WP Remote / BlogVault earns its premium pricing with genuinely best-in-class backup infrastructure and security response.
Open to a newer platform with modern UX? Modular DS is the one to watch — active development, Patchstack integration, and a growing feature set.
Already in the WPMU Dev ecosystem? Hub makes sense as your management layer if you’re already paying for hosting and plugins there.
Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Site Management Tools
What’s the best WordPress site management tool for agencies? Based on this community, WP Umbrella is the current favorite for modern, all-in-one site management at a profitable per-site price. ManageWP remains strong for agencies who need deep backup history and mature reporting. MainWP is the top self-hosted option for agencies who want to eliminate per-site fees.
What’s the difference between ManageWP and MainWP? ManageWP is a hosted SaaS platform — you pay per site per month and everything runs on their infrastructure. MainWP is self-hosted — you install it on your own WordPress site and manage everything from there, with a one-time or annual license rather than per-site fees. MainWP gives you more data control; ManageWP gives you a more hands-off setup.
Is WP Umbrella a full replacement for ManageWP? For most agencies, yes — WP Umbrella covers updates, backups, uptime monitoring, performance monitoring, and reporting at $2/site. The main gaps: ManageWP has deeper backup history (90 days without a plugin) and more mature reporting. If those matter to your workflow, test WP Umbrella’s backup and restore thoroughly before committing to a migration.
Do I need a separate uptime monitor if I use WP Umbrella or ManageWP? Not necessarily — both include uptime monitoring. That said, several members run a secondary monitor (UptimeRobot, HetrixTools, Uptime Kuma) alongside their management platform specifically to catch false positives and verify that an outage is real rather than a checker-side issue. See our Uptime Monitoring Toolbox post for more on that.
What is Burrow and how does it fit into a management stack? Burrow is an orchestration layer rather than a replacement for existing management tools. It pulls data from MainWP, WP Remote, WP Umbrella, GitHub, analytics, forms, and invoices into a single client-facing timeline. It also has MCP integration for AI-assisted workflows. Integrations with major management platforms are in early access — worth watching for agencies who want a unified view across multiple tools.
Kyle Van Deusen
After spending 15 years as a graphic designer and earning a business degree, I launched my agency, OGAL Web Design, in 2017. A year later, after finding the amazing community around WordPress, I co-found The Admin Bar, which has grown to become the #1 community for WordPress professionals. I'm a husband and proud father of three, and a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
