Title: Future-proofed domain mapping – plugin or plugin-less?
Last modified: August 24, 2016

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# Future-proofed domain mapping – plugin or plugin-less?

 *  [IstanbulMMV](https://wordpress.org/support/users/istanbulmmv/)
 * (@istanbulmmv)
 * [11 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/future-proofed-domain-mapping-plugin-or-plugin-less/)
 * With development having ceased on this plugin and the suggestion that domain 
   mapping may become part of WordPress core sometime around the 4.4 release, what
   would be the best option for a Multisite install that needs to be released in
   the next few weeks?
 * The plugin-less solution [outlined here](http://halfelf.org/2014/mapping-domains-without-plugin/)
   seems to work perfectly, but it does rely on updating individual Site & Home 
   URL’s in the database. A plugin-less method ensures every URL uses the mapped
   domain name, whereas plugins (DM & Mercator) and wp.com itself serve a mixture
   of mapped domain and subsite URLs.
 * Would I be better to stick with a plugin where new mapping tables are created
   in the database but existing database entries are left unchanged or am I safe
   to go plugin-less?
 * So my questions becomes I suppose, “plugin or plugin-less domain mapping … what
   are the pros and cons moving forward?”
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/)

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [George wp-website-mastery](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lernerconsult/)
 * (@lernerconsult)
 * [11 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/future-proofed-domain-mapping-plugin-or-plugin-less/#post-5978162)
 * This plugin works, I haven’t found anything that needs further development except
   the documentation.
 * Another plugin, written by the group I’ve heard is running the 2nd largest multi-
   site installation (#1 is wordpress.com), is [http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/domain-mapping/](http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/domain-mapping/)
 * My [Domain Mapping Plugin Instructions](http://lcblog.lernerconsult.com/2012-wordpress-3-multi-site-domain-mapping/)
 * I haven’t gone through the code to see if the “plugin-less solution” covers everything;
   if you want to try that, you’ll have to do a lot of testing to make sure Everything
   works for your site. Remember how much that testing is more work than using a
   plugin…
 *  Thread Starter [IstanbulMMV](https://wordpress.org/support/users/istanbulmmv/)
 * (@istanbulmmv)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/future-proofed-domain-mapping-plugin-or-plugin-less/#post-5978227)
 * A wee note of warning regarding my original question of plugin-less domain mapping.
   Plugin-less domain mapping worked great until I had to conduct a network upgrade
   of all my sites (the standard wp process that updates all sites after a database
   change).
 * One of the sites on my network had an expired domain and this resulted in the
   network upgrade process stopping once it reached the site with the expired domain.
   To finish upgrading my network I had to revert back to a plugin-based domain 
   mapping solution.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Future-proofed domain mapping – plugin or plugin-less?’ is closed to 
new replies.

 * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping.svg)
 * [WordPress MU Domain Mapping](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/reviews/)

## Tags

 * [domain mapping](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/domain-mapping/)

 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [IstanbulMMV](https://wordpress.org/support/users/istanbulmmv/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/future-proofed-domain-mapping-plugin-or-plugin-less/#post-5978227)
 * Status: not resolved