Title: Multisite or two separate wordpress installations?
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Multisite or two separate wordpress installations?

 *  Resolved [RetroTorque](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retrotorque/)
 * (@retrotorque)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-or-two-separate-wordpress-installations/)
 * Hello, some advice would be very much appreciated, please.
 * I have created a website with two distinct elements, but I’m not sure if I’ve
   set things up the best way. The site currently consists of:
 * 1. A multisite, incorporating buddypress and user blogs.
 * 2. A separate wordpress installation, consisting of the website’s home page, 
   and a main website blog (a magazine).
 * My reasoning was that it was best to keep the ‘official’ website magazine content
   and especially the admin dashboard totally separate from the user blogs and social
   networking. Also I want to arrange the domains in the following way:
 * example.com (homepage)
 * example.com/magazine (the ‘official’ website magazine)
 * example.com/magazine-two (etc, for any other sections or types of content that
   I want create, if needed)
 * example.com/multisite-buddypress (homepage for this whole section)
 * example.com/multisite-buddypress/userblog-one
 * example.com/multisite-buddypress/userblog-two
 * etc, etc, so that all the buddypress content and user-blogs are contained within
   their own subdirectory. (So, in effect, a website within a website.)
 * However, I’m now wondering if I’m made things more complicated than they need
   be. For example, on the website’s home page I wish to use plugins which showcase
   content from both ‘my’ section of the website and the multisite-buddypress section.
   If everything were on one multisite installation, this would be easy – using 
   one of a number of plugins I have seen… however the website urls would be more
   confused, as I don’t think there would be an automatic way of separating the ‘
   official content’ (example.com/magazine) from the userblogs (example.com/userblog-
   one).
 * Two solutions seem possible:
 * 1. Keep things as they are and find a way of showcasing content across both the
   installations.
 * 2. Put everything on the multisite installation and find a way of solving the
   url problem.
 * I’m guessing that option two is the most desirable… but is this easy to achieve?(
   Or I am I better keeping the two instillation structure?)
 * Many thanks,
 * Mat

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-or-two-separate-wordpress-installations/#post-3215111)
 * Whatever you’re more comfortable with is what’s better, in the long run. You 
   can, obviously, do this in multisite, and it’s only slightly easier to share 
   content between Multisite sites than it is between separate ones.
 * > however the website urls would be more confused, as I don’t think there would
   > be an automatic way of separating the ‘official content’ (example.com/magazine)
   > from the userblogs (example.com/userblog-one).
 * Multinetwork plugins 😉
 * Site 1 (main site) is domain.com
    Site 2 (second site) is domain.com/magazine
   Site 3 is domain.com/magazine-two/ Site 4 is domain.com/buddypress
 * Site 4.1 is domain.com/buddypress/user…
 * Voila!
 *  Thread Starter [RetroTorque](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retrotorque/)
 * (@retrotorque)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-or-two-separate-wordpress-installations/#post-3215113)
 * Thanks, Mika, that’s really great advice. You’ve helped a lot.
 * I’ve got two follow-up questions if you don’t mind:
 * 1. Re sharing content between two installations (homepage previews of posts /
   comments etc) – do you know of any plugin which would make this relatively straightforward,
   or would it need to be coded?
 * 2. For multisite, it is possible to restrict the templates available to the public
   blog users, whilst having a wider set available for the superadmin? (Fairly sure
   it is, but I’d just like to double check.)
 * Many thanks.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-or-two-separate-wordpress-installations/#post-3215114)
 * 1. Custom coded, with DB calls between sites.
 * 2. Sure. 🙂 Network Activate the themes you want anyone to use, and then manually
   assign them when you want more.
 *  Thread Starter [RetroTorque](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retrotorque/)
 * (@retrotorque)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-or-two-separate-wordpress-installations/#post-3215115)
 * Thanks, Mika. That’s great.
 *  [Torben Grue](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wolfman1970/)
 * (@wolfman1970)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-or-two-separate-wordpress-installations/#post-3215119)
 * Check out [http://dogsuniverse.dk](http://dogsuniverse.dk) this is exactly what
   we did
 *  Thread Starter [RetroTorque](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retrotorque/)
 * (@retrotorque)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-or-two-separate-wordpress-installations/#post-3215120)
 * Thanks Wolfman. I’ve had a good look at your site / sites. It’s all very impressive…
   and from my point of view, it’s interesting to have a look at its structure, 
   of course, – you seem to be running one multisite per domain. I wish you well
   with your project.
 * I’ve decided to run my site from one wordpress installation as well… I think 
   it will make things more simple. Otherwise there’s quite a bit of duplication
   involved.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Multisite or two separate wordpress installations?’ is closed to new 
replies.

 * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/)
 * 6 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [RetroTorque](https://wordpress.org/support/users/retrotorque/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-or-two-separate-wordpress-installations/#post-3215120)
 * Status: resolved

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