When managing a considerable number of WordPress sites running and applying all the updates and handling maintenance issues is a daunting task, and it can take up all your time and energy. For this reason, there are several WordPress Management services available out there that make maintaining and updating WordPress websites a less laborious task.
These services provide real-time information about the status and the condition of your websites and inform you about vulnerabilities that arise. They come with standard, free features available to everyone and Premium features too. For the latter, there is a fee, especially if you have to manage numerous WordPress sites.
This article examines two such services, ManageWP and MainWP.
ManageWP Overview
ManageWP offers two different tiers. The free tier comes with many useful features. The Premium Tier takes the standard features onto the next level and gives them an Advanced spin.
There are also two pricing models available. You can pay per website or per Bundle. The former option is ideal for freelancers and small agencies with up to 25 websites. While the latter is suitable for agencies managing over 25 websites. In this case, a monthly fee applies, and it is per 100 websites.
MainWP Overview
MainWP does not have a limit on the number of websites you can add, and you can manage. The advanced features are all accessible via Extensions, and if you need to use those, a fee is charged. There is a great variety of Extensions allowing you to customize the websites you manage.
The Pro Plan costs $29.90/month, and it includes both the current and the new extensions you might need to use, for the duration of the membership. The price also includes all the updates for the duration of the membership and the support for those. There is also a Yearly ($249/yr) and a Lifetime Package at a price of $399.
ManageWP and MainWP: The Comparison
By taking a closer look at these two services we will estimate the cost and evaluate the effort needed to manage and run 10 WordPress websites. The comparison is not based on all the available features offered. We chose to limit the analysis down to three key features, which (based on our experience) we believe are the most essential and the most frequently used.
These are:
- Managing Updates
- 30-day incremental backup and storage
- Whitelabel service
So let us begin.
1. Managing Updates from a single dashboard
Managing multiple WordPress sites and updating them can be a laborious and tedious task. Both MainWP and ManageWP offer updates of your websites from a single dashboard.
On both services, you get a list of all the updates pending which you can apply with no fuss. This is indeed quite a useful feature as it saves you time and it does not come with an extra charge.
It is a free feature on MainWP and ManageWP
2. 30-Day Incremental Backup
Both services support a variety of backups. The incremental backup is the type of backup that stores and saves the changes of your WordPress website as you make them.
In other words, it gets copies of the data that is new and was not saved during the last backup.
For the sake of this comparison, we’ll use real data from 10 WordPress sites we maintain and host.
Daily Backup size in GB
- Site 1: 11.3
- Site 2: 8.5
- Site 3: 0.7
- Site 4: 0.2
- Site 5: 4.9
- Site 6: 0.2
- Site 7: 1.6
- Site 8: 0.8
- Site 9: 1.3
- Site 10: 1.2
The amount of GB that needs to be uploaded and backed up daily is a total of 30.7GB.
So the monthly backup size would be 30.7×30 = 921GB.
ManageWP Backup Feature
With the ManageWP service, the cost for the incremental backup starts from $2/month per website. It is part of the Premium Backup feature, and among other useful features, it incorporates on-demand, near real-time backups.
However, if you wish to upload your backed up data to your own external destination (Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, OneDrive), there is an extra fee charged separately, and it comes at $0.13/GB.
ManageWP Monthly Backup Cost for 10 sites: $20
MainWP Backup Addons
With the MainWP service, to use the incremental backup, you have to opt for the Pro Plan where the WP Time Capsule extension is available. This extension is considered to be one of the smartest and most advanced WordPress backup tools. To use it though, you have to have an active subscription for the plugin on top of the MainWP Pro Plan.
The pricing of WP Time Capsule for 10 websites comes at $8.25/month. Since all the changes are backed up as they happen, space does become an issue. Thus, you need to save your backups in remote locations. Dropbox and Google Drive are possible, and so is Amazon S3. For storing with Amazon S3 the charging fee is $0.023 per GB/month for the first 50TB.
Keeping these numbers in mind, we can estimate that with MainWP the cost per month for 10 websites can be calculated by adding up:
- The Main Pro Plan Cost: $24.90 VAT included.
- The WP Time Capsule Subscription: $8.25
- The charging fee for the Amazon S3 Standard Plan Pricing, which comes at 0.023 per GB. Thus, for the 10 websites mentioned above that have a monthly total at 921GB, the cost would be $21.20.
MainWP Monthly Backup Cost for 10 sites: $54.35
3. Whitelabel Service
It is often that agencies and freelancers alike, request white-labelled services-this means that they do not want the vendor they get their services from to be visible to their audience. They wish to hide the provider, the tools, the plugins even.
Both WordPress Management Services offer this feature on the Premium, and Pro plans, respectively. And this feature can be accessed via the dashboard easily.
ManageWP White-labeling Service
ManageWP offers the white-labelling service at $1/month for 1 website. This is their regular price while they offer a bundle price of $25/month for up to 100/sites.
ManageWP White-label Monthly Cost for 10 sites: $10
MainWP Branding Service
MainWP‘s, the Branding extension is included in the Pro Plan at the standard price of $29. No extra charges.
MainWP White-label Monthly Cost for 10 sites: $29
Total Cost Conclusion
ManageWP Total Cost for 10 sites
For managing and running 10 WordPress websites using the ManageWP service, the total derives from the price of the:
- Updates: $0
- 30-day incremental backup: $20
- Whitelabel service: $10
A Total Cost of $30/month for 10 websites.
MainWP Total Cost for 10 sites
For managing and running 10 WordPress websites using the MainWP service, the cost per month for these 3 features is
- Updates: $0
- Pro Plan Fee: $29
- 30-day incremental backup: $29.45
- Whitelabel: Included in the Pro Plan
A Total Cost of $58.45/month for 10 websites.
ManageWP Vs MainWP – Impressions and Thoughts
Both services offer useful features which are designed to make the lives of developers, WordPress professionals and agencies a lot easier.
Both services offer options for managing the updates and white-labelling their services as part of their Plans. There is no extra charge and no extra effort needed from the users.
However, when we look into the Backup option, this is where things change.
ManageWP includes incremental backups in the Premium Backup feature for a fixed price. The file limit for Premium Backups is 400000 files and the storage period is 90 days. If you need to extend the 90-day storage period, you will need to turn to a third-party storage option, and you will be charged for this. There is an extra fee applied which is, indeed, expensive.
With MainWP, for the incremental backups to take place, you need to obtain a subscription to an extra Plugin on top of your MainWP Pro Plan subscription. And since you are advised to backup your data externally, you will be charged extra for storing your data with Amazon S3. Add to this, the effort you will need to put into setting up and configuring the extensions.
The ManageWP service is more transparent when it comes to pricing, and there are no hidden costs that the user will need to calculate or add to their budget. The platform is excellent value for money as it allows the users to choose the features that will make their professional lives easier, and they can easily upgrade if need be. There are no extra charges when it comes to the standard features offered.
The MainWP service offers a plethora of 40+ extensions that allow you to work miracles on your WordPress websites. However, many of their 3rd party extensions, as is the case with the incremental backup, need additional plugins which are not included in the Pro Plan pricing.
This means that the final cost for running your websites might be more than what you had in mind initially. You should also take into consideration the extra effort you will have to put into setting up and running all the extra plugins needed.
Unlike ManageWP, there is one thing about MainWP that may interest you. The MainWP is an open-source & self-hosted solution promising 100% privacy for your and your client’s data.
Also considering the number of sites you connect to is growing, MainWP would become a more cost-effective solution as they do not charge on the number of websites.
Manage WP offers One free backup per month for Free. I needed it twice and it worked flawless.
Good comparisons to consider when it comes to backups & costs. Thank you, still evaluating which platform to go forward with (trialing both) but ManageWP is ahead at present. Which do you use?
Hey there 🙂
Believe it or not, we’re currently using both services.