What multisite is, and how to tell if you have it
The WordPress handbook describes Multisite as several instances of WordPress managed within one installation. In its words, each site's content gets its own set of tables and only the user table is shared between the instances; we have not checked what else a network shares, which is one reason a fault is not assumed to be local to one site. A network can use subdirectories or domains and subdomains for its sites, and a business might use one for regional sites that share a theme or plugins but carry different content. The roles handbook lists Super Admin among the six default roles, which is the account that administers a whole network. If you are not sure whether your site is part of one, you can look for yourself if you have administrator access, and the checks below are the ones the handbook's network-creation page points to; none is conclusive on its own, so if they disagree, ask whoever set it up or your host.
- Look at the toolbar at the top of the admin: on a network, My Sites is the second item at the left and its menu holds a Network Admin entry. A single site has no Network Admin entry.
- Look under Tools: a Network Setup item appears once the multisite feature has been enabled, which can be before a network has been created, so it is a hint and not proof.
- Ask your site holder to look in the configuration file, where a line defining WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE as true means the feature was switched on at some point; if it is absent, it defaults to off.
- Ask who holds the Super Admin account and how many sites the installation holds.
Where tools and settings differ
Several things you would set once on a single site are set at more than one level on a network. WordPress tries to raise the memory limit to 40MB on a single site and 64MB on multisite, according to the configuration handbook, so memory advice that assumes one site can be wrong for a network. Command-line tools need to be told which site they act on or whether to act on all of them: WP-CLI's global parameters include a URL to target a site in a network, its cron command accepts --network to run across every site, and Elementor's cache command accepts --network to flush every site's styles. A fault that shows on one site can have a cause that sits at network level or on another site, which is why the scope is not guessed.
- Ask whether each plugin is enabled for one site or across the network.
- Identify exactly which site shows the fault.
Why the fixed-price jobs here cover single sites
A fixed price rests on a bounded test. On a single site we can copy the site to staging, change one thing at a time and prove the result with a repeatable test. On a network, one change at the network level can alter every site, the staging copy has to reproduce all of them, and a test on one site proves little about the others. That makes the bounded test larger and the risk of side effects wider. For that reason the single-site jobs and services in this group list multisite as outside the fixed scope and as a stop condition, and a network is quoted separately after we know how many sites are involved and which are affected.
- Tell us how many sites the network holds and which are affected.
- A network with two or three sites may still be quotable; say so.
What to send if you do have a network
A useful enquiry names the network's sites, says which one shows the fault and whether the fault is also on others, lists network-activated plugins separately from per-site ones, and says who holds the Super Admin account. It should not include logins. The first step after agreement would be a staging copy of the whole network or of a small, representative subset, with outgoing email off, and a written scope listing which sites are tested. There is no published price for this; it is quoted after the first look.
- Do not send passwords or screenshots that show personal data.
- Expect a quote, not a fixed price.
Sources and limits
- WordPress developer handbook: Multisite Checked 2026-10-11.
- Multisite lets you create several instances of WordPress managed within one installation; the handbook says each site's content gets its own set of tables and that only the user table is shared between the instances; a network can be path-based or domain-based. The page gives no steps for telling whether a site is part of a network.
- WordPress developer handbook: wp-config.php Checked 2026-10-11.
- WordPress tries to raise memory to 40MB on a single site and 64MB on multisite, so WP_MEMORY_LIMIT should exceed those values.
- WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE enables multisite functionality and defaults to false when absent from wp-config.php.
- WP-CLI: wp cron event run Checked 2026-10-11.
- The --network option applies the run to every site in a multisite installation, and the global --url parameter sets which site to target in multisite.
- Elementor developer docs: flush-css command Checked 2026-10-11.
- The --network option extends the flush to every site in a multisite network.
- WordPress plugin handbook: roles and capabilities Checked 2026-10-11.
- WordPress has six default roles, one of which is Super Admin.
- WordPress developer handbook: create a network Checked 2026-10-11.
- Defining WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE as true enables the Network Setup item in the Tools menu; once a network is created, My Sites is the second item at the left of the toolbar and holds a Network Admin entry.