MainWP User Interface

Last modified: August 25, 2025 Category: Getting Started with MainWP, MainWP Core

Available with the following:

MainWP Core

Table of Contents

Widgetized Pages

The MainWP overview pages are one of the most important ones in the MainWP Dashboard plugin, and they provide you with an overview of your Child Sites and the most needed actions for maintaining them.

A widgetized page rounds up multiple Widgets that will help you control your connected websites.

Widgetized Page Layout

New flexible widgets were introduced in version 4.5. Considering some JavaScript is likely cached in your browser, to avoid visual issues, please try performing a hard refresh (Ctrl + Shift +R / Command + Shift + R), or clearing your browser cache (Chrome, Safari, Firefox).

Reorder Widgets

To customize the order of widgets, simply Drag & Drop widgets, and the MainWP Dashboard will remember the order for the next time you visit the page.

Resize Widgets

Every widgets can be resized. Simply grab the lower-right corner and drag to the desired size.

Enable/Disable Widgets

To add widgets or remove unwanted widgets, open the Page Settings menu check or uncheck the widgets in the list, and click Save Settings.

Widgets

Update Overview

The updates section is divided into multiple separate cards:

Total updates – allows you to update everything across your Child Sites
WordPress updates – allows you to update all WordPress Core files
Plugin updates – allows you to update all plugins on all your child sites
Theme updates – allows you to update all themes on all your child sites
Translations updates – allows you to update all translations on all your child sites
Abandoned plugins – quickly view potentially abandoned plugins
Abandoned themes– quickly view potentially abandoned plugins

Connection Status

This widget allows you to see the current status of your Child Sites and if they have been synced recently.

On the Individual Child Site Dashboard, this widget shows info only for that one Child Site.

By default, the widget will show little info. To see details, use the dropdown menu in the top-right corner of the widget.

Sites Changes (Insights)

This widget allows you to see the most recent Sites Changes, including Non-MainWP and changes made from your MainWP Dashboard.

Widget includes all relevant data, Event, Action, Time & Date, Website and User that made the action.

At the top of the widget, you can select to show only Non-MainWP changes, only MainWP Dashboard made changes or both.

Recent Pages

This widget allows you to see pages that have been created recently on your Child Sites. It shows the last 5 Pages.

The widget includes: Page Title, Page Time & Date, Website of the Page, and actions to:

Unpublis the page (change the page status to draft)
Edit – shortcut to the Edit page screen
Trash – deletes the page and but it doesn’t delete it permanently
View – opens the page on the Child Site front-end
View All – lists all pages from the Child Site
Publish (available only for Draft and Pending pages – publishes the page
Restore (available only for Trashed pages) – restores the page to a previous status
Delete Permanently (available only for Trashed pages) – deletes the page permanently

The navigation at the top of the widget (dropdown menu) allows you to toggle between Page Statuses.

The Create New Page button will lead you to the MainWP > Pages > Add New page, where you can create a new page on your Child Sites.

On the Individual Child Site Dashboard, the widget will display only the last 5 pages from just that one Child Site.

Site Hardening

This widget provides you a brief overview of security issues that the MainWP Dashboard detects on your Child Sites. In the initial state of the widget, you can see a number of detected security issues, and the action menu that allows you to Show All, Hide All or Show Sites with issues detected.

On the individual Child Site Dashboard, the widget will display only security issues for only that Child Site.

Plugins (Individual Site Overview)

This widget will show you all installed plugins on the Child Site.

The left side shows plugin names along with the plugin version. By clicking a plugin name, you can see the plugin information.

The right column provides you the ability to

Deactivate (available only for active plugins) – deactivates the plugin on the Child Site.
Activate (available only for inactive plugins) – activates the plugin on the Child Site.
Delete (available only for inactive plugins) – deletes the plugin from the Child Site.

Use the widget navigation to switch between Active and Inactive plugins.

Themes

This widget will show you all installed themes on the Child Site.

The left side shows theme names along with the theme version. By clicking a theme name, you can see the theme information.

The right column provides you the ability to

Activate (available only for inactive plugins) – activates the plugin on the Child Site.
Delete (available only for inactive plugins) – deletes the plugin from the Child Site.

Navigation

MainWP Dashboard main navigation panel appears on the left side and provides quick access to all MainWP sections:

Overview
Sites
Clients
Cost Tracker
Insights
Add-ons
REST API
and Help options

And at the header element you can find:

Sync Sites button
Add New (Site, Client, Plugin, Theme, Post, Page, User, Cost)
Page Settings (available in pages where there are relevant settings)
Quick Sites Shortcuts (opens sidebar with quick access to child sites)
Change Theme
User Menu, with options to:
- Go to MainWP Settings
- Go to MainWP Info page
- Go to the Privacy Policy page
- Open Help Sidebar
- Go to WP Admin
- Shortcut to MainWP Community
- Shortcut to MainWP Account
- Log out

Along with the Main Navigation, MainWP Dashboard provides a Page Navigation (Tabs), which varies from section to section. Each MainWP section has a different Page Navigation. Also, there are sections without tabs.

Tables

In almost all sections, MainWP uses tables powered with the DataTables advanced interaction controls.

Actions Menu

In almost all MainWP Tables, in the far right column, you can find the Actions menu.

Sorting Options

By clicking the table column header, you can sort table data.

Columns Order

The MainWP Plugin allows you to set custom column order so you can set tables as per your preferences. Just drag & drop the column where you need it.

The MainWP Plugin will remember the order, so this adjustment doesn’t need to be repeated on each page load.

Bulk Actions

The bulk action menu is always located in the top-left position above a table. To use bulk actions, select all items in a table where you want to apply an action, select the wanted action, and click the Apply button.

Table Filter

In the top-right, you can use the Filters to filter table data.

Pagination

If a table contains too much data to be displayed on a single page, the MainWP will provide the table pagination so that you can go through the data page-by-page.

Manage Plugins and Themes Table Features

With version 4.3, MainWP introduces design changes to the Manage Plugins and Manage Themes tables.

The new design introduces icons for both plugins and themes for quicker identification, and you can the number of child sites on which the plugin or theme is installed without expanding the row.

You can select the child sites individually, or select all which have a particular plugin or theme installed.

The plugins or themes can be Activated, Deactivated, or Deleted one by one, or in bulk.

Select Sites

Select Sites is a metabox that is used in almost all MainWP Sections, and it’s very important. Nearly every action performed in the MainWP Dashboard will require you to select Child Sites for it. For example:

Searching for Posts, Pages, Plugins, Themes, Users,…
Publishing new content on your Child Sites
Installing new Plugins and Themes on your Child Sites

It lists all websites that are connected to your MainWP Dashboard.

To select a site, check the checkbox in front of the Child Site name. To un-select it, cancel the checkbox selection.

Sites that are disconnected will appear as disabled in the list, and the selection won’t be allowed. The reason for this is very simple, MainWP Dashboard can’t update a site that is not properly connected.

By understanding it better, you will be able to save some time in your daily routine in using your MainWP Dashboard.

Selection By Site, By Tag, By Client

You can select sites by Site, by Tags, and by Client. In the by Site mode, you can select all, one or multiple individual sites, and in the by Tags or Clients, you can select all, one, or multiple individual Tags or Clients. Selecting a Tag or Client means that all sites that have been added to the Tag or Client will be included in the selection.

Quick Selection

Above the sites in the Select Sites metabox, you can find the select All / None quick selection buttons.

Sites Filter

At the top of the metabox, type in the name of a Child Site that you want to find and select, and sites will get filtered so you can easily find the wanted website. This feature comes in handy when managing a large number of Child Sites.

Sidebar Accordion

MainWP Sidebar element contains a few sections with different option groups.

In most cases, it’s the Select Sites option, Search parameters options, and at the bottom, a section with provided actions.

Sections that are not used often can be collapsed to get a cleaner interface. When needed, sections can be expanded.

Individual Site Mode

A majority of the features provided by the MainWP Plugin can be controlled on a global level (for all Child Sites) and for Individual Child sites.

Single Site Overview

Individual Child Site Mode enables you to control settings per child site and also to monitor data related to a specific child site.

To access the Individual Child site mode,

Go to the MainWP > Sites > Manage Sites page
Locate the wanted Child Site
Under the column Site, click the Site Name

Once the Overview page is opened, new tabs will be available:

Overview – Individual Child Site Overview displays information for the individual site and provides actions that can affect only that certain site.
Edit – This allows you to edit the Child Site settings.
Updates – This allows you to manage available updates for the Child Site
Email Settings – This allows you manage email notification settings for the Child Site
Site Hardening – Provides an overview of the Child Site security issues and reports
If you have MainWP Add-ons installed, their respective tabs will be shown here as well

Page Settings

On most MainWP Dashboard pages, the Page Settings menu is available, and it provides the ability to change certain settings for that particular page.

In sections where it’s available, you will notice the button at the top-right of the page. Keep in mind that the settings will be specific for that particular page.

Custom Event Monitor

The Custom Event Monitor feature has been part of the MainWP Dashboard for quite some time; however, the Log was hidden since the original idea for the logs was to help MainWP Support agents help to troubleshoot various problems.

Even though the Custom Event Monitor feature got “unhidden” and hooked into the MainWP > Info section, we want to stress that the Monitor is still in the alpha phase, and there is just a limited number of actions hooked to this system. Over time, the number of actions will be increased and make the log more useful.

Still Have Questions?

Search for additional solutions in the MainWP Community or start your own discussion

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