ManageWP vs MainWP vs WP Umbrella
Three popular WordPress management tools with three different models: a hosted service with per-site add-ons, a self-hosted plugin with one Pro price, and a hosted service priced per site. Here is how they compare, using only facts from their own websites and documentation.
The main differences
- ManageWP: hosted, free core for unlimited sites, premium add-ons per site per month or in bundles of up to 100 sites.
- MainWP: self-hosted and open source, free core for unlimited sites, MainWP Pro for all premium add-ons at $29 a month, $199 a year or $599 lifetime. No backup engine of its own.
- WP Umbrella: hosted, EUR 1.99 / $2.19 per site per month, optional Security and Hourly Backups add-ons, backups kept 50 days in the EU.
- All three offer bulk updates and some form of automatic rollback. Before/after screenshots come with ManageWP's Safe Updates and WP Umbrella's Advanced Safe Update; MainWP offers a Regression Testing add-on in Pro.
ManageWP, MainWP and WP Umbrella compared
Checked on 2 October 2026. Rows we could not confirm for every product are left out.
| Capability | ManageWP | MainWP | WP Umbrella |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type of product | Hosted dashboard. Part of GoDaddy since 2016. | Self-hosted and open source. The dashboard runs on your own WordPress install. | Hosted dashboard. EU company with servers in France. |
| Published pricing | Free core. Add-ons cost $1 or $2 per site per month, or $25 to $75 a month per bundle of up to 100 sites. All-in-one bundle $150 a month. | Free core. MainWP Pro (all 30+ premium add-ons): $29 a month, $199 a year or $599 lifetime. | EUR 1.99 / $2.19 per site per month. Add-ons: Security EUR 2 / $2 and Hourly Backups EUR 2.49 / $2.49 per site per month. 10% off when you prepay a year. |
| Free plan | Yes, free on unlimited sites | Yes, free core for unlimited sites | No. 14-day free trial. |
| Bulk updates | Yes, included free | Yes, included free | Yes |
| Update safety | Safe Updates: restore point, HTTP status check after the update, automatic rollback on 4xx or 5xx errors, and before/after screenshots. Requires the premium Backup add-on. | Failed plugin and theme updates roll back automatically (since version 5.1). Optional backup before update and HTTP check after update. Regression Testing add-on (Pro). | Classic Safe Update: restore point, uptime and status code checks, automatic rollback on failure. Advanced Safe Update adds before/after screenshots. |
| Backups | Free monthly backups kept for 90 days, stored in the US or EU. Premium Backup ($2 per site per month): up to hourly, on demand, downloadable. | No built-in backup engine. Free add-ons connect plugins such as UpdraftPlus, BackWPup and WPvivid, plus host API backups. | Encrypted incremental backups kept for 50 days in the EU. Daily, weekly, monthly or manual; hourly with an add-on. |
| Uptime monitoring | Uptime Monitor add-on ($1 per site per month). Alerts by email, SMS or Slack. | Built into the free core: HTTP, ping or keyword checks every 5 minutes to 24 hours. Free add-on for Uptime Robot, NodePing, Site24x7 and Better Uptime. | Every 1 to 60 minutes from five regions. Alerts by email or Slack. |
| Performance checks | Free manual Performance Check. Scheduled checks $1 per site per month. | Lighthouse add-on (Pro), using Google PageSpeed Insights | Google PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals |
| Security | Free manual Security Check and vulnerability detection. Scheduled checks $1 per site per month. Vulnerability Protection $2 per site per month. | Free Vulnerability Checker (NVD or WPScan API). Integrations with Jetpack Protect (free) and Wordfence, Jetpack Scan and others (Pro). | Vulnerability checks against Patchstack every 6 hours. Firewall, malware scanning and a security log in the Security add-on. |
| Client reports | Free client reports with PDF download and a ManageWP watermark. Advanced Client Reports ($1 per site per month) remove the watermark and add scheduling. | Pro Reports add-on (Pro), with PDF and email delivery | Automated white-label reports by email or PDF, sent from your own domain |
| White label | White Label add-on, $1 per site per month | White Label add-on (Pro) | Yes |
| Team access | Free. Collaborators with full or read-only access, with collaborator history. | Team Control add-on (Pro): custom roles and privileges | Unlimited team members with role-based access |
| One-click login to wp-admin | Yes, free (1-click login) | Yes, free (1-click passwordless login) | Yes (1-click admin access) |
| Staging and cloning | Clone and one-click staging, included with the premium Backup add-on | Staging and Clone add-ons (Pro) | Staging by cloning to a subdomain and deploying back (added in 2026) |
Details come from each vendor's own website, help center or WordPress.org listing, checked on 2 October 2026. Prices and features change, so please check the vendor's site before you decide. Where we could not confirm a detail, we left it out.
Which one fits your work
ManageWP or WP Umbrella may suit you if
- You want a hosted service with nothing to maintain.
- You want built-in backups with off-site storage.
- You are happy to pay per site.
MainWP may suit you if
- You want to host the dashboard yourself.
- You want a flat price or a lifetime license for unlimited sites.
- You want open-source code.
Common questions
It depends on your site count and the features you need. ManageWP and MainWP both have free cores for unlimited sites. ManageWP charges per site per add-on or per bundle; MainWP Pro is a flat $29 a month, $199 a year or $599 lifetime; WP Umbrella costs EUR 1.99 / $2.19 per site per month. Prices checked on 2 October 2026.
Only MainWP. Its dashboard runs on a WordPress install you host yourself. ManageWP and WP Umbrella are hosted services.
Sources
Each statement about another product on this page comes from that vendor's own website, help center or WordPress.org listing, checked on 2 October 2026. Statements about WPCentrify describe features that are built and available in the product today. If you spot something out of date, please tell us and we will correct it.
- ManageWP pricing
- ManageWP Safe Updates
- ManageWP backups
- ManageWP uptime monitor
- ManageWP client reports
- ManageWP clone
- About ManageWP
- MainWP pricing
- MainWP free features
- MainWP safe updates docs
- MainWP uptime monitoring docs
- MainWP backups docs
- MainWP add-ons
- MainWP on WordPress.org
- WP Umbrella pricing
- WP Umbrella safe updates
- WP Umbrella backups
- WP Umbrella uptime and performance
- WP Umbrella security
- WP Umbrella client reports
- WP Umbrella team members
ManageWP, MainWP and WP Umbrella are trademarks of their owners. This page is not endorsed by or affiliated with ManageWP, MainWP and WP Umbrella.
How we compare products: our methodology.
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