The best piece of software I’ve invested in lately is ManageWP. It provides web developers a convenient tool to check on their websites in one dashboard, make updates, scan for malware, (including the new formidable Shellshock) and back up and migrate websites from one server to another. Those are four reasons I use ManageWP every week… plus convenience, makes five.
Vladimir Prelovac is the Founder of ManageWP, and is a frequent contributor to the WordPress community – in the form of numerous plug-ins, tools, and a book by the title WordPress Plugin Development. His blog, accessible via the weekly notices you get when you subscribe, provides timely and interesting posts, such as the aforementioned Shellshock security nightmare.
If you are a diligent web developer, you try to make your client’s sites as secure from infection and inform them when their site has a problem. Viewing their dashboard on a weekly basis is necessary. When ManageWp sends me the email, I follow the link to my ManageWP dashboard and make the updates right away. While there, I can easily enter client’s WordPress dashboard and poke around.
I looked into ManageWP, as Bluehost recommended, was because I wanted to offer hosting as a reseller for clients who wanted their websites managed. For a small monthly fee, I can follow up to 30 websites, But, the hard part was, moving their sites into my reseller server area. Bluehost charges $100 for each website move and Go Daddy even more. With ManageWP, I can do it in minutes and charge just for my time.
Back up is also a handy tool. Before you make any major updates to the sites, they should be backed up. I have an account on the Amazon S3 cloud and all I have to do is create a bucket for the new site on Amazon and ManageWP handles it with the push of a button. One more great feature incorporates Google Analytics. You can import the data and create a report to email.
If you are running your own site, or fewer than 5 sites, the software is free. Check it out and let me know how you like it and or if you have any questions. Better yet, contact them yourself, as they have a pretty good help ticket desk on board.