Managing 1000+ WordPress Sites as a Solo Developer 💻

by Austin Ginder / @austinginder

My Tech Stack

Make Reselling WordPress Hosting Awesome 🌟

Hosting Kinsta
Domains Hover
DNS Constellix
WordPress Management CaptainCore

Keep up with better services

  • The Tech Stack can and should change over time.
  • Keep it simple. Only 1 or 2 hosts providers.

Healthy WordPress
is the goal 👍👌

What I do

  • Managed Hosting
  • Managed DNS
  • Routine Maintenance
  • Site Backups and Restore
  • Site Migrations
  • Theme or plugin fixes/workarounds

What I don't do

  • Content updates
  • Web design or development work

Top #3 ways I stay sane.

#1
Routine Maintenance

  • Update everything, all themes and plugins. 🛡️
  • Don't do manual updates, automate! 🤖
  • Pick a time and schedule them. 🕘

Crontab scheduled tasks


Production sites updated every Wednesday at 9:15am.
15 09 * * 3 captaincore update @production.updates-on --fleet

Staging sites updated every quarter at 12:15am.
15 0 1 */3 * captaincore update @staging.updates-on --fleet

Other required maintenance


  • Update WordPress core as needed within 24hrs.
  • Update PHP at least every 2 years. Refer to support versions.

#2
Full Visiblity with Quicksaves

Quicksaves are lightweight snapshots

  • Automatic nightly SFTP sync and git repository check in (themes and plugins only)
  • If no changes, then no new commit.
  • Can be used to roll back any theme/plugin to a previous version
  • Not a replacement for backups however solves "What changed and when?"

#3
Smart Site Monitoring

Check for errors after updates

  • Use a site monitor
  • WordPress 5.2 includes recovery mode. Define RECOVERY_MODE_EMAIL within wp-config.php
define( 'RECOVERY_MODE_EMAIL', 'email@domain.tld' );

Takeaways

  • Work with theme and plugin developers to resolves issues. Most folks are happy to fix their bad code.
  • Spend time building better tools not just provide technical support services.

Questions?