Alternative to WPMU Pro-Sites?

I am not aware of any alternative of Pro-Sites from WPMU yet. In fact, I love that plugin. Very easy to use so efficient and their support is amazing.

I’ve had nothing but problems with literally every single one of the plugins they have. Every single one seems to have unforseen quirks and bugs, and every time you put a support request in they have generic responses.

I have to agree with Cirrus123. I got frustrated with them several years ago and haven’t been back in a long time. I think the company took a sales hit when WordPress added multisite as their bread and butter then was Multiuser. And, their support was frustrating and seemed to lack accomodation to the user/customer.

Their themes were pretty second rate also.

They’ve ‘prettied up’ their site since then, so I’m thinking the loss of revenue from Multiuser plugin sales has forced that. And, they claim to have added features to Pro Sites. I hope so, because I am thinking of trying it again.

But, I am very scared to invest in them. 30 days isn’t enough to give a good trial to such a plugin, and I’m concerned about the support. Last time I was in there, they did not have a dedicated support ticket system. It was more like a forum, and the support was all over the board with varying levels of quality.

I’m seriously considering dropping by https://wpmupremium.com/wordpress/pro-sites-plugin/ and plopping down $10, then going without support. Not much of a risk in $10.

I don’t agree, whatsoever, with the notion of buying open source software from rebranders. The site you are linking to is NOT official WPMU Dev and accordingly is trying to make money off other people’s work – it is totally unclear that they aren’t the same company due to the purposeful ambiguity in their name.

Shame, shame, shame. It doesn’t matter how bad or good any piece of software is – in my opinion, purchasing open source software at a discount from parties not affiliated with the developers is piracy.

Hey Cirrus and Kirkward,

Hope you don’t mind me chiming in here.

@cirrus, sorry to hear you were having trouble with our products, I’d be more than happy to help take a look at any issues you’re facing with them, what is your username on WPMU DEV if you don’t mind me asking? We actually have a major update to Pro Sites coming out soon too that includes a totally re-written checkout/registration process ?? you will be able to select a plan right from sign up and even include an optional one-time fee if you like. We ran into some delays with this which is why it isn’t already available.

@kirkward, you mean when multisite was bundled into WordPress instead of a stand alone installation? I wasn’t working at WPMU DEV then, but multisite becoming more accessible would only benefit us ?? more multisite users the better! Of course, majority of our products also work on single sites.

While our support is done through a forum interface, we have a dedicated support team of over 20 staff and we all work off of a custom support system we built on top of bbpress. You are right though, it wasn’t near as sophisticated a few years ago.

On top of what Cirrus mentioned about buying from a non-affiliated site like that, you also never know what they have added to the software – it’s risky. Not to mention the fact if they happen to suddenly lose access to WPMU DEV then you won’t get any further updates.

Their themes were pretty second rate also.

Have you seen the framework we just recently released? I’d say it’s anything but “second rate” ?? you can try out the demo: https://spirit.upfront.pro/?editmode=true

Upfront themes here: https://premium.wpmudev.org/projects/category/themes/

It’s still just the very beginning too – the future of all WPMU DEV themes is Upfront.

I feel like I’ve probably rambled on too long here. @cirrus, again – would be happy to take a look at the issues you’ve faced. Even if you’re no longer a current member, just contact us here: https://premium.wpmudev.org/contact/

@kirkward, as you alluded too, we have a 30 day money back guarantee – you have nothing to lose! Would love for you to give us another shot and let us know what you think compared to the last time you were a member ??

Cheers,
Tyler

I’m currently using Pro sites after a lot of customization, so I’m wondering if upgrading it will break my system now. Even more problems!

@tyler – Thanks for the feedback. I found this thread doing a search for a ProSites alternative. And that was a result of my frustrations with WPMU support.

It sounds like WPMU has added more support people, but I feel the addition of (as in parallel to the forum) a ticket system would enhance support as it would provide a dedicated thread between technical support and the user This would allow some focus when needed.

@cirrus – I won’t be buying from that site. I don’t trust software resellers of almost any sort here on the interweb. I have too many suspicions of nefarious code being injected.

While I still have frustrations with the idea of using WPMU again, I am thinking of developing a site that could use the features of Pro Sites. I may or may not develop the site because of the support system. Being unable to start a conversation with a dedicated support person frustrates me. Multiple people have multiple ideas and solutions wind up being a jumble of ideas. And, for me, there was always the difficulty of finding the thread with the discussion.

@tyler – I also have to add that the integration of the WPMU features into WordPress improved and stabilized the code. As an add on, it was like any plugin, subject to the changes in WordPress core. Headaches appeared.

And to all – I apologize for beating up on WPMU. I had many frustrations, and I think they were mostly to do with communication. It seemed very hard, and very inflexible. I never felt comfortable with the plugins, because when they had bugs, I felt answers were not direct or swift.

I’m currently using Pro sites after a lot of customization, so I’m wondering if upgrading it will break my system now. Even more problems!

@cirrus, when we release the update, create a support thread and let us know what customizations were done – then we can have one of our developers take a closer look and let you know what the potential issues would be and how to avoid them ??

It sounds like WPMU has added more support people, but I feel the addition of (as in parallel to the forum) a ticket system would enhance support as it would provide a dedicated thread between technical support and the user This would allow some focus when needed.

@kirkward From the backend, staff view, it is handled very much like a traditional support ticket system now. New questions come in, a staff will reply and once you reply back it will put your ticket in that staffs feed. So it is isn’t random who answers them – will always be a staff and most often the same staff ?? we do have some staff that aren’t full time support, so they are buddied up with other staff and share a feed – in those cases you may get multiple staff on the same ticket.

Frontend looks like a normal forum, but backend for us is much more like a ticket system. This system was only implemented a little over a year ago.

And, for me, there was always the difficulty of finding the thread with the discussion.

Again, not sure how it was a few years back – but all the support threads started by you will be in your profile. It separates the threads you start versus the threads you reply on – so maybe you are involved in another discussion started by someone else, you can easily find it in your profile.

And to all – I apologize for beating up on WPMU. I had many frustrations, and I think they were mostly to do with communication. It seemed very hard, and very inflexible. I never felt comfortable with the plugins, because when they had bugs, I felt answers were not direct or swift.

No worries, I think we all know how a bad experience(s) can ruin your view of a company – I’m sure we could all name one or two ??

I’m hoping we can change yours around though – as explained above, we have basically a whole new support system since you last were am member.

If you are still considering joining again then fire us off a private email through our contact form and let us know any further concerns you have, Let’s see if we can squash ’em ?? https://premium.wpmudev.org/contact/

Hope you both have a great weekend.

Cheers,
Tyler

PS. Forgot to mention this earlier, @duogeek glad you’re loving Pro Sites – thanks for the kind words! ??

Hello Cirrus123,

Have you managed to get it working on subsites? I cannot add it to the main site for multiple reasons and would really love to setup at least 1-2 sub sites as sites selling websites with premium themes and plugins. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,

Paul

Howdy folks,

So, I just bought the aforementioned $10 version of Pro Sites. I will likely join WPMU, but I wanted to test drive the plugin first at a lower investment. Some things are throwing me off:

1. Is there a way to customize (i.e. add fields) to the sign up process?

2. When a new user/site signs up, I see their user account being established, but where do the ‘reserved’ sites go? I don’t see those anywhere in my dashboard. Nor, am I getting notices.

Thanks for your help.

Pierce

Hi all,
I am using Pro Sites plugin too, but want to use it with Membership 2 Pro, is there any way to integrate this 2 plugins? I need to make Pro Sites page available only for members.
Can someone guide me on this. May be there is another way to organize this.
So they should become member after can register their own blog.