Domain & DNS Setup

You have two ways to route visitors to a tenant site. Path routing requires no setup at all — custom domains require hosting and DNS configuration.

Option A — Path Routing (Recommended for Quick Setup)

Access any tenant site via a URL path on your existing domain — no DNS changes, no hosting configuration:

https://yoursite.com/site/{tenant-id}

Example: https://yoursite.com/site/abc123

This works automatically on Apache and LiteSpeed servers (the plugin configures .htaccess rewrite rules on activation).

Nginx Setup

Nginx doesn't use .htaccess, so you need to add a server block rule manually:

location ~ ^/site/([a-z][a-z0-9]{5})(/|$) {
    rewrite ^/site/([a-z][a-z0-9]{5})/?(.*)$ /$2 break;
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?site=$1&$args;
}

Add this block inside your existing WordPress server {} block, then reload Nginx.

Option B — Query-String Routing

Access a tenant site by appending its ID as a query parameter — useful for testing or when you can't modify server config:

https://yoursite.com/?site={tenant-id}

Example: https://yoursite.com/?site=abc123

No server configuration needed. Works on any host. Not recommended for production as the URL is not user-friendly.

Option C — Custom Domain

Give each tenant site its own domain (e.g., client.com or client.yoursite.com). Requires two steps: hosting setup and DNS configuration.

Step 1: Add the Domain in Hosting

Log into your hosting control panel and add the domain:

For subdomains (e.g., client.yoursite.com):

• Find Parked Domains or Domain Aliases
• Add the subdomain pointing to your main WordPress directory

For external domains (e.g., clientsite.com):

• Find Addon Domains
• Set the document root to your main WordPress directory
• Do not create a new subdirectory

Step 2: Update DNS

For subdomains — add an A record at your DNS provider:

• Name: subdomain (e.g., client)
• Type: A
• Value: your server's IP address

For external domains — update nameservers at the registrar to point to your host, or add an A record if you manage DNS separately.

Step 3: Wait for Propagation

DNS changes take 5–30 minutes, sometimes up to 24 hours. Use dnschecker.org to verify the domain resolves to your server.

Testing

Visit the domain — you should see the tenant site's WordPress screen. If you see your hosting's default page, the document root isn't pointing to your WordPress directory.

Domain Format Rules

• Valid formats: example.com, sub.example.com
• No IP addresses or localhost
• Letters, numbers, and hyphens only