What You Will Build

By the end of this guide, you will have a working WordPress-as-a-Service platform where visitors can self-service sign up, pick a site template, choose a plan, and receive a fully provisioned WordPress site.

Tutorial Goals

Component	What you will set up
Plans	1 free plan (basic features, no payment required) + 1 paid plan (monthly via Polar)
Billing	Polar as primary payment provider
Templates	At least 1 site template customers can choose from
Frontend	Signup page, template browser, tenant dashboard
Flow	End-to-end: visitor → select template → pick plan → pay (if paid) → site created

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 YOUR MAIN SITE                  │
│            (yoursaas.com/wp-admin)              │
│                                                 │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  │
│  │  Plans   │  │Templates │  │   Billing    │  │
│  │Free / Pro│  │ Gallery  │  │(Polar/WC/..) │  │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────────┘  │
│                                                 │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │           PUBLIC PAGES                   │   │
│  │  /signup  /templates  /dashboard         │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                      │
          Provisioning Engine
                      │
     ┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
     ▼                ▼                ▼
┌─────────┐    ┌─────────┐    ┌─────────────┐
│ Tenant A │    │ Tenant B │    │  Tenant C   │
│ (free)   │    │  (pro)   │    │   (pro)     │
│ a.you.com│    │ b.you.com│    │ custom.com  │
└─────────┘    └─────────┘    └─────────────┘

Customer Signup Flow

Here is what your customers experience:

Visit signup page — sees available plans and pricing
Pick a template — browses the template gallery with tags/filters
Choose a plan — free or paid
Enter site details — subdomain slug, email
Pay (if paid plan) — redirected to Polar checkout
Site provisioned — customer receives their WordPress site URL
Access dashboard — manage site, billing, custom domain, backups

What Each Plugin Does

GrabWP Tenancy (Base)

The foundation. Handles tenant routing (subdomain → correct database tables), table-prefix isolation, and basic tenant management. Every tenant shares the same MySQL database but has isolated tables.

GrabWP Tenancy Pro

Adds advanced isolation and management:

Dedicated databases — each tenant gets its own MySQL database or SQLite file
Content isolation — separate themes, plugins, uploads directories per tenant
S3 storage — offload uploads to cloud storage
Backup & restore — per-tenant backup and restore
Tenant cloning — create templates by cloning existing tenants

GrabWP Tenancy WaaS

The self-service layer that turns your WordPress into a SaaS platform:

Plans — define free and paid tiers with features and pricing
Billing — Polar and WooCommerce integration for payments
Templates — template gallery with tags, groups, and plan restrictions
Signup flow — complete provisioning pipeline from signup to site delivery
Tenant dashboard — customer-facing dashboard for site management
Custom domains — let customers use their own domains
Subscriptions — lifecycle management with grace periods

Next: Install Plugins