WordPress MU

Hi everyone,

I recently posted this exact same question on the Wordpress forums; I hope it's okay that I'm posting here as well.

So I'm thinking of building my site on ASO, and I'll use either Wordpress or Wordpress MU as a basic CMS.

I want to run up to 10 blogs off the same site, each under a different subdomain (example: blog1.domain.com, blog2.domain.com, etc.). I'll have complete control over all the blogs, and I'll be the only person creating new blogs. Each blog will have a different theme and essentially self-contained, which is why I can't simply use one install of Wordpress for everything.

So my question is: would it be better to use Wordpress or Wordpress MU?

Pros to Wordpress
- Simpler installation onto each subdomain through CPanel (but, as recommended, I'll do updates in another manner)
- More likely that plugins will work (should I use something random)

Pros to Wordpress MU
- Less space server, and thus reduced cost (?) (due to reusing code rather than installing 10 times?)
- Finally learn how to pronounce the "MU" in Wordpress MU

It looks like one install of wordpress took up 64mb of space, so would I need 640mb of space to host just the Wordpress code for 10 blogs? Would it be significantly smaller/cheaper to use Wordpress MU? Or does the difficulty of using MU for just 10 blogs outweigh the cost of using regular Wordpress?

Anything else I'm missing?

Your insights are definitely welcomed. Thanks!

Well, I think there's a bit of overthinking going on. :) One wordpress install definitely doesn't use up 64 megs.

That being said, I do think you might as well start off with WPMU. The codebases are merging anyway (by Christmas) and it;s a lot easier to get up and running now.

It all depends on the level of customizing you want in each blog. Different themes and plugins are possible for each with WPMU, but if you need something like LDAP authentication on just one blog then it becomes a problem since authentication is handled globally.

Another question subscriber base. Will there be crossover among the subscribers of your blogs or are there strong security needs to sandbox them? If it's a network of sites with similar subscribers, then WPMU might be a good option since they'll already be registered in the database. If it's for, say, hosting blogs for potentially competing businesses in the same market, then I might consider isolating the subscribers/databases with standalone WP.

Yes, plugins are generally more likely to be compatible with standalone WP than WPMU. But temper that with the fact that a LOT of plugins only work with older versions of either and the authors may have abandoned them without updates for newer versions of WP/WPMU.

Following up on the topic, I'm looking at a niche website but with really only one blog. However, I want to use the social networking aspects of Buddypress. I am wondering how to determine if the other plugins I want will work with MU. Will MU be a pain to administer until the codebases merge fully? What type of plugins are going to be the hardest to integrate? Given I want only one blog, can theming for MU and WP be the same (i.e. can I use Hybrid?).

Thanks in advance for help.

"Given I want only one blog, can theming for MU and WP be the same (i.e. can I use Hybrid?)."

Themeing is the same, yes you can use Hybrid.