WPWaaS vs Ultimate Multisite: is the free fork actually enough?
Ultimate Multisite is a real, actively-maintained free option — not a scam or an abandoned dead end. Here’s an honest look at what it actually gives you, and where it stops.
Ultimate Multisite (also called Multisite Ultimate) is a free, open-source, community-maintained fork of WP Ultimo, built after the original commercial plugin was abandoned. It’s a legitimate way to get raw multisite-to-WaaS infrastructure at no cost — subscriptions, site provisioning, domain mapping. What it doesn’t give you is anything industry-specific: no church management, no giving tools, no support line, and no one but you responsible for keeping it running. WPWaaS trades the “free” part for a finished, supported, industry-specific product you can start reselling immediately. See the full backstory on our WP Ultimo history page.
This isn’t the abandoned original. Ultimate Multisite ships regular releases, has an active GitHub repository, and multiple independent reviewers describe it as a genuinely capable continuation of WP Ultimo’s functionality — for developers comfortable running and maintaining it themselves. It’s a reasonable choice for the right person. The rest of this page is about who that person is, and who it isn’t.
A capable, free, DIY toolkit - not a finished product
Ultimate Multisite turns a WordPress Multisite install into subscription-based infrastructure: customers can sign up, get provisioned a site automatically, map their own domain, and pay through Stripe or PayPal. That’s genuinely useful, and it’s free.
What it doesn’t do is give you anything past that generic layer. There’s no church management module, no giving tools, no event calendar built for congregations, no mobile money integration — because Ultimate Multisite isn’t built for any one industry. It’s a blank network you configure, theme, and extend yourself, the same way whether you’re selling sites to churches, gyms, or dentists.
Where it's genuinely strong
- Completely free, open-source, no licensing cost at any scale
- Actively maintained, with regular releases on GitHub
- Solid core multisite, billing, and domain-mapping functionality
- You own the stack — no vendor lock-in
Where it stops
- No industry-specific features for any vertical
- Support is community forums and GitHub issues, not a vendor
- Requires real WordPress Multisite expertise to set up correctly
- You’re responsible for hosting capacity, performance, and every future update
WPWaaS vs Ultimate Multisite
| Feature | WPWaaS | Ultimate Multisite |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $49–$149/mo, by site count | Free |
| Actively maintained | ✓ | ✓ Community releases |
| Church management features | ✓ Built in | Build it yourself |
| Mobile money / regional payments | ✓ | Not built in |
| Vendor support included | ✓ | Community only |
| Setup time to first client site | Same afternoon | Depends on your build |
| Who maintains it long-term | WPWaaS | You |
Choose Ultimate Multisite if…
You’re a developer who wants full control over generic multisite infrastructure, you’re comfortable building every industry-specific feature yourself, and free matters more than speed or included support.
Choose WPWaaS if…
You’re a WordPress agency who wants to resell a finished, branded product this week, not spend months building church-specific features on top of generic infrastructure. See the Church Portal or how the model works.
Ultimate Multisite, answered
A free, open-source, community-maintained WordPress plugin forked from WP Ultimo 2.x after the original commercial plugin was abandoned. It turns a Multisite install into a subscription-based WaaS platform.
Yes, distributed through WordPress.org and GitHub at no cost. Some payment integrations, like Stripe, may carry their own transaction fees separate from the plugin itself.
Support is community-based through GitHub issues and forums, not a dedicated vendor line — response times vary, as with most volunteer-maintained projects.
No. It provides generic multisite, billing, and domain-mapping infrastructure — church-specific features like membership, giving, or events would need to be built separately.
Ultimate Multisite gives you free infrastructure to build a WaaS platform yourself. WPWaaS gives agencies a finished, industry-specific product ready to deploy and resell, with support included.
Skip the build. Start reselling a finished product this week.
Deploy the Church Portal under your own brand — the full module bundle, from day one.