Technical hosting stack
A FrankenPHP-first platform for hosted WordPress Multisite.
Hosted Ultimate Multisite combines modern edge delivery, Caddy, FrankenPHP, WordPress Multisite, full-page caching, object caching, managed backups, and a scale-ready data architecture so your network can grow from a handful of sites to a high-volume SaaS-style platform.
Stack principles
- Fast by default: edge cache, full-page cache, object cache, and FrankenPHP workers.
- WordPress-native: built around Multisite rather than bolting on site management later.
- Scale-ready: stateless web nodes, cache-aware routing, and a redundant data tier design.
- Operator-friendly: repeatable deploys, backups, monitoring, and fewer moving parts.
How a request moves through the platform
Each layer has one job: protect, route, cache, execute, retrieve data, and return the fastest safe response possible.
1. Edge protection
Cloudflare absorbs common internet noise before it reaches the origin: CDN delivery, DNS, TLS edge termination, DDoS mitigation, and WAF-style filtering.
2. Caddy routing
Caddy handles modern HTTP routing and automatic HTTPS. On-demand TLS can validate mapped domains against the multisite network before issuing certificates.
3. FrankenPHP runtime
FrankenPHP runs PHP directly inside the Caddy-based server runtime, reducing the traditional web-server-to-PHP-FPM handoff and keeping the application path lean.
4. Full-page cache
Sidekick full-page caching serves anonymous traffic without booting all of WordPress on every request, while content-save hooks purge changed paths automatically.
5. WordPress Multisite
One WordPress codebase powers many customer sites. Ultimate Multisite adds the commercial controls: plans, provisioning, domain workflows, add-ons, and site management.
6. Data and backups
The database and file layers are protected with backup and restore workflows. The scale architecture adds redundant database nodes, replication, and failover for high-volume networks.
Why FrankenPHP matters
A simpler, faster PHP serving model for WordPress.
Traditional WordPress stacks often glue together a web server, reverse proxy, PHP-FPM pool, cache layers, and process managers. FrankenPHP collapses key parts of that path into a modern Caddy-powered runtime, which means fewer boundaries to tune and a cleaner path from request to PHP execution.
Custom PHP builds
PHP is compiled from source and optimised for our specific workflow. Opcache is configured for perfect performance. Preload keeps common PHP files ready in memory.
Caddy built in
FrankenPHP inherits Caddy’s operational strengths: modern HTTP, automatic certificates, clean configuration, and dependable routing.
Fewer moving parts
A unified runtime reduces the number of services that need to be tuned, restarted, monitored, and coordinated.
Great fit for Multisite
A network of sites benefits from efficient routing, persistent cron workers, shared application code, and centralised cache invalidation.
Component value breakdown
| Component | What it does | Value for hosted multisite |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare edge | DNS, CDN, traffic filtering, DDoS protection, and global delivery. | Protects origin servers and improves global visitor latency before traffic reaches WordPress. |
| Caddy | Routes HTTP traffic and automates certificates, including on-demand TLS for mapped domains. | Lets customer domains come online quickly without manual certificate work. |
| FrankenPHP | Runs PHP inside a modern Caddy-powered application server with worker-mode options. | Reduces stack complexity and improves the path for dynamic WordPress requests. |
| Sidekick page cache | Stores full-page responses for anonymous traffic and purges changed content paths. | Turns many requests into fast cache hits instead of full WordPress bootstraps. |
| Docket object cache | Caches expensive WordPress object and query results. | Reduces repeat database work across a large network. |
| WordPress Multisite | Runs many sites from one WordPress installation and shared codebase. | Provides the native foundation for SaaS-style WordPress hosting. |
| Ultimate Multisite | Adds plans, provisioning, domain mapping, billing workflows, metering, add-ons, and controls. | Turns WordPress Multisite into a sellable hosted platform. |
| Bedrock + Composer | Makes WordPress dependencies versioned, reproducible, and deployable. | Reduces deployment drift and gives the platform a professional release workflow. |
| Trellis deployments | Automates server configuration and production deploys. | Makes infrastructure changes repeatable instead of manual and fragile. |
| Redundant data tier design | Primary database, replicas, backups, and failover patterns for high-volume networks. | Supports high availability, disaster recovery, and read-scaling as networks grow. |
| Multi-node web tier | Additional FrankenPHP web nodes can be added behind edge routing/load balancing. | Allows the platform to scale web traffic horizontally instead of relying on one machine. |
High availability and scale architecture
The platform is designed to scale in layers. Small networks can start efficiently. As demand grows, web capacity, cache capacity, database redundancy, and operational support can expand independently.
- Horizontal web scaling: multiple FrankenPHP web nodes serve the same application release behind edge routing or load balancing.
- Stateless web tier: application code is deployed consistently, allowing nodes to be added or replaced with minimal ceremony.
- Redundant data architecture: high-volume networks use database replication, backups, and failover planning rather than depending on a single point of recovery.
- Cache-aware operations: page cache, object cache, and CDN purges are part of the content lifecycle.
- Advanced pricing for large networks: 10,000+ site platforms can use dedicated infrastructure, tailored capacity planning, and custom SLAs.
Built for operators, not just websites.
You are not buying a generic server. You are getting a hosted WordPress Multisite platform with the runtime, caching, deployment model, domain automation, and commercial tooling needed to sell hosted sites at scale.