The Network Admin dashboard is the Super Admin control center for managing all sites, users, themes, and plugins across a WordPress Multisite network. Access it via My Sites → Network Admin in the admin bar.

Who Can Access It?

Only Super Admins — a role that exists exclusively in Multisite. Super Admin is not a regular WordPress role; it’s a flag stored in wp_sitemeta under site_admins. Regular Administrators are scoped to their individual sites.

// Check Super Admin status
if ( is_super_admin() ) {
    // Has network-wide privileges
}

// Capability check for network admin screens
if ( current_user_can( 'manage_network' ) ) {
    // Can access Network Admin
}

Network Admin Screens

Dashboard

• Network-wide notices and WordPress update status
• "Right Now" widget: total sites, users, active themes/plugins
• Search: quickly find sites or users across the network

Sites (Sites → All Sites)

The core of network management:

• Add New — create sites with domain/path, title, admin email
• Edit — per-site Info, Users, Themes, Settings tabs
• Actions — Deactivate, Archive, Spam, Delete, Visit, Dashboard

Site attributes:

Users (Users → All Users)

• View all users across the entire network
• Add New — creates a network-level user (can then be added to specific sites)
• Super Admin toggle — grant/revoke via Edit User
• Users can belong to multiple sites with different roles on each

Themes (Themes → Installed Themes)

• Network Enable/Disable — themes must be network-enabled before individual sites can activate them
• Network-active themes are available to all sites
• Per-site theme overrides available via Sites → Edit → Themes tab
• Only Super Admins can install new themes

Plugins (Plugins → Installed Plugins)

• Network Activate — plugin runs on ALL sites (no per-site toggle)
• Non-network-activated plugins can be activated per-site (if Plugins menu is enabled for site admins)
• Only Super Admins can install/delete plugins
• Network-activated plugins load before site-activated ones

Settings (Settings → Network Settings)

See the Multisite Settings doc for full details.

Updates (Updates)

• WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates for the entire network
• Updates apply to all sites simultaneously
• Database upgrades (/wp-admin/upgrade.php) must run per-site after major core updates — WP-CLI: wp core update-db --network

Network Admin Hooks

The Network Admin uses its own set of hooks, separate from the site admin:

// Network admin menu (not admin_menu)
add_action( 'network_admin_menu', function() {
    add_menu_page( 'Custom', 'Custom', 'manage_network', 'custom-page', 'render_fn' );
});

// Network admin notices
add_action( 'network_admin_notices', function() {
    echo '<div class="notice notice-info"><p>Network notice</p></div>';
});

// Network admin init
add_action( 'network_admin_init', 'my_network_init' );

Key Hooks

WP-CLI for Network Admin Tasks

# List all sites
wp site list --fields=blog_id,url,registered

# Create a new site
wp site create --slug=newsite --title="New Site" [email protected]

# Delete a site
wp site delete 4 --yes

# List Super Admins
wp super-admin list

# Grant Super Admin
wp super-admin add username

# Revoke Super Admin
wp super-admin remove username

# Network-activate a plugin
wp plugin activate my-plugin --network

# Network-enable a theme
wp theme enable flavor --network

# Run DB upgrades across all sites
wp core update-db --network

Key Differences: Network Admin vs Site Admin

URL Structure

The Network Admin is at /wp-admin/network/ — distinct from any individual site’s /wp-admin/:

// Get network admin URL
$url = network_admin_url( 'sites.php' );
// → https://example.com/wp-admin/network/sites.php

// Check if in network admin
if ( is_network_admin() ) {
    // Currently in Network Admin context
}

Related

• Multisite Architecture — core concepts, database structure, site switching
• Multisite Settings — network and per-site settings reference
• Multisite Functions — function reference
• Multisite Hooks — action and filter reference