---
title: Managing sites
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/managing-website-content.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/deploying-websites.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/deploying-websites/exporting-and-importing-sites.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

You can run any number of sites within a single instance of Kentico. Each site runs on its own domain name and stores content in a separate [content tree](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/managing-website-content/working-with-pages.md).

**Portal Engine** sites share the same web project (code base) and database. **MVC** sites use a shared database and web project for the administration interface, but each site also has a separate MVC project that provides the live site (running under the site's _Presentation URL_).

## Creating sites

See [Installing new sites](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/managing-sites/installing-new-sites.md).

## Starting and stopping sites

You can stop or run individual sites in the **Sites** application. Use the following actions:

-  **Start site**
-  **Stop site**

When you stop a site:

- Visitors cannot access the live site
- Users cannot edit the site in the site-specific sections of the administration interface

For Portal Engine sites, you can keep a site running and switch it to [off-line mode](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/managing-sites/switching-sites-to-off-line-mode.md) – this stops the live website and leaves the administration enabled.

> **Info:** **Switching between sites on a single domain**
>
> You cannot start sites that use the **same domain name** (or [domain alias](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/managing-sites/setting-domain-names-for-sites.md)) as another site that is already running. If you need to test multiple websites on a single domain, such as _localhost_, set this domain for all sites and switch between them using the **Start site** and **Stop site** actions.
>
> You can run multiple sites at the same time using alternative host names that point to the same domain (for example _localhost_ and _127.0.0.1_).

## Assigning objects to sites

Many objects in Kentico need to be assigned to specific sites in order to be available on the given sites. Site bindings allow you to limit where objects can be used when running multiple websites in the system. You can manage all types of site bindings for individual websites in a single location:

1. Open the **Sites** application.
2. Edit () the site.
3. Open the **Assigned objects** tab.

You can assign the following objects to the site:

- [Custom tables](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/defining-website-content-structure/managing-custom-tables.md)
- [Smart search indexes](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/setting-up-search-on-your-website.md)
- [SMTP servers](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/configuring-smtp-servers.md)
- [Modules](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/custom-development/creating-custom-modules.md)
- [Users](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/managing-users.md)
- [CSS stylesheets](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/designing-websites-using-css.md)
- [Page templates](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/managing-page-templates.md)
- [Page types](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/defining-website-content-structure/creating-and-configuring-page-types.md)
- [Web part containers](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/developing-websites-using-portal-engine/using-web-part-containers.md)
- [Page relationship types](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/loading-and-displaying-data-on-websites/displaying-related-pages.md)
- [Polls](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/managing-website-content/polls.md)

For example, after creating a new site, you can assign users from other sites in the system:

1. Select the **Users** sub-tab.
2. Click **Add users**.
3. Select the users that you want to add to the site.
4. Click **Select**.

## Deleting sites

You can delete sites from the system in the **Sites** application.

1. Click **Delete** () next to the site that you want to delete.
   - The **Site deletion confirmation** dialog opens.
2. Enable or disable the following options:

   - **Delete page attachment physical files** – if checked, the deletion process removes files attached to the site's pages from the file system (stored in the _\\\files_ folder).
   - **Delete meta files physical files** – if checked, the deletion process removes the site's meta files (stored in the _\\\metafiles_ folder).
   - **Delete media files physical files** – if checked, the deletion process removes physical files stored in the site's [media libraries](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/managing-website-content/working-with-files/media-library-files.md) (_\\\media_ folder).
3. Click **Yes**.

   - The system displays a log showing the progress of the deletion.
4. When the process finishes, click **OK**.

The list in the **Sites** application no longer includes the deleted site.

> **Note:** **Renaming sites**
>
> When renaming individual sites, we do not recommend changing the _Site code name_. Site code name is used throughout the Kentico folder structure. If you want to rename a site and change its _Site code name,_ you need to manually rename the following folders and files:
>
> - \~/CMS//
> - \~/CMS/App\_Data/CMSModules/SmartSearch/.
> - \~/CMS/App\_Data//
> - \~/CMS/App\_Data//Resources/.resx
> - \~/CMS/App\_Data//Resources//..resx
> - \~/CMS/App\_Code//