---
title: Setting up multiple websites
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k81/configuring-kentico/managing-sites/setting-up-multiple-websites/running-multiple-sites-on-a-single-domain.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k81/configuring-kentico/managing-sites/setting-up-multiple-websites/configuring-nested-websites.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).

Kentico allows you to run any number of websites from a single installation. The websites share the same web project (code base) and database. All sites run under a single web site in [IIS](http://www.iis.net/). 

![Diagram showing the architecture of multiple sites](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k81/setting-up-multiple-websites/Multiple_Sites.png "Diagram showing the architecture of multiple sites")

> **Note:** **Using separate installations for each site**
>
> It is recommended to run separate instances of Kentico for every website in the following scenarios:
>
> - Your websites contain a **very large number of pages** and high performance is a critical requirement.
> - Your customers have very **different requirements** and you need to customize shared parts of the system, such as the administration interface or the structure of shared database tables.
> - Your customers are very sensitive to **security** and you do not want to risk that other clients will get access to other websites because of an administrator’s mistake.

The following sections demonstrate how to set up multiple websites on an example of two sites:

- **mysite.com**
- **mysite2.com**

## Creating multiple sites in Kentico

1. Open the sites application.
2. Create two websites.

   - You can either [import](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/deploying-websites.md) existing websites or create new websites using the [New site wizard](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/configuring-kentico/managing-sites/installing-new-sites.md).
3. Edit () each website and set the **Site domain name** values (without the _www_ prefix and _http://_ protocol).
4. Make sure both sites are running.

   - You can check the site status on the main site list.
5. Make sure you have valid [license keys](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/configuring-kentico/managing-sites/managing-site-licenses.md) for both domains in the **Licenses** application.

![Kentico installation with two websites](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k81/setting-up-multiple-websites/Two_Sites_Example.png "Kentico installation with two websites")

## Configuring multiple sites on a local IIS server

1. Open your **Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager** console (_Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager_).
2. In the tree, right-click **Sites** and select **Add Web Site**.

   ![](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k81/setting-up-multiple-websites/sf8.png)
3. Enter the following details:

   - **Site name**: mysite.com
   - **Physical path**: disk path to the location of your site's web project (where the application's _web.config_ file is stored).
   - **Host name**: www.mysite.com

![](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k81/setting-up-multiple-websites/f9.png)

4. Click **OK**.

   - The site appears under the **Sites** node.
5. Right-click the site and select **Edit bindings**.

   ![](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k81/setting-up-multiple-websites/f8.png)
6. Click **Add**.
7. Enter the domain name of your second website as the **Host name** and click **OK**.
8. **Add** two more bindings for both sites without the _www_ prefix.

   ![](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k81/setting-up-multiple-websites/s2.png)

Your new IIS web site is now configured to handle all incoming requests for domains _mysite.com_ and _mysite2.com_. You may need to ask your network administrator to redirect the domain in the DNS records to your website. When you open <http://www.mysite.com> and <http://www.mysite2.com> (or your own domain names) in a browser, you should see two different websites.

> **Tip:** **Testing domains**
>
> If you do not own the domains, you can test the configuration by modifying the server's **C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts** file.
>
> For this example, add the following lines to the end of the file:
>
> ```text
>
> 127.0.0.1       mysite.com
> 127.0.0.1       www.mysite.com
> 127.0.0.1       mysite2.com
> 127.0.0.1       www.mysite2.com
> ```
>
> **Note**: These are client settings, so the website will only work when accessed from a browser on the server machine.

> **Note:** **Multiple websites on a single domain**
>
> If you cannot use multiple domain names for your website, you can differentiate websites by subfolder (virtual directory). See [Running multiple sites on a single domain](https://docs.kentico.com/k81/configuring-kentico/managing-sites/setting-up-multiple-websites/running-multiple-sites-on-a-single-domain.md) for more details.