Installation and your account

After your purchase, you’ll receive a license key, and access to your account.

In your account you can download the plugin and all add-ons, manage your license key(s), whitelist sites for your license, manage your subscription(s), and customize and download invoices.

Download and install the plugin and add-ons

To install FacetWP and its add-ons, log in to your account and download the desired plugins.

Upload the ZIP file(s) into Plugins > Add Plugin > Upload Plugin, or manually extract the plugin folder(s) into /wp-content/plugins/ and upload. Then activate the plugin(s).

Next, whitelist your license key for your site(s) and activate it:

Manage your license key(s)

Whitelist your site(s) and activate your license key

To activate your license for your site(s), follow these steps:

1. Browse to Settings > FacetWP > Settings > General, paste the license key into the “License key” field, then click the “Activate” button.

   You’ll see the message: “Add [domain.com] to your license, via the “Pending” column in facetwp.com/account”:

   

   If the system detects that the site is a staging/development site, you’ll see an “All done, thanks for activating!” message instead, the license will be activated immediately, and you’re done at this point.

2. To add your site to your license, log in to your account.

3. Scroll down to the “Licenses” heading, where you’ll see your active (and expired) license(s). In the “Allowed” column, you’ll see the maximum number of allowed sites for your license plan, and how many sites are currently whitelisted:

   

   Note that so-called “grandfathered” licenses will show 999 allowed sites, because these were sold at a time when the number of sites was unlimited.

4. Click on the pencil icon in the “Pending” column. This will show a list of sites that tried to activate the license key (for which the “Activate” button in the site’s FacetWP settings was clicked).

   If you see no pending site, add your key to your site and click “Activate”, as described in step 1, and refresh the account page.

   Click the “Add” button for the pending site(s) you want to add to this license:

   

5. Refresh the page, and click the pencil icon in the “Allowed” column to see your whitelisted site(s). The first number in the “Allowed” column should reflect the number of whitelisted sites.
   

   

   To remove a site from the license again, just click the red “Remove” button. Note that to stop a site from using the license, this is not enough. See the explanation below.

6. In the site, browse to Settings > FacetWP > Settings > General, and click the “Activate” button again. You should now see “All done, thanks for activating!”. After refreshing the page, the message will show: “Valid until [date]”.

Activate your license key in wp-config.php or functions.php

If you prefer to keep your license key in code, you can add it to wp-config.php:

How to use custom PHP code?
PHP code can be added to your (child) theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Hooks add-on, or a code snippets plugin. More info
define( 'FACETWP_LICENSE_KEY', 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' );

If you add the key in wp-config.php like this, the license key field in Settings > FacetWP > Settings > General will be disabled and grayed out. This may be useful if you want to prevent users from changing or deleting the key manually. Note that you could also entirely hide the license key setting in this case.

Alternatively, you can add your key with the facetwp_license_key hook in your (child) theme’s functions.php:

How to use custom PHP code?
PHP code can be added to your (child) theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Hooks add-on, or a code snippets plugin. More info
add_filter( 'facetwp_license_key', function( $license_key ) {
    return 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx';
});

If you previously activated your license key manually, follow these steps to switch:

Switch the license key activation method

To switch from using a manually entered license key to a license key set in wp-config.php or functions.php, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > FacetWP > Settings > General.
2. Remove the key from the license key field, then click the “Activate” button.
3. Below the field will be the message “The license does not exist”, and the Support tab (after a page reload) will display “Active License Required”.​​​​
4. Add your key​ to your wp-config.php or functions.php, as explained above.
5. Reload the FacetWP Settings page. Now you’ll see the key in the License key field. If you added it in wp-config.php, it will be grayed out.
6. Click the “Activate” button.

In a WordPress multi-site setup, this procedure is the same, except you’ll have to do this for each sub-site, also if you use Network Activation.

License keys and multi-site

If you are using FacetWP in a WordPress multi-site setup, be aware that you have to activate your license key for each sub-site individually, also if FacetWP is Network Activated.

Also note that each sub-site counts against your license plan’s site limit.

License key restrictions

Depending on your license plan, you can use your license key on up to 3, 20, 100, or 500 live sites.

The allowed number for your license is shown in your account. Under the “Licenses” heading, you’ll see your active license(s). In the “Allowed” column, you’ll see the maximum number of allowed sites for your license plan, and how many sites are currently whitelisted:

Note that so-called “grandfathered” licenses will show 999 allowed sites, because these were sold at a time when the number of sites was unlimited.

You are allowed to activate your license on as many local, development or staging sites as needed. These kinds of sites do not count against the allowed limit of your license plan.

Note that if you are using FacetWP in a WordPress multi-site setup, each sub-site counts against your license’s site limit.

Free use on local, staging- and development sites

You are allowed to activate your license on as many local, development or staging sites as needed. These kinds of sites do not count against your the allowed limit of your license plan.

To activate a license on such a site, browse to Settings > FacetWP > Settings > General, add your key to the “License key” field, and click the “Activate” button. These sites will not show up in your account and do not have to be whitelisted manually, like normal/live sites.

To determine if a site is a local/staging/development site, our account system compares the URL to the following URL patterns:

How to use custom PHP code?
PHP code can be added to your (child) theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Hooks add-on, or a code snippets plugin. More info
[
  '.wpengine.com',
  '.wpenginepowered.com',
  '.pantheonsite.io',
  '.flywheelsites.com',
  '.cloudwaysapps.com',
  '.myftpupload.com',
  '.kinsta.cloud',
  '.kinsta.com',
  '.ngrok.io',
  'demo.',
  'dev.',
  'dev-',
  'test-',
  'local.',
  'develop.',
  'stage.',
  'staging.',
  'sandbox.',
  'alpha.',
  'beta.',
  'test.',
  '.dev',
  '.test',
  '.local',
  '.stage',
  '.vanwp.ca',
  '.sg-host.com',
  '.tempurl.host',
  '.mystagingwebsite.com',
  '.tinydevbox.org',
  '.lndo.site',
  '.vtx'
];

If your local/staging/development site’s URL pattern is not in this list, contact us in support, and we’ll consider adding it.

Remove a site from a license

If you want to remove a site from your license key, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your account.
2. Under the “Licenses” heading, you’ll see your active license(s). Click on the pencil icon in the “Allowed” column. This will show all whitelisted sites that are using the license.
3. Click the red “Remove” button to remove a site from your license:
   

   

4. In the site, browse to Settings > FacetWP > Settings > General, then clear the “License key” field and click the “Activate” button. There will be a “The license does not exist” message. The site is now removed from the license.

Hide the license key setting

If you want to hide the license key setting, for example, to prevent other admin users from copying or re-using it, you can add the following to your (child) theme’s functions.php:

How to use custom PHP code?
PHP code can be added to your (child) theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Hooks add-on, or a code snippets plugin. More info
add_filter( 'facetwp_settings_admin', function( $settings ) {
  unset( $settings['general']['fields']['license_key'] );
  return $settings;
});

Using your account

After your purchase, you get access to your account, where you can view your license details and purchase history, and where you can generate, download and customize invoices for every purchase you made.

You can also download the latest plugin version and all add-ons.

The account page also shows an overview of all live sites that are using your license key(s), and you can whitelist sites, and remove sites from a license key.

Log in to your account

You can log into your account with an access token, which is valid for 8 hours.

Retrieve a forgotten account email address

If you forgot which email address you used for your account, open a support ticket from within the plugin settings. We can see your payment ID in the ticket and can retrieve your email address.

Change your account name and email address

If you want to change your account name or email address, log in to your account. At the top of the page, click the pencil icon next to your name or email address to change it.

Note that the account name also appears on your invoice.

If you cannot access the current email address to receive the login link, please open a support ticket.

Generate, download, or customize your invoice

To view or download an invoice, log in to your account and scroll down to the “Purchase History” section. Click the “View Invoice” link on the right of the purchase you want to generate an invoice for. This will take you to the invoice, which you can print or download as a PDF with the button at the top.

If you want to customize the billing details on the invoice, for example, to add a company name, a billing address, or a tax/VAT number, go to the top of the account page, and click the pencil icon next to “Invoice details”:

The saved content will show up in the PDF invoice under your name, under “Bill to”. The invoice name can be changed by clicking the pencil icon next to your name.

Add a manager email address

It is possible to add one or more account manager email addresses, so that multiple people can access the same account with their own email address.

Each manager email address can be used to log in, and has full access to the account.

To add manager email addresses, log into your account, scroll down to the “Manager Emails” section at the bottom, fill in the email address, and click the “Add Manager” button.

Manage your subscription(s)

Renewals

Automatic renewals

By default, if you did not cancel it, your subscription will automatically renew after one year. A 20% discount on the normal price is automatically applied when your subscription is auto-renewed.

Renew an active or expired subscription

To manually renew an active or expired subscription, buy a new subscription, and enter your existing license key (active or expired) into the “Discount Code” box during checkout. It will then:

1. Apply the 20% renewal discount;
2. Add one extra year to the existing license’s expiration date. If the existing license hasn’t expired, it will add one year to the prior expiration date. If the existing license has expired, it will add one year from the date of purchase.

Cancel your subscription

If you want to cancel your subscription, log into your account, scroll down to the Subscriptions section and click the red “Cancel …” button beside the active subscription:

Change your subscription payment

Change your Stripe payment gateway or credit card info

If you want to change or update your Stripe payment method/gateway or credit card info, log into your account, scroll down to the Subscriptions section, and click the blue “Update Card” button beside the active subscription:

This will take you to a Stripe page, where you can view the subscription details, change payment methods, and update credit card details.

Change PayPal payments

If your subscription currently uses PayPal, any changes to your payment method need to be done directly in your account on paypal.com.

Switch between Stripe and PayPal

To switch your payment method from PayPal to Stripe or vice versa, you need to cancel the subscription before the renewal date. Then buy a new license, and make sure to enter your existing license key into the “Discount Code” box during checkout. This will apply the renewal discount and renew your existing (previously cancelled) license. If your license has a grandfathered price, the grandfathered renewal discount will be applied.

Upgrade to a higher license tier

We currently offer four license plans: Basic (3 sites), Professional (20 sites), Agency (100 sites), and Enterprise (500 sites).

You can upgrade your plan at any time. The system will automatically calculate the prorated upgrade cost for the remainder of the running subscription period. Note that we cannot process downgrades this way.

To upgrade your current license plan to a higher tier, log into your account, scroll down to the Subscriptions section, and click the blue “Upgrade…” button beside the active subscription:

After selecting the desired plan in the dropdown, you’ll see a pop-up message with the calculated prorated amount, and the amount for future renewals. After confirming, the extra payment will be processed via Stripe (also if it was PayPal before), and your license plan and the allowed number of sites in your account will be updated.

Note that there is no 20% renewal discount applied when upgrading to a higher tier, only when an existing subscription is renewed automatically or manually.

Upgrade a PayPal subscription

The process for upgrading a PayPal subscription is the same as described above. However, it is impossible to automatically change a running PayPal subscription.

This means that running PayPal subscriptions will automatically be switched to Stripe when upgrading them to a higher tier.

When you click the “Upgrade…” button, you’ll see the same pop-up message as when using Stripe, with the calculated prorated amount, and the amount for future renewals. But after confirming, you will be redirected to Stripe to continue and choose a payment gateway. The extra payment (and future renewals) will be processed via Stripe, and your license plan and the allowed number of sites in your account will be updated. Your PayPal subscription will automatically be cancelled.

If, for some reason, you don’t want to switch to Stripe when upgrading, the only way is to cancel your license, and buy a new license for the desired plan. However, in this case, you’ll pay the full amount, without any prorated calculations.

Plugin updates

As long as your license is active, FacetWP will automatically notify you when new updates are available.

When your license expires, FacetWP will continue to work, but you will no longer receive plugin updates or support.

Solve plugin update issues

If updates aren’t appearing, click “Activate” within Settings > FacetWP > Settings, then click “Check again” within Dashboard > Updates. This clears WP’s updater cache and force-checks for plugin and WordPress updates.

If that doesn’t resolve the issue, check the following:

• Clear all caching and optimization plugins (WP Total Cache, WP Rocket, WP Super Cache, Autoptimize, etc).
• Some hosts (Pagely, WP Engine, Siteground, Flywheel, etc) and services (Cloudflare) provide server-side caching that may also need to be cleared.

Note that if you are using FacetWP in a WordPress multi-site setup, the update notifications only appear in: My Sites > Network Admin > Plugins.

Update from (very) old versions

If you experience (fatal) PHP errors when updating from (very) old plugin versions, try deleting the plugin folder entirely (locally and on your server), then add the new version and upload it.

We’ve specifically seen updating errors with versions older than v3.8 (2021).

Disable the admin notices to install add-on integrations

Since version 4.1.8 FacetWP displays admin notices when you have certain plugins installed and the necessary integration add-ons are missing.

These notices were added because many users are unaware of the fact that some plugins do not work with FacetWP unless the related add-on is installed. For example, WPML needs the Multilingual add-on installed to work with FacetWP.

There are certain situations however in which you don’t need the integration add-ons. In these cases you can permanently disable these notices by adding the following code to your (child) theme’s functions.php or the Custom Hooks add-on:

How to use custom PHP code?
PHP code can be added to your (child) theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can use the Custom Hooks add-on, or a code snippets plugin. More info
add_filter( 'facetwp_dismiss_notices', '__return_true' );

See also

• FacetWP Add-Ons
• Installation and your account
• FacetWP licenses and pricing
• Using FacetWP with WordPress multi-site
• Why is Wordfence showing an abandoned plugin warning?
• Back up or move facets and listing templates
• Changelog
• Changelog (older versions)
• Using FacetWP with WPML or Polylang
• The Custom Hooks add-on