MainWP v6 Early Access releases include a limited telemetry system to help understand how MainWP is used in real environments and where things may be breaking or causing friction.
This page explains what telemetry is used for, when it is active, what data is collected, and what data is explicitly not collected.
What You’ll Learn
- When telemetry is active (Early Access only)
- What data is collected and how it’s used
- What data is never collected
- How to disable telemetry
When Telemetry Is Active
Telemetry is only active in the following cases:
- MainWP v6 prerelease builds
- The Early Access extension
Telemetry is not used in stable releases. If you are not running an Early Access build, no telemetry data is sent.
Why We Collect Telemetry
The goal of telemetry in Early Access is to help us:
- Understand which environments MainWP is running in
- See how features are being used at a high level
- Identify common errors, failures, and edge cases
- Improve defaults and stability before features reach stable release
This data helps catch issues earlier and prioritize fixes based on real usage.
We use PostHog to collect and store telemetry data.
All telemetry is sent server-side from your MainWP Dashboard. If PostHog is unavailable for any reason, telemetry silently fails and does not affect MainWP functionality.
Disabling Telemetry
Telemetry is designed to be easy to disable.
When telemetry is disabled:
- No events are sent
- No background requests are made
- MainWP behavior is unchanged
MainWP can also disable telemetry globally on our side if needed.
Anonymous Tracking
All telemetry is tied to a single anonymous identifier per MainWP installation.
This identifier:
- Is generated locally
- Does not include domain names or URLs
- Does not include user or site information
- Is not shared across installations
It allows us to understand trends over time without identifying you or your sites.
What Data Is Collected
Telemetry focuses on aggregated statistics, configuration snapshots, and sanitized error information. It does not include content or identifying data.
| Category | Examples |
|---|
| Version information | MainWP version, WordPress version, PHP version, database version, locale, multisite status |
| Counts and usage totals | Number of connected sites, disconnected sites, installed add-ons, active add-ons |
| Feature configuration | High-level settings, whether features are enabled or disabled |
| Action outcomes | Attempts to add a child site, sync a site, or run updates, along with success or failure status |
| Error categories | Timeouts, authentication failures, SSL issues, HTTP errors |
| PHP error summaries | Daily summaries of notices, warnings, and fatal errors caused by MainWP (without full logs) |
What Is Not Collected
We want to be very clear about what we do not collect.
Telemetry never includes:
- Domain names or site URLs
- IP addresses
- Email addresses
- Usernames
- Site titles
- Client names or client details
- Plugin or theme names being updated
- Content from posts, pages, or databases
- Full PHP logs or server paths
- Any personal or customer-identifying data
We do not collect PII or P2 data.
Error Data Handling
Some telemetry events include error-related information to help debug problems.
When error data is sent:
- Messages are sanitized before sending
- URLs, emails, usernames, and other sensitive values are removed or masked
- File paths are reduced to paths relative to the plugin, not full server paths
- Only short summaries are included, not full stack traces or log files
This allows us to see patterns without exposing sensitive data.
Event Frequency and Impact
Telemetry events are sent at low frequency and avoid unnecessary load.
| Event Type | Frequency |
|---|
| Environment snapshots | On update or periodically as a safety check |
| Daily snapshots | Once per day for counts and aggregated data |
| Per-action events | Only when specific actions are performed |
Self-Check Checklist
