Magento 2: Setup Multiple Stores and Websites

This article shows how you can setup multiple stores and multiple websites in your Magento 2 shop.

I have assumed that we are having a separate domain or sub-domain for the stores and websites.

After adding the necessary stores and websites in the Magento admin, you then need to add some code in either index.php or .htaccess file to make the stores and websites domain work. I will show the code that can be added in both the files.

Add new stores and websites from Magento admin

– Login to your Magento shop admin
– Go to STORES -> All Stores
– Create Website
– Create Store
– And, then Create Store View

Let’s assume that we have created the following:

Website: base
Store: main_website_store
Store View: default

Website: base
Store: main_website_store
Store View: new

Website: wholesale_site
Store: wholesale_store
Store View: wholesale

This means that we have created 2 websites.

– One website is the base or main website which has two store views with code default and new.
– The other website is the wholesale website which has a single store view with code wholesale.

Here are the URLs that I want to use for my stores and website:

Default Store: example.com
New Store: new.example.com
Wholesale Website: wholesale.example.com

Link the URLs to the stores and website

To link the URLs to their respective stores and website, we can either add the code in the index.php file or in the .htaccess file.

Please note:

– You don’t need to update both files.
– You can either update .htaccess file or index.php file.
– Updating .htaccess file is recommended.

Adding code in .htaccess file

Add the following code at the end of the .htaccess file:

SetEnvIf Host .*new.example.com.* MAGE_RUN_CODE=new
SetEnvIf Host .*new.example.com.* MAGE_RUN_TYPE=store

SetEnvIf Host .*wholesale.example.com.* MAGE_RUN_CODE=wholesale_site
SetEnvIf Host .*wholesale.example.com.* MAGE_RUN_TYPE=website

Adding code in index.php file

By default, at the end of your index.php file, you will have the code something like this:

$bootstrap = \Magento\Framework\App\Bootstrap::create(BP, $_SERVER);
/** @var \Magento\Framework\App\Http $app */
$app = $bootstrap->createApplication(\Magento\Framework\App\Http::class);
$bootstrap->run($app);

We will update it like this:

switch($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']) {
    case 'new.example.com':
        $mageRunCode = 'new';
        $mageRunType = 'store';
    break;
    case 'wholesale.example.com':
        $mageRunCode = 'wholesale_site';
        $mageRunType = 'website';
    break;
    default:
        $mageRunCode = 'base';
        $mageRunType = 'website';
}
$params = $_SERVER;
$params[\Magento\Store\Model\StoreManager::PARAM_RUN_CODE] = $mageRunCode;
$params[\Magento\Store\Model\StoreManager::PARAM_RUN_TYPE] = $mageRunType;
$bootstrap = \Magento\Framework\App\Bootstrap::create(BP, $params);

/** @var \Magento\Framework\App\Http $app */
$app = $bootstrap->createApplication(\Magento\Framework\App\Http::class);
$bootstrap->run($app);

Hope this helps. Thanks.