Players judge your realm by its website before they ever log in. If you are planning your site, use this checklist of WoW private server website features to see what to build or what to look for in a CMS.
1. Secure registration and login
Registration with email validation, SRP6 password hashing that matches the game, a CAPTCHA and rate limiting on login. This is the foundation, because every other feature depends on it.
2. Live server status
Online or offline, player count and uptime on the homepage. Players check this first, so it should be fast and always visible.
3. Character armory
Search any character and see gear with item icons, talents, professions, arena teams and achievements. An armory lets players show off their character without logging in.
4. Vote system
Voting brings new players and rewards loyal ones. A good vote system supports several vote sites, cooldowns per site and optional callback verification, so rewards cannot be abused.
5. Donation shop
Let players buy points for your in-game shop. The shop should deliver items by command, log every purchase and let you mark orders as delivered or refund them when something goes wrong.
6. Rankings and leaderboards
Level, honor, kills and playtime leaderboards give players a reason to compete. Hardcore realms also like a hall of fame with death logs.
7. Forum and community tools
A forum with categories, threads, a rich text editor, likes and reporting keeps discussion on your site instead of scattered over Discord.
8. News and announcements
Patch notes, events and maintenance notices published from the admin panel, with images, without touching the code.
9. A real admin panel
Dashboard statistics, account management, shop and vote management, a menu builder, theme switching and an audit log of every admin action. For example, being able to see who changed a shop price, and when, saves many arguments.
10. Security and performance
CSRF protection, rate limiting, escaped output, secure sessions, caching and GZIP. Because your site stores account data, security is not optional.
Bonus: live map and mobile app feel
A live world map showing where players are, and a progressive web app (PWA) so players can add your site to their phone home screen, are not essential but they make your realm feel professional.
How to get all of this without building it
SkyWall CMS includes all of the features above for AzerothCore, TrinityCore, cMaNGOS and VMaNGOS 3.3.5a, with a visual installer and a templates editor. If you want to build your own instead, read our guide on how to create a WoW private server website, and see the documentation for what a complete setup looks like.