Are you currently using a reliable hosting provider for your WordPress site? That shouldn’t stop you from using InstaWP for your WordPress maintenance workflow. This article will guide you on how to leverage InstaWP for your live site while continuing to use your existing hosting provider.
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While InstaWP Live, InstaWP’s managed WordPress hosting, is an excellent solution for all types and sizes of WordPress sites, we understand that you might not be ready to move from your current hosting provider to InstaWP Live. The good thing is – you can still manage your website using InstaWP.
Yup. InstaWP isn’t just about hosting; it’s also about empowering you to manage your WordPress sites more effectively, no matter where they’re hosted.
Let’s tell you more about it.
Overview of InstaWP
InstaWP is a full-fledged site management powerhouse designed to simplify your work, enhance productivity, and give you more control over your WordPress ecosystem. Whether you’re an agency, freelancer, or site owner, this Cloud solution can make your WordPress life easier.
Even if you’re not hosting your site with InstaWP Live, there are plenty of tools and features within InstaWP that can streamline your workflows and save you time. From seamless site management to enhanced development tools, here are some standout features you can tap into right now:
The tool is a preferred choice because of its intuitive interface, ease of use, and instant setup processes.
Key Features of InstaWP for Site Management
- All-in-One Dashboard: Manage all your WordPress sites—no matter the hosting provider—through a single, intuitive dashboard.
- Effortless Bulk Updates: Update plugins and themes across multiple sites with just a few clicks. Use the “Sort by Updates” option to prioritize updates efficiently.
- Developer-Friendly Tools: Access SFTP, Code Editor, SSH, DB Editor, and more such site tools directly. Seamlessly edit files with VS Code integration.
- Snapshots and Staging: Create snapshots for backups or staging environments. Test changes and sync them live effortlessly with 2-Way Sync.
- WP-CLI Commands: Create and run reusable WP-CLI commands for staging or live sites directly from InstaWP.
Complete WordPress Site Management Guide →
How to Link InstaWP With Your Existing Hosting
You can connect your hosting provider (particular server) to InstaWP using the InstaWP Connect plugin.
You can install InstaWP Connect on your live site from the WordPress repository.
Once installed and activated, navigate to Tools > InstaWP > Create Staging then click the Connect button.
You’ll be redirected to InstaWP account to grant permission. Simply click Approve on the prompt, and your site will be linked to InstaWP account successfully.
Once linked, you can access your sites directly which has been connected from the dashboard by going to the Connects page.
Things You Can Do With InstaWP While Still Keeping Your Hosting Account
InstaWP is a reliable WordPress management platform that you can leverage to manage your WordPress site remotely and create staging environments for testing purposes away from your hosting while still maintaining your hosting account.
Some of the things you can do with InstaWP while still keeping your hosting account include:
1. Create Instant WordPress Sandbox Sites for Development
You can build your next WordPress project with an InstaWP sandbox environment. InstaWP allows you to spin up WordPress sites in seconds and provide a remote sandbox environment to build them from the ground up. Once completed, you can quickly push the site live to your preferred hosting provider.
Here’s how to develop a WordPress site using InstaWP:
Step 1: Create an Instant WordPress Site
Log into your dashboard and navigate to Staging > Add New +.
From the popup, select From Scratch if you wish to start with a blank WordPress canvas or From Store If you wish to make use of ready-made templates to speed things up.
In the next step, select the plugins and themes that you want to be installed with the WordPress site, and click Create Site.
Step 2: Customize Your WordPress Site
After your WordPress site has been created, you will be able to access the WordPress site admin dashboard using the automatically generated URL and login credentials or the Magic Login button.
From the admin dashboard, you can build and configure your new sandbox site until it is ready to go live.
Step 3: Export the Site from InstaWP to your Hosting Provider
You can then export the finished WordPress project from InstaWP to your hosting account for it to go live.
To make the website go live, first, install a blank WordPress site on your hosting and link your domain name to it. Then, from the dashboard, click the rocket icon in the action menu labeled “Go Live” on the right side of the completed sandbox site.
A popup with three options will come up. From the popup, select the Migrate via URL option and click Next Step.
In the next step, enter your domain URL and click the + Connect Website button.
InstaWP will prompt you to authorize access to the fresh WordPress site in your new host, and once you grant access, InstaWP will automatically connect to the site and install the InstaWP Connect plugin.
After authorizing and connecting InstaWP, you can then click the Begin migration button and push the staging site to the live site on your preferred host.
2. Manage Multiple WordPress Sites from One Dashboard
InstaWP is a site management platform away from your server that allows you to connect and manage multiple WordPress sites from one dashboard.
With InstaWP management, you can securely connect hundreds of WordPress sites and configure your preferred management options with ease. You can also bulk update sites and monitor the uptime of all the sites you have linked. InstaWP will notify you by email whenever your live site goes offline.
Some of InstaWP managerial features that can improve your workflow include:
1-click Connection
You can easily link your WordPress site to your account with the InstaWP Connect plugin.
You just install the InstaWP Connect plugin on your live site and have it connected to your account with just a few simple clicks.
Setup management options
With your live site successfully linked to InstaWP, you can choose the remote management options you want accessible from InstaWP’s dashboard.
To make your selection, return to your live site and go to Tools > InstaWP > Manage.
Plugin and Theme Bulk Actions
From the InstaWP dashboard, you can efficiently manage and update outdated WordPress plugins and themes, either individually or in bulk.
To update multiple sites simultaneously, navigate to the Connects page, select the desired sites, and click on the Bulk Edit button to apply updates to plugins and themes across the selected WordPress sites.
Additionally, you can sort plugins and themes by their update status, displaying the most outdated items first for easier management.
Purge cache
It is advisable to clear your WordPress site cache periodically or after making a significant change on your site to see the change in effect.
InstaWP supports over 20 cache plugins, enabling you to clear your live site’s cache with a single click. Simply use the Purge Cache brush icon located next to the site on the Connects page.
Heartbeat monitoring
InstaWP can monitor uptime on your behalf with a built-in heartbeat feature, which is enabled on your live site by default. Your live site sends “heartbeats” to InstaWP, which acts as an uptime monitoring mechanism that notifies you anytime your site stops sending heartbeats to check for downtime.
This feature is enabled by default, but you can enable or disable it from the live site by navigating to Tools > InstaWP > Manage.
User role management
InstaWP allows you to add users to your live site and assign roles directly from its dashboard. However, user deletion is not supported via the InstaWP dashboard; you’ll need to log in to the live site to remove users.
To create a new user to a live site, navigate to “Connects” and go to the desired site. Then, navigate to Manage > User from Settings and hit +Add User.
A temporary URL with the new user credentials will be generated, enabling you to provide it to the appropriate owner.
1-click WP-Admin Login
InstaWP also comes with a 1-click Magic Login button, which, when clicked, will automatically log you into your live site’s WP admin panel for further actions.
Vulnerability and Performance Monitoring
With InstaWP, you can scan your WordPress site for malware and performance issues. To scan for malware and vulnerabilities, navigate to your connected site and click on Vulnerability Scanner from the side menu. Then click on the Click to Scan button.
To analyze your site speed and performance with the Google Page Insights tool, navigate to Performance > Page Insight and click Analyze. You can also use the alternative Page Insight (New) scanner.
Backup and Restore WordPress Sites
InstaWP can also be used to back up and restore WordPress sites. You can take advantage of InstaWP WordPress staging to create backups of your live site. You can quickly push the “backup” staging copy of your site to restore your live site when you encounter any issues.
You can also integrate InstaWP with Duplicator and UpdraftPlus Backup. You use these plugins for your backup and InstaWP for restoration. To use InstaWP to restore backups to staging, navigate to Staging > Import Site and select the backup plugin under backup source.
3. Create Staging WordPress Sites
With InstaWP, you can clone and duplicate your live WordPress site for staging purposes. You can use the replica WordPress staging site for testing changes, including site customization settings, code editing, database editing, change of theme, installation, configuration of plugins, etc, before deploying them to the live site to avoid issues and downtime.
InstaWP lets you set up a remote staging site directly on the platform, eliminating the need to rely on your hosting account and has an in-built 2-way sync feature that will enable you to select and push changes to a live site just in one click, eliminating the need to repeat the same process on the live site.
How to Create a Staging Site with InstaWP
You can seamlessly create a staging site for your connected websites through the InstaWP Connect plugin.
To begin, navigate to Tools > InstaWP > Create Staging.
Click on the + Create Staging Site button.
From the first step, you will be required to select the type of staging you wish to perform.
- Quick Staging: This involves creating a staging site without media files.
- Full Staging: This involves creating a complete copy of your live site without excluding anything.
- Custom Staging: This involves creating a staging site with specific selections based on your requirements.
From the second step, you will be given the option to customize your staging site setup and enable sync recording. It’s best to allow sync recording here.
From the third step, you can select which folders and tables in the database you wish to exclude from the installation.
On the fourth and last step is a confirmation page for final checks. Your staging configuration should depend on the type of changes you want to perform.
You can then click the Create Staging button, and your site will be cloned into the InstaWP staging environment.
Once the staging site is created, you can use the 1-click Auto Login button to go to this site’s WP-Admin panel. You will also be able to access your staging site from InstaWP account.
You can then make your changes and tests on the staging site. InstaWP’s 2-way sync feature, when enabled,It will monitor every change you make, enabling you to review and select updates to push seamlessly between staging and live environments with a single click.
To enable 2-way sync, navigate to Tools > InstaWP > Sync (Beta) on your live site and toggle the Start Listening for Changes option.
To adjust which actions are monitored for changes, navigate to Tools > InstaWP > Settings and scroll to the Sync Events Settings section to make your configurations.
Best Practices for Using InstaWP Alongside Your Hosting Account
Here are some best practices that you should adopt to your workflow while using InstaWP alongside your hosting account for the best results:
- Regularly Sync Changes: Ensure that hitch-free changes are pushed from your staging site to your live site to keep your life site updated.
- Monitor Performance Frequently: Regularly track your site performance with the InstaWP Google Page Insights tool and optimize it when your performance score drops.
- Perform Security Checks: Always ensure that your connection between InstaWP and your hosting account is secure. Also, scan your site regularly for vulnerabilities.
- Use Staging Environments: Take advantage of the InstaWP staging environment to test changes and updates before deploying them to your live site in order to mitigate potential issues.
- Regular Backups: Use InstaWP to create site backups periodically or before making significant changes directly on your live site.
- Stay Updated: Ensure that the InstaWP Connect plugin on your site and your hosting software, including security measures, WordPress core, PHP version, etc, are up to date.
Conclusion
InstaWP is a great toolbox to have, even when your site is hosted somewhere else. It is beginner-friendly and allows you to develop sites faster, manage sites seamlessly, and create staging sites for testing purposes. There are so many unique features InstaWP has to offer that will streamline your workflow and make things easy for you.
Start using InstaWP today for efficient website management in WordPress →