Making changes directly on your live WordPress site is a high-risk business. Some things could go wrong, such as downtime, critical errors, expensive fixes, etc. This is where WordPress staging comes in. With a WordPress staging site, you can clone your live site to safely experiment with changes and resolve errors before applying them to the live site.
This guide explains the importance of staging environments in WordPress and offers step-by-step instructions on how to set one up.
What is a WordPress Staging Site?
A WordPress staging site is a replica or copy of an existing live site intended for testing.
With staging sites, you can safely test any change meant for your WordPress live site, including testing new themes or plugins, adding or modifying codes, and making site updates.
When you are done and there are no issues, you can push those changes to the live site and rest assured that they won’t compromise the site.
Key Differences Between Staging and Production Sites
Although identical or cut from the same cloth, WordPress staging and production sites differ entirely. The key difference between the two is that a WordPress Staging environment is like a private lab you set up for testing changes intended for a production site to see the effects and resolve potential issues. In contrast, a production site is live and accessible to the public.
Table: Staging vs Production: Key Differences
| Comparison | Staging | Production |
| Setup | Created from cloning / replicating a live site | Built from scratch in a development environment |
| Domain / URL | subdomains | Custom domain names |
| Lifespan | Short (usually deleted after the changes have been implemented on the live site) | Long (usually renewed and maintained for years) |
| Accessibility | Private | Public |
| Users | Developer, team, and clients | Everyone |
| Purpose | For testing and feedback | Live usage |
| Risk-level of changes | Low (You can take time to resolve issues or start afresh) | High (Possibility of downtime, loss of data, loss of users, etc.) |
Consequences of NOT using Staging (When You Should’ve)
Since the risk level of making changes on a live site is high, you should consider using a staging environment for testing changes. Failure to use a staging environment when you should have can lead to problems including:
1. Downtime
Simple actions like updating plugins or themes can trigger unexpected errors, leading to site downtime. For instance, a common workaround for critical errors involves renaming the plugins folder and manually reactivating plugins. This reactive approach wastes time, disrupts user experience, and may result in lost traffic until the issue is resolved.
2. Loss of Users and Credibility
Visitors quickly abandon a site with errors, especially during critical moments like completing a purchase. Encountering messages such as “There has been a critical error on this site…” can permanently damage user trust. No amount of follow-up efforts, like abandoned cart recovery emails, can fully undo that loss of credibility.
3. Lost Revenue
Downtime or errors directly impact your bottom line. Imagine running a successful sales campaign only to have payment systems fail after a database update. Recovery might take hours—or even days—leading to lost sales, affiliate commissions, and advertising clicks. For many businesses, such losses can be hard to recoup.
4. Expensive Repairs
While setting up a staging site is often free or low-cost, fixing live site errors can be expensive. If you cannot resolve issues yourself, you may need to hire developers for urgent fixes, incurring additional costs.
5. Data Loss
Live changes risk data corruption or loss. Whether you’re editing your database, switching themes, or modifying CSS, even minor mistakes can result in irreversible damage. Restoring a site from backups can help, but recent data—like customer orders or new posts—might still be lost.
6. Permanent Site Damage
In severe cases, an error could leave your site irreparably broken. Without reliable backups, rebuilding the site from scratch may be your only option—a time-consuming and costly.
Benefits of Using a WordPress Staging Site
The few consequences of not using a staging site should encourage you to start using WordPress staging. In addition, here are some benefits of setting up staging for your WordPress site:
Safe Testing for Updates and Plugins
Since a staging site is private and isolated from your live site, it is a safe place for testing updates and plugins without significant consequences. You can ensure no hiccups before implementing the changes on your live site.
Debugging Without Risk to Live Sites
Debugging WordPress errors can get messy. You might create more damage, especially when debugging using trial and error. But you can debug issues with a staging site without fear of altering the live site. And when things get out of control, you can delete the staging site and start again until you get it right.
Collaborative Development Environment
With a remote staging environment, multiple users, developers, or team members can work together on a WordPress project to boost productivity. Changes can be reviewed, suggestions made, etc., to ensure the project’s success.
Enhanced Client Presentation and Approval
A staging site lets you develop a WordPress project for your clients, giving them firsthand experience and access to the site for their feedback and approval before taking it to production.
Effortless Migration between 2 Hosting Providers
Some staging tools, like InstaWP, can be a transition environment for migrating a staging site from one host to another. InstaWP offers a WordPress migration tool that allows you to seamlessly migrate from staging to production using the URLs of the staging and live sites.
Site Management using InstaWP
InstaWP can also be a WordPress site management tool that allows you to connect and manage multiple WordPress sites from your account.
The staging environment comes with advanced tools and features that you can use to manage and perform various tasks on your WordPress sites, including bulk updates, automated updates, uptime monitoring, increasing the PHP memory limit, vulnerability scanning, user role management, multiple WordPress staging, etc.
How to Build a WordPress Staging Site
There are several ways to create a staging site for WordPress, including:
Using Hosting Providers with Built-In Staging
Some popular managed WordPress hosting providers, such as InstaWP Live, provide built-in staging tools for creating a staging site from your live site. If your site is hosted with any of them, you can easily create a staging site. You should be able to find this option from your hosting dashboard.
Setting Up a Manual Staging Site with FTP and Databases
You can manually set up a staging site on your local server or a subdomain. First, you need to download the files and database of your live site. You can export your database from your cPanel via PHPMyAdmin to download it and download your site files via an FTP Client.
Log into your host panel and navigate to Domains > Create A New Domain.
Enter a subdomain URL and click Submit.
After creating your subdomain, return to Database > phphmyAdmin.
Click on your site database and the Export tab. Leave the default option and click the Export button to download the database.
Then, log into your FTP Client with your FTP credentials and connect to your hosting server.
Then, download all the files and folders from the site’s root directory.
Alternatively, you can use a WordPress backup plugin, such as Duplicator, UpdraftPlus, etc., to create a downloadable backup of your site’s database and files. For instance, after activating and installing the UpdraftPlus plugin, you can navigate to UpdraftPlus > Backup / Restore and click Backup Now.
Once the backup is complete, you can download the database, plugins, themes, and uploads.
Next, navigate to Database> Manage My Databases to create a new database and user for the subdomain staging site.
Enter a database name and click on the Create Database.
Then, go back to Manage My Databases to create a new database user. Under Add User, enter a username and a strong password, and click Create User.
Write down the username and password somewhere so you don’t forget. Then, scroll down to Add User to Database, select the new user and new database, and click Add.
Then, under Manage User Privileges, select the new user, enable ALL Privileges, and click Make Changes.
You can then upload the live site’s database to the new database. Go to phphmyAdmin > Import. Select the downloaded .sql file and click Import.
Thereafter, go to your FTP client, access the subdomain folder, and upload the site files from your computer.
Lastly, we need to connect WordPress on the subdomain to the database and change the WordPress URL. Edit the wp-config.php and update the database name, username, and password to the ones you created.
Then, add these two lines, where “suddomain.example.com” is the correct location of your staging site.
| define( ‘WP_HOME’, ‘https://subdomain.example.com’ );define( ‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘https://subdomain.example.com’ ); |
Save the wp-config.php file and visit the subdomain URL on your web browser. You should see a replica of your live site. You can make changes on the staging site and use FTP Client and phpmyAdmin to push those changes to production.
If you wish to set up the staging site locally, you can upload the database and extract the files to your local environment to create it. Then, update the wp-config.php file to the database information on your local server and include the following codes:
| define( ‘WP_HOME’, ‘http://localhost/[FOLDER]’ );define( ‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘http://localhost/[FOLDER]’ ); |
Creating a Staging Site with InstaWP
InstaWP remains one of the best and most efficient ways to set up a WordPress staging site. There are various approaches to building a staging site with InstaWP. You can create a staging site from scratch, from a template, from the store, from AI, and most importantly, from a live site using the InstaWP Connect plugin.
Let’s walk you through all the methods.
But before you get started, you need to have an InstaWP account. You can sign up now for free. Once your account is ready, log into your InstaWP dashboard.
From your dashboard, navigate to Staging > Add New +.
You should see a setup popup. Here, you can find four named methods of building a staging site. These options imply that you would create a staging site that is not a replica of a live site for development or testing purposes.
1. Creating a Staging Site From Scratch
This approach requires you to build a staging site from the ground up. There are no templates, pre-configurations, or existing content; it is just a fresh, blank WordPress site for you to tinker with.
If this is right up your alley, click the From Scratch tab. You can make some desired adjustments to the WordPress installer, such as changing the WordPress version and type. If you upgrade to a paid plan, you will have more options.
Once you are done, click the Next Step button.
Although you are building a blank WordPress site, InstaWP allows you to select some plugins you want installed along with the site, saving you the time to search for and install the plugins individually from the WordPress repository. So, if you see any plugins you wish to include in your setup in this step, select them.
Once you’ve completed the setup, click the Create Site button, and your WordPress site will be ready within a few seconds.
2. Creating a Staging Site From Template
When you own an InstaWP account, you can create a staging site from scratch or a replica and then save it as a template.
Templates are shareable, ready-made WordPress staging sites that you or anyone can use to create more clones using the template’s shared URL or, in this case, the WordPress installer.
Templates are a great way to preserve designs from temporary staging sites and allow potential users to create demo sites for testing your WordPress plugin or theme.
So, if you already have a template in your InstaWP account and wish to use it to create a new staging site, click the From Template tab, select your template to use, and click Next Step.
From the next step, simply click Create Site.
And your staging site will be created within seconds.
3. Creating a Staging Site From Store
The next option is to create a staging site from the InstaWP Store. The InstaWP store contains a collection of free, premium, beautiful, ready-made templates created by other developers. You can use any of these designs to create a stunning WordPress staging site without any heavy lifting.
Select the Store tab to create a WordPress staging site with a template on the InstaWP store. Then, use the dropdown to sort by page builder, free or paid, and category. Scroll down through the collection of templates until you find the one most appealing to you. There is also a search form you can use to find a template.
Then, select your preferred template and click Next Step.
At the next step, simply click Create Site.
And voilà, a stunning WordPress staging site will be ready in no time!
4. Creating a Staging Site with AI
The last option is to create a staging site with AI. InstaWP is integrated with WordPress AI builders that can help you create a beautiful WordPress site with just a few inputs from yourself.
To use AI to build a WordPress staging site, click the From AI tab. Then, select any of the WordPress AI builders. In this tutorial, I will choose ZipWP AI. Click on Next Step to continue.
You will be taken to the WordPress configuration page, where you can select the WordPress version and type of installation. Click on Create Site to continue.
InstaWP will create a WordPress staging site with your AI builder and provide you with the login credentials. The Magic Login option will take you to the WordPress site dashboard.
The ZipWP AI builder will prompt you to complete a form with basic information to create your site. Enter the site name and select the purpose and language. Then click Next to proceed.
Next, you will be asked to describe your site briefly. This will allow the AI to understand your site’s needs. You can then use the AI tool to write a better description. When ready, click Next to proceed.
From the next step, you can provide your contact details, including your email, phone number, physical address, and social media links.
Finally, you will be asked to select images for your site from the recommended copyright-free images. You can use the search field to find more photos. When you’re done, click Next.
The AI builder will use the information provided and selected images to generate several design mockups. You can scroll through the designs and hover on each for the mockup image to scroll down to the footer.
Click on your preferred design, and a customized window will open for you to upload the site logo, select font type, and select a color palette. When you are done, click on Continue.
Next, you can select features to be included in the demo site, such as a video player and free live chat.
Once you are done, click on Start Building.
The AI builder will take a few minutes to build your WordPress site.
When it is done, you will be able to see your website.
The AI builder did a pretty good job creating a beautiful WordPress site for me. What’s left is to make some content edits, and the site will be ready to go live.
5. Creating a Staging Site From a Live (Production) Site
This method involves creating a staging site from a live WordPress site. A staging site created with this method will be a replica or clone of the live site.
To create a site from a live site, you will need to install the InstaWP Connect plugin on the site and use it to connect to InstaWP. Then, you can use the plugin to clone the live site into InstaWP’s staging environment.
This is how to go about it.
Log into your production site dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
Use the search field to look for InstaWP Connect. Install and activate the plugin.
Then, from your sidebar, go to Tools > InstaWP. From the Create Staging tab, click the Connect with InstaWP button.
You will be redirected to InstaWP, where you will be asked to grant permission. Click Approve from the prompt, and your live site will be connected to your InstaWP account.
Then, when returning to your live site, go to Tools > InstaWP and click Create Staging Site.
There are three types of staging in InstaWP Connect.
- Quick staging
- Full Staging
- Custom Staging
Select the staging type you want to perform, and click Next Step.
Next, you can customize your staging size by including only active plugins and themes, skipping large files, and removing log tables from the staging site.
If you intend to use the staging site for testing changes and wish to seamlessly push the error-free modifications to the live site, you should select Enable Sync Recording.
When you are done, click on Next Step.
Similar to the previous step, this step allows you to exclude files and tables in your database. You can also see the reduction in the size of your staging as you do so
When you are done, click Next Step.
Finally, confirm your staging information and click Create Staging.
The tool will immediately get to work, and you can monitor the staging site creation process.
Your site will be cloned in minutes, and your staging site will be created in your InstaWP account. You can click on the Magic Login to access it directly or through your InstaWP account.
Best Practices for Staging Sites
- Keep the Staging Environment Up to Date
- Synchronize Changes Between Staging and Live Sites
- Protect the Staging Site with Passwords or Restricted Access
- Endeavor to Test Changes Thoroughly Before Pushing to Live
- Always Test Code-level Changes in a Staging Environment
- Don’t Overlook and Push Changes That Resulted in Errors from Staging to Production
- Customize your Staging Such That You Don’t Create a Staging Site Above Your Allocated Staging Resources
- Record the Changes You Make in the Staging Site. You can automate this with InstaWP 2-way sync.
- Have a Rollback Plan or Backup in Case Something Goes Wrong During Deployment from Staging to Production.
- Clean Junk Data from Your Live Site Using Cleaning Plugins Before Pushing to Staging, e.g., revisions data, spam comments, auto drafts, etc.
FAQs
Can I Use a Staging Site for Multiple Sites?
You can’t use a single staging site for multiple sites with separate domain names at a time unless it is a WordPress multisite.
What Are the Costs of Maintaining a Staging Site?
Typically, you won’t incur any additional cost when using a staging site unless it is something your hosting provider charges extra for. You can create up to 3 staging sites for free using InstaWP, but it expires in 7 days. You will be charged $9/month to upgrade.
How Do I Delete a Staging Site After Use?
Go to Staging. Select More Actions > Delete. Copy and paste the URL and click Delete.
How do I transfer a staging site?
Click on the rocket icon (Go Live) from the actions menu. Select InstaWP Live or Migrate via URL, and proceed to migrate the site.
Conclusion
WordPress staging mimics the production site and monitors the effect of changes intended for it before actually implementing them. There are several ways to build a WordPress staging site, but the easiest is using InstaWP.