WordPress Staging Plugins are a popular combination with backup plugins, but what are they and do you need them? Whether you’re looking to update your website, create a new look for your site, or are starting a brand new site and aren’t sure how to proceed, creating a staging site is always a great place to start.
A staging environment is a clone of your site that allows you to make changes to your page in a separate installation so that your public website and content remain intact. This ensures that if a plugin update goes wrong and there is a critical WordPress error, you can troubleshoot it without your users seeing it. Once your site is exactly the way you like it, changes can go live on the site.
How to choose a WordPress staging plugin
The main thing to look out for in a plugin is its recent update, as you want to make sure it’s compatible with your version of WordPress. If you are using a staging plugin to update a site that is not compatible with the latest version of WordPress or PHP, we recommend creating a subdomain staging environment, as this will not cause issues with the parent site’s PHP version.
Another important aspect will be user satisfaction and usability. A good plugin will be user-friendly and support problems. Viewing the number of active installs and reviews on WordPress.org can help you narrow down your search.
Finally, one thing to remember is to research to ensure that the plugin has had more than one security vulnerability reported in the last 12 months of your search.
Total maintenance
Total maintenance is a powerful all-in-one manager for your WordPress site. TotalUpkeep is a BoldGrid plugin that allows you to back up your website. These backups can be used to manually create a staging site. You will need to install the plugin on your staging domain to restore the backup from the dashboard; However, you will have an identical copy of your main site after installation and recovery.
If you already have WordPress installed on the new staging destination and depending on the size of your site, cloning your site only takes a few minutes.
Why choose this module?
- Over 100,000 active WordPress installations
- Tested up to WordPress version 5.9.3
- One-click Staging installation
- 4.7 out of 5 stars rating on WordPress.org
UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus There is a plugin that also mainly serves as a backup solution. It allows you to create a staging site on their servers, this option requires the purchase of UpdraftTokens. However, these tokens are cheaper than UpdraftPlus Premium, giving you the choice of buying them as a subscription or as a one-time purchase.
The backup features allow you to backup and restore to a new WordPress installation (a manual clone), although you can purchase their UpdraftMigratorwhich allows you to migrate or clone your site to your server and not to UpdraftPlus.
Why choose this module?
- Over 3 million active WordPress installations
- Tested up to WordPress version 5.9.3
- One-click Staging installation
- 4.8 out of 5 stars 5 star rating on WordPress.org
WP staging
WP staging is one of the most popular WordPress staging plugins. It clones your site in seconds (although this may vary depending on the size of your website and file types), and once it’s done, it lets you access your staging copy. The main difference between staging and parent sites is the bright orange settings bar at the top of your dashboard, rather than the classic gray one.
WP Staging has a pro license, which can be purchased for additional capabilities such as one-click live staging, backup and recovery services.
Why choose this module?
- Over 60,000 active WordPress installations
- Tested up to WordPress version 5.9.3
- One-click Staging installation (and removal)
- Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars on WordPress.org
- Backup capabilities (pro version)
WPVivid
The WPVivid backup plugin does more than just backups. He has Premium features, but most of the main aspects of the plugin are free. The interface is easy to read and has the necessary options to set up your domain’s test site in a different subfolder with other features such as creating a new database user and prefix to share the same database as your installation or a completely new one. database on your server.
WPvivid also has the option to set your staging under a subdomain (ie staging.yourdomain.com) from your current WordPress dashboard, making the process easier than manually cloning your website.
Why choose this module?
- Over 100,000 active WordPress installations
- Tested up to WordPress version 5.9.3
- One-click Staging installation
- Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars on WordPress.org
All-in-One WP Migration
All-in-One WP Migration It is basically a plugin used to migrate sites between servers; However, it can be used as a staging plugin by downloading the backup created by their plugin and restoring it to a new directory, such as a subdomain or additional domain where WordPress is already installed. The plugin allows you to send backups to other servers or download them directly from your WordPress Dashboard.
Certain aspects of the plugin require extensions from ServMask, this includes using services like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. To store backups. However, you can still download the files locally and restore them with the plugin on another installation for a manual staging clone.
Why choose this module?
- Over 4 million active WordPress installations
- Tested up to WordPress version 5.9.3
- Migration for manual staging
- 4.6 out of 5 stars 5 star rating on WordPress.org
final thoughts
Using a WordPress staging plugin before making changes to your live site is a great way to test new plugins and themes on your website without risking any bugs. Since backup plugins are a popular combination with staging plugins, we recommend looking for a good backup plugin that fits your website.
