Making changes to a live WordPress site can be dangerous. A quick plugin update or minor code tweak might seem insignificant, but unnoticed bugs and unexpected incompatibilities could take your site offline.
WordPress staging sites protect you from that risk. Pressable’s managed WordPress hosting includes a built-in staging solution. Our integrated cloning and staging tools offer a seamless experience that even the best WordPress staging plugins can’t match.
A WordPress staging site is a duplicate or clone of your live website hosted in a separate environment. It’s an exact copy you can access via the web, but that can’t be seen by search engines or your users. Because the cloned site is identical to your live site, you can test updates and fix issues before pushing changes into production.
Pressable Has Staging Built-in at No Extra Cost
WordPress staging site solutions are often implemented as plugins. The best WordPress staging plugins include WP Staging, Duplicator, and BlogVault. However, plugins make you reliant on a third party, and they can’t be tightly integrated with the hosting platform.
In contrast, Pressable’s staging environment is fully integrated for flawless cloning and syncing. You don’t need to install, configure, or pay for a separate plugin. Setup takes seconds, and you can deploy and manage staging sites from your hosting control panel.
Because Pressable is part of Automattic—the team behind WordPress.com and WooCommerce—site owners benefit from our deep WordPress ecosystem knowledge. Our WordPress and WooCommerce staging tools are designed with WordPress best practices at their core, giving you a secure, reliable testing environment at no additional cost.
Why Use A Staging Site Plugin For WordPress?
Safe Testing Environments
Staging sites provide a safe space to experiment with new features, plugins, or design changes without risking your live website. Isolation ensures that any errors or conflicts are contained, so you can confidently make changes, knowing your live site remains stable and fully functional.
Streamlined Development Workflows
Developers and designers can work in a production-like environment with the same data and configuration as the live site. They can safely develop and test new features. If an update works on the staging site, you can be sure it will work on the live site too.
Accelerated Troubleshooting
Staging environments help isolate issues by replicating the live site’s setup without affecting users. They make it easier to diagnose problems and verify solutions in a controlled setting. By identifying and resolving bugs on staging, you avoid downtime risk and maintain a smooth user experience.
Seamless Site Launches
WordPress staging sites eliminate the all-too-common phenomenon of spotting a mistake only after a site goes live. Staging sites let you prepare everything in advance. You can finalize content, test functionality, and optimize performance before pushing to production.
Client Previews
Clients can review changes, provide feedback, and request adjustments in a real-world context. You can engage with your clients early and often to ensure everyone is on board and no one is surprised when the site launches.
Enhanced Security
Staging-based development workflows reduce security risk by isolating development and testing from production. You can test new code with logging and debugging features turned on without exposing potential vulnerabilities to bad actors.
How Do Staging Sites Work on Pressable?
Simple Staging Site Creation
Clone and sync any site in the Pressable dashboard. You can create as many staging sites as you need, and they don’t count against your plan’s site limits.
Push From Staging to Production
Pressable’s Data Sync pushes file and database changes from staging to live and live to staging. You can easily synchronize sites for fast staging workflows.
Choose What to Synchronize
With Data Sync, you can synchronize only the files you want to go live. Selective migration lets you choose whether to synchronize theme files, plugin files, content files, or the web root.
Automated Backup and Recovery
Pressable creates new on-demand backups for the source and destination sites every time you synchronize staging and live sites.
Custom Staging Domains
Create a custom domain for your staging sites. Custom domains help agencies to provide a fully white label experience for their clients.
Manage Staging Sites with the Pressable API
Use the Pressable REST API to integrate our WordPress staging solution into your tools and dashboards. Via the API, you can create, manage, copy, and delete WordPress staging sites.
FAQ: WordPress Staging Plugins
General
Pressable’s staging system uses automated backups before syncing, so you can roll back if something goes wrong. However, syncing overwrites files and the database, so any changes made in the destination site during synchronization may be lost. It’s important to confirm that everyone working on the site is aware and hands off before pushing updates between environments.
No. Pressable includes its full-featured staging environment with every hosting plan at no additional cost, so you can create and manage staging sites without paying for separate plugins or tools.
Staging plugins run entirely within WordPress. Because of this, even the best WordPress staging plugins are limited. They often require additional configuration, manual site setup, or even third-party infrastructure. You’ll also need a premium subscription to access their full feature set.
Pressable’s staging is built directly into the hosting platform. It eliminates the need for additional setup or third-party tools. Because it’s part of the hosting infrastructure, you benefit from greater reliability and support from a team with deep WordPress and WooCommerce expertise.
Yes. Pressable’s staging environment fully supports our WooCommerce managed hosting plans, including product data, orders, and settings.
File changes affect the code and assets that make up your site. That includes the themes, plugins, images, and CSS files. Database changes affect your site’s stored content and settings, including posts, pages, menus, and plugin configurations. With selective migration between staging and live, you can choose to push only certain file changes, only database changes, or both, depending on what you’ve modified.
Pressable offers flexible pricing based on monthly visitors, starting at $25 per month. Unlike many ecommerce hosting providers, we include premium features such as automatic backups, expert support, and a built-in CDN with every plan.
