If you’re using WordPress as a CMS, then you know how powerful it can be. The same goes for staging environments: the right plugin can make all the difference between an average staging environment and one that’s truly exceptional. In this article, we’ll look at five of the best WordPress plugins for creating staging environments that are both flexible and easy to use. Let’s dive in!
Duplicator
Duplicator is a free plugin that you can use to copy entire websites and test different versions of your theme. The plugin allows you to clone a website, then make changes to the new site while keeping the original intact.
It has great reviews, which is always reassuring when you’re using an unfamiliar product. Its reliability and ease of use also mean that it’s likely to be around for awhile—and if anything goes wrong with your site after using this tool, there’s plenty of help available from its support team.
WP Staging
WP Staging is the best plugin for staging, if you ask me. It allows you to clone a live site and use it as a staging environment, so that you can test changes before publishing them to production. The plugin has several options for cloning sites, including creating new child sites or duplicating existing ones through FTP or SFTP. The interface is simple and intuitive: once installed and activated on your WordPress dashboard, WP Staging will provide links in its main menu to “Clone Site” (for creating an entirely new child site), “Duplicate Site” (for duplicating an existing one), and “Restore Backup” (for restoring a previous version of your live site). If this isn’t enough functionality for you already, then here’s some good news: there are also premium plans available!
WP Migrate DB
This plugin helps you import and export database, backup and restore database, migrate from one host to another, migrate from one WordPress site to another. It can also be used to migrate tables, posts, pages, users, comments and more.
All-in-One WP Migration
As the name suggests, this plugin can migrate your entire site or just parts of it. For example, let’s say you have a client who wants to move their WordPress blog from a free hosting service to their own self-hosted website. With All-in-One WP Migration, you can upload all the files on your client’s old server and then set up FTP access so they can transfer over any other files they need manually.
If your client is switching servers but keeping the same host (or if you’re moving your own site), this plugin will help with that too—it lets you transfer everything except for database information like posts or comments. You can even try out different hosts before moving completely by using the manual import option!
BackupBuddy
BackupBuddy is a premium plugin that helps you backup, restore, and migrate your WordPress sites. It features a staging environment feature that lets you test out new plugins before activating them on your live site.
One of BackupBuddy’s most useful features is its ability to be used with other staging plugins like WP Clone or Duplicator. This means that even if you don’t want to use BackupBuddy for its staging environment feature because it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some other plugins, it can still be useful since it allows for cross-plugin compatibility.
Conclusion
There you have it, five great plugins to help you get started with staging. Now, you can try out all of these plugins and see which one works best for your site or business. Don’t forget to let us know in the comments below if there are any other plugins we missed!
