--- title: "How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?" description: "A staging site is an ideal solution for an age old problem - how to test a WordPress site without breaking the live version." author: "Alvina Richard" published: 2019-05-23 updated: 2019-09-07 canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/articles/85509/how-to-create-wordpress-staging-sites-in-easy-steps category: "wordpress" tags: ["wordpress"] reading_time: 4 minutes --- # How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps? A staging site is an ideal solution for an age old problem - how to test a WordPress site without breaking the live version. A WordPress staging site is completely identical to the original site and offers a dedicated [test environment](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159167/how-can-i-create-test-environment-for-my-c-sharp-project) for testing plugins, themes, and changes/improvements in general without affecting the live codebase. \ There are multiple ways to create WordPress staging sites (with plugins or manually). In this tutorial, I will describe how you can create a staging environment on the Cloudways platform easily. So let’s begin! ## What Is a Staging Environment? In practical terms, a staging environment or site is a separately and individually manageable copy of the original site. One of the many benefits of a staging environment is the ability to test a plugin, theme level changes or specific changes to the [visual elements](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/85194/how-to-use-infographics-images-and-other-visual-elements-to-enhance-your-content) and [website content](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/105881/how-to-optimize-website-content-for-voice-search-optimization) in a sandboxed environment. Basically, this copy of the live site is separate from the original, with its own codebase and database. Once you have tested the changes and ready to push the changes, you can reflect these changes on the live version in just a click The staging site, therefore, allows you to better [organize your](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/50491/how-to-organize-your-ibooks-library-on-iphone-x) work, evaluate potential plugin replacements, try out theme changes and then push the new version to the original site. ## Create WordPress Staging Sites Cloudways managed WordPress hosting provides a useful and practical feature for creating your staging sites and for making updates and changes safely. ## Sign up for Cloudways Go to Cloudways sign up page, enter the required details, and click on the **Start Free** button. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/6bea8616-471a-41f1-8970-96a629641314.png)\ You will get an email that asks you to verify [your account](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/93286/what-are-the-benefits-after-upgrading-your-account). Once verified, log in to your Cloudways account and click on the **Launch** button. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/5cc14821-5736-4edc-8d8d-3232cd874a61.png) Now it’s time to deploy your managed application. Enter [your application](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/97584/how-do-you-choose-the-correct-camera-for-your-application) and server details, choose [cloud infrastructure](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/115817/what-are-the-best-practices-for-securing-cloud-infrastructure-in-2025), server size, and location. After that, click on the **Launch Now** button. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/d8b9fae5-2c06-4d9f-ad84-a42ef96eeee0.png) Now, wait for a few minutes until your server is getting ready. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/cd519c36-8325-4ff1-9432-b598e29b093d.png)\ ## Access Staging Site Once your server is ready, go to **Applications** from the top menu bar. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/0e51d43a-2d56-43e4-b6b8-ab6e022516dd.png)\ And click on [your WordPress](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12548/tips-to-move-forward-your-wordpress-theme-development) application. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/8e653acb-3b92-468d-ba89-7b740f3f82b3.png) In the next step, you will see your application dashboard. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/df60d3e1-febe-4a51-a949-722d40645251.png) To access your WordPress staging site, go to Application Management → Access Details → Admin Panel. Click on the **URL**, copy **Username** and **Password** and paste them into WordPress login page. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/20025a37-b227-46bc-83f9-041ecfbf5ded.png) Now from here, you can start [working on your](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/50824/how-to-fix-imessage-that-stops-working-on-your-iphone-7-after-installing-the-latest-ios-update) WordPress staging site. Once it is ready to publish, next you need to point your domain. Go to **Applications** from the top menu bar, and then click on your WordPress application. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/3f985f64-768f-47da-ad8a-3f7a0acb016f.png) In the next step, go to **Application Management → Domain Management**, enter your domain name in the **Primary Domain** field and take [your website](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/85950/why-organic-search-is-the-game-changer-for-your-website) live. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/fab93745-de33-483b-9312-90fb0e090cf8.png) If you want to make changes to your live website, simply create a staging of that website. And for that, navigate to **Applications** from the top menu bar, click on the three vertical ellipsis (⋮). ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/73f6f49b-cdf0-4090-9d26-4e566929f762.png) After that, click on the **Clone App/Create Staging** option, a pop-up will appear asking you to select your server to clone website. Select your server from the drop-down menu, check on **Create as Staging**, and then click on the **Continue** button. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/af7ae220-15bf-4a9d-bc20-5f627a593064.png) In the next screen, you will screen your staging application is in process. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/cb6df152-5cd8-4901-a93f-008996be2902.png)\ Now, go back to **Applications** from the top menu bar and start making changes to your staging application. ![How to Create WordPress Staging Sites in Easy Steps?](https://www.mindstick.com/mindstickarticle/3ce835bf-18c3-493b-87d9-6108bfb9a560/images/165888ba-41e6-4db5-954b-19c3e7d35c13.png) Once changes are finalized, simply push the changes to the live website. That’s all! I hope that this article has been helpful to you. If you have any feedback to share, please feel free to write in the comment section below \ --- Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/articles/85509/how-to-create-wordpress-staging-sites-in-easy-steps Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.