How to Use Cloudways Staging Management (WordPress Staging Site)
Cloudways Staging Management provides an isolated environment where you can test new code, plugins and themes without affecting your live WordPress site. cPanel hosting offers WordPress staging sites as standard, and you can expect most WordPress hosts to offer them too.
Creating a staging site makes a copy of the live site. When you are ready, you can push selected changes or all of them to the live site with a single button. You can also pull the live site into the staging site to update it and sync before you start working.
1️⃣ 4 Advantages of Cloudways Staging Management
Put simply, Staging Management lets you freely change the design or features on an identical ‘practice site (staging)’ without touching the ‘real website (live)’ that actual visitors use.
1. Password-Protected Site
Because it is a practice site that ordinary visitors and search engines should not reach, a login prompt (password) blocks outside access by default. You can turn it on and off when needed.
2. Applied in One Click
When you move changes made on the test site to the real website, you do not have to copy and paste them one by one; a single click of a button applies them easily.
3. Granular Control (Pick What to Move)
From the practice site you can move everything you worked on, or choose only ‘the design files’ or ‘the posts/data (DB)’ and apply them to the real site.
4. SSL-Enabled Staging (Secure Connection)
The practice site also comes with a security certificate (https) preinstalled, so you can test without errors under the same security conditions as the live environment.
2️⃣ How to Use Cloudways Staging Management
In the Cloudways admin console, go to My Applications › Staging Management.
Launch Staging Applications: click this button and
Staging can then be launched on the server of your choice.
You are taken to the Servers tab automatically, and the staging application is created.
In the Applications tab, you can see that the staging app has been created.
To add to the four advantages above: what I like about Cloudways Staging Management is that the Staging tab it creates goes beyond simply installing plugins and themes—you can run most of the tests you could on a regular WordPress application.
🔣 Using the UpdraftPlus Backup Plugin
For a simple test such as a single plugin, you can use the UpdraftPlus backup plugin, which restores WordPress themes, plugins and the database all at once. You set up just the plugin or settings in question, create a backup file, and then restore it.
There is no need to restore with commands on the server or from the hosting control panel—the mouse alone is enough.
ℹ️ Affiliate Disclosure
This site's content contains affiliate links. When a visitor buys a product or service through one of them, the site receives a commission from the seller. The amount the buyer pays(it goes down during event discounts ↓)does not go up. Posted prices, discounts, and stock reflect the time of writing and may differ, so confirm with the seller before buying. Products are chosen and reviewed by our own standards, and commissions do not affect the order or content of reviews.