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If you’re a WordPress user, you know that making changes to your live site can be a risky game, potentially causing unforeseen issues that are difficult to fix.
That’s where staging sites come in! Creating a private testing area for your website allows you to try out new themes, plugins, and features without affecting your live site. Fortunately, there are tons of staging plugins available that make the process quick, easy, and headache-free.
In this article, we’ll dive into the best WordPress Staging Plugin options, giving you the tools to test and improve your website confidently and safely. Get ready to take your website to the next level – safely and securely!
The 7 Best WordPress Staging Plugin Options For Site Testing
Here are 7 great options that make staging your WordPress website easier than ever. They have all been tested and approved for use with the latest version of WordPress:
1. WP Staging
WP Staging is a WP staging plugin trusted by more than 135,000 users. The speed and reliability offered by the WordPress plugin allow enterprises to come up with quick solutions and changes for their live site.
You can use WP Staging to transfer your WordPress websites to new domain names, hosts, or servers. This feature is particularly useful for large websites as it provides a reliable and fast backup solution. WordPress websites can test the changes and easily copy files from the staging to the live site.
Other significantly beneficial features found on WP Staging include:
- Fast cloning: Create a backup of your WordPress website with just one click
- Convert multi-sites to a single WordPress site
- Create separate databases for your staging sites. This helps to keep your production site independent
- The Push Feature: You can copy the entire staging site to your production site or choose the parts you’d like to implement
- User Authentication: Ensures only the rightful administrator accesses the site
- No third-party intervention: The staging site is located entirely on your servers
Pricing
WP Staging offers excellent customer service to all its users. The free version gives the option to clone WordPress sites for free. However, to get access to premium features, you can go for WP Staging Pro, which starts at $94/year.
2. WP Stagecoach
WP Stagecoach is one of the best WordPress staging plugins out there. It allows you to create a staging environment in just 1-click and work on solutions to improve your functioning site.
WP Stagecoach merges any changes to the live site rather than overwriting the database. This means you can continue adding new posts to your WordPress live site without worrying about losing any changes once the staging site goes live.
Other features found on the staging plugin include:
- It requires just 1-click to push any changes to your live site
- The isolated staging environment prevents any errors to pass on to your production site
- The staging sites are password protected to ensure privacy and only allow input from the clients you trust
- Responsive customer support with additional service add-ons available for purchase
Pricing
WP Stagecoach provides a 100{57b8cc37fd24bce1cf64c8b05d9407ce9171516056c1f5e762677747187a0de4} money-back guarantee if you find the plugin doesn’t suit your needs. The premium version offers a 5-day free trial with plans starting from $99/year.
3. Duplicator
As the name suggests, Duplicator is a WordPress staging plugin that duplicates your live website to a staging site and vice versa.
Duplicator creates a package that is a bundle of WordPress site’s plugins, themes, files, and database. You can then use the migration plugin to migrate or copy files from one WordPress hosting server to another in zero downtime.
Other features to assist you in testing your website include:
- You can set a scheduled backup for your site to prevent losing any data
- Backup your data in cloud storage such as DropBox, Google Drive, or OneDrive
- Gives the flexibility to migrate a site to a new location or overwrite a live site
- The plugin provides premium support to every user
Pricing
Duplicator offers a free version and a premium version of the WordPress plugin. The paid plan starts at $49.50/year and allows working on 2 sites with unlimited backups and migrations.
4. WP Synchro
WP Synchro is a WordPress migration plugin that provides staging solutions for your website.
With WP Synchro you can pull data multiple times from the production site as and when required. This helps in creating a live site that is tried and tested for new developments.
Features that improve the user experience on WP Synchro include:
- Set up a push configuration to select data you would like to migrate to your staging site
- Choose the specific files; plugins or themes you would like to transfer. The plugin only migrates the difference between sites helping save time and space
- Fast database migration with zero errors
- Set up automatic migrations to save time
Pricing
WP Synchro has a free version you can download from the WordPress plugin directory. To access other features you can opt for the premium version that starts at $76/year.
5. BlogVault
With over 1 million websites successfully backed up, BlogVault is a WordPress staging plugin that offers reliable backup and staging solutions.
You can use BlogVault to create a staging site with just 1 click. Once you are satisfied with all the changes made to the backup site, you can successfully apply them to your live site.
Other features found on the WordPress backup plugin to test your website include:
- Create a staging site without the hassle of getting stuck in migrations and setting subdomains
- Selectively merge any changes to your live site. You can monitor the staging site and live site from your dashboard
- Host staging site on a super fast staging server that guarantees a smooth experience
- Password-protecting sites ensure that the WordPress staging environment is secure
- Protect your staging site from crawling by Google Bot and other search engines. BlogVault ensures your site is not penalized for duplicate content and doesn’t damage SEO
- 24/7 support to all users with practical solutions to implement
Pricing
BlogVault offers a free and premium version with a 100{57b8cc37fd24bce1cf64c8b05d9407ce9171516056c1f5e762677747187a0de4} success rate. You can back up and stage anywhere from 1 to 10 sites.
BlogVault also designs plans for agencies with more than 10 sites. The Basic Plan for a single website starts at $89/year.
6. Backup Buddy
Backup Buddy is a WordPress backup plugin with complete backup solutions for your WordPress site. You can also use the plugin for WordPress Staging and Deployment.
The migration feature on Backup Buddy is very popular as it allows users to move the WordPress site from one domain to another. With the deployment feature, you can create a staging site and connect it to your live site. What’s next, you can choose the changes you would like to apply to your production site.
Other features of Backup Buddy include:
- See any changes you make to the staging site in real time
- Undo any database changes before confirming the deployment
- Provides the option to transfer some or all of the database and files
Pricing
Backup Buddy offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. It offers 3 paid plans with the Basic Plan starting at $99/year.
7. BoldGrid
Whether you’re working as a professional or starting as a beginner, BoldGrid is a great WP staging plugin to opt for.
You can create a free WordPress staging website in a few clicks and use it to design and test your ideas before implementing them on your production site.
Other features found on BoldGrid include:
- Use the BoldGrid website plugin or install WordPress plugins of your own to design the WordPress staging site
- Share your work with your team using the unique link to get more input on the staging website
- Transfer your site quickly to live WordPress hosting with a few clicks
- Unlimited access to the free WordPress staging site upon email verification
Pricing
The WordPress plugin is free to install. However, if you would like to migrate the changes to your live site you can purchase the BoldGrid WP plugin for 5 sites at $1.66/month.
And the Best WordPress Staging Plugin Is…
The best WordPress Staging Plugin will be subjective to every website builder’s needs. However, having an overall top performer to refer to is helpful when selecting the best plugin for your website.
Based on features, user-friendliness, and customer support, our vote goes to WP Staging for your staging and backup solutions. It is very easy to install and use and does not require users to possess deep technical knowledge, so you can start using it immediately. This makes the plugin ideal for beginners and seasoned site-builders alike.
WP Staging also comes with:
- No hidden costs
- WordPress multisite staging sites
- Backup Support – The default memory consumption is limited to 256M, which is sufficient for most but unlimited memory usage is available if needed
- No Cloud Service – All data is secured on your own server, meaning nothing is submitted to WP Staging
- High Performance – Backup and cloning processes are much faster than other options listed above
The Bottom Line 7 Best WordPress Staging Plugin Options
The world of WordPress staging plugins is vast and varied, and plenty of options are available to meet your exact needs. Each of the seven best WordPress staging plugin programs we’ve covered in this article has its strengths and weaknesses, so be sure to choose one that aligns with your website goals and preferences.
With the right staging plugin, you can test your website and experiment with changes without any risk to your live site. So why wait? Start exploring your options, and take your website to the next level with confidence and security.