WP Staging – DB & File Duplicator & Migration

This cloning and staging plugin is well tested and work in progress.
If you find an issue, please open a support ticket.

Note: For pushing & migrating plugins and theme files to live site, check out the pro edition https://wp-staging.com/

WP Staging for WordPress Migration & Cloning

This duplicator plugin allows you to create an staging or development environment in seconds*

It creates a clone of your website into a subfolder of your main WordPress installation including an entire copy of your database.

This sounds pretty simple and yes it is! All the hard time-consumptive database and file copying stuff including URL replacements is done in the background. The plugin even automatically does an entire search & replace of all links.

I created this plugin because all other solutions are way too complex, overloaded with dozens of options or having server requirements which are not available on most shared hosting solutions.

All these reasons prevent user from testing new plugins and updates first before installing them on their live website, so its time to release a plugin which has the potential to be merged into everyones wordpress workflow.

* Time of creation depends on size of your database and files.

WP Staging helps you to prevent your website from being broken or unavailable because of installing untested plugin updates!

Note: WordPress 5.0 has been shipped with a new visual editor called Gutenberg. Use WP Staging to check if Gutenberg editor is working as intended on your website and that all used plugins are compatible with that new editor.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3fC6cdB3A]

Main Features

• Easy: Staging migration applicable for everyone. No configuration needed!
• Fast: Migration process takes only a few minutes, depending on the site's size and server I/O power
• Safe: Only administrators have access to the staging website
  
  Even safer:
  
• Admin bar reflects that you are working on a staging site
• Extensive logging if duplication or migration process has been failed.
• New: Compatible with WordFence & All In One WP Security & Firewall

Supports all main web servers including Apache, Nginx, and Microsoft IIS

Additional Features WP Staging Pro Edition

• Wordpress migration and cloning of WordPress multisites
• Choose a separate database and select a custom directory for cloning
• Clone your website into a subdomain
• Specify certain user roles for accessing the staging site
• Copy all modifications on staging site to the production website

Change your workflow of updating themes and plugins data:

1. Use WP Staging to clone a production website for staging, testing or backup purposes
2. Create a backup of your website
3. Customize theme, configuration, and plugins or install new plugins
4. Test everything on your staging site first
5. Everything running as intended? Start the migration and copy all modifications to your production site!

Why should I use a staging website?

Plugin updates and theme customizations should be tested on a staging platform first before they are done on your production website. It's recommended having the staging platform on the same server where the production website is located to use the same hardware and software environment for your test website and to catch all possible errors during testing.

Before you update a plugin or going to install a new one, it is highly recommended to check out the modifications on a clone of your production website. This makes sure that any modifications work on your production website without throwing unexpected errors or preventing your site from loading. Better known as the "WordPress blank page error".

Testing a plugin update before installing it in a live environment isnt done very often by most users because existing staging solutions are too complex and need a lot of time to create a an up-to-date copy of your website.

Some users are also afraid of installing plugins updates because they follow the rule "never touch a running system" with having in mind that untested updates are increasing the risk of breaking their site. This is one of the main reasons why WordPress installations are often outdated, not updated at all and insecure because of this non-update behavior.

It's time to change this, so use "WP Staging" for cloning and migration of WordPress websites

Cant I just use my local wordpress development system like xampp / lampp for testing purposes?

You can test your website locally but if your local hardware and software environment is not a 100% exact clone of your production server there is NO guarantee that every aspect of your local copy is working on your production website exactly as you expect it. There are some obvious things like differences in the config of PHP and the server you are running but even such non-obvious settings like the amount of ram or the CPU performance which can lead to unexpected results later on your production website. There are dozens of other possible cause of failure which can not be handled well when you are testing your changes on a local platform only.

This is were WP Staging jumps in... Site cloning and staging site creation simplified!

I just want to migrate the database from one installation to another

If you want to migrate your local database to an already existing production site you can use a tool like WP Migrate DB. WP Staging is only for creating a staging site with latest data from your production site. So it goes the opposite way of WP Migrate DB. Both tools are excellent cooperating each other.

What are the benefits compared to a plugin like Duplicator?

At first, I really the Duplicator plugin. It is a great tool for migrating from a development site to production one or from production site to development one. The downside is that Duplicator needs adjustments, manually interventions and requirements for this. Duplicator also needs some skills to be able to create a development/staging site, where WP Staging does not need more than a click from you. However, Duplicator is best placed to be a tool for first-time creation of your production site. This is something where it is very handy and powerful.

So, if you have created a local or web-hosted development site and you need to migrate this site the first time to your production domain than you are doing nothing wrong with using the Duplicator plugin! If you need all your latest production data like posts, updated plugins, theme data and styles in a testing environment than I recommend to use WP Staging instead!

I need your feedback

This plugin has been done in hundreds of hours to work on even the smallest shared web hosting package but I am limited in testing this only on a handful of the different server so I need your help: Please open a support request and describe your problem exactly. In wp-content/wp-staging/logs you find extended logfiles. Have a look at them and let me know the error-thrown lines.

Important

Permalinks are disabled on the staging site because the staging site is cloned into a subfolder and permalinks are not working on all systems without doing changes to the .htaccess (Apache server) or nginx.conf (Nginx Server). Read here how to activate permalinks on the staging site.

How to install and setup?

Install it via the admin dashboard and to 'Plugins', click 'Add New' and search the plugins for 'Staging'. Install the plugin with 'Install Now'. After installation, go to the settings page 'Staging' and do your adjustments there.