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FeaturesStaging & copies

Make a copy of a site before you change anything.

A staging site is a private copy of a live site that you can break without anyone noticing. WPShift copies the whole thing — content, images, plugins, theme and settings — onto the same server or a different one, so what you test on is genuinely the same as what your visitors see.

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  1. 01

    Choose the site to copy

    Any site you run with us. The copy takes its content, its images, its plugins and its PHP version.

  2. 02

    Choose where it goes

    The same server, or a different one. A different one is useful when you want to rehearse a move as well as a change.

  3. 03

    Work on the copy

    It gets its own address, its own certificate and its own backups. Break it as thoroughly as you like; the real site has not moved.

A copy that matches the real thing

Testing on a blank site, on different hardware, or with the content stripped out answers a question you did not ask. A copy made here runs the same software on the same kind of machine, with the same content and the same plugins as the site it came from. When it works there, that is worth something.

Creating a site as a copy of an existing one, which inherits its setup.
Creating a site as a copy of an existing one, which inherits its setup.

The safe way to test a PHP upgrade

Copy the site, put the copy on the newer PHP version, and click through the pages that earn you money. If a theme that has not been updated for three years is going to fall over, it falls over on the copy rather than on a customer part-way through paying you.

A copy sitting alongside the site it came from, on a different PHP version.
A copy sitting alongside the site it came from, on a different PHP version.

Same for a risky plugin update

The big WooCommerce release, the page builder that rewrote how it works, the security plugin adding a new rule. All of them are worth trying on a copy first, and all of them take about a minute to try.

Delete it when you are done

Removing the copy takes its user account, its database, its configuration and its certificate with it. Nothing is left behind serving an out-of-date version of your client's website to search engines.

Common questions

How do I create a WordPress staging site?

Create a new site, choose "copy" as the starting point, and pick the site you want to copy. WPShift duplicates the content and files, sets the copy up with its own database and certificate, and leaves the original alone.

Does the copy use the same PHP version as the live site?

It starts on the same version, which is what makes the test meaningful. You can then move the copy to a different version, and that is usually why people make one.

Can I push the staging site back over the live one?

No, and that is deliberate. WPShift copies a site to a new site; it will not overwrite an existing one, because doing that automatically is how people lose orders placed while they were testing. To go live, either point your domain at the site you built, or make the same changes on the live site now that you know they work.

Will Google index my staging site?

Search engines are asked not to index it. Deleting the copy when you have finished with it is still the surest answer, and takes one click.

Keep reading

WordPressWordPress sitesPick a server, pick a domain, and WPShift installs WordPress, sets up a database, gets the security certificate and puts the site online. You can also copy a site you already run here, or move one across from your current host.ReadInfrastructurePHP versionsPHP is the programming language WordPress is written in, and newer versions run the same site noticeably faster. The catch is that an old plugin or theme can break on a new version. WPShift installs several versions of PHP on one server and lets you choose one per site, so you can move a site forward on its own — and move it straight back if something misbehaves.ReadProtectionBackupsWPShift copies your content and your files on whatever schedule you set, and keeps those copies somewhere other than the server they came from. Putting one back is a normal thing you can do on a quiet afternoon, not a procedure you read about for the first time while a client is on the phone.ReadInfrastructureCloud serversYou open an account with a cloud company like Hetzner or DigitalOcean, and give WPShift permission to use it. We build the server, install everything WordPress needs, and look after it from then on. The server sits in your account, on your bill, and stays there if you ever stop using us.Read

Connect a server and move a site.

Seven days is enough to provision a server, move a site across and watch it run. No credit card required.

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