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Create Staging Site ​

Once you have connected to your existing live site, InstaWP allows you to create 1-click staging websites from within the WP admin panel. A staging site is an exact copy of your live site hosted in a secure environment. This allows you to test as many changes as possible without affecting your live website.

Is your site hosted with InstaWP? This page covers creating a staging copy of a live site that is hosted somewhere else, using the InstaWP Connect plugin. The staging site created here is a separate site, charged on whichever plan you pick for it. A site hosted on InstaWP has its own built-in staging environment instead, which is not charged and is managed only in the InstaWP app: see Staging Environment for Hosted Sites.

In this documentation, we will explore the steps to create a staging site from the existing live site.

Let’s get started 🚀

How to Create a Staging Site with InstaWP

ℹ️ Plugin 0.1.4.0 and later: staging sites are built with InstaWP's current migration engine, and the run is tracked live in your InstaWP dashboard, so you can follow the progress there instead of keeping the WP Admin tab open. Update InstaWP Connect to the latest version before you start.

Go to the Plugins section of your connected site’s WP panel. Create Staging from your added plugin InstaWP Connect. To download the plugin, you can refer to this link.

Create a Staging Site ​

Step 1: Locate the InstaWP Connect plugin from the admin panel's** Plugins > Installed Plugins** and click Create Staging.

Step 2: Click Connect with InstaWP to connect with InstaWP production.

Step 3: Click Approve to accept the access request.

Step 4: Now, click the Create Staging Site button.

Step 5: For creating staging, you need to select the following types of staging based on your preferences:

TypesDescription
Quick StagingCreate a staging environment without including a media folder.
Full StagingCreate an exact copy as a staging environment. Time may vary based on site size.
Custom StagingChoose the options that match your requirements.

The plan picker sizes your site by files plus database, so a plan that cannot hold the whole copy is shown as unavailable.

It'll open the staging options for the site. Now, select staging type, enter site name and click Next Step.

Step 6: A Customize options dialog will appear, asking you to select your information from the available options such as Active plugins, themes or skip media folder, etc. After completing customizing click Next Step.

⚠️ Some items cannot be excluded, and their checkboxes are switched off so that Select All cannot reach them:

  • The nine WordPress core database tables (options, posts, users and the rest). A staging site cannot be built without them, and excluding them used to make the run fail with "Failed to fetch database".
  • The wp-content folder itself. Leaving it behind produces a site whose database references themes and plugins that are not there. You can still exclude what is inside it, for example the media folder or inactive plugins and themes.

Step 7: An Exclude files & table dialog will appear, where you can eliminate the files or tables of your WordPress site. After eliminating click Next Step.

Step 8: A confirmation dialog will appear, validating your selections. Now, choose a site plan according to your preferences for your staging site. Then, the staging site will be created from your existing live site alongside with website URL and your login credentials.

After completing the staging site creation, it'll appear like this.

| 💡 Did you know - You can generate a exact copy of your existing staging website with the same credentials from your dashboard. Learn how to Clone a site.

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