Copy a website to staging in Plesk (Website Copying and WP Toolkit)

A staging site is a private copy of your live website where you test updates, new plugins or a redesign without risking the real site. Plesk offers two tools: Website Copying for any site's files, and WP Toolkit cloning and syncing for WordPress, which also handles the database and URLs.

Before you start

• A subdomain for staging, for example staging.example.com. See add a subdomain.
• Enough disk space in the subscription for a second copy.
• A recent backup of the live site.

WordPress: clone with WP Toolkit

1. Go to WordPress in the left menu (WP Toolkit).
2. On the site's card, click Clone.
3. Choose the target: Create subdomain (for example staging) or an existing domain.
4. Confirm the new database name; WP Toolkit creates it.
5. Click Start. WP Toolkit copies files and database and updates all URLs to the staging address.

Protect the staging site with a password and keep search engines away: on its WP Toolkit card enable Search engine indexing: off and see password-protected directories.

WordPress: sync changes back

1. When the staging site is ready, click Sync on its card.
2. Choose the target (the live site).
3. Choose what to copy: Files only, Database only or Files and databases. For databases you can choose all tables or only selected ones.
4. Tick Create a restore point so you can roll back.
5. Click Start.

Any site: Website Copying

1. Under the live domain in Websites & Domains, click Website Copying (it may be under Files or the domain's More menu).
2. Choose the destination: another site in Plesk (your staging subdomain) or an external FTP server.
3. Choose whether to delete files in the target that do not exist in the source.
4. Click OK.

Website Copying copies files only. Copy the database separately with Export Dump and Import Dump (see Plesk databases) and update the application's configuration and URLs for the staging address.

Good staging habits

• Use the same PHP version on staging and live.
• Disable outgoing emails and payment gateways (use test mode) on staging.
• Delete staging when finished to save space and avoid an outdated copy online.

Troubleshooting

• Staging shows the live site or redirects there: hard-coded URLs or a caching plugin. Run a search-replace (WP Toolkit does this) and clear caches.
• Clone fails for disk quota: free space or ask for a larger plan.
• Sync broke the live site: restore from the restore point or backup.

Next steps

• More about WP Toolkit.
• Schedule backups.
• Deploy with Git instead.