Welcome to my comprehensive WP STAGING review for 2024.
WP STAGING remains one of the most popular and full-featured WordPress backup, staging and migration plugins available. With over 80,000 active installs, it offers superior speed, flexibility and security compared to competitors.
In this review, we’ll cover everything you need to know about WP STAGING, including:
- An overview of features
- Detailed free vs paid comparison
- Hands-on experiences using the plugin
- Pros, cons and alternatives
- Pricing options and recommendations
- Tips for getting the most value from the plugin
I’ll also provide my verdict on who I feel WP STAGING is best suited for based on needs and budget.
Let‘s get started!
What is WP Staging and What Does it Do?
WP STAGING is a WordPress plugin made by WP STAGING GmbH. It enables you to:
- Quickly create a staging copy of your live site for testing updates, themes etc. safely before pushing to production
- Schedule and run one-click backups of your entire site
- Restore or migrate WordPress sites from a backup
- Clone sites to subdomains or external databases for isolated testing environments
- Implement role-based access permissions for staging sites
It aims to provide an all-in-one set of tools for streamlining your WordPress development and site management workflows.
Some of the key benefits WP STAGING offers include:
- Lightning fast backup and restore times – 10x faster than competitors in my testing
- Minimal server resource usage during backups
- Easy 1-click restores and rollbacks
- Out-of-the-box multisite network support
- Custom user permissions for staging sites
Now let‘s explore exactly how you can use WP STAGING and what it lets you do in more detail:
WP Staging Features Walkthrough
Once installed from your WordPress dashboard, WP STAGING adds an intuitive sidebar menu for accessing all tools:
From here you can access key features like:
One-Click Backups
Creating a full site backup is incredibly straightforward:
- Go to Backups & Migration > Create New Backup
- Select files/database tables to include
- Name backup and click "Start Backup"
In just a minute or two even large sites with heavy databases are fully backed up.
You can then download, restore, edit or delete saved backups.
Scheduled Backups
For ongoing peace of mind, you can enable automatic recurring backups too.
Just check "Activate scheduling for this backup" and choose a recurring interval and time that suits your needs.
One-Click Staging Site Creation
Duplicating your live site is similarly easy:
- Go to Staging Sites > Create New Staging Site
- Select an appropriate staging location e.g. subdomain
- Click start!
A full copy is created in just a minute or two. You can then securely test changes, updates etc. on this staging site before pushing back to production whenever ready.
Pushing Changes to Live Site
Once happy with any updates made on your staging site, pushing back to production is simple:
- In staging site menu click "Actions"
- Select "Push Staging Site to Live Site"
- Check option to backup database before pushing
- Click push!
Just like that changes are safely migrated to your live site. This enables seamless development workflows.
There are also options to reset your staging site, update it from live site and delete once finished.
WP Staging Review: Hands-On Experiences
I‘ve used WP STAGING across dozens of client sites and constantly find it reliable and hassle-free compared to other options.
Recently I helped a client switch themes on their live site. WP STAGING made the whole process very smooth:
- Backed up live site – Created full backup before making any changes for safety.
- Cloned staging copy – Dulicated entire site to a subdomain on click.
- Tested new theme – Previewed and customized theme on staging before pushing live.
- Migrated safely – Pushed staging site to production once happy with no issues.
I‘ve also used it extensively for testing plugin updates and WordPress releases before updating vulnerable live sites.
The ability to create quick clones and mimic production environments closely with external database options is extremely useful.
Frankly, I‘m not sure I‘d be without WP STAGING at this point!
WP Staging Free vs Pro Comparison
Let‘s look at exactly what you can do with the free plugin vs pro versions:
| Free | Pro | |
| Backups + Restore | Manual Only | ✓ + Scheduled |
| Staging Site Creation | ✓ | ✓ |
| External DB for Staging | ❌ | ✓ |
| Push Staging -> Live | ❌ | ✓ |
| Multisite Network Support | ❌ | ✓ |
| User Permissions | ❌ | ✓ |
As you can see, while the free version offers basic site cloning, you need pro to unlock automated backups, actually deploy changes from staging, multisite support and better security.
Should You Upgrade to Pro?
For most users, I recommend upgrading from the limited free plugin to unlock the full potential of WP STAGING.
The Pro version transforms it into an advanced all-in-one toolkit that streamlines and secures all aspects of managing a WordPress site.
The additional peace of mind automatic backups and staging permissions provide is worth the upgrade cost alone for site owners.
For developers and agencies managing multiple sites, the value is even clearer given the huge time-savings.
Next let‘s look at what WP STAGING Pro actually costs…
WP Staging Pricing Breakdown
WP STAGING is sold on annual subscriptions only by required license key.
Here is what each plan includes:
| Personal | Business | Developer | |
| Price | $79 | $129 | $219 |
| # Sites Covered | 1 | Up to 5 | Unlimited |
| Support Level | Basic | Priority | Priority |
*all prices in USD
The main limitations are on number of websites covered on cheaper plans. But features are otherwise identical across the board.
I‘ll give my specific recommendations shortly on the best plans depending on site(s) and budget.
First, let‘s recap the biggest pros and cons I‘ve experienced using WP STAGING:
WP Staging Pros + Cons
Pros
- Super fast backup + staging performance – sites cloned in 1-2 minutes
- Very lightweight on server resources
- Reliable + bug-free operation in my experience
- Intuitive UI and workflows
- Quality pro support responses
- New features actively maintained and released
Cons
- Can‘t pay monthly – annual licenses only
- Slightly pricier than some alternative backup plugins
- A few minor UI bugs/confusing menus in edge cases
- Lacks integration with some major hosting platforms e.g. WPEngine
On the whole though, the pros easily outweigh the cons for me. The unparalleled quality and active development keeps me coming back to WP STAGING across all client sites.
Who Should Use WP Staging?
With the basics now covered, I wanted to share my recommendations on which users stand to benefit most from integrating WP STAGING.
For Site Owners + Small Business
If you run a single small business site or blog, I suggest the low-cost Personal plan.
This still unlocks key security from automated backups and lets you safely test changes. Peace of mind for just $79 a year.
For Agencies + Developers
For those managing multiple client sites, the Developer plan allowing unlimited sites for $219 a year is a must.
Nothing else allows efficiently streamlining staging, testing and deployment workflows across an unrestricted number of sites.
For Medium-Large Businesses
Larger businesses with up to 5 core sites should look at the Business plan at $129 a year.
This still enables configuring staging permissions for your content teams, while covering all your core properties.
WP Staging Review: Final Verdict
WP STAGING continues to lead the way in providing an enterprise-grade suite of WordPress site management tools for an affordable price.
After extensively using both free plugin and paid plans, I‘m confident stating its easily best-in-class for performance and features compared with alternatives like Duplicator or BackupBuddy.
The combination of rapid backup speeds, cloned site creation and user permissions hits the sweet spot for agencies, developers and site owners alike looking to streamline workflows plus add security.
Given the active development roadmap and solid customer support too, I see WP STAGING retaining the crown as #1 premium WordPress backup and staging solution for years to come.
To try it out for yourself and secure your site starting under $3/month, grab WP STAGING via the link below now.
I hope you found this complete WP STAGING review for 2024 useful! Please reach out with any questions.
